Tough job, light touch: Campus social worker assists area’s homeless

Ari Neulight, the campus's homeless outreach coordinator, is a full-time social worker who connects some of the area's most vulnerable residents to resources, like housing, and to health and social services. (UC Berkeley photo by Neil Freese) Ari Neulight's days are fast-paced, often chaotic. During the first hours of a recent morning, UC Berkeley's homeless outreach coordinator delivered mail to inhabitants of People's Park from a group P.O. box he's set up for them. He then woke a man in a tent, brought coffee and sent him via Uber to his disability assessment appointment. Meanwhile, others awaited his help re-charging their phones. Someone's eyeglasses had broken, a man needed pants, a woman banned from a local pharmacy for her behavior needed her meds. "Can I meet with you later?" several others asked Neulight.