This is a common problem here in Berkeley. A few weeks ago, I found a homeless man lying in my front yard. He appeared to be sleeping. This was not the first time that this has happened. What should you do if you find someone lying motionless in your yard, apparently asleep? It is sometimes hard to know what the right thing to do is. I never disturb or try to wake up a homeless person lying in my yard. I don’t know anything about this person. Most homeless people are harmless and try to avoid trouble with homeowners and entanglements with the authorities, but some homeless people are mentally ill, and some are violent. Also, this person could be sick or having some sort of medical emergency, like a heart attack. All homeless people wind up with serious medical problems. Living on the street is a very unhealthy way to live.

If you find someone sleeping in your yard, my advice is to wait a few minutes and then if the person is still there, call 911. The police will come out and talk to this person. If he needs medical attention, they will send for an ambulance. If he is OK, they will get him on his feet and ask him to leave. The police will not arrest someone for simply sleeping or lying down in your yard, so you don’t have to worry that you are going to get the person into trouble with the law.

There are a lot of homeless people living in Berkeley. It is impossible to know exactly how many, but estimates range from 800 to 1500. That’s a lot for a city with a population of just 100,000 people. There are many reasons why there are so many homeless people in Berkeley. Many people assume that it is because Berkeley is full of ‘bleeding heart liberals’, people who are more inclined than most Americans to give money and food to panhandlers. Well, Berkeley does have a lot of ‘bleeding heart liberals’, but that’s not the only reason. There is also the climate. We have very mild winters. Climate explains why there are a lot of homeless people in sunbelt states but very few in New England. Relatively few homeless people live on the streets of Detroit, despite that city’s widespread poverty. The reason is that most people couldn’t survive even a winter sleeping on the streets of Detroit.