From:
To: Clerk
Subject: [BULK] Public Comment: Police Department Funding Date: Friday, June 5, 2026 2:06:07 PM
External Email: Use caution with links and attachments
Hi Fresno City Clerk and Councilmembers,
My name is Rosie Fei, and I have been a longtime resident in the Fresno/Clovis area since 2011. My family currently lives in the 93711 neighborhood, and we have been there since 2020.
I am submitting a public comment to urge that Mayor Dyer and the Fresno Councilmembers do not approve to fund Dyer's budget proposal of 1 sergeant and 4 officers to the Homeless Assistance and Response Team (HART).
First, this proposal may add up to $900,000 in estimated staffing and equipment costs: this is a bad financial plan. Secondly, we need alternatives to policing to support our homeless communities in Fresno. Studies show that supporting homeless communities directly instead
of policing them helps homeless people get off the streets at better rates instead of being criminalized.
Lastly, I question the efficiency and money that goes towards policing, especially since we spend 47.5% of our taxpayer money on policing currently. I would much rather money go towards life-affirming services than to police. We already have plenty of money going to Fresno PD.
Therefore, I urge Fresno City Council to
not approve to fund Dyer's budget proposal of 1
sergeant and 4 officers to the Homeless Assistance and Response Team (HART).
Thank you for your attention to this matter,
Rosie Fei
From:
To:
Subject: FY 26-27 Budget Comment Letter
Date: Friday, June 5, 2026 5:16:11 PM
Attachments: FY26-27 CL.pdf
External Email: Use caution with links and attachments
Hello,
The above organizations are submitting our comment letter for FY 26-27. Thank you.
Best,
Jovana Morales Tilgren, MA | Housing & Land Use Policy Manager Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
2210 San Joaquin Street
Fresno, CA 93721
| E: j
Pronouns: She/Her/Ella
June 5, 2026
Fresno City Council
City of Fresno
2600 Fresno Street
Fresno CA 93721
Sent via email
RE: Community Budget Priorities for FY 2026-2027
Dear Council Members and Mayor Dyer,
Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability (LCJA), Power California, Tenants Together, alongside residents and youth we work with submit this letter in response to the City’s FY 2026-2027 Budget. We thank you for taking the time to meet and talk to residents and youth in your respective districts. The priorities and projects identified below were developed alongside residents, partners, and youth through ongoing collaboration and community meetings.
The budget is an opportunity to address community needs and fund programs that will benefit communities throughout Fresno. Currently, our national political climate has greatly impacted our communities, particularly low-income communities of color. Residents and youth continue to struggle with the unaffordability crisis, which will continue to worsen in the years to come. For this reason, we ask the city council to invest in programs that will protect communities from displacement and in improving infrastructure that is urgently needed. We strongly urge the council to consider these budget priorities.
I. $2.5M for the Eviction Protection Program and Updates to the Guidelines
The Eviction Protection Program (EPP) is a critical anti-displacement program that prevents homelessness and ensures families stay housed. The City of Fresno, along with the rest of California, continues to experience a housing crisis and will continue to see this crisis exacerbate in the coming years. The EPP is an essential program that helps hundreds of families in the City of Fresno to retain housing and we hope that the program can continue to assist as 1 many families as possible in the coming year. We appreciate all the work the City has done to ensure continued investment in this program, but limits to the guidelines prevent tenants from receiving the help they need. We respectfully request that the City update the EPP guidelines as follows:
1. Expand support to tenants who are being harassed and/or retaliated against.
Research has shown that these tactics lead to evictions; 1 Early intervention limits the amount of cases that go to court therefore spending less money per case.
2. Clarification regarding attorneys’ obligation to follow a lawsuit or legal proceedings through to its end. Terminating the support is detrimental to the tenants’ case and their trust in the City and the program.
3. Oversight and accountability for attorneys who fail to follow rules of professional conduct. It is critical that tenants are assigned attorneys that will provide culturally competent legal services.
4. Allowing affirmative litigation. Fees recouped can be added to the EPP therefore creating a permanent fund for the program.
Please review attachment A, the updated EPP guidelines.
These improvements will allow attorneys to intervene early, limit the amount of cases that go to court, ensure accountability for attorneys, and create permanent funding for the program. We urge the council to invest an additional $1 million into the program; the additional funds will accommodate tenant support regarding retaliation and harassment, while generating long-term cost savings.
