Who is burning down the Fresno Homeless Encampments?

[annm4peace]

( I keep posting these stories and send them to the Governor.. but it doesn't seem to stop the abuse of the Homeless by the City of Fresno.. homeless people have been killed, they have lost all their possessions they have left, constantly harassed, denied their rights, been left to die from the elements..and the city has been ordered by a Judge to stop the abuse.. but it doesn't stop )

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/08/12/18741445.php


There have been 2 major fires at homeless encampments in the last week. One was a confirmed arson and the fire department has not determined the cause of yesterday’s fire. The photos below show what remains.

When I was there this afternoon I did not see anybody from the City of Fresno, the Red Cross, or anywhere else trying to help the homeless who lost everything they owned. In fact, the City of Fresno has signs up saying they are going to bulldoze this (and other) homeless encampments in downtown Fresno starting later this month. The demolition notices do not explain how this city action will help the homeless or where they are supposed to go. All photos by Mike Rhodes
http://fresnoalliance.com/wordpress/?p=1313


The woman in the foreground was looking for anything of value left after the fire. The man behind the fence is putting up a new shelter.


These shelters at the north end of the encampment did not get destroyed


This is the fire that happened last week




The City of Fresno says they are going to destroy this homeless encampment later this month. For more information, see: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/07/30/18740629.php

There are a few shelters in Fresno.. there is no place for the Homeless to go.. it is in the 100 degree weather right now in Fresno.

[Mnemosyne]

1. Photos of the US Third World. I wish I was wealthy, they would all have a home.

I would not be surprised to learn it was the city setting the fires, evil, heartless bastards.

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. Which raises an excellent point. The largest concentration of billionaires on earth

is less than 150 miles from Fresno and any one of them could end this with pocket change. Where are they? Why aren't they being called out for their negligence?
& R

[Mnemosyne]

10. Those billionaires do not notice. They need to be called out, but who, that they would ever hear,

would ever notice either?

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. The only way I can think of is for people all over the areas they live in to constantly

just be there. They all, but especially the Silicon Valley variety, love to frequent the little cafes and mingle with the little people. If they are confronted and embarrassed every time they come out of their holes, who knows?

They're making a world where they are going to lose the freedom to pretend they are a part of society and are able to travel openly. If they start to feel the heat of the world they make intruding on their simple pleasures they will have a choice to make, cut themselves off or reduce the heat.

Just an idea...

[Mnemosyne]

13. Encampments outside their gated communities. Of course, they will use extreme force to end any

attempt to shove it in their faces.

No clue what would be effective.

[Egalitarian Thug]

14. I was thinking more along the lines of the people that are in contact with them.

Sort of social-guerrilla tactics. Just off the top of my head here (and kicking the thread), when Larry Ellison stops into his favored cafe for breakfast, his waitron drops an article & a stack of pictures with his check, when David Cheriton gets into his ride after dinner some valet has left a copy of "The Grapes of Wrath" in his car.

All I know is that something must be done or it's going to get worse until the breaking point is reached and that's really going to suck.

[annm4peace]

23. good point

there are also many very wealthy people in fresno and just outside of it.

what is really disturbing is that the CA Attorney General and the US Attorney General doesn't put a stop to the abuse and investigate the suspicious deaths of several homeless people who spoke out (Pam Kincaid) and these fires.



Big Sue, a homeless woman and advocate who died last December in front of the Poverello House,



So did Pam Kincaid, who was the lead plaintiff in the 2007–2008 class action lawsuit against the City of Fresno that resulted in a $2.3 million settlement. Kincaid died under disturbing circumstances in 2007 after being severely beaten, ending up in Community Hospital, and then going head first over a fourth floor balcony that was allegedly locked and alarmed and to which she should not have had access.

to learn more of Pam's story see link
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/08/18439524.php

[Egalitarian Thug]

30. I know. So few of these are ready to see or hear what is.

They're still clinging to the illusion. I'm sorry, so sorry...

