How Homeless Advocates lost over $600, 000 through incompetence and inattention

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So, before their crying and whining gets the city of Mpls to change funding
protocol to crack open that $400,000..see below. Again, courtesy of Guy
Gambill.
 
 
Guy wrote: "How Homeless Advocates lost over $600,000 in Federal funding
through incompetence and inattention. Next time this crowd comes before the
public complaining about Federal funding, bring this up: Let's start taking a
look at specifics in expenditures which took place under one Federal funding
stream during the course of the 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness in Hennepin
County during the term of the plan 2006-2016. As a reminder, the net effect of
the Plan at its terminus, as pointed out by a number of media outlets, was that
over 300 more people were homeless in Hennpin County in 2016 than had been in
2006. Let's look at the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program
(HPRP). Under this Federal program there was authorized 1.5 billion dollars for
a three year period, 2010-2012. The amounts allocated for Minneapolis:
$5,520,920.00 Total funding authorization $4,908,789.04 Total amount drawn,
(83.5% of authorzed amount) $612,119.94 Gap or projected gap in meeting 100%
expenditure over three year program allocation period. $294,814.19 Approximate
monthly draw to meet 3-year 100% requirement. As you have probably been able to
figure out for yourselves, those responsible for administration and use of this
three year Federal funding allocation failed to expend the amount allocated by
over half million dollars during the stipulated three year period. What that
means is that the City-County lost that amount of funding due to its failure to
follow the stipulations for expenditures during the period. Not like homeless
people in Minneapolis could have used 612,119 for anything they needed or
anything, right? So why did this happen? Don't ask me, ask them...the people in
charge of this mess, that is. Oh, wait, you can't ask the Director of HHH I
guess...she got promoted to head up the State's efforts. You'll have to ask the
new director of HHH....who was one of the large shelter directors...you know,
one of the guys who was in charge of administering the program under
discussion. Cos when you're a member of this cozy "Conspiracy of Dunces", to
quote Arthur Turovh Himmelman pissing away 600,000 in Federal funding isn't
cause for reprimand or questioning, it's cause for promotion. Please note that
a significant percentage of other Metropolitan did manage to maximize Federal
dollars. But not Minneapolis. My reference for the above, here;
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hudexchange.info%2Fresources%2Fdocuments%2FHPRP_FinancialReport100PctReq_byState_041612.pdf&h=ATNpzgtybqYpgqvffY56-udQ7h4_k-nW6TYbrLGa_p5c45x1_xlAmXTQUr-eulOcD63Mlw-QVq-vYw0H3W32D2WDk7jLUWdLdnfslTCnLEays3h692chOaPBnBZvJMdOdrfPGRdg39G5Um-0"

