Homeless Victory in Fresno

The City of Fresno was stopped for the second time in a month from evicting the homeless from an encampment at Ventura and F street in downtown Fresno. Last month, the city posted signs saying they were going to evict the homeless 8 days before Christmas. Homeless advocates talked about building a manger scene, with the baby Jesus and Mary. The city backed off from the eviction, probably not wanting video coverage of city workers dragging off the baby Jesus and throwing him into a dumpster.

The victory for the homeless today came after the ACLU presented a letter to a City Council member yesterday, objecting to the city’s due process for the eviction. A copy of the letter is below. The city is claiming that the ACLU letter played no role in their decision to scuttle the eviction, but Fresno ACLU chairperson Bill Simon said “the timing of all of this makes it look like our letter did make a difference.” The City of Fresno settled a lawsuit with the ACLU in 2008 for $2.3 million. That class action lawsuit was filed to stop the city from taking and immediately destroying homeless people’s property.

I interviewed Bill Simon and Phil Connelly, both board members on the local ACLU chapter, on KFCF 88.1 FM this afternoon. That interview, which is below goes into some detail about what happened today. Also below are photos from the Ventura and F street encampment and the location where many of the displaced homeless people moved to when they thought they were being evicted.