II. Infrastructure Investments
A. Safe Routes to Addams Elementary
According to Mayor Dyer’s budget presentation, each city council member receives $300K for any public works project in their district that can be used at their discretion. The City also currently has $2.1M from FY 25-26 that will be carried over to FY 26-27 for which infrastructure projects within the City have yet to be identified. Communities in District 3 are advocating for safe routes to schools in the Jane Addams Elementary area by adding sidewalks on N. Marks Ave. and N. Hughes Ave from Belmont Ave up to W. McKinley Ave. The current lack of infrastructure including stormwater drainage, curb, gutter and sidewalks throughout N.
Marks Ave. and N.Hughes Ave causes flooding and fugitive dust impacts, but most importantly, traffic safety impacts to elementary school children and their families. Students and families are 1 Gardner, B. 2023, November 20. Early Interventions for Eviction Prevention. Harvard Kennedy School. https://datasmart.hks.harvard.edu/early-interventions-eviction-prevention. 2 forced to walk on dirt paths without any barrier from oncoming traffic. To create safe routes to school the City of Fresno should allocate at least two million dollars for initial project phases to ultimately implement stormwater drainage, curb, gutter, and sidewalks throughout N. Marks Ave. and N. Hughes Ave from Belmont Ave up to W. McKinley Ave. By allocating funds to address the lack of sidewalks on N. Marks and N. Hughes, the City will be implementing comprehensive safe routes to Addams Elementary.
In addition, to help reduce speeding and protect students crossing major intersections to access Adams Elementary, residents request $1 Million dollars for the installation of a High Intensity Activated Crosswalk (“HAWK”) system on McKinley and N. Hughes Ave.
B. Infrastructure Needs in District 5
As an initial matter, we urge the City Council to move forward with approving the Central Southeast Area Specific Plan (“CSASP”) for the implementation of community development improvements, produced by a community-led process. The City has taken a significant amount of time to bring forward the plan for approval and adoption, thus hindering funding allocations for infrastructure development in the community.
As District 5 residents await the approval and implementation of the CSASP, residents submit the following budget requests:
● Road repair within Cesar Chavez Blvd, S. Orange Ave, E Butler Ave, and S. First St. grid.
● Installing street lighting/light posts, particularly in alleys within the E. Lowell Ave, 10th St., Lyell Ave., and 4th St. grid.
● Installing speed bumps within 8th St., Butler Ave. and Chavez. As well as along Orange Ave. and Chavez.
● Cameras installed on 8th St, Butler, Lowell and Orange. On the corner of Cesar Chavez and 10th. And on 5th street between Montecito and Butler. There is a lot of speeding in these areas and even though there are stop signs many cars ignore them. ● Installing crosswalks on 10th St. intersections on E. El Monte Way and Montecito Ave.
We understand funding and implementing transportation projects is a lengthy process and can require the City to apply for funding programs and programming projects in the Fresno County Regional Transportation Plan. We request the City take steps to address street and road rehabilitation and improvements from local dollars including the Council allocations for public works projects, revisiting the Pave Now, Pay later project list for the opportunity to add some of these improvement recommendations to the list, prioritizing the aforementioned improvements for implementation with revenue from the new transportation sales tax measure, and the Local 3 Streets and Road Program SB 1 dollars. The City can also consider applying for the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program during the call for projects. Nonetheless, we hope the City will take these funding improvements requests into consideration and we hope to see them programmed for future funding opportunities. We also welcome the opportunity to work with Fresno City staff on community engagement to ensure grant applications for transportation improvement dollars are competitive.
III. $700K for a Park in the Jane Addams Neighborhood
According to the City’s Measure P Implementation Highest-Need Neighborhoods 2025-2027 report, the Addams Elementary neighborhood is identified as a neighborhood of highest need falling within the top 25% of census tracts. As one of the neighborhoods with the “highest need”, we ask the City of Fresno to allocate Measure P funding from the expenditure category #2 to provide a new neighborhood park.
The neighborhood falls within a tract that has healthier community conditions than just
1.1% of other California Tracts and scores low for tree canopy and park access. 2 Moreover, the community scores in the 99th percentile for pollution burden exposed to high levels of ozone, particulate matter 2.5, and diesel particulate matter. The community faces a disproportionate level of pollution, while also lacking adequate green spaces. The community has identified the need to have a green space which can be used to improve air quality, but also their families’ quality of life. The City should allocate Measure P funding to acquire land through purchase or re-purpose of City property to build a new neighborhood park. The community envisions a neighborhood park with playgrounds, walking paths and green spaces to serve as a gathering space. The City Council can request staff to identify vacant lots within a mile radius of the Adams Elementary School with the potential to be zoned or rezoned for a public park. The City can also consider evaluating blighted properties to determine if past due taxes allows the City to affordably acquire the property lot for a public park. Community has identified the following parcels for the City’s consideration: APN 44902010, APN 44902037, and APN 44926001.
