Berkeley, California Mayor Tom Bates will experience being homeless for twenty-four hours next week on March 19, 2003. This event will be postponed however if war begins on or before this date.

In explaining the event, an official press release [click here] states, “[w]e face a homeless crisis in Berkeley and throughout the country,” said Mayor Bates. “I need to learn first hand about the challenges facing our homeless community so that I can do everything I can help people get off the streets.”

According to a Wednesday, March 12, 2003 article published in the Alameda Times-Star, entitled 'Bates will be homeless for a day: Mayor says he wants to get a glimpse of life on the street in the face of budget cuts [click here]', the mayor's full-day of experiencing being homeless will be kicked off at the Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) "[...] Multi-Agency Service Center in the basement of the Veterans Building, where one has to be part of a lottery to get a shelter bed."