[Cleita]

2. Abusing the poorest of the poor is pure evil. eom

[avaistheone1]

4. Yes, it is.

This makes my heart sick.

[Skittles]

3. my guess: a teabagging asshole

[Archae]

5. I'm not surprised by the damage.

In that last picture, those are firetraps, just piles of junk.

No one should be setting the fires.
And if they catch the firebug, he or she should be charged not only with arson, but attempted murder.

But those are not "encampments."

They are junkyards.

[Niceguy1]

7. and very unsafe.

According to the local paper there is a large coalition of homeless advocates and agencies that will be on hand to aid in relocating the residents to a safer location.

[annm4peace]

25. the local paper the Fresno Bee doesn' t alway print the truth.

the progressive paper. the Community Alliance has been reporting and chronicling the truth

http://fresnoalliance.com/wordpress/?p=1313

the City and the Fresno Bee will say one thing... like the Homeless are being helped.. but the truth is very different.

It is average people that have collected toilet paper to put in the porta potties that people donate money to so the homeless at least have a place to go to the bathroom.

from a previous article
http://fresnoalliance.com/wordpress/?p=5568

The Community Alliance has taken the lead in providing portable toilets to three homeless encampments in downtown Fresno, which improves their lives giving them some privacy and dignity. It also keeps the community cleaner and prevents health problems associated with sanitation problems. If you would like to help with this project, send a contribution or simply drop off a box of toilet paper at the Fresno Center for Nonviolence (1584 N. Van Ness Ave., Monday–Friday 11 a.m.–3 p.m.). We guarantee you that 100% of your contribution will benefit the homeless.

We put up portable toilets at the encampments because the City of Fresno refused to provide this basic service for our homeless brothers and sisters. Somehow, they seemed to think that bulldozing homeless people’s shelters and chasing them from one vacant lot to another made more sense. The city spent more than $200,000 destroying homeless people’s property (last October and November) and making their lives more miserable, while at the same time claiming they had no money to open warming or cooling centers. In July, we expect the city to bulldoze homeless encampments in the vicinity of the Monterey Bridge (San Benito and Broadway), including Pastor Ray Polk’s homeless ministry. Polk is praying for a miracle.

[annm4peace]

27. from 2011 article of City helping the homeless. (not)

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/04/13/18677085.php

Early last year, Mayor Ashley Swearengin established (with great fanfare) the Fresno First Steps Home (FFSH) as a nonprofit that she said would work to end homelessness in Fresno. In May, she handed out cards telling the homeless to call 211 and encouraged residents to give those cards to the homeless instead of money. The goal was to raise $1 million a year by getting Fresnans to donate $1 a month. In July 2010, she announced that $221,000 had been donated by three corporate sponsors.

Greg Barfield was the homeless prevention and policy manager at the City of Fresno during this period of transition to privatize the effort to end homelessness. Barfield has since moved on, but he still works at City Hall as City Council member Oliver Baines’ chief of staff.

Barfield is listed on the FFSH Web site as the person to contact for more information about the project. If you go to the Web site, it asks you to send your donation to City Hall. This Indymedia reporter asked Barfield how much money FFSH has received and how it has been spent to help the homeless. He refused to provide me with that information, saying he was not required to do so, because FFSH is not an official government project.

Why is there no transparency or a willingness to share information about all of the wonderful things this group is doing? Indymedia has found that it could be because the group has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars and not spent any of it to help the homeless. In an e-mail to a homeless advocate, Barfield admits that little money has been used - just some spent on corporate filing fees and promotional materials.

FFSH has been in operation for about a year now. It has brought in a significant amount of money from individuals and corporate donors, but from what we can tell it has not spent any of its money to help the homeless and it doesn’t want you to know the details.

