Public Comments
From August 11, 2025, to August 25, 2025, the City made the CAPER available to the public for comment. Members of the community were able to provide feedback through mail, email, over the telephone, by survey, and in-person. Fourteen comments were received during the public comment period. An additional #__ comments were received during the public City Council hearing.
Amber Fox, via email response
Why are our streets a mess? How about crime?
[City Response:
The City’s 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan identified public infrastructure and facilities improvements as a goal, specifically to promote quality of life and neighborhood revitalization through improvements to current public infrastructure and facilities, and by closing gaps in areas with aging, lower quality, or nonexistent public infrastructure and facilities. To meet that goal, the City has funded a number of neighborhood street improvement projects that address pavement maintenance, repair, and reconstruction to streets, sidewalks, curb ramps, and gutters. One project completed in Program Year 2024 was the Rialto-Marks-Holland-Valentine Neighborhood Street Improvements project that benefitted 12,390 residents alone, with three other neighborhood street improvement projects underway.
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
DD C, via email response
QUIT BEING DICTATORS! QUIT CHARGING PROPERTY TAXES! QUIT CHARGING THAT ALREADY ARE PAID BY OUR TAXES! QUIT MAKING YOURSELVES RICH AND US POOR!....
[City Response:
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
Yonas Paulos, via email response
Thank you
���� please send me a hard copy to my address: [redacted] thank you ���� I am
visually impaired.
[City Response:
In accordance with its 2025 Citizen Participation Plan, the City made a hard copy of the Draft PY 2024 CAPER available upon receipt of this written request.
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
Miguel Gomez, via email response
Hello.
Earlier this year I submitted comments during the Substantial Amendment 2024-01 review. I asked the City to look into several things that are still really important to my neighborhood and others nearby:
• Improving public bus routes from Jensen & Clovis to downtown Fresno • Building sidewalks on Jensen (from Clovis to Hwy 99) and along Clovis (from Jensen to Tulare)
• Turning the vacant lot on Peach (between Church and the railroad tracks) into a real park with sports courts, lights residents can turn on, and a playground with a jungle gym • Installing a Tesla charging station at Jensen & Clovis • Offering help to residents who want to install home batteries, reverse osmosis water filters, and electric stoves or heaters instead of gas
I’m asking whether any of those things were funded during the 2024–2025 program year or are being planned. If not, I hope they can be prioritized moving forward — these are real needs that would make a big difference in our area.
Please confirm that this comment will be added to the CAPER public record. I’d also appreciate being kept in the loop if there are next steps or ways I can stay involved. [City Response:
The PY 2024-2025 Annual Action Plan did not include the specific items included above. As discussed in the Draft PY 2024 CAPER, the Rialto-Marks-Holland-Valentine Neighborhood Street Improvements project was completed in Program Year 2024 and benefitted 12,390 individuals. Three additional neighborhood street improvement projects were also underway in Program Year 2024 and included the Highway City, Yosemite Middle School, and Knight Avenue Neighborhood Street Improvement projects.
All Annual Action Plans and CAPERs can be viewed at www.fresno.gov/housing under the Plans and Reports tab.
Individuals can also subscribe to receive e-mails regarding housing and community development updates, including community meeting opportunities and opportunities to provide public comments on draft documents, by visiting www.fresno.gov/housing, entering their name and email address, and clicking subscribe.
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
David Dean, via email response
Your a joke
[City Response:
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
Pat Scovill, via email response
Dear City of Fresno:
Public Comments
Housing is needed for foster care youth who age out of the foster care system and who will be beginning their independent life. With the availability of affordable housing so limited, construction of tiny homes or affordable housing should be constructed immediately to provide the adult foster youth with a home setting as soon as the leave the Child Protective System. Without proper housing, many of these youth will be living on the streets and dealing in drugs and prostitution..
Pivot, Inc., an organization in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, provides a tiny house community and services for transitional youth aging out of the foster care system.
Similar opportunities should be provided for our youth or they will be the future criminals in our communities.
Thank you for the opportunity to submit my public comments. [City Response:
As part of the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care (FMCoC) Executive Board, the City continues to support and coordinate with multiple community organizations and governmental agencies that actively engage in planning and implementing discharge plans and protocols that address the needs of individuals at-risk of becoming homeless after receiving services. These individuals include youth who are exiting foster care.
The One Fresno Housing Strategy was presented to the City Council on April 27, 2022, as a three-year framework for fast-tracking the implementation of the City’s existing housing plans by allocating $5 million for two (2) No Place Like Home tiny home villages; and allocating $850,000 to Fresno City College to allow students to create 24 tiny homes for low-income people.
