Fresno, CA goons try to destroy memorial for homeless who died on the street (picture lic.plate)

[annm4peace]

Last edited Fri Sep 27, 2013, 02:05 AM - Edit history (1)

on the facebook site (please sign petition and share with others)

Last week, Larry and I were at San Benito and H street when I saw a truck pull up to the homeless memorial (the photo in the masthead on this Facebook page). The driver got out, went up to the memorial, and started removing bricks. Larry and I drove over and Larry confronted the thief. Larry told him to stop destroying this memorial dedicated to the homeless who have died on the mean streets of Fresno. The man at first tried to say that this was not a real homeless memorial, then got nervous, jumped back in his truck, and speed off. I followed him and took this photo of his license plate.





(my first thought is; "when will the Devil leave Fresno?" )


Please Sign the Petition: http://chn.ge/18QeLIW
Visit the Website for Updates: http://helpfresnoshomeless.org/


The City of Fresno has destroyed homeless encampments time and time again, which is not only costly, but ineffective and harmful. We know there are better ways of addressing homelessness and we are asking the City of Fresno to consider methods that have been successful in other cities, such as safe and legal encampments. The fact that Fresno does not have emergency shelters, for a city of its size, is also alarming.

This petition is intended to show the city officials that we disagree, and that we want better methods for fighting homelessness, rather than fighting the homeless. You can find out more at the website about these actions and our efforts.

Please share.

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead



Here is a picture of the Homeless Memorial, adjacent to the Homeless Ministry of Pastor Ray Polk, which will be a part of the City of Fresno's continuing policy of homeless camp demolitions. Eviction in this area is scheduled to begin at 7:00am on September 9, 2013.

Featured prominently, below the American Flag, is the memorial for Sharen “Big Sue” Bobbitt who died on December 28, 2011 on the sidewalk outside of the Poverello House, a homeless service center in downtown Fresno. She died following the 2011 evictions, when the City of Fresno destroyed all of the shelters for homeless people, took their blankets, and put out their fires. Poverello House is one of the driving forces behind the evictions this year.

from facebook:
"I knew Mother Nature who is also there... Mother Nature was a kind woman who loved the care packages that i would prepare for her... I tried getting her to go live with her son but she didnt want to."

[Mnemosyne]

1. It makes me feel so helpless at times. Thanks Ann. nt

[annm4peace]

2. signing the petition and sharing with others does a lot

and calling the Mayor helps also.

http://www.fresno.gov/Government/MayorsOffice/Default.htm

Ashley Swearengin, Mayor
2600 Fresno Street
Room 2075
Fresno, CA 93721
[phone]

[Mnemosyne]

4. I try to raise a bit of hell everyday, just seems that no one is listening too often. However,

feeling helpless will never stop me from being a pain in the ass to those 'in charge'.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

3. Another example of misdirected anger brought to you by FoxNoise.

[reddread]

6. No. In this case, you are misdirecting the anger

This is the sort of vandalism and hate crime I expect under circumstances emanating from the City of Fresno and their stenographers in the local media, particularly the Fresno Bee which has tempered its extremely uncritical reporting in recent times, but the relentless propaganda from anti-homeless forces tends towards a particular line of non-reasoning.
Fox News, and their local affiliates have not played a role here.
In fact, they made one homeless associate nationally famous for his very effective method of providing housing for himself.
Bruce, "The Mole Man" was featured on KMPH, and then picked up by CNN. Then, in no time, he was featured in a Sunday Ripley's Believe it or Not.
This sort of behavior here is what flows from the right wing thugs who back up insane, inhumane policies to remove homeless people from sight. I fully expected more assaults like the burnings and beatings we have seen in the past.
I believe people by and large are too decent to do things like that, but kids are capable of cruelty, and terrible things have happened
before.
I know far too many names on Ray Polk's memorial.
The lives of homeless people are lived on the precipice of an abyss, facing dangers and death daily.
The demographics of homeless there include FAR too many people in their 70's.
But the prevailing meme's ignore the reality and blame those victims of a society and INTENTIONALLY shattered economy,
because they might imbibe alcohol, or other drugs.
Turning their super church, "Christian" backs on a problem that impacts the health of the entire community.
No, this isnt Fox News fault.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

10. Oh please, Fox-so-called-news has certainly contributed to the climate of hatred toward the poor

and powerless. End of conversation.

