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
Endless War and an End to Your Civil Liberties
While the war in Ukraine rages on and U.S. foreign policy might provoke World War III, most Americans seem oblivious to a clear and present danger—the end of all life on the planet. Nuclear [...] Continue Reading
Catastrophic Climate Change While Being Unhoused
It’s already deadly on the streets of Fresno. It’s deadly, in part, because it is Fresno City policy to continue encampment sweeps and because of its refusal to support safe camps. Women, the elderly, [...] Continue Reading
Rage Against the Unhoused (by the City of Fresno)
On April 7, a massive fleet of California Highway Patrol cars, Fresno Police Department cars, public works vehicles, trash trucks, skip loaders and other heavy equipment arrived in the early morning [...] Continue Reading
Refusing to Remain Invisible
A historic lawsuit, led by longtime homeless advocate Dez Martinez, founder of We Are Not Invisible, has been filed against the City of Fresno. Because of Martinez’s efforts, unhoused residents of the [...] Continue Reading