Additionally, through the use of state funding, the City supported the Sierra Crossing project which consists of developing 96 units of Permanent Affordable Housing for persons experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. 60 units will be set aside for Homeless youth or Youth at Risk of Homelessness and 35 units for the general homeless population, including 1 unit for on-site management.. The City also supported the development of a new shelter facility that will serve Transitional Age Youth (TAY), ages 18 to 24 years, who are experiencing or at-risk of homelessness. The project is expected to begin construction on March 1, 2026, with completion scheduled for March 1, 2027.
Increasing the development, preservation, and rehabilitation of affordable housing for low‐ income and special needs households is an ongoing goal of the City.
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
Michaela Bennett, parts 1 and 2, via email response
Dear City of Fresno:
1. Thank you for the email of the comprehensive draft of the 2024-2025 CAPER, which I have read in its entirety.
2. I appreciate the comprehensive information that you gave us in the draft CAPER, including about fixing up senior citizens' homes, mobile homes, and the like. All of these are vital in our community, and needed by folks who can't afford them.
3. About me. I'm 63 yrs old, California native, A's college, I worked for top San Francisco Bay Area law firms/Ivy League attorneys, I'm a certified paralegal, a life-long epileptic (seizure disorder), NO drugs/drink/crimes/not even a speeding ticket, and I have been unsheltered for seven years. I'm the system's "free auditor" and my grade of it, as a trained, educated paralegal is: straight F.
This has nothing to do with you, as I am sure you are doing the best you can and you have no control over other agencies, housing providers, and city and county services.
We simply need an overhaul of the entire system to prevent homelessness. No one should go through what I and others have gone through.
In my case, there is NO cure for epilepsy (seizure disorder) and I have been treated by top doctors in the field at Stanford since I was 6 yrs old in 1968.
I do NOT require alcohol or drug rehab, as I don't use any substances. I don't require mental health treatment, as that is NOT my disabling condition.
I have epilepsy, a seizure disorder (grand mal/tonic clonic seizures which render me unconscious), like 1 in every 26 people will be diagnosed with epilepsy (there are 46 different types of seizures) during their lifetime.
I do not require hand-holding, or being told what to do. I am self-sufficient. I simply need a clean, safe, place to live, low-income, that is NON-congregate housing in order to live my best possible life as an epileptic.
In 7 years, I was unable to get housing through Poverello, MAP Point trailer there, and other services. This is a very broken system. I was unsheltered for 7+ yrs. Again, I am NOT getting better from grand mal epileptic seizures.
I don't expect your department to solve these policy/system issues by yourselves. It requires all of us.
4. The New Demographic of Homelessness/Unsheltered in California and the USA
According to researchers at the University of California at San Francisco's Homelessness and Housing Initiative almost 50% of California's unhoused population are over the age of 50+, worked and paid taxes, and are law-abiding. Affordable housing was NOT built by California or the US government for aging Baby Boomers for the past 40 yrs according to UCSF researchers.
There is no affordable housing to meet this large housing demand.
I would appreciate it, as would others who are unsheltered, if the government (including local) would stop the stigma that we're failures, substance abusers, mentally ill, can't pull our weight, are slackers, etc. That's simply NOT the case for the majority of us. We lack affordable housing.
Ask anyone who is unsheltered, and they would LOVE to be promptly and safely housed.
In fact, for those with substance abuse disorders (much of it related to trauma/numbing pain), places like San Jose, California, and the country of Finland (Northern Europe) have found that Housing First works to stabilize people, decreases their stress levels by having them in their own apartments (non-congregate settings), and improves their mental health and well-being. It is also cost-effective, much less than hospitalizations.
That is the tragedy, the lack of non-congregate affordable housing apartments/tiny homes for all who need them and could be promptly stabilized.
Cite/Website: Researchers at University of California at San Francisco https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/who-we-are/our-story
Many peoples' support networks are now dead, or faced with their own financial and health limitations, unable to help relatives in need of housing and other services. That is also true for my situation. My family is dead. Epilepsy cost me marriage and children as well, as I had to ethically tell men I was dating years ago that my anti-seizure medications could cause birth defects and I was unable to have children for this reason.
The men I was dating wanted to have biological children, and so they moved on to healthier women to marry whom they could have healthy babies with. I wish them all of the best. That is life. They were good men, and I am a good woman, and it's nobody's fault that I have epilepsy and that I'm on dangerous anti-seizure medications that can cause birth defects in babies. In life, we all have our challenges to deal with.
I feel sorry for all of the women epileptics in my epilepsy support groups (including online) who were NOT educated about the risks of their anti-seizure medications, like Stanford's doctors educated me in the 1970's about mine.
