Stronger laws to arrest and prevent homelessness

1. Pass legislation that defines homelessness as a medical condition and a disability.

2. Ask California legislators to mandate official action plans for the prevention and arrest of homelessness for each municipality in California. While protecting privacy for all, these plans must also include sharing of data every six months on homelessness status and posted on a public website: such as: http://hic.ca.gov (homelessness in California). It's hard to solve a problem without knowing the numbers and the impact of actual homelessness.

3. Hold a round-table sunshine conference *every six months,* hosted in a different city, for citizens, service providers, and homelessness experts from across California to discuss, identify, and design a constructive unified pathway to solutions that actually protect the vulnerable and the poor from homelessness, using practical methods that produce humane results. Homelessness is fluid with many contingencies, meeting regularly allows for on-the-ground evaluations and adjustments.

4. Collaborate with those who suffer from homelessness. Offer and protect platforms that allow and ensure the dignity of the voices of the vulnerable and the poor to be heard, supported, and respected. We cannot solve the problems of poverty without listening to and collaborating with the many ways in which the poor want to improve their lives.

5. Create, fund, and sustain well-trained, supported councils and teams in municipalities mandated to assist in the prevention and the arrest of homelessness. Structured like city police and fire departments, these councils will also work proactively with police and fire departments to keep the war against homelessness safe and sensible.

6. Create stronger laws that punish individuals or companies that contribute to or cause homelessness. Create laws that make such people financially bound to prevent homelessness. Create laws that reward those who create affordable housing, i.e., provide tax breaks or incentives to landlords who provide housing for under-market rents; offer mediation services between co-tenants for living disputes.

7. Create and sustain a culture and resource that promotes lasting housing care for all citizens of California with public education and announcements.

As a human family living on a very small planet, let's solve the problems of homelessness and affordable housing together,