Elon Musk Floats Having Twitter's San Francisco HQ Take In Homeless

SAN FRANCISCO — Billionaire Elon Musk, who recently bought a 9 percent stake in Twitter and became one of the social media giant's biggest shareholders, recently floated the idea of turning its headquarters in San Francisco into housing for people experiencing homelessness.

Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the world's richest person, tweeted — then deleted — a poll out to his 81 million followers asking: "Convert Twitter SF HQ to homeless shelter since no one show up anyway[?]" Of the more than 1.5 million responses, 91 percent voted "yes."

He later added that he was "serious about this one btw."

Jeff Bezos, the executive chairman of Amazon and the world's second-richest person, tweeted his support of Musk's idea, writing: "Or do portion. Worked out great and makes it easy for employees who want to volunteer."

Bezos included a link to a 2020 article of a homeless shelter built by Amazon that was attached to one of its downtown Seattle office buildings in the heart of its headquarters campus. The Mary’s Place Family Center in The Regrade, according to the article, could serve up to 200 people each night and more than 1,000 family members each year.

In response to Bezos, Musk tweeted Sunday, "great idea."

The idea exchange comes after Musk said he would no longer join the company's board of directors, less than a week after being awarded a seat, The Associated Press reported.

Twitter quickly gave Musk a seat on the board on the condition that he not own more than 14.9 percent of the company's outstanding stock.

Musk could now build a larger stake in Twitter, perhaps to try to take over the company or push for a new slate of directors to change its direction.

Musk has publicly criticized Twitter, calling it “the de facto public town square,” for “failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy." He also floated the idea of starting his own social media company in recent weeks.

In recent days, Musk tweeted several suggestions to change Twitter, including making the site ad-free and dropping the "w" from its name. Musk then posted a few cryptic tweets late Sunday, including one showing a meme saying, "In all fairness, your honor, my client was in goblin mode," followed by one saying "Explains everything." Another, later tweet was of an emoji with a hand over its mouth.

Musk has described himself as a "free speech absolutist" and has said he doesn't think Twitter is living up to free speech principles — an opinion shared by followers of Donald Trump and a number of other right-wing political figures who've had their accounts suspended for violating Twitter content rules.

In a regulatory filing Monday, Musk said he had "no preset plans or intentions" about how to use his influence on Twitter, but that he may discuss with its board and management his thoughts on potential business combinations, strategy and other matters. He added that he may express his views "through social media or other channels."