Those women did get pregnant, their anti-seizure drugs did cause birth defects in their babies, and now they are faced with their own epilepsy cases AND raising gravely disabled children.
These epileptic women were not properly educated about the dangers/side effects of their anti- seizure medications and pregnancy, and now live with the dangers. I can't imagine. At least, I was told of the very serious dangers by Stanford's doctors and I knew them all along, and I made life choices given those factors.
5. Safe Parking Lots Programs
I would appreciate it if Fresno, CA would start a Safe Parking Lots Program like San Jose, CA's, which copies the initial program in Santa Barbara, CA that is more than 20 yrs old.
It involves businesses, religious places of worship, and other places that are indemnified and insured by the city. There is case management, trash, restrooms, garbage, food, and wifi.
This is vitally important to the safety of our senior citizens unsheltered in their vehicles, our families with children, and single women.
Cite: https://santabarbaraca.gov/government/priorities-policies/homelessness-initiatives/new- beginnings-safe-parking-program
Cite: https://localnewsmatters.org/2025/01/19/san-jose-opens-second-safe-parking-site-selects- nonprofit-wehope-as-operator/
6. Peoples' Resistance to Going to Dangerous Poverello For Services
It is unacceptable to most law-abiding unsheltered people, 50% of us over the age of 50+ who've worked and paid taxes, been self-sufficient and responsible, to be put in the proverbial "Lepers' Colony" that is down at Poverello House and those neighborhoods.
We [are threatened] there.
It is UNACCEPTABLE that the City of Fresno (and County) treats us all of the same, and that we are to be despised and maligned. The constant subject of dangerous, harmful, and untrue stigmas.
One major medical problem, other other adverse event, could land most of you where I and others have been...unsheltered.
We NEVER hear about the government's multitude of failures: no medical care, no income, an up to 17 year fight for Social Security Disability income (rejected for most people on the first application), and on and on.
We always hear that's it is our fault, that we didn't try "hard enough". Nonsense. I earned A's in college, graduated with honors, don't smoke/drink/use drugs/or have a criminal history. I've never gotten a speeding ticket. I worked for Ivy League attorneys at top law firms in the San Francisco Bay Area. I changed California law, and testified at the legislature in Sacramento, for high-risk crime victims. I am well-read and accomplished.
Trust me, becoming unsheltered can happen to anyone.
Services must be offered to unsheltered people in other places besides Poverello. I suggest mobile medicine and mobile social services, come to people. Additionally, I suggest liaisons with hospital social workers. Hospital social workers visited my hospital rooms, when I had to be hospitalized for epileptic seizures and a gall bladder removal surgery. None of them could get me emergency housing, not even a motel voucher through Project Room Key. I repeatedly tried, to no avail to get into that program.
7. The Homelessness Count In Time Does Not Work And Undercounts Those in Need Of Services
The homelessness "count in time" does not work and is ineffective and unreliable. The number of us who are unsheltered were NEVER counted.
The count needs to be all year, and from multiple sources.
In seven years of being required to live in my car as a law-abiding epileptic, I NEVER was counted in this count. I asked everyone I knew who was unsheltered if they had been counted? The answer was "no".
This included: a highly educated former Fresno (woman) school teacher/senior citizen with a major medical problem. (She was held at gunpoint across the street from St. Agnes Hospital, in front of the apartment buildings on Herndon Ave, when she was sleeping in her car and it was broken in to); a former Fresno EMT/veteran/middle aged man who was never counted; former construction workers who were never counted; a former small business owner/senior citizen who was never counted (he died in his car at Cedar and Herndon a couple of years ago, again meeting the research from University of California at San Francisco that those of us who become unsheltered for the first time after the age of 40+ are at the greatest risk of dying). On and on it goes.
My math for the homeless/unsheltered count in Fresno is that you should be getting a count of 25 unsheltered people at every major intersection in Fresno. If you didn't get that number, you've undercounted our public health problem/crisis.
8. Rental Assistance
I was concerned in reading the draft report about the few people who actually received rental assistance. Many people post on Nextdoor about their need for rental assistance.
Something needs to be done to stabilize people in housing early and fast, to keep them housed, like the best practices in other cities and states.
9. The Number of Unhoused Seniors at the Fresno Social Security Office
I was stunned when I was in the Fresno Social Security Office, on the street behind Walmart at Herndon and Ingraham (Fresno, CA) at the number of acutely ill, unsheltered senior citizens there for appointments about their Social Security.
Certainly, that parking lot could be another point of contact for Fresno County Social Services to make contact with unsheltered folks who need immediate stabilization, in non-congregate housing (i.e. non-shelters).
