Aimee Ziegler, Lisa Teague, Russell Bates, and Yesica Prado watch the Zoom broadcast of the Berkeley Community Safety Coalition Homeless Memorial on Dec. 12. Photo: Pete Rosos
On Saturday, a coalition of advocates for Berkeley’s homeless community gathered online to sing, pray and demand justice for the unhoused people and their supporters who died in Berkeley this year.
The memorial came as new shelter-in-place orders and heavy rain underlined the increasing pressures that quarantine and winter have placed on the city’s unsheltered residents.
“Winter’s here. With Covid, where are people going to go this year?” asked boona cheema, the former director of Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) and community activist.