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Artists got fed up with these 'anti-homeless spikes.' So they made them a bit more ... comfy.

"Our moral compass is skewed if we think things like this are acceptable."

Photo courtesy of CC BY-ND, Immo Klink and Marco Godoy

Spikes line the concrete to prevent sleeping.


These are called "anti-homeless spikes." They're about as friendly as they sound.

As you may have guessed, they're intended to deter people who are homeless from sitting or sleeping on that concrete step. And yeah, they're pretty awful.

The spikes are a prime example of how cities design spaces to keep homeless people away.

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Joy

Owner of Sleep Trailer hopes to help end homelessness with his unique invention

“I wanted to give them a space that would be a real foundation and be a launch pad to help them break the cycle of homelessness.”

Sleep Trailer hopes to help end homelessness.

Homelessness has become an increasingly dire problem for people living in the United States over the past several years. While there are shelters available for some, space is limited and resources are stretched thin. In fact, many shelters don't allow people to be there during the day or have curfews that don't account for people who work night shifts, making shelters unaccommodating for some.

But some people are looking to find solutions outside of the norm, which is where Sleep Trailer comes in. Sleep Trailer is a mobile pod system created by Jason Christensen, who is the son of a cabinet maker and home builder. He built this unique trailer as a means to help people experiencing homelessness.

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Photo by Jackie Cook/MyLondon Photography Contest.

Many locks of bright, pink hair peek around the corner of the stairwell.

This article originally appeared on 08.17.16


A group of 105 homeless people gathered at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Each of them was given a disposable camera and told to take pictures that represent "my London."

The photos were entered in an annual contest run by London-based nonprofit Cafe Art, which gives homeless artists the chance to have their work displayed around the city and, for some of the photographers who participate in the yearly challenge, in a print calendar.

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A homeless man who has massive holes in his shoes.

People are praising Ta Leia Thomas for being the perfect example of someone who would give you the shirt off their back. Thomas, known by her friends as “Ace,” was working at the Brooklyn Center Liquor Store just outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area when she saw something that’s all too familiar in America these days, a homeless person digging through a trash can.

“He put on two makeshift boxes on his feet," Thomas told Kare11. "I was mid-transaction and I was like, 'hold up, let me go outside and talk to him.'"

"I said, 'What size you wear?' and he said 10 or 10½," Thomas recalled. "I just looked around, grabbed my shoes, unlaced them and gave them to him right at the door." The shoes she gave the man were more than just run-of-the-mill sneakers, they were her purple retro Nike Air Jordans.

Thomas’ shoes were purple as a tribute to her favorite football team, the Minnesota Vikings.

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