[reddread]

11. NOT in that town, not at the LOCAL level!

In fact, although it may not matter to you, when groups like Peace Fresno and other organizations attempt to gain the attention
of local media (not the easiest thing for social justice groups, the fails outweigh the successes considerably) they can almost certainly count on coverage by KMPH 26, while other network affiliates, particularly in the past Channel 30, AND almost always, the Fresno Bee
dont give them the time of day.
In fact, judging by the paucity of ltte's by involved members, it may well be they WILL NOT publish letters "known" board members of the organization. Either that or most of them will not contribute. I certainly wouldnt piss on the Fresno Bee if it was on fire and I had a case of beer in my belly.
You may be upset at my correction, and may think I was talking about the Noise network, but in
the case of these topics, Fox News affiliate KMPH 26 has been closer to fair and involved than any of the other English language corporates.
Just trying to help here, knowledge is good.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

15. Fox affiliates are not the same thing as "The Fox News Network."

I refer to the cable news network that is the same on every tv in Amerikkka.

(Also, you should use paragraph breaks. White space is important in digitally displayed text.)

[reddread]

17. Fox News has nothing on CNN

Last edited Sun Sep 29, 2013, 09:41 AM - Edit history (1)

again, you miss the mark.
Unless you would care to specify what exactly your least favorite cable outlet has said
about the homeless in Fresno, and how they could possibly hold a candle next to the local
papers mendacity? I can tell you exactly who has provided what sort of coverage, factually if you can hear it
butyouwontbecausethatsnotyourpoint
likeJeffersonAirplanesaidblessthemediaspointylittleheadandthanksforthetip

-edited for fairness to the victim

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

18. If you don't see how FoxNoose plays into this, you don't want to see it.

And if you can't use paragraph breaks, I'm not reading any more of your run-on, run-together ramblings. Bye, now.

[reddread]

20. beats generalizing falsehoods

amateur media critics need to take some classes, maybe read a book?

[annm4peace]

5. " Do you know if they'll be adding housing instead or it's just all destruction and no housing ?"

the response:
"Bear with me for the answer.

Several hundred are in the camps, likely between 400-600. It seems that the city has provided vouchers for roughly about 75 so far, this time around, but you have to have income, a limiting factor by saying "you're not doing well enough". However, the pastor of the homeless ministry only knew a handful within the camps who certainly got housing. Other processes deem some "not needy/sick enough" essentially, so help is also limited there. The housing that was constructed to house 69 people at a time cost $11 million dollars (Renaissance at Santa Clara), which clearly benefited the developer, despite having many existing buildings in Fresno that go unused. Places like the Village of Hope adjacent to Poverello House are also slated for destruction, which is then removing shelter. (and no human rights official in the State or Feds stop the abuse and corruption)


"Attempts at securing permanent housing for the homeless in Fresno have been plagued by corruption. In 2010, when the city received an $11 million federal grant for permanent housing for the homeless, the money was given to a private developer to construct a small housing facility. The chair of the board that allocated the money also happened to be the CEO of the company that constructed the building. This facility now stands as the exemplary model for future housing for the homeless." (link: http://fresnoalliance.com/wordpress/?p=8294, by Jessie Speer, The City of Fresno Declares War on the Poor)

There is a new homeless task force (police officers) assigned to keep people from rebuilding. When police officers have been asked, "where can they/we go?" The responses have been, "I don't know" and "That's not my problem" and "you can set up your tent for the night, but it has to be gone come morning."

That's why the petition addresses a continuum that needs to occur in terms of housing, between nothing and their "exemplary model". Other cities have successfully instituted safe and legal encampments, which are much cheaper than both destruction and typical construction. Also, for a city of our size, we do not have emergency shelters. Fresno has the third highest rate of homelessness in the nation, and in 2011 it was the second most impoverished city. Yet, we are destroying the stability and communities that the poorest among us have, and basically shrugging our shoulders about what happens to those displaced."