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Courtesy of Guy Gambill:
Guy wrote: "On this morning's episode of the Big Plantation, we look at the
demographics of homelessness in Minneapolis. Specifically, do those running the
shelter and emergency homeless service organizations in the city of Minneapolis
reflect the populations served? First of all, by race: 39% Black, 8% Native, 7%
Hispanic, 2% Asian, 5% Mixed race. Thus, 61% of the homeless are people of
color. 51% of the homeless are men, 49% women, though men are far more likely
to go unsheltered. 63% of men have been incarcerated at some point..37% have at
least some College Education.8% served in the military. The reference for that
is Wilder Foundation's 2015 report on homelessness:
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmnhomeless.org%2Fminnesota-homeless-study%2Freports-and-fact-sheets%2F2015%2F2015-homelessness-in-minnesota-11-16.pdf&h=ATOHMV3BZLYNW-Cgit9VOFUluJ0iePj_LCVlU9qnpbV-MGEmyhCnHqf-umZ7oIvUhZVsUEEn_t6_Zo6o6vPrKgnXVuuTDl-KCeIHrTTOd1L7jGB4CBCI05Xb1Aa80JxqLB2V-hxiSLxKW1BcH9nZ
Now, with that in mind, who are those leading the major homeless and emergency
service organizations in the City of Minneapolis? Do they share anything
resembling common ground with the populations they serve? These people like to
infer that they are little better than selfless volunteers and for that reason
I will soon be posting their salaries. Does leadership look like the
populations served, you tell me: Simpson Family Housing:
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.simpsonhousing.org%2Fwho-we-are%2Four-team%2F&h=ATOyBHpiuVhoqUlEvM-327mdSgvfkj-bsLUnOE0mxYqqZb_jMcpw3m4WKpCfQ99Fh0nRky8IO42f8cLDHAtK5RVxUiUev0RgbNdztDso5S9aRfk4QYQDuf_RQ_Xfm-LXbsJQVhxtcKkA8ld-h9k-
Our Saviour's Housing:
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Foscs-mn.org%2Fstaff%2F&h=ATNEXTfxD9o1EVF_n2R0ss_QCagxA5xfRq4Fd1kFsi70KDI0DLl0HrSM6l_1n1ZRdK3-mc41auGcVqFAQ638OcupCjrUv0sSvGUp_A0zsJAwhB98IldS375QNUf0URBClB3_qYjFobq493USUyYU
St. Stephens Shelter (no photos of staff)
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fststephensmpls.org%2Fcontact&h=ATOXxTYj31Ggqf_iEjzwjX0WtppWLJVONHUk1nb5YpawT6KclI2T1V4UxS2_d5pPUSYNBNrdh7ecEKr5eKg7exAc60vVtJBksTcbYJvlwK_LY8IsKiyTL29tLSyW5dyE5tk4zT4hFjynLYxW1oXS
Salvation Army Harbor Light
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsalvationarmynorth.org%2Fabout-us%2Fleadership%2F&h=ATPMTKH4E5ADO-pA3Yr9xZxI9pf-NgaqGKsZPOvXEUThxRxO26sf4Te7brGiqBh7FtyuGwbDpcw9XCOijQuBg1m2xN05wxZQDo3N8hfBi4RiZ3h0iWR5Qxp7tZ1H60gneyYmGPD1kqYfZZd5VJlp
People Serving People:(Staff not listed with photos)
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.peopleservingpeople.org%2Fhome%2Fabout%2F&h=ATP8_xgmpmW2isFUn7DAc95XGkob7Ib6SbMvJYxUehPEDKK8dJm7tym12adkkhfueKW_Ds3A6rymRHUFvV8RCtDlRevWj5j6eciJfyAurusDqiL88q1vXXl_cgXPMEoNGnYUpCCUswud0QST-pe0
Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans:
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mac-v.org%2Faboutus%2Fboard.html&h=ATM99x_rRFywc_5QBBjpIDsurdtMAkeb9OPJSqZ5FuhPc8n3YoyT31Pv9AzEdQ7oqIU62Q318g4ZFMF7NE35aSPF02K9r04fbUCfAWnSr7Ay7aOyP2GY8nRtbbJmmMoKEnNbw-PL4rCI6zbWrqHB
And you should also take note of the photos of clients served on these
web-sites,predominately smiling people of color....pretty audacious. Trust me,
I was homeless for almost 3 years in MN over 20 years ago...no one was that
happy."

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Our Freedom of Info Group is waiting for a response ( among other things) about
the outreach program created by Guy Gambill when he took on this task when
working with our Decrim Group. He has asked Cam Gordon and Elizabeth Glidden
for assistance in getting information re: the outreach program. see specifics
below provided by Guy:
 
 
so one program that the city allocated 50,000 for in 2006-2008, the Homeless
Outreach Team run out of St.
Stephens. In spite of the false claims made by Mikkel Beckmen, Monica Nilsson
and then Mayor Rybak, that was not
their creation. That stemmed out of the Repeal of the Minnesota Vagrancy
Statute and the allocation of 200,000 in
funding for a 2 year justice intercession outreach pilot in Minneapolis. I know
that because I am the one who did the
research and the bulk of the lobbying for the Repeal and allocation. Is there a
final report on that program? If so, please
send as I have never seen it. My guess is that they pissed away 250,000, made
unsupported claims and then kept
the program going under rather nebulous parameters. In one of the annual
reports it notes a 17% reduction in arrests
of the homeless by MPD.....where's the data supporting that bold claim? I've
never seen it and I am pretty sure I would
know.
 
If you don't want to help, fine. I am accustomed to that sort of thing.