10. The Lack Of Fresno County Social Services/Stabilization For Senior Citizens & Other Women Staying In The Living Room And Medical Room at Fresno Rescue Mission's Hope For The Children on Hwy 99
I was shocked, as a former paralegal who has worked in court appointed conservatorships in the San Francisco Bay Area (for top Ivy League educated attorneys) that Fresno Rescue Mission's facility out on Hwy 99 was NOT audited by the city and county.
Women, all ages, slept on cots in the living room at Rescue the Children.
Several senior citizen women were longer term, had more serious medical problems, and were sleeping in the medical room, off the living room.
At NO time did Fresno County kick it into gear and send Social Workers out to that facility to immediately work on these womens' housing cases. What gives?
If the Fresno Rescue Mission is contracted and paid by the County of Fresno and the City of Fresno, where is the auditing of the processes?
Those medically vulnerable senior women were rendered homeless by Fresno Rescue Mission, kicked out of their medical beds, and I met them with their walkers down at Poverello.
Ok, folks. That's NOT how it's done. You KICK it into gear and get them stabilized. They should IMMEDIATELY become the focus of case management/stabilization, not fall through the cracks.
Again, another missed opportunity and one that it unacceptable to me having worked in court- appointed conservatorships.
Why was this permitted to happen for a single second? Outrageous! The city and county's "game isn't good enough" and they need to drastically improve, in every area.
11. Unsheltered Women Becoming Violent Crime Victims
We as a society, community, and state pay an extremely large tax burden for keeping people unhoused. We pay for expensive hospitalizations for the unhoused, who develop chronic medical conditions, as researchers at the University of California - San Francisco have found out via their research ("Housing is health" is their motto. So true.).
Several years ago a shelter friend of mine, a former educator with a Master's Degree, became homeless due to the onset of schizophrenia, a brain malfunction. I read her Master's online, as she was very proud of it. She did a wonderful job!
Schizophrenia cost my friend her job as teacher in my native San Francisco Bay Area city, her medical insurance, and her housing and ability to pay her bills.
Because she was NOT promptly granted a variety of support services, including Social Security Disability, she became homeless.
When Naomi House at Poverello (a women's shelter) did not have a bed for my friend, they left her on the street. There were NO open shelter beds, and Fresno Rescue Mission only permits people to stay a few nights a year.
The consequences for my medically disabled teacher friend with a Master's degree NOT being behind a locking door and safely housed were dire for her and for the tax payers, and our first responders and court system.
It was this friend of mine, who on top of having a major medical problem, was punished again by our government who did NOT stabilize her in her hour of need.
My friend was the woman who was brutally beaten within an inch of her life and [censored] a few years ago by Micah Collins (People of State of California v. Micah Collins). He attacked her by a business, whose security cameras taped his entire attack of my friend.
Police held a news conference and they asked the public to identify the man in the security footage. The public came through, including with his whereabouts. He was arrested, jailed, held
without bond, and prosecuted. He was convicted by a Fresno criminal jury and sentenced to 36+ yrs to life in prison by a judge.
My friend required intensive care treatment at the hospital, numerous reconstructive surgeries, and she was in very dire medical shape.
I am angry that the government has every excuse for not promptly housing and stabilizing her (including with Social Security Disability income), but the government (and taxpayers) are on the hook to the tune of tens of millions of dollars for the [censored] crimes: her hospitalization and the work of highly skilled surgeons and ICU teams, repeated reconstructive surgeries by highly skilled surgeons and their surgical teams, the involvement of police, detectives, first responders, forensic labs, jail, sheriff's deputies, court, judge, court reporter, jurors, and now the California prison system for 36+ years to life.
So the government can shell out to the tune of tens of millions of dollars on the attacker/[censored], but NONE to prevent the crime in the first place by putting this dear teacher with a serious medical illness behind a locking door with support services.
The government can waste thousands of hours of peoples' time -from first responders to hospital medical teams to court staff to jurors - all because the government FAILED to promptly house and stabilize this woman? What is wrong with this picture, folks? What a complete total waste! This policy is DEAD WRONG!
This burns me up! It should you too! Penny-wise and pound foolish. Hands down, THE DUMBEST thing I've ever seen. And we can multiple her case many times over.
We can't afford NOT to house people!
12. My Close Calls As A Medically Disabled (Epilepsy), Law-Abiding Former Paralegal in My Car
I too have nearly become a crime victim, multiple times, as a law-abiding former paralegal/life- long epileptic (seizure disorder): this includes a daytime attempted kidnapping of me by gang members in my car at Walmart at Herndon/Ingraham, a burglary of my car (and access to my locked car via an electronic unlocking device by some apartments at 4am in the morning, while I slept under a navy blue fleece blanket in the backseat of my Honda Civic sedan, in front of apartment buildings across from St. Agnes Hospital on Herndon Ave. I'm a pretty angry epileptic when awoken and I yelled, "GOD! What the hell are you doing!" The person ran away, leaving my front passenger door wide open and 4am fog rolling in.
