“No podría importarme menos ‘Disney on Ice’ cuando hay personas que amanecen muertas en las calles. Yo soy el que tiene que conducir a través del barrio Tower de Fresno para ver cuerpos tirados allí, [...] Continue Reading
Excremental Change: Public Toilets Needed Now
A livable city should have an adequate number of public toilets. Urban planners plan for public spaces, pedestrian access, good transit and parks, but they almost never plan for providing public [...] Continue Reading
Newsom Suspends $1 Billion in Funding for Homelessness
On Nov. 3, calling the current approach unacceptable, Governor Gavin Newsom immediately halted more than $1 billion in Homelessness, Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) grants to local [...] Continue Reading
Board of Supervisors Out of Touch
At the Oct. 11 meeting of the Fresno County Board of Supervisors (BOS), the supervisors showed how out of touch they are with the demographics of the county and seemingly out of touch with reality. [...] Continue Reading
Is the Fresno Police Department above the Law?
Our modern culture in America has long castigated and ignored the poor and unhoused. Many people just want the unhoused to go away, disappear or become [...] Continue Reading
HART-less in Fresno and How the City Spent $68 Million in Two Years
The City of Fresno recently presented a workshop and report titled “Homelessness Update.” The first page of the report is a photograph of the mayor and several City Council members posing proudly with [...] Continue Reading
One Fresno. Not.
Fresno’s mayor and City Council have coined the term One Fresno even though, according to a 2019 Urban Institute report, Fresno ranks No. 59 of 59 cities in California for economic inclusion and [...] Continue Reading
Unhoused, Undercounted and Underserved
On July 14, the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care (FMCoC) held a press conference to announce the results of the 2022 Point in Time (PIT) Count of the unhoused population of the City of Fresno, Fresno [...] Continue Reading
City Rolls Out Mobile Shower Unit
In April 2020, the Fresno City Council approved the funding and purchase of a mobile restroom and shower unit meant to serve the unhoused community. The funding was provided by federal CARES Act [...] Continue Reading
Sweeping the Unhoused Out of Sight
On June 2, an encampment sweep at Ashlan and West avenues took place. People were forced to leave with no notice, were not offered shelter and no one knows where they will go next. I called Sarah [...] Continue Reading
Continuum of Cash and Racism by the Numbers
In 2019, from information gathered in the annual federally mandated Point-in-Time Count, a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) analysis found that close to 567,000 people experienced [...] Continue Reading
Federal Court Victory for the Unhoused
On May 24, in a major victory for the unhoused community, advocates and the press, U.S. District Court Judge Dale Drozd granted a preliminary injunction blocking the implementation of Fresno’s [...] Continue Reading