Editor's note: Below are excerpts from an article by Mike Rhodes, Editor of the Community Alliance Newspaper at http://fresnoalliance.com/home.
FRESNO, Calif.--Want to know one of Fresno's dirtiest little secrets? Take a look at the photo at right. This homeless encampment costs taxpayers a million dollars a year. No, the money is not spent to help the homeless get out of poverty and into a decent home. It is spent on emergency health care services, policing, and fattening the wallets of poverty pimps who run organizations that claim to be helping the homeless. We need a plan to end homelessness. What we have instead is the following.
An example of how our tax dollars are misspent on "ending homelessness" is the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program which funnels the funds through a local coalition called the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care. Last month I attended their meeting with Dee, a homeless woman who asked me "how in the world is it possible for millions of dollars to be coming to Fresno and not one dollar of it reaches us?"
We found that social service groups represented at this meeting are applying for $4.9 million. The grant writer was being paid $5,000 to incorporate the HUD "Housing First" language into the funding requests. Representatives from Genesis, a foster care and group home facility, were at the meeting. Genesis wants some of the HUD money. The chief executive officer of Genesis and her sister are currently on trial for embezzlement. The charge is that they used their Genesis corporate credit card to buy personal items, like expensive clothes, fine dining, country club fees, and vacations. They are accused of embezzling over $500,000 from the agency. Could the millions have been better spent providing a place for homeless people to go during the heat wave last summer? Several homeless people died that summer from the heat while the poverty pimps were basking in the Cancun sun.
Even agencies funded to provide front line services to the homeless are failing them. The Rescue Mission is taking and destroying homeless peoples' property. People living on public land around the Rescue Mission report that their tents, medicine, clothing, false teeth, and just about everything they own is taken by Rescue Mission staff and thrown away. One group who stood up against this injustice went into the Rescue Mission, jumped into the dumpster, and recovered a homeless person's property. As they were leaving, the group was questioned by the police. Shouldn't the police be on the side of justice and defend the interests of those who have been injured?
The City of Fresno has made changes in their homelessness policy, but more is needed. Starting next month, the Community Alliance will begin detailing a fair and achievable plan to end homelessness and bring back dignity and respect to the people living on the hard streets of Fresno. Stay tuned.