I have been the target of numerous car burglaries, by organized car teams, who were inspecting my car and others to vandalize. I scared them off too.
I've been the target of a convicted felon and his friend, who came up to me in my car at the Eddie's Bakery parking lot at 3pm and demanded sex from me, a woman who is a retired paralegal and changed California law for crime victims.
My response: "You know the problem with Fresno? We don't have any 'real men' any more to protect women and children. Just a bunch of losers like you two. I've been "deputized" to clean up this area of Fresno, and I'm sending any non-men I find directly to San Quentin's Death Row.
I'm staring at two not-real-men right now. Did you NOT have REAL fathers in your lives to kick
your [censored]? No wonder you can't get a date or a relationship with a quality woman. Who wants to be with a not-a-real-man like either of you losers? Hold on while I call Fresno Police 911."
These two men were blushing. There's a reason I was Queen of Mock Trials in college in my paralegal program. I can think, and speak on my feet. Those losers never bothered me again.
It's me that has repeatedly called Fresno Police about car burglary gangs and people trying to commit commercial burglaries.
There are many of us who are law-abiding, and do the same. A homeless family in Central Valley called police, from the family's vehicle, for a family under attack by strangers in their home.
I could have been spared ALL of this had Fresno had a Safe Parkings Lots Program for me to sleep in, case management, food, showers and bathrooms, wifi, garbage, and security. Fresno NEEDS to get funding for this ASAP.
13. Former Foster Youth Who Need Non-Congregate Housing
It is also unacceptable to me that 50+% of California's foster youth become homeless when they "age out" of the foster care system.
First, these youth did not have proper families/support systems. Then as young adults, these youth are punished again by a system that kicks them to the curb, treats them like garbage.
They don't have income. They are left to die on our streets. It's absolutely despicable.
I commend Oklahoma and their Pivot program, tiny homes on foundations in a tiny home community for former foster youth who've aged out of the system, with case management, and other services, as well as friendship with each other/a support system.
Oklahoma architects designed the tiny homes, Oklahoma State University students built the tiny homes (Fresno State has this capability through the Construction Management major at the college/students), and people in Oklahoma donated all new goods to house each tiny home (kitchen, bathroom, small living room, small bedroom off the living room (like a studio apartment design).
We can't afford the constant cycle of having people unhoused, including foster youth. We MUST be a supportive bridge for them to adult life, as they simply can't do it alone, and frankly neither did any of us.
Cite: https://www.pivotok.org/tiny-homes
Cite: Tiny Homes Help OKC Youth Transition From Foster Care
Tiny Homes Help OKC Youth Transition From Foster Care
14. Tiny Homes for Former Men and Women Veterans
I would like to see Fresno, CA start a tiny home community for homeless veterans, many of whom are waitlisted for affordable housing and are homeless.
I would like to see Fresno copy Veterans' Community Project in Kansas City, Missouri, a tiny home community built on foundations for formerly unsheltered veterans copied in Fresno, as has been done in other U.S. cities.
VCP treats every veteran differently, as not all of them have the same problems/needs.
One homeless veteran I know in Fresno, middle-aged with advanced college degrees (his family is dead), is being treated for cancer. The ONLY way he got housing was one of our dear retired librarians who volunteered at the library we both went to offered him a room in her home. Our library staff was sick of seeing him in this terrible plight. (He also worked part-time at the library.)
Cite: Founder of Veterans' Community Village, Kansas City, Missouri:
https://youtu.be/KpF-aFme-nA?si=O6MQySO6kbua62JL
Cite: https://www.veteranscommunityproject.org/homeless-listings
Cite: https://youtu.be/Gfk3F28u7GQ?si=j4hmYLLZ8uZ08Pxz
Cite: Why this Drill Sergeant says coming to Veterans Community Project was the best decision of his life
Why this Drill Sergeant says coming to Veterans Community Project was th...
15. I Can Intern With The City Of Fresno If You Wish To Use My Top Skills As a Retired Paralegal
I would be happy to intern with the City of Fresno, and your department if you wish (or another one) to help Fresno achieve some of these goals.
I noticed in reading the draft that Fresno had wanted to work on getting folks enrolled in community college, adult literacy, and the like, but that had not happened.
I have very polished skills, people/professional/research/English, and I can work on this aspect of these goals for you, if you wish.
