Recently a new city ordinance has taken place in Fresno, CA. This city
ordinance is a ban on homeless people from standing on medians and asking
for money. The Fresno City Council gave tentative approval to the measure
at it’s meeting. Yet nonprofit communities can go and receive a permit
which validates them to do the same. The Council passed a 6-1 vote that
made this ordinance valid. Under the new ordinance, upscale fundrasiers
like “Kids Day,” would be allowed to continue, and issued a permit. This
was passed as a “public safety” measure. If the ordinance was based on a
median safety ordinance it wouldn’t be viewed so negatively. But it has
discriminatory intent towards poor people. Basically saying if you could
afford this permit you can ask for money, which obviously homeless people
don’t have. Also a 2005 Brookings Institute report showed that Fresno has
the highest concentration of poverty in the country. The “official”
unemployment rate is currently 16.8%
Source: “War on the Poor… Continues in Fresno” Mike Rhodes, Indybay,
Feb. 5, 2010. http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/02/05/18637084.php
Student Researcher: Garret West
Faculty Instructor: Peter Phillips
Faculty Evaluator: Shepard Bliss, Humanities/Psych Department
Sonoma State University
Similar Posts:
- Violence and the New Face of Homelessness in America
- United Nations Investigator Cites US Neglect of Homeless
- Real Unemployment: One Out of Five in US
- Mexico’s Gaza
