Hungry like a war pig…
Tag: homelessness
LA awards $106M to nonprofit whose lawyers hinder city’s ability to clean up streets — and bill $1,025 an hour
Los Angeles just cut a whopping $106.6 million taxpayer check to a nonprofit law firm whose lawyers have spent years hindering the city’s ability to dismantle homeless camps and clean up city streets — with one attorney billing as much as $1,025 an hour for work tied to its activism.
The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (LAFLA) was awarded the largest share of an eye-popping $177 million tenant rights funding package approved at City Hall this week, despite opposition from the City Attorney.
Under the deal, Los Angeles will funnel $106,572,543.69 over the next three years to LAFLA for eviction defense services, even as attorneys connected to the organization have repeatedly filed lawsuits that blocked the city from enforcing municipal codes aimed at keeping sidewalks clear of encampments and neighborhoods safe.
But the money flowing to the group is far larger than that. City records show the Stay Housed LA eviction defense program, a city initiative administered by LAFLA through a network of partner organizations, had already grown to a maximum contract value of about $90.8 million through a series of amendments approved by the City Council.
Put together, the contracts push the pipeline of taxpayer funding tied to the nonprofit to about $197 million. That number jumps off the page when compared to the organization’s own finances.
This Canadian Man Is Poor, So the Government Offered to Kill Him. Here’s What Happened.
Given the insanity that’s gripped Canada, calling a transgender school shooter a ‘gunperson,’ and a host of other social policies that are outright nuts, let’s revisit an old 2022 story about then-54-year-old Amir Farsoud, who was going through the process of government-sponsored suicide.
Farsoud suffers from crippling back pain and couldn’t find a new place to live when his rooming house at the time was up for sale. He couldn’t afford any place to live and barely got by on the $1,200 disability payments he received in Ontario. He wouldn’t make it on the streets, and knowing that, opted to apply for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAIDS). He fit the criteria, but his doctor knew the real reason why Farsoud was applying for MAIDS. He signed off anyway.
In essence, the Canadian government told a poor man that death is an option and that we’re here for you since you can’t find a new home. Farsoud said that he doesn’t want to be dead
“I don’t wish to be dead,” he said when this story aired. It’s a bizarre and disturbing tale.
Luckily, a 2024 fundraiser helped Farsoud get a new place to live and opt out of MAIDS.
LA city council set to write $177 million in checks to activist nonprofits — including groups that sued the city
Los Angeles City Council members are poised to vote Tuesday on roughly $177 million in fast-tracked contracts, funneling taxpayer cash to a tight circle of powerful tenant-advocacy nonprofits — including groups that have repeatedly sued the city.
The package, championed by lefty mayoral hopeful Councilmember Nithya Raman, would lock in three-year deals financed largely by Measure ULA’s mansion-tax revenue. The money will primarily be used to run tenant eviction defense and homelessness-prevention programs.
Earlier this month, Raman’s Housing and Homelessness Committee signed off on the plan, clearing the way for final council approval of contracts with four dominant players in LA’s tenant-advocacy ecosystem: the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), Liberty Hill Foundation and the Southern California Housing Rights Center.
Together, the organizations form the backbone of the city’s “Stay Housed LA” network — a powerful alliance that provides legal defense, rental assistance and tenant organizing across Los Angeles while wielding significant influence at City Hall.
The same groups are also widely known for their aggressive street activism, organizing protests, demonstrations and rent strikes, and for filing high-profile lawsuits against the city over homelessness sweeps, policing and housing policies.
Mamdani Reverses Course On Homeless Policy After Multiple Deaths
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday that his administration will resume clearing homeless encampments, reversing a decision made shortly after he took office to pause the practice.
Mamdani, a self-described Democratic socialist, initially halted the city’s homeless encampment sweeps on Jan. 5, days into his term, stating the need to develop a revised policy. Under that pause, the city had stopped actively dismantling makeshift camps that house people experiencing homelessness.
“I made a decision with my team to put a pause on that prior administration’s policy as we started to develop our own policy that would deliver far better outcomes for the city,” Mamdani told reporters last week.
Due to the recent cold snap, Mamdani issued a Code Blue, requiring city shelters to accept anyone seeking refuge from the cold.
Reports noted that at least 20 homeless people froze to death in recent weeks, which critics linked to his earlier policy of allowing them to remain on the streets.
“We knew that that is a policy that we would only deliver on once the prolonged Code Blue came to an end, because, as we know, in a Code Blue, the focus should be on getting homeless New Yorkers inside, not on the question of how we respond to structures,” Mamdani added.
Judge Rules on Evicting Residents Because Maryland Police Wouldn’t Clean up a Homeless Camp
We have bad news for you.
In a previous piece called ‘Horror Show in Maryland: Police Neglect of a Homeless Camp Might Lead to Nearby Residents Being Evicted,’ we talked about a condominium community called Marylander Condominiums, in Prince George’s County, Maryland, east of Washington, D.C. On the same grounds, there was an area nicknamed The Mountains which was a homeless encampment and open-air drug market, where criminal gangs allegedly rule. People from that camp would absolutely terrorize residents, even knocking out their heating system right as people in the greater D.C. area were digging slowly out of a pretty vicious snow/ice storm a few weeks back. Furthermore, officials were seeking to throw the presumably law-abiding residents out of their homes, by seeking a court order, because the homeless encampment had rendered their homes unliveable.