Lastly, the City can consider applying to programs with the primary goal of increasing access to community green spaces funded by the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024 otherwise known as the Climate Bond.
The Urban Greening program in particular can provide the community multiple benefits including the development of a green park, limiting stormwater runoff, and protecting public health during extreme heat while achieving equitable solutions to one of the City’s highest needs neighborhoods. The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) has released funding guidelines and is now accepting concept proposals until June 4th, with full proposals due in 2 Healthy Places Index California 3.0 https://map.healthyplacesindex.org/?redirect=false 4 August.3 Applying for Climate Bond funds is particularly strategic as this bond requires that at least 40% of all climate bond funding be allocated for projects that provide meaningful and direct benefits to vulnerable populations or disadvantaged communities.4
IV . Reallocate Funding from Second HART Team to Community-identified Services
The HART team impedes unhoused individuals from rehabilitating and transitioning into permanent housing because their living essentials such as documents, paperwork and irreplaceable mementos are discarded, some of which is needed to enter transitional and permanent housing. They have also inflicted psychological harm by denying them human dignity and rights. Service providers in the City have affirmed this is happening to the unhoused community. The operation of HART enforcement does not reduce homelessness and is more costly to the City than other services, due to costs incurred from arrests and impediments to exiting homelessness.
Determination of effective response such as the U.S. Interagency Homeless Council’s 7 Principles of Encampment Resolution 5 and the California Interagency Homelessness Council Principles of Encampment Resolution, 6 notes of such operations used by HART, “while these efforts may have the short-term effect of clearing an encampment from public view, without connection to adequate shelter, housing, and supportive services, they will not succeed.” The City does not have sufficient shelters and must invest in permanent affordable housing.
We recommend that the City revisit the recommendation of the Fresno Commission on Police Reform that called for the Homeless Taskforce to be disbanded, and replaced, with “community-based organizations that provide services to the City’s homeless population.” 7 This means helping the unhoused community through a non-police encampment and homelessness resolution; as well as holding the HART accountable through an oversight committee.
We urge the council, staff and the mayor to reallocate funding assigned to the second HART team and instead allocate funding towards resources that will help our community such as shelters, transitional housing, warming and cooling centers, clean up teams that clean in and around encampments, the rental assistance program, and providing storage where people can 7 Fresno Commission on Police Reform, Final Report,
www.documentcloud.org/documents/7277392-Commission-Police-Reform-final-report/ 6 California Interagency Homeless Council, Guidance: Addressing Encampments, www.bcsh.ca.gov/calich/documents/encampmentguide.pdf
5 United States Interagency Homeless Council, 7 Principle for Encampment Resolution, www.usich.gov/sites/default/files/document/Principles_for_Addressing_Encampments_1.pdf 4 Cal. Pub. Res. Code § 90140.
3 Urban Greening Program, California Natural Resources Agency https://resources.ca.gov/-/media/CNRA-Website/Files/grants/Prop-4/Urban-Greening/Urban-Greening-Guidelines_F inal.pdf
5 safely keep their belongings as they transition from place to place. These community-identified programs will meet the holistic needs of our unhoused community.
* * * *
We respectfully ask that the FY26-27 budget process be transparent, meaningful, inclusive, and responsive so as to ensure equitable investment for all Fresnans. Now is the time for the City of Fresno to lead the San Joaquin Valley in protecting its most vulnerable by investing in existing communities that have often been overlooked. We look forward to working with the City to ensure equitable investment in the budget.