( and again I say..NO FEDS or STATE Attorney Generals have investigated or put a STOP to the abuse and corruption. I hope one of them will see this posting and do something )

** this is what happens when fundamentalist, or born again Christians run the city, and the police, and sheriff dept.. and the homeless shelters. ***

* Fresno is in the Center of California. over 1/2 a million people, many big box fundamentalist churches.

[reddread]

7. that actually looks a lot like the trucks undercover cops drove at the last big cleanup

if there was a Clovis car dealer frame on the vehicle, it could be
the same one I saw.
Im glad I dont see that here.
This fellow needs to be ID'd.
pronto.

[Blue_Tires]

8. The guy might have just wanted the bricks

A few years back there were a couple of out-of-work lowlifes who stole a bunch of sidewalk bricks from a big Civil War cemetery in Richmond in broad daylight, cleaned them off, and were literally trying to sell them on the roadside from the back of their pickup...

But despite his motivation, this guy is a moron and an asshole either way....

[reddread]

9. not likely

the homeless memorial of Ray Polk has been the last standing bulwark to more than one cleanup.
It is well known, and a slight problem for politicians and administrators who really dont want to
follow the law/constitution. The memorial has been moved at least once, and is a target for certain.
Believe me, when I tell you, that is EXACTLY the kind of pickup truck being driven by undercover cops
at the site of previous cleanups.
Im hopeful that is only a coincidence, but that makes it important to identify the culprit.
The police have been implicated in the beating and subsequent mysterious death of Pam Kincaid.
I want to know the truth, and I dont want the truth to be that the police have anything to do
with the tragic and brutal lives of the homeless in Fresno.

[annm4peace]

12. There's progress for the homeless in Hennepin County, Minneapolis, MN

Minneapolis is much economically healthy city in a healthier County.. but the City and County of Fresno could look to Minneapolis as an example of what they could be doing to help the homeless.

It is cheaper to spend the pennies to lift people out of homelessness,, then to pay the dollars for emergency rooms, ambulances, cops, jails, etc.

Fresno does have organizations and people trying to help the homeless.. but the City doesn't help and often hurts.
********

http://www.startribune.com/local/225445012.html

Star Tribune, by Rochelle Olson

Hennepin County is midway through an intensive two-year pilot project aimed at getting people who haven’t had shelter for a long time into stable housing. Results look positive.

As he had every night for years, Roger Lisk was checking in to a homeless shelter when someone said, “Hey, come here. I want to talk to you.”

That person was Terry Ostrander, a Catholic Charities Housing First worker who helped move the 56-year-old Lisk into a stable home and a job within months.

Speaking Thursday from his south Minneapolis room, Lisk spoke of the peace in having a key to a room where he can come and go when he chooses, without being patted down by security or sleeping on a gymnasium floor with 200 men.

“Now I get off work, I come home. I got my Dr Pepper. I got a TV. I got a lock on my door. It’s so beautiful,” he said.

Lisk was one of those targeted for a novel, intensive Hennepin County effort to tackle long-term homelessness by zeroing in on the most frequent users of emergency shelters. A midterm report on the Top 51 project, a two-year pilot program that started in July 2012, shows progress:

Of the first 55 clients chosen for help, 26 found stable housing. Shelter use among the group as a whole dropped 23 percent, according to the report from the county’s Office to End Homelessness, which leads the Hennepin-Minneapolis 10-year effort to end homelessness by 2016. Ten formerly homeless clients were in private apartments, often with state subsidies. Another nine moved into rental units at Catholic Charities Higher Ground, 165 Glenwood Av. in Minneapolis.

The $550,000 that the county is spending on the Top 51 project is roughly split between Catholic Charities and the Salvation Army Harbor Light.

The money goes to pay for two social workers at each agency dedicated solely to the Top 51 project. Each case manager was given the names of 15-20 clients to pursue — a fraction of the number that most case workers see.

The county agencies are asking the County Board to extend the program in the 2014 budget through the end of the year, an additional six months.

