BRCH’s Recommendations Open for Public Comment Until After the November Elections

Muratore, Moradian, and Madison with Wright’s help, pushed through their twenty page diatribe against the homeless to the Council’s Safety and Community Committee Wednesday night. Couched in terms like “To improve the lives of all Modestoans by combating chronic, long-term homelessness through better utilization of city and community resources” their mission statement hardly describes the recommendations made by the BRCH (Blue Ribbon Commission on the Homeless.) The presentation of the report was given by Steve Madison from the Building Industry Association, who is now rebranding himself by touting he’s also a member of the Salvation Army’s Board of Directors. His expertise according to his prior statements to the BRCH is that he bought hamburgers for two homeless people (hamburgers not big macs more cost effective) and talked with them for thirty minutes or so. One concern David Wright Jr. had was the homeless in Modesto could be over fed. According to Mr. Wright if you’re homeless you can get fed 21 times a day just by walking a few blocks. When that was questioned, his response was “it’s in the report.” Then it must be true, Right? Kind of hard to believe, isn’t it? Twenty one times a day three hundred sixty five days a year all in just a few blocks walk. The BRCH tried to suggest they were concerned about the quality of food the homeless were being given so they are recommending the City use County ordinances designed to protect the public from for profit vendors against the well meaning Christians who feel the call to feed those less fortunate than themselves. I really don’t understand how prepackaged food stuffs like top ramen falls into this category but they intend for Modesto to apply it that way. Between their incredulous claims and their insistence at pushing stereotypes like homeless people make between one and two hundred dollars a day pan handling, you have to walk away shaking your head wondering just what their real agenda might be. Another recommendation is to use a “park security force” (preferably armed) to control and subdue the homeless population and any other undesirables they find in the parks. They gave the example of Santa Maria which has non armed security that reports to the Park district. The BRCH proposes to capture the $500,000 dollars the Parks and Neighborhoods Dept. spends because of vandalism but are unable to delineate exactly how those monies could be quantified. Julie Hannon of Parks and Neighborhoods couldn’t say how much of the vandalism was caused by the homeless and MPD Chief Harden said the Department doesn’t capture those statistics. . When the Chief was asked what he thought of a Park Security force, he replied “ I haven’t seen any numbers on how effective they would be.” He also seemed concerned by a certain amount of anecdotal fear mongering heard during the meeting regarding aggressive panhandling. A citizen pointed out the public can help themselves and everyone in Modesto by reporting the aggressive panhandlers. And overall these were just a few of the individuals involved in that practice and the MPD has been very responsive to calls for assistance on regarding aggressive individuals. Darryl Fair, former SCAP director who was expected but didn’t attend the meeting has been blunt in the past about wanting a sugar daddy (Uncle Sam will do) to write him a grant check to fund his desire for a day center and low and behold there it is, recommendation number five. While a drop in day center would be nice, the hoped for location meets some of the business community’s and member Mike Moradian’s concerns. The main concern for many members of the BRCH being, the further away the better, also known as NIMBY. But the 720 G St.location is nowhere near a park or many of the meal locations. The Safety and Communities Council Committee made the final political maneuver, considering it contains one council and one Mayoral candidate up for election on November 8th. Tthey put off a review of citizens comments until November 12th, after the election. It’s such a brave thing to do, bury it until accountability is minimized.