I can pass legal background checks, Ca State Dept of Justice and FBI. I live on a tiny Social Security check and I can't afford the finger print scan, which is expensive. If the city wishes me to intern, I request that you kindly pay for my fingerprint background check.
I have been a California Notary Public, been required to undergo this background checks by law, and I have clean background checks.
I can also work on my own and email your office (a point person if you have one) the information that I find so you can achieve these goals, and move closer to that mark. I am happy to help serve my community with the gifts and talents God has given me.
For example, here is the literacy program run by the Fresno County Public Library system:
https://www.fresnolibrary.org/literacy/
https://www.fresnocitycollege.edu/about/index.html
https://www.fresnocitycollege.edu/student-services/basic-needs/housing.html
16. Thank You
Thank you for your time, and hearing my input as a law-abiding, former paralegal with epilepsy who has been through the homeless system in Fresno, CA.
I aim to make the system better for our community.
I am the woman who got a $20 million dollar gift, donated by a billionaire philanthropist, donated to Fresno Schools. I wrote her and her team every two weeks for 1.5 yrs.
I also got the #3 bus line installed on Herndon Ave.
I used my high net-worth tax law (estate planning) experience, with billionaire clients in Silicon Valley (Stanford graduates who founded tech companies, grocery stores, drug stores, retail stores, and medical companies) to better the community. Many of our law firm's clients were hardworking, low-key, quiet givers, and dressed like teachers. A good bunch. I really enjoyed getting to know them all. We use their products and services all of the time.
Regards,
Public Comment No. 2 for DRAFT - 2024/2025 CAPER
Dear City of Fresno,
I remembered a couple of more important points/stories to share with you about the kinds of concrete support services that some of our unsheltered folks need.
17. Mentally Ill Man Cedar/Herndon, Fresno HART Team Disposed of Some of His Belongings/No Case Management/Social Workers/Mobile Medicine Sent to Help His Case I watched Fresno Police's assigned HART Team arrive at Cedar/Herndon last year and begin to toss out a homeless, middle-aged, Black mentally ill (schizophrenia) man's belongings from his shopping carts.
I asked the police officers if they had any mobile medicine/case management to work on this man's case. The officers told me that they did not.
I told the officers that I was a retired paralegal, A's college, worked in the San Francisco Bay Area on court-appointed conservatorships with Ivy League educated attorney-bosses. That I'd already asked this man for his history.
The man's specific problems were that The Social Security Administration had cancelled his disability income for mental illness because he had not returned a form they had sent them. He did not receive his mail, nor any help as a disabled help with completing this deadline to receive his Social Security Disability income, because he did not have a place to live and he never got
his mail. This disabled man did not receive on-going case management to complete such important deadlines.
Police and city workers, with a dump truck, were simply doing what they were told from higher- ups from the city, which was frankly a fools' errand because the legitimate work that this disabled man needed was not done, and would not be done by anyone. What a crying shame.
Just appalling.
This needs to change, and Fresno must get funding for mobile medicine and mobile social services.
18. Mentally Ill Mom In Her 30's Can't See Her Daughter A mentally ill mom in her 30's and I have crossed paths many times in our hospitals and shelters, she for mental illness (the brain disorder schizophrenia) and me for epilepsy (a neurological condition that causes electrical storms in my brain and grand mal seizures).
At one of the shelters where we'd both been living, a non-profit Christian shelter, they'd made the mom get a fast food job.
She was quite good at it, while it lasted. I knew, of course, from my college research on schizophrenia that it would be back and impact her life.
When I saw her homeless, again, just discharged from the hospital, her beautiful black skin now ashen colored and just terrible looking, her feet swollen, I asked her what had happened? She told me that her schizophrenia came back, she lost her job, income, benefits, and apartment. That she hadn't seen her daughter in several years. They were extremely close at the shelter, when I observed them in family visits.
Because this dear mom didn't have a place to live, the government wouldn't permit her to see her daughter!
We stood in the parking lot at Cedar/Herndon and we both cried. I told her that if I had home, an income, a way to help her financially, I would help her in a heartbeat so that she could be safe and housed, not ill, fed, clean, safe, out of the weather, and that she could see her daughter.
Again, another failure of the government and of this well-meaning, but wrongly guided non-profit Christian women's shelter that should have worked on getting this mom Social Security disability income. There is not a cure at this time for schizophrenia.
19. I shared a hospital room with a former Fresno County District Attorney's Office (woman) prosecutor. I was there for emergency gall bladder removal surgery. She was in the hospital for a medical reason I will not disclose out of respect for her medical privacy.