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The Homeless Industrial Complex
6/8/2016 1 Comment
 
by Debbie Brady
​ Denver’s social experiment--the 10 year plan to end homelessness--has run
its course. Ten years ago in 2005, then Mayor Hickenlooper created a new City
agency, Denver’s Road Home. This agency was charged with ending homelessness in
Denver in ten years. This effort has proved to be a dismal failure. There are
many more unhoused folks in the City now than there were 10 years ago.
In fact, according to a recent Denver City Auditor’s report, Denver’s Road
Home has spent $63 million and because of poor record keeping, has no idea of
the results of this expenditure. Denver’s Road Home required all nonprofit
agencies receiving money from the City to report regularly on the results of
their efforts, but Denver’s Road Home failed to compile this information. As a
result they have no idea of which agencies’ efforts were successful and which
were not.
How many housing units could have been built for $63 million?
This is no way to run a railroad, let alone a City agency.
Bennie Milliner, the Executive Director of Denver’s Road Home, said at a
recent meeting of the Denver Homeless Commission, that the report unfairly
pointed fingers at the service providers. I have read the report and if fingers
were pointed, it was at Denver’s Road Home.
I was homeless in Denver for three years, from 2009 to 2011, in the middle
of this social experiment, and I think I have a pretty good idea of where most
of those millions were spent.
Most of this money went to support what I call, “The Homeless Industrial
Complex.” While it is true that these service providers are nonprofits, the
people in charge of these charities often earn fairly substantial salaries.
They also employ many people charged with keeping the unwashed masses in line.
By in line, I mean the homeless spend much of their time standing in line for
food or shelter, while they must also toe the line for the often arrogant
guards and officials who run these places or they get thrown out. There is very
little incentive to end homelessness here, when the result of a successful
effort would be the loss of employment for many of them.
Those who are not up to surviving on the streets and are lucky enough to
get into a shelter, are in many cases warehoused in bug infested and sometimes
unsafe crowded dormitories. There they languish with very little effort to
move them from shelters into homes; some of these places more resemble prisons
then safe havens. There are some exceptions that truly care and work to help
move people move into homes and decent paying jobs.
I’m not going to name names here, but if you work in either of these kinds
of places, you know who you are.
I spent one month in a prison-like shelter before a Veterans Administration
caseworker moved me into one of the exceptions, where I spent seven months
until I was able to move under a roof of my own.
I love my place and intend to die here. If not for the V.A. and HUD I
would still be on the streets or in a shelter. I was lucky. I just hope my luck
holds a few more years, that’s all I need, I’m an old lady and I’ll be gone
soon.
I’ve seen the worst and the best of these non profit homeless shelters.
One thing I noticed about them though was that most of the staff drove some
pretty nice cars. You notice these things when you are standing across the
street from the parking lot waiting for a bus.
I’m not going to talk about the rest of my homeless experience, living on
the streets and in the woods, because I think I may have broken some laws that
the statute of limitations hasn’t run out on yet.
The unhoused who cannot stomach living in shelters, brave the elements
living on the street. These folks are regularly harassed by police and the
business owners’ private cops who see them as a nuisance. In fact, laws have
been passed that make it illegal to perform routine acts of survival in public.
There are no public places where these folks are allowed to pee, poop, rest or
sleep. They are considered outlaws because they dare to exist. The politicians
and the tycoons who control them just want these people to disappear; they
don’t care where they disappear to as long as they are not disrupting commerce
downtown.
Even for those folks who can stomach living in a shelter, according to
last year’s Point In Time (PIT) survey of the homeless in Denver, there is only
one shelter bed for every four homeless people living in Denver. We all know
the PIT survey is always way low. This kind of reminds me of George W Bush in
New Orleans after Katrina. I can just see him now, saying, “You’re doing a hell
of a job Bennie.”
Many business owners contribute millions of dollars to maintain this
failed system. Why? These guys are supposed to be financial experts. Why don’t
they demand more bang for their bucks?
It has been proven in many places worldwide that the most inexpensive way
to end homelessness is to provide the unhoused with homes, a place where they
can perform simple acts of survival behind a locked door. Why is this so hard
for these poobahs to understand? Instead, we have people getting thrown in jail
for daring to try to survive in public, people languishing in shelters which
are often bug infested and unsafe, and the business owners complaining about
unhoused people costing them money by disrupting commerce downtown. All of
these so-called solutions to homelessness cost the city, state and federal
governments a lot of the taxpayers’ hard-earned money. For what?
One of the biggest issues contributing to this situation is our paltry
minimum wage. Many of the people who are homeless work full time at minimum
wage jobs, but are still unable to afford housing in Denver’s out-of-control
housing market. Because of this, there are way too many families with children
living on the streets or crowded into very small living spaces. If they are not
trying to survive on the streets, they can find themselves camped out with
relatives or crammed into overpriced motel rooms, where they are often
unwelcome.
This is again, no way, to run a railroad.
I suppose I could go on and on, bitching about the stupidity of this mess,
but the fact of the matter is, no one who is in a position to do something is
listening.

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