All of this was based on the absolutely excellent reporting of Aaron Sibarium…
Barack Obama Throws Gavin Newsom Under the Bus Over His Homelessness Scandal
Former President Barack Obama addressed the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, describing the situation as a moral failure in a wealthy nation and calling for policies that combine compassion with practical solutions.
Speaking about conditions in the city, Obama said the issue demands both ethical clarity and political realism.
“The same would be true. Let’s say here in Los Angeles, around the homeless issue, I think morally, ethically speaking, it is an atrocity that in a country that’s wealthy, we have people just on the streets, and we should have a We should insist on policies that recognize their full humanity people who are houseless and be able to provide them the help and resources that they need,” Obama said.
He argued that efforts to address homelessness must acknowledge both the needs of those living on the streets and the concerns of the broader public.
“but we should also recognize that the average person doesn’t want to have to navigate around a tent city in the middle of downtown,” Obama said.
Obama suggested that public support for increased funding and services depends on presenting a strategy that balances compassion with visible order.
“and that we’re not going to be able to build a working majority and support for the resources that we need to help folks like that, whether it’s drug treatment or temporary housing or what have you, we’re not going to be able to generate support for it if we simply say, You know what, it’s not their fault, and so they should be able to do whatever they want, because that’s a losing political strategy,” he said.
The Dark Question That Looms Over New York After Mamdani’s Failed Winter Storm Response
Don’t get Vickie Paladino started on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Republican councilwoman appeared on Katie Pavlich Tonight yesterday and took the man behind the barn over the disastrous snow removal operation following last month’s winter storm. It’s getting to the point where even Mamdani’s supporters are yelling outside Gracie Mansion. Besides mountains of snow and ice, there are piles of trash everywhere. It’s what you’d expect from a mayor who hasn’t run anything, doesn’t know anything, and, as a result, can’t do anything related to this job.
Paladino rightly called Mamdani a “media whore” who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Let the city workers, who have more experience than the mayor on many fronts, do their jobs. This winter storm was bad, but not unprecedented—the city has had some serious weather events. I hated Bill de Blasio, but even he was able to clear the roads and get this kind of work done.
While Homeless New Yorkers Freeze, the NYT Wants Us to Know This About Mayor Mamdani
It must be nice to be a Democrat. Having that magical (D) after your name means you can say and do the most vile things, and govern with gross incompetence, and the media will run interference for you. Just look at how Vogue gushed over Gavin Newsom, completely ignoring how the guy has driven California into the ground.
In New York, not only are the streets piled with mountains of rat-infested garbage, but at least 18 homeless people have now died because of the cold.
The New York Post reports that the latest victim of Mamdani’s policies is an 86-year-old man named Charles Williams, who was found on a Bronx street Saturday. All Mamdani had to say about it was, “Each loss of life is a tragedy. We will continue to hold their families in our thoughts.”
As one X user pointed out, the media would be singing a different tune if someone else were living in Gracie Mansion right now.
THE WARMTH OF COLLECTIVISM: New York City Homeless Death Toll Jumps to 18 Amid Freezing Temps
Zohran Mamdani has been Mayor of New York City for a little over a month and during that time, 18 homeless people in the city have died from exposure.
Mamdani policy forbids NYC police from dismantling homeless encampments and forcing homeless people indoors. That policy may sound good to leftists on paper but it is killing people.
This is the same reason that Mamdani has failed the tests of snow removal and trash pick-up. He does not want to do the ‘work’ parts of being mayor. He is too busy making videos about taxing the rich. That’s the fun part for him about being mayor, and what he thinks his real job is.
The New York Post reports:
NYC outdoor death toll climbs to 18 — as shelter worker recalls finding latest deep-freeze fatality: ‘I couldn’t help him’
The death toll from the city’s brutal cold spell climbed to 18 over the weekend — with a shell-shocked shelter worker stumbling upon the latest fatality of the historic freeze, he told The Post.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani confirmed the 18th outdoor death Monday morning, during an unrelated press conference celebrating the opening of the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center in Brooklyn.
“Each loss of life is a tragedy. We will continue to hold their families in our thoughts,” he said.
The latest person to die was an 86-year-old homeless man, later identified as Charles Williams, according to sources and City Hall officials. His body was found just after 9 a.m. Saturday on the street at East Gun Hill Road and Seymour Avenue in The Bronx.
Adam Faad, 26, said he felt helpless after finding the unresponsive man on the sidewalk.
Faad, a security worker at a homeless shelter who was volunteering at one of the city’s “warming centers” on Saturday, said he spotted the man, who looked asleep, on the street while on his way to his mosque.
Is this what Mamdani meant by the warmth of collectivism?
Hellbound and Down 
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