We discussed Fresno's unsheltered population. The former prosecutor had been feeding an unsheltered man, even when she had been a prosecutor, near the district attorney's office and his small dog. The man was highly educated, and a former engineer. He'd been brought down by the brain malfunction schizophrenia.
He told the prosecutor that he had no Social Security Disability Income. He said that he would never return to Poverello, as he was not shown any love there, and it was too unsafe for him and too stressful an environment.
The former engineer, brought down by the brain disorder schizophrenia, said the only love he was ever shown was by his little dog. That he always made sure his dog ate, even if he did not have money to eat.
The former prosecutor told me that it is very important that Fresno's tiny homes and other housing solutions permit people to have their pets, which may be their ONLY source of love and safety.
I agree. I know another woman who was being kicked out of her apartment, she was homeless, for bringing her pet.
Pets are peoples' lifelines. That's why Veterans' Community Project in Kansas City, Missouri, permits pets by their clients in their tiny house community AND provides free veterinary care and other services to them. Fresno should copy this "best practice".
Regards,
[City Response:
As required by HUD, the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care is responsible for the Point-in-Time (PIT) count in Fresno County. The most recent PIT count was conducted at the end of January 2025 and final results have not yet been published.
As part of the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care (FMCoC) Executive Board, the City continues to support and coordinate with multiple community organizations and governmental agencies that actively engage in planning and implementing discharge plans and protocols that address the needs of individuals at-risk of becoming homeless after receiving services. These individuals include youth who are exiting foster care. As reported in the Draft PY 2024 CAPER, 498 individuals were assisted through tenant-based rental assistance and rapid rehousing, 132 were provided overnight shelter, and 2,408 receive services such as street outreach and case management.
The One Fresno Housing Strategy was presented to the City Council on April 27, 2022, as a three-year framework for fast-tracking the implementation of the City’s existing housing plans by allocating $5 million for two (2) No Place Like Home tiny home villages; and allocating $850,000 to Fresno City College to allow students to create 24 tiny homes for low-income people.
Increasing the development, preservation, and rehabilitation of affordable housing for low‐ income and special needs households is an ongoing goal of the City.
The City of Fresno’s Homeless Assistance Response Team (HART) is comprised of four units HOPE Outreach, HART Code, HART PD, and HART Sanitation. Together they work to connect individuals to available services and address unsanitary and or unsafe camp locations. HART utilizes a services first approach to try and exit people from homelessness whenever possible.
HOPE Team members operate like a mobile coordinated entry access site, connecting
unhoused individuals to available services like emergency shelter, County mental health services and basic needs. While HOPE team members regularly proactively engage with Fresno’s unhoused populations the primary source of contacts come via referrals from either HART PD or HART Code service requests.
Daily HART PD advises HOPE of locations they intend to address. The HOPE team will engage with unhoused individuals ahead of the HART PD unit. Services provided by HOPE are not mandatory and individuals cannot be compelled to accept such services. The HOPE team does not provide mental health services directly to the City’s homeless population. Rather, HOPE connects individuals to the County of Fresno which is the provider of such services for all county residents. After the HOPE unit provides outreach services another unit may arrive and proceed with addressing unsafe or unsanitary conditions. The different HART units can operate together or engage with unhoused individuals separately. Unhoused individuals are more likely to receive information and accept services from HOPE and therefore the HOPE unit generally operates without the other units present. A single location/individual may receive contact from all HART units but contact by all HART units does not generally happen simultaneously.
HART is designed to reduce street homelessness and improve quality of life for residents and businesses in the City of Fresno. HART strives to accomplish this while also striving to protect, assess and connect unhoused persons and families with housing and resources and to promptly resolve quality of life issues affecting residents and businesses on both public and private property.
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
Pennie Harris, via survey response
I’m concerned about the Programs to upgrade and beautifying our neighborhoods to become esthetically pleasing…Fencing…concrete renewal….more opportunities and options to create an environment that invites warmth…
[City Response:
The City’s 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan identified public infrastructure and facilities improvements as a goal, specifically to promote quality of life and neighborhood revitalization through improvements to current public infrastructure and facilities, and by closing gaps in areas with aging, lower quality, or nonexistent public infrastructure and facilities. To meet that goal, the City has funded a number of neighborhood street improvement projects that address pavement maintenance, repair, and reconstruction to streets, sidewalks, curb ramps, and gutters. One project completed in Program Year 2024 was the Rialto-Marks-Holland-Valentine Neighborhood Street Improvements project that benefitted 12,390 residents alone, with three other neighborhood street improvement projects underway.
Other programs aimed at improving public infrastructure and facilities include park improvements, such as the Fink White Splash Park that benefitted 2,755 individuals in addition to four additional park improvement projects that are underway.
