The State - News from Feb. 9, 1987

Two small tents symbolizing the plight of the homeless have been set up in a park in front of the old Berkeley City Hall by protesters demanding city help for the homeless. Phillip Jordan of the Homeless Direct Action Collective said the weekend rally by the Gray Panthers and others at Martin Luther King Jr. Park was designed to increase public awareness and support for demands to allow the homeless to repair and live in Berkeley’s abandoned buildings. “We want houses to be given to a non-profit organization on behalf of the homeless who would gain ‘sweat equity’ in them by repairing them,” Jordan said. He said city officials contribute to the “humiliation and degradation” of the homeless poor by their inaction. “People of Berkeley have responded quite well to the needs of the homeless. But it has to go further,” City Council member Maudel Shirek said.