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Indybay Feature

Is this a Good Way to Spend Money to end Homelessness?

by Mike Rhodes (mikerhodes [at] comcast.net)
Would you pay $420,000 per year to get 8 homeless people into housing? Photo: Staff member of the HERO Team and Captain Burke Farrah.
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The Fresno City Council today (December 13, 2018) allocated $420,000 to a team (affiliated with Westcare) that accompanies the Fresno Police Department calling itself the HERO Team. This was a re-funding request that was pushed by H. Spees, who works closely with Mayor Lee Brand. The Mayor is expected to approve the request. I found it interesting that they seemed pleased that they were able, over the last two years, to get 8 homeless people into housing per month.

Spees talked about the great job the city was doing to reduce homelessness. He said homelessness was down in Fresno almost 60% over the last 8 years. He went on to say that this figure comes from the HUD directed Point in Time count that he admitted was flawed and not accurate. I would agree.

What Spees failed to point out is that the PIT count over the last two years shows homelessness in Fresno up by 32%, but I’m not going to push the point, because the methodology of the count is so flawed.

There are a several reasons why it appears that the count went down for a few years. The main reason is that after the city bulldozed the encampments downtown, the homeless spread out through the city making them much harder to find/count. Add to that, the fact that the FPD Homeless Task Force relentlessly hunts them down and takes their property, homeless people have become much better at hiding out. Sure, that makes the city able to claim that homelessness has been reduced, but anyone living here can see with their own eyes that there are more homeless people on the streets than ever.

Captain Burke Farrah, the head of the FPD Homeless Task Force, attended the meeting. He dressed for the occasion with his bullet proof vest and a gun at his side telling us that is what his team wears when they go out and confront the homeless for the crime of being too poor to have a roof over their heads. He was asked to stand with a representative of the HERO Team and the audience was asked who they would rather talk to if they were homeless.

In the afternoon at Fresno City Hall they discussed doing an audit of how money is being spent on the homeless. They were also expected to show a video, that I helped produce, that gives the homeless themselves a voice in this discussion. It is several interviews of homeless people talking about what it is like interacting with the police in Fresno and telling us what would help them get off the street.

Council member Luis Chavez has promoted and secured the funding ($1 million) for a low barrier shelter that will provide beds for about 200 homeless people per night. That will double the number of beds available for the homeless in Fresno.
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