Fresno is fortunate to have at least two local groups that are transparent and spend all of the money they receive to help the homeless. Both can use donations. They are St. Benedict Catholic Worker, 4022 N. Cheryl Ave., Fresno, CA 93705, and Food Not Bombs, c/o Wesley United Methodist Church, 1343 E. Barstow Ave., Fresno, CA 93710-6309. For Food Not Bombs, make your check out to WUMC/FNB and include a note indicating that the donation is for FNB.

[Cleita]

15. If you haven't seen Elysium go see it.

It's supposed to be in Los Angeles 150 years in the future. It was filmed in the largest garbage dump in the world in Mexico. This is how poor homeless people live today in that country. Some of the poor homeless spend their whole lives there. When the affluent can go out and buy purses for the same price of many people's yearly wages, there is something very wrong with our society. We are becoming Mexico. Poor people don't choose to be unsafe. We have done better in the past and need to kick out all the billionaire supported politicians in our government and go back to the progressive tax system we had before Nixon in order to bring back the social programs that once made homelessness something that happened in other countries, not ours.

[annm4peace]

24. for many it is their home

their shelter.


A homeless woman from that encampment breaks down and cries as her property is being destroyed.


This is Mother Nature as she watched her home being kicked down by the City of Fresno .
After the city destroyed her shelter, she had nowhere to live.

[Sotf]

8. Drug addicts, assholes or teenagers...

Probably all three at once...

[Cleita]

16. Ugh. Your post is just ugly. People don't choose to

be disadvantaged. Show some compassion.

[TeeYiYi]

18. I think you misunderstood...

That post was an answer to the question in the OP: Who is burning down the homeless camps?

TYY

[Sotf]

20. Who is arguing with you...

My guess stands however...

[midnight]

9. Wow... this is so horrible. It looks like a war zone. How can austerity be an answer to anything?

[Safetykitten]

12. All the while occuring under a Democratic President.

[RZM]

17. My guess would be somebody who has spent time living in one of these encampments

But with no more to go on you can't really say. Whoever it is I hope they are caught and prosecuted before it happens again.

[NuclearDem]

19. Horrific. And that the city wants to drive them out too is just disgusting.

Indianapolis is about to do the same to the tent city where one of my friends lives. If they're not bothering anyone, why make their lives more miserable?

Thanks for posting this. The homeless need a voice too.

[Cleita]

21. +1000

[Archae]

22. One of the bigger problems is how the "news" media shows them.

"The Homeless."

They aren't all alike.

Some are homeless due to mental illness, others drugs and/or alcohol, still others financial problems.
Each one of those problems have to be dealt with.

Not just the "Cut taxes for the rich and gut social services."

[Sunlei]

26. why can't the cities set-up a tent community for these people. Use the military surplus from the war

[annm4peace]

28. the City believes the Homeless shouldn't exist

homeless advocate groups have given tents and sleeping bags again and again.. the city bulldozes them.
but it isn't just the City of Fresno but also CalTrans (CA DOT). but the City is more aggressive.

Just one of many stories.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/05/12/18228251.php

[annm4peace]

29. There are many answers to your questions of what is happening in Fresno

there are have been lawsuits, and the Judge has even ordered the Mayor of fresno to quit harassing the homeless.
there are stories of small victories..only to be dashed by the city again. There have been more homeless deaths.

there are stories of how a individually became homeless. Homeless people helping each other. Several small groups that try to help the ever growing population of homeless.

When a church let the homeless sleep on their steps.. the church was cited. When a man let the homeless put a tent on his vacant lot, he was also cited.

there are many individual stories of how a person became homeless and what it is like to try to survive on the street.

It is over a 100 degrees for many days in Fresno.. and the winters are cold and foggy.

I am hoping one day.. the CA Attorney General, or maybe the Gov of CA will do something.

http://fresnoalliance.com/wordpress/?p=1313

[Niceguy1]

31. these camos can't remain as they are

Y are unsafe and dangerous...on recentlynhad 82 felony arrests... it is a powder keg waiting to go off.

And when it blows peolke will be saying that the government shoud have done something to prevent it.