text: A majority of homeless people are that way temporarily, are not damaged or incompetent. and only need shelter while homeless. Middle-class liberals like to believe homeless people are damaged, while conservatives need to believe the homeless are bums. This allows both groups to feel superior to the homeless and not do anything about the issue. 
  
  A larger issue is increasing poverty that is driving more people over the edge into homelessness. Low wages and high rents.
  
  Our most urgent need right now is more emergency shelter, like the rest stop camps. This is a proven model, but the City Council has been dragging its feet on providing more city land for the rest stops, probably due to neighborhood NIMBYs. The City Manager is in the process of shutting down one of the rest stops, Nightingale Health Sanctuary, even though it has worked well. We're going backwards. The RG ought to be asking the city hard questions about this.