Tackling long-term use

Emergency shelters are designed for brief stays, but for the Top 51 clients, the average stay was 10 years. These long-term users had multiple problems, such as mental illness, chemical dependency or health issues, with no safety net of family or friends. They had burned bridges.

Without persistent, personalized help, most of the long-term homeless were mired in a rut coupled with a belief that nothing would change, that “they would just continue doing what they’re doing,” Ostrander said.

Lisk said he had no hope for finding a home because he could only find day labor once or twice a week. “You can’t afford nothing,” he said. “You’ve got your cigarettes and $10 in your pocket and it’s got to last until next week.”

He said he was in the loop of bouncing among shelters for free meals, then checking into one to sleep for the evening. He would be back on the street by 6 a.m.

“The top folks are the ones who would turn around and walk away,” said Lisa Thornquist, planning analysis supervisor in the Office to End Homelessness. “They’ve been very good at avoiding everyone for years.”

Ostrander frequently stands outside emergency shelters at 5:30 a.m. to hand out his cards. He and colleague Doreen Marie Donovan use all sorts of methods to slowly build connections with clients.

Donovan sends birthday cards. She meets people for coffee. She has taken clients for a ride in a car — a “normalizing activity” many of them haven’t done in years, she said.

Most of what the case workers do is reliably show up, become a confidant, provide peace of mind so clients can start to open up and see hope. “When you went to your first day of school, were you scared?” Donovan said. “It’s hard to do new things and you need mom there at the bus stop.”

Usually, clients come in to meet their case workers and if they don’t show, that’s that. The Top 51 workers are much more insistent.

Zach Johnson, a Top 51 case worker at the Salvation Army, said, “For us, if our appointment doesn’t show up at 3 [p.m.], we go looking for them until 5 [p.m.].”

Catholic Charities Housing First program manager Chris Michels said, “A lot of the clientele feel like they’re invisible, [that] ‘if I don’t show up here people won’t care.’ It’s empowering to them to have someone care.”

With their smaller caseloads, the workers have the flexibility to spend a lot of time with individual clients — or to give the clients space.

“We’re just spending time with them. It’s like what makes any relationship good — to take the time,” Johnson said. He cited a recent success: a client who wasn’t having coherent conversations with anyone. Johnson worked with him. The man who is now preparing to file for disability benefits. “To me, that’s monumental,” Johnson said.

Lisk had plenty to say about Ostrander and how he has helped. “If I have any trouble, I go through him and things get taken care of real fast,” Lisk said.

[annm4peace]

13. ** please sign the petition ** Lets help the Homeless in Fresno

Please show the City of Fresno that the whole world is watching.

Lets get the signatures at least over 500 signatures.

[fadedrose]

14. Movie Stars only want to help people overseas...nt

[annm4peace]

16. there is a small but growing progressive political network in Fresno

there is hope... they just need more money and more people but they making changes in Fresno
they aren' t preaching to the choir but fighting back in the heart of the beast.


http://www.cvppac.org/

he Valley’s Voice for Progressives

Promoting human and civil rights
Recruiting candidates who embrace progressive values
Mobilizing voters to elect progressive candidates
The purpose of the CVPPAC organization is to promote the human and civil rights of all Central Valley residents. This is to be accomplished through education and action. The CVPPAC will advocate and/or lobby elected officials relative to the concerns/core values of Central Valley residents.

The CVPPAC will also recruit, endorse and support candidates for office who are committed to the concerns/core values of Central Valley residents as expressed (presented) by the CVPPAC. These concerns/core values include, but are not limited to: a living wage for all workers, clean air, public safety, affordable housing, adequate public transportation & bike paths, police accountability, improved public education, marriage equality, and health care for all.

The CVPPAC is dedicated to enhancing (improving) the participation of Central Valley residents in the election of governmental officials by sponsoring “Get Out The Vote” campaigns.

[annm4peace]

19. something has to be wrong with the petition to help Fresno homeless

I posted this last week and there was 384 signatures and it is still 384 signatures but I see different names listed to the right side.

do these change petitions stop working ?


Please Sign the Petition: http://chn.ge/18QeLIW