Additionally, the City was able to assist 56 homeowners through its Senior Exterior Repair Program and Self-Help Enterprises Home Repair and Rehabilitation Program.
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
David E. Lehman, via survey response
Will this create more regulations in the Apartment an housing rentals and cost owners in higher property taxs
Does the cost of programs come from property taxes
[City Response:
The CAPER serves to meet the performance reporting requirements of HUD and describes the activities undertaken by the City during the prior Program Year through the City’s HUD entitlement grant funds including CDBG, ESG, HOME, and HOPWA.
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
None of your business, via survey response
Water and garbage is criminal way too [censored] high, making money off all of our recycles and still [censored] us on the price. Where does all the money go that’s being made off of all of our recycles. How about you give everybody the month of December for free since you’re making money off of all the recycling Big [censored] thieves [City Response:
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
Pearl Garcia, via survey response
What am I providing my comments about? None of the selections above are pertinent to me or my job.
[City Response:
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
Marrha, via survey response
streets
fix the street
[City Response:
The City’s 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan identified public infrastructure and facilities improvements as a goal, specifically to promote quality of life and neighborhood revitalization
through improvements to current public infrastructure and facilities, and by closing gaps in areas with aging, lower quality, or nonexistent public infrastructure and facilities. To meet that goal, the City has funded a number of neighborhood street improvement projects that address pavement maintenance, repair, and reconstruction to streets, sidewalks, curb ramps, and gutters. One project completed in Program Year 2024 was the Rialto-Marks-Holland-Valentine Neighborhood Street Improvements project that benefitted 12,390 residents alone, with three other neighborhood street improvement projects underway.
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
V.E kral, via survey response
Please plant plenty of trees in those new housing developments, with reliable irrigation systems.
Ensure all future residents take a class on proper behavior in public funded housing, ie. Noise considerations, sanitary maintenance, adherence to traffic/parking rules, proper behavior, etc.
Thank you!
[City Response:
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
Denise Graziani, via survey response
What is the progress for providing housing and mental health assistance for homeless individuals and battered spouses and children. Also what is the situation for workforce housing in Fresno and outlying areas.
[City Response:
The first goal of the City’s 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan is to provide assistance for the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless through safe low-barrier options, housing first collaborations, and associated supportive services. During PY 2024, 2,408 individuals received homeless services, 498 received tenant-based rental assistance and rapid rehousing, and 132 received overnight shelter, 32 of which received shelter from the domestic violence shelter provider Marjaree Mason Center. In each instance, the City exceeded the goals stated in the PY 2024 Annual Action Plan. In each instance, the actual number of homeless individuals assisted exceeded each of the individuals expected.
The second goal of the City’s 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan is to improve access to affordable housing for low-income and special needs households by partnering with interested developers to increase development of low-income and affordable housing in high opportunity areas, and by promoting the preservation and rehabilitation of existing affordable housing units. During PY2024, a total of 83 affordable housing units were constructed, of which 23 were HOME funded, and an additional six affordable housing projects were underway. Additionally, 56 homes were rehabilitated to preserve affordable housing for low- and moderate-income homeowners.
The public comment has been considered and accepted.]
Public Outreach
FIGURE 1 - PUBLIC NOTICE EMAIL - ENGLISH (1 OF 2)
FIGURE 2 - PUBLIC NOTICE EMAIL – ENGLISH (2 OF 2)
FIGURE 3 - PUBLIC NOTICE - FRESNO BEE (1 OF 2)
FIGURE 4 - PUBLIC NOTICE - FRESNO BEE (2 OF 2)
FIGURE 5 - SOCIAL MEDIA POST (FACEBOOK) – ENGLISH
FIGURE 6 - CITY OF FRESNO WEBSITE
This document was made available between August 11, 2025, and concluded on August 25, 2025. Residents were encouraged to submit comments by one of the following methods:
Submit Comments by Mail:
City of Fresno
Planning and Development Department
Attn: Community Development Division
2600 Fresno Street Room 3065
Fresno CA 93721
Submit Comments by Email:
[email protected]
Please include “2024 CAPER” in the subject line
Submit Comments by Phone:
559-621-8300
Submit Comments by TTY:
559-621-8721
Submit Comments by Fax:
559-457-1579
Submit Comments Online:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/24-25CAPER
Residents could also submit comments during a September 25, 2025 Public Hearing at approximately 9:10 AM or thereafter, prior to City Council consideration of the Report. For participation instructions, they could visit www.fresno.gov/calendar.aspx and select the agenda for the September 25, 2025 meeting. For additional accommodations, they were directed to contact the office of the City Clerk at (559) 621-7650 or [email protected] at least three business days prior to the meeting.