Last week, Berkeley’s only youth shelter closed its doors for the summer, as it does every year. Despite months of effort by the staff at Youth, Engagement, Advocacy, and Housing (YEAH!), few of the residents could be placed in the limited number of transitional housing spaces available. In an Opinionator column published today on Berkeleyside, Susan Halpern and Elisa Della Piana write that the debates about homeless youth in Berkeley intensify every summer precisely because of the shelter’s closure. They argue that this year’s debate on homelessness should focus on the need for a year-round youth shelter.
Read the full op-ed and give us your comment.
Berkeleyside welcomes submissions of op-ed articles. We ask that we are given first refusal to publish. Topics should be Berkeley-related and local authors are preferred. Please email submissions to us. Berkeleyside will publish op-ed pieces at its discretion.
