'Everyone Deserves a Place to Sleep at Night'

In the beginning, city officials asked these homeless activists if they could avoid calling attention to themselves: no high-visibility signs or big lettering at the front door of the old bank building they had rented. This was back in the day when critics of help for the homeless had a kind of reverse Field of Dreams view of things: If you don't build a refuge, they said, maybe they won't come.

If you don't address the problem, in other words, maybe it'll go away.