Sincerely,
Jovana Morales
Housing and Land Use Policy Manager
Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
Emma De La Rosa
Land Use and Transportation Policy Manager
Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
Nataly Escobedo Garcia
Water and Climate Policy Manager
Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
Zahra Marin
Campaign Director
Power California
Shar Thompson
Fresno Tenant Leader & Central Valley Regional Coordinator Fresno Tenants Union & Tenants Together
Brandi Nuse-Villegas
Community Organizer
6 Attachment A
RESOLUTION NO. 2021-132
A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
FRESNO, CALIFORNIA, TO CREATE THE EVICTION
PROTECTION PROGRAM
WHEREAS, the City has an interest in ensuring residents have access to safe and habitable housing; and
WHEREAS, unlawful evictions detainer actions are common in Fresno, and the problem was has been exacerbated by COVID-19 related financial distress; and WHEREAS, tenants may not understand their rights and defenses to an unlawful detainer action; and
WHEREAS, some of the grounds for unlawful evictions include retaliation for reporting code enforcement violations, violations of the state and local eviction moratoriums related to COVID-19, other unlawful motivations for eviction, and procedural deficiencies;
WHEREAS, the CITY wishes to update implement the Eviction Protection Program (EPP); WHEREAS, tenants continue to face unlawful treatment by landlords via harassment and retaliation;
WHEREAS, the City Attorney will issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) seeking outside legal counsel to represent Fresno residential tenants facing harassment, retaliation, and unlawful eviction. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City of Fresno as
follows:
1. The City Attorney is directed to issue an RFP and then engage outside legal counsel to represent tenants in Fresno Superior Court who are facing an unlawful
eviction. Attorneys are obligated to follow a lawsuit or legal proceeding through to its end unless an attorney has legal grounds to withdraw from representation.
2. The City Attorney will develop a screening process to review each tenant's case to determine any potential eviction case where there is any unlawful conduct on the part of the landlord, this includes unlawful treatment from a landlord. If a tenant is denied legal representation, they must be given a detailed explanation as to why they are deemed ineligible for the EPP . whether the threatened eviction is potentially unlawful.
3. The EPP will include a multi-language public awareness and outreach component, which may include media, door-to-door, clinics, workshops, and other public outreach methods to inform the public of available resources. Outreach may include contracting with community-based organizations, legal aid agencies, and other nongovernmental organizations to support city-wide public outreach. When there are mass evictions in one building, the City will hold in-person intakes to facilitate the intake process for tenants.
4. The City Attorney shall issue an RFP seeking an entity to conduct an annual evaluation of the program and attorney accountability to determine the its effectiveness of the program and the law firm receiving the contract.
5. The EPP will be expanded to include affirmative litigation against landlords for unlawful conduct associated with their tenant or leased residential properties. Any prevailing attorney’s fees that are recovered under such litigation shall be transmitted by law firms back to the City’s EPP fund such that affirmative litigation can create additional permanent funding for the program.
6. The City Attorney shall offer an in-house voluntary mediation program between landlords and tenants who are facing unlawful eviction, to be staffed primarily by law clerks.
7. The EPP will be become active when and to the extent funds are appropriated for the program.
8. Attorneys participating in the program must adhere to the California Rules of Professional Conduct, which mandate ethical and competent representation, including prohibiting discrimination or harassment.
9. This resolution shall be effective upon final approval.
STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF FRESNO ) ss.
CITY OF FRESNO
l, YVONNE SPENCE, City Clerk of the City of Fresno, certify that the foregoing resolution was adopted by the Council of the City of Fresno, at a regular meeting held on the 1 3th day of May 2021
AYES :Arias, Esparza, Karbassi, Maxwell, Soria, Chavez
NOES :None
ABSENT :None
RECUSE :Bredefeld
YVONNE SPENCE, MMC CRM
City Clerk
By
Chief Assistant
From:
To: Clerk
Subject: Police budget
Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2026 6:44:59 AM
External Email: Use caution with links and attachments
I oppose adding a 2nd HART team.
Direct the monies towards more needed outreach workers from various agencies:
Such as, Mental Health, Sober Living facilities, drug treatment facilities, Social Services. Side note! In my many years of outreaching and advocating i have only seen 1 mental health Worker on scene. HOPE team is very rarely on the HART TEAM on sweeps/calls. They should be on every call as was proposed by our Mayor when he changed from HTF to HART.
Direct the monies to affordable housing!
Let's try this: safe lots for vehicles and safe camps people in every District in Fresno. Why is this concept never tried? It seems very logical and affordable.
HART is not successful. It is documented., City attorney says that it is cost MORE money to cite, arrest, detain and proceed in court after sweeps. This is going to continue? Not wise
budgeting!
Many constitutional rights are being violated, which is going to add to court costs as the brutality of unnecessary assaults and destroying of property are being filed against the City.
It's not working City of Fresno.
Sad reality is the HART team is costing more money for us taxpayers.
How about directing monies towards PREVENTING HOMELESSNESS? One way.....
Add monies to the Eviction Protection Program!!
There are SO MANY REASONS to oppose.
Those only are a few.
.
Won by One
When ARPA expired in 2024, our taxpayer dollars had to take the burden of those cost, creating a multi-million dollar funding gap.
