Give them shelter

Re “Reengineering the cardboard box,” Column One, Dec. 10

The EDAR mobile shelter is a godsend to the homeless. Kudos to Peter Samuelson, a true humanitarian who cares about his downtrodden fellow.

As for the potential for cities banning their use, perhaps city councils can designate certain areas of their cities as EDAR-friendly, where the homeless could camp for the night. This would provide safety in numbers for the homeless and make them less susceptible to being robbed, attacked or otherwise put in harm’s way.

Allen P. Wilkinson

Whittier

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Sadly, American society has come to the point at which we celebrate the invention of cardboard houses.

The Times’ picture shows one of these shelters deployed at the homeless encampment along Pacific Coast Highway near Temescal Canyon Road. There has been at least one murder and one dangerous brush fire at this particular camp in the last two years.

Handing out cardboard shelters will concentrate people in similar dangerous situations. The prospect of little cardboard settlements popping up all over America should scare us.

Hans Laetz

Malibu

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There was one important word missing here: tent.

An EDAR costs $500. A strong, roomy, waterproof 8-by-8 tent, advertised in The Times on Wednesday, lists for $25. It delivers the same privacy and utility as the EDAR, weighs less than 5 pounds and can be set up in about a minute. In the same ad, there’s a 40-degree sleeping bag for $20 and lantern for $15. These all easily fold into the space of -- well, a shopping cart. Which most homeless people already have.

We can give eight homeless people what they need to stay warm and dry. Or we can give one person an EDAR, and he or she will still need a sleeping bag.

It’s great that people are thinking about the homeless. But in this case, instead of reinventing the wheel, we’d be much smarter to just give out more wheels.

Dexter Ford

Manhattan Beach