Poets got on their soapboxes, photographers and painters displayed their work, and screen-printers produced thought-provoking posters at Alley Cat Books on Friday, at the closing reception of an exhibition meant to rekindle some empathy with the homeless and ponder solutions.
Among the suggestions floated by artists were ideas like adding a transfer tax on high-value property sales to help fund supportive services, investing in and creating tiny, mobile homes, and expanding the Undercover Project, in which artists and volunteers created blanket-coat hybrids that were passed around to homeless individuals during citywide sweeps related to the Super Bowl festivities. But above all, as San Francisco poet laureate Alejandro Murguía put it, they were there to ask the right questions.