In 2023, the city received a $15 million organized retail theft grant to fund 25 officer positions.
Now that it is expiring, the general fund is once again on the hook.
The Mayor's budget solutions is “savings by attrition,” which means:
Departments that are already understaffed get cut further
The massively grown police department budget gets slightly reduced
We are perpetuating the cycle of investing in policing over the needs of Fresnans.
I urge you to:
Vote NO on absorbing the 27 grant-funded police positions. Let them lapse as they were intended to and use 2.3 million this year to fund:
·
The eviction protection program and other protection against the
Advanced Peace is a proven effective program for violence intervention.
Support robust youth programming to support our youth at critical development stages
To oppose expanding the HART team with more police positions that treat the unhoused community with aggression and disdain.
We cannot
have a waste of taxpayer dollars on ineffective carceral approaches during a budget crisis
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Respectfully,
Ruben
--
"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy." -Rabindranath Tagore
From:
To: Clerk
Subject: public comment, Police Department
Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2026 11:56:08 AM
External Email: Use caution with links and attachments
Council,
Regarding expansion of HART.
You have community needs that you recognize should be funded. You have motions you have made to fund these needs. Based on this, as well as the community push to reduce homelessness, it makes little sense to increase funding to create a second HART and fund more HART officers and it would be prudent to motion to reject this increase.
The budget proposal states that this increase will result in “expanding capacity to conduct street outreach, resolving encampments, and connecting individuals to shelter and services. By increasing field presence, this investment increases coverage and provides our most vulnerable residents with the resources they need.” This is incorrect.
This increase does not expand outreach nor connection to shelter or serves. HOPE team is the entity that is doing outreach, not the crew of Police (who are the ones being funded in
this proposal) and public utilities, in addition to other community outreach workers and service providers, and is the entity that connects individuals to shelter and services. This is
without the accompaniment of police officers. However, without an increase in shelter and services, there can be no increase in these things. Encampments are not resolved, because people aren’t placed.
The police actually are impeding people from getting on their feet by discarding living essentials they have to replace (in this case the focus is on this instead of efforts to become housing ready), knowingly discarding paperwork and documents, like ID cards, needed to get into housing, making it more difficult to stay in touch with caseworkers by knowingly discarding phones and pushing them away from places where caseworkers can find them, and preventing them from maintaining jobs by discarding work clothes, tools, bicycles etc among other impediments.
The arrests are creating further impediments for those who have nowhere to go.
They repeatedly deny people what the city municipal code allows: Notice, storage of belongings. They do not reflect the claims of our budget documents that HART treats those who are unhoused with dignity.
I have witnessed asking HART to store belongings and their refusing to do so, even with belongings such as wheelchairs. There is no logic to defend their actions: HART police have forbidden people from taking belongings that are ready to go.What purpose does that serve? I watched them go through a man’s backpack and then throw it into the crusher while
he asked for it. I was threatened with arrest if I tried to help a man move his bicycle. A man was arrested passing his belongings to another person outside of the abatement area and said that his only photograph of his parents was in his possessions. A man had his prosthetic leg discarded and when they said it was in his belongings that were being discarded, they said “too bad.” A year later I saw him and he had not been able to replace it.
How is this helping people get into services and housing? They throw away backpacks and purses that have people’s IDs and paperwork.
If they were really there to help people get into services, even if there was nothing available, wouldn’t they ensure that people’s documentation was preserved? While the claim justifying sweeps is safety, it can put people more in danger, especially
women and elderly who have some community to increase their safety. I will never forget a woman who broke down crying after the encampment was cleared, because she had been assaulted while asleep alone earlier that year and she finally found people with whom she felt safer. Yes, getting off the streets is the best way for people to be safe, but they are waiting for safe, viable housing to be available.
Accoeding to a report by the California Homeless Youth that due to the tactics such as HART utilizes of displacement, discarding possessions, and arrest homeless people are being forced to move further away from well-lit safer places by the resources they need, and forcing them to stay in unsafe locations that put them at risk for sexual assault, exploitation, and forms of human trafficking. Taking away survival supplies becomes a push factor towards being preyed upon by a trafficker. A local homeless prevention organization opposed the No Camp ordinance in 2023 for these same reasons.
In addition, HART’s practices are actively creating greater adverse health impacts.
They throw away blankets and clothing during winter months. They take away shade and force displacement even in 110 degree weather. One woman said she told HART that her insulin was in the belongings they were discarding and they said “too bad.” Another woman was brought antibiotics for an infection by her caseworker. HART arrested her for being on public property and discarded her bag with her medicine. These are just a few examples.
