One of Elon's 1st Moves at Twitter: Make Woke Workers Share Space With Homeless?

By Abby Liebing April 11, 2022 at 9:50am

Elon Musk bought a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter last week, and now he is making suggestions about updates that the company could be making.

Particularly, Musk thinks that the homeless population of San Francisco should move into Twitter’s headquarters since many of the company’s staff are working remote, the New York Post reported.

Musk tweeted a poll to his millions of Twitter followers asking: “Convert Twitter SF HQ to homeless shelter since no one show up anyway[?]”

More than 1.5 million people responded to the poll, with 91 percent voting “yes” to the idea.

The poll was later deleted, and many thought it was a joke.

But Musk tweeted later, saying “I’m serious about this one btw.”

I’m serious about this one btw

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 10, 2022

Musk’s share of Twitter makes him the the social media platform’s largest stakeholder, Bloomberg reported.

Do you think Musk's idea for Twitter's headquarters is good?

Initially, many assumed that Musk’s decision to buy such a large share of Twitter would mean that he would join the board.

However, on Saturday, the Tesla and Space X CEO said that he would not join the board, CNBC News reported.

Though he will not be taking a seat on the board, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal said that since Musk remains the largest shareholder, the company will remain open to his input.

So, this is Musk’s input.

Homelessness has become an increasing problem throughout the U.S. In January 2020, there were more than 580,000 people experiencing homelessness in America, the National Alliance to End Homelessness reported.

San Francisco, where Twitter has its headquarters, is particularly problematic. Some experts estimate there are about 18,000 homeless in the city, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

San Francisco’s Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in December in the Tenderloin neighborhood, known for being a crime and drug hotspot.

Breed said it’s time to get aggressive and “less tolerant of all the bull — that has destroyed our city,” the Associated Press reported.

But there hasn’t been any real solutions to the problem.

“People feel like it’s hopeless. People feel that homelessness is intractable. Homelessness is unsolvable,” Urban Vision Alliance CEO Gabriel Baldinucci told KABC News.

While homeless encampments did begin decreasing by the end of 2021 in San Francisco, that did not mean the problem was simply resolved, the San Francisco Examiner reported.

The Healthy Streets Operations Center began clearing encampments in the city, but those living in those encampments didn’t just magically find housing and jobs.

“When HSOC clears an encampment, the situation is called ‘resolved.’ What happens to many of the people living in those tents remains decidedly unresolved, though,” the San Francisco Examiner reported.

All across the nation, liberal cities are following this agenda of cracking down on encampments, the AP reported.

But that does not necessarily solve the problem.

While many may have thought Musk’s suggestion about using Twitter’s headquarters as a shelter was a joke, he was serious, and he is doing more than the San Francisco mayor, for example, by actually offering a place for the homeless population to go to.

Even Amazon’s chairman Jeff Bezos suggested that Musk’s idea is not a joke or absurd.

In response to Musk’s tweet, Bezos tweeted a link to GeekWire’s coverage in 2020 of a homeless shelter that is attached to one of Amazon’s downtown Seattle office buildings.

Or do portion. Worked out great and makes it easy for employees who want to volunteer. https://t.co/r0dZWsMxWT https://t.co/NbUNl1bkJ3

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 10, 2022

Many others on Twitter also responded positively to Musk’s idea, seeing it as an actually tenable solution to helping those on the streets.

Overall, Musk seems to be on a campaign to point out Twitter’s failings and actually try to get the platform put to good use.

He has accused the company of violating the principles of free speech.

He called Twitter “the de facto public town square” for “failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” and before buying his large chunk of Twitter, he even mulled launching his own social media platform, the New York Post reported.

With his new suggestion about addressing homelessness, Musk seems to be trying to push Twitter to actually act as a positive force for the ideas that many liberals publicly espouse, such as free speech and caring for Americans in need.

It has yet to be seen how the social media giant will respond.

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