Like many California cities, Oakland has a serious homeless problem. Leaders there are considering the unique approach of providing housing for the homeless by parking a retired cruise ship on one of the city’s docks.
Travis Fedschun reports at FOX News:
Oakland considers housing the homeless on a cruise shipThis is not exactly “The Love Boat,” but it could help make a dent in one California city’s homeless crisis.During a city council meeting on Tuesday, Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan broached the idea of using a cruise ship to house up to 1,000 homeless people, suggesting a ship be brought to the Port of Oakland as the region deals with skyrocketing costs of living and a shortage of affordable housing.“It could be a great way to house a lot of people quickly,” Kaplan told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Cruise ships have been used for emergency housing after natural disasters and for extra housing for things like Olympics.”Homelessness has spiked in Oakland, with a 47 percent jump in two years — one of the largest surges of any California city, according to a one-night street count released in July.The count, which used federal guidelines, showed Oakland had 4,017 homeless people, up from 2,761 in 2017. The increase has put the city’s per capita homeless rate higher than neighboring San Francisco and Berkeley.Kaplan told the Chronicle she plans to present a proposal to the council in January that will be at “no or low” cost to the city, because residents of the cruise ship would pay for rooms based on their income. The city would not buy the cruise ship.
This video report from CBS News notes that the Port of Oakland is designed for cargo ships, and doesn’t have the means to berth a cruise ship:
Twitchy has compiled some reactions to a report on this from KRON News:
Featured image via YouTube.
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