They have also left pets in the streets when they arrest people for the No Camp ordinance, so much that one person in a shelter said she wanted to have a shelter for those left behind.
We are funding an entity that is worsening the situation of those in need of shelter and services
The USIHC document states that HART’s approach- displacement, taking belongings and arrest- WILL NOT SUCCEED: “Some communities turn to strategies that use aggressive law enforcement approaches that criminalize homelessness, or they close encampments without offering shelter or housing options. These approaches result in adverse health outcomes, exacerbate racial disparities, and create traumatic stress, loss of identification and belongings, and disconnection from much-needed services. While these efforts may have the short-term effect of clearing an encampment from public view, without connection to adequate shelter, housing, and supportive services, they will not succeed. When people’s housing and service needs are left unaddressed, encampments may appear again in another neighborhood or even in the same place they had previously been.”
We have to recognize that this approach is not working and this has been validated professionally.
The document goes on to describe approaches that the city should develop where those with lived experiences, including those in the encampments, are legitimately at the table for solutions to address their encampments.
There are claims that only a small percentage want help. This is offensively false.
Service providers who have been working to identify and assist our community members with shelter and housing could refute this. MAPS has more people show up than they are able to serve each day. The monthly Coordinated Entry System reports show high numbers of people trying to get housing. Our shelters are full. I spoke to so many people who have caseworkers and have not been able to even get into shelters.
We know we have a housing shortage. This is made worse by high rent and many people’s inability to afford rent. The highest growing demographic of those becoming unhoused and unsheltered are those who are elderly. I would presume that all those on fixed incomes would also fall into this category. Compared to previous years, the amount that people receive in SSI has not grown or changed, but the average rent increased by over $500 just between 2018-2023.
Many rentals require one to have an income two times the rental cost.
We need to recognize that while the city and community groups work to address this need, those on the lowest income levels have the greatest challenge finding anything viable and cannot leave homelessness until they do. The leadership states that we have spent so much money to help those who are unhoused, an unprecedented amount that was due to the availability of increased federal and state funding. This is not a justification to blame or treat our community members poorly. The shelters have been very much needed, but these should serve as a safe and transitional step towards permanent housing and many are still trying to get into housing.
Many people who are unhoused are working. I met a woman who was a CNA and looking for something she could afford. But many others who can work need a stable place and address to maintain meaningful employment.
I spoke with someone with lived experience in FMCOC and they stated the biggest need (in addition to more permanent housing), was longer term shelter and transitional housing. Again, until we have enough housing, this will be a need. And we need to have accountability and ensure that those placed are treated justly and with dignity.
Regarding clean-up, we have a city team that does clean ups at encampments without throwing away belongings that I observed. They said that those in the encampments help, as they often don’t have access to sanitation. We could be working sanitation without harm.
There are opportunities to protect belongings by providing storage, such as in San Diego.
There is not easy fix, but bullying and harming people by throwing away their belongings is not
The city was given the recommendation by the Fresno Commission on Police Reform (CPR): “#61: “Disband the Homeless Task Force (HTF) and reallocate resources to social services and community-based organizations that provide services to the City’s homeless population”
This is not what Dyer and the city has done, and instead has kept the same entities and practices as the Homeless Taskforce and added outreach. Fresno CPR was addressing HTF because of how the police operate and treat those who are unhoused. Millions are budgeted for this team that could go towards sustainable solutions.
The city council should revisit the recommendations of the Fresno CPR and focus on ensuring that our homeless response actually reflects the mission, goals, and ideals of the description of HART in the Planning and Community Development Department section. As the Fresno CPR and other groups listened to those with lived experience, the city council should prioritize listening and centering at the table those currently experiencing homelessness and those with lived experience, recognize the complexities and the different experiences, and seek solutions, not only regarding housing, but addressing root issues and not contributing to them, which are diverse, far more than the minimalizing political rhetoric. Dyer states that these are our “most vulnerable” and recognizing that, the city council should stand to ensure that they are not harmed.
From:
To: Clerk
Subject: Public comment, police dept
Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2026 12:32:00 PM
External Email: Use caution with links and attachments
I am writing this as a public comment to oppose expanding the budget to fund a second HART team.
Current resources for the unhoused in Fresnp, including safe places to park overnight for those with cars, remain underfunded and would prove more efficacious for relief of human suffering and for safety than a 900,000 budget for salaries. Please reconsider.
Shannon Castle, MD, FACS, FAAP