Tag: homelessness

They Bought a Warehouse to Shelter the Homeless—Then Paid Security to Keep Them Out

Sacramento County’s $64.7 million project raises questions about pandemic spending, years of delay and the decisions that left people waiting.

In California’s capital county, taxpayers financed a troubling contradiction: Sacramento County purchased a warehouse to shelter homeless people, then paid private security while homeless people were kept outside.

I visited and photographed the Watt Avenue property in April 2023. What I witnessed was private security keeping homeless people out of the property the county had purchased to shelter them.

The county’s federal spending records identify Patrol Solutions providing security at the North Highlands Safe Stay site during 2023 and 2024. The county did not announce its groundbreaking until January 23, 2025, more than two years after purchasing the property. [1,2]

The county’s publicized acquisition and construction figure is now $64.7 million. Its website still describes active construction and anticipates residents moving in during late 2026. [3,4]

How did an emergency response become a project that took years to deliver shelter?

“We had to spend it or lose it.”

I questioned former Sacramento County Supervisor Sue Frost about the purchase. Frost had worked in real estate. I asked her why the county would buy a warehouse for human occupancy when, in my assessment, its ingress and egress would never be approved by the fire department for that use.

Ingress means the way into a building. Egress means the way out, including the escape routes people need during a fire or other emergency. A warehouse’s suitability for storage does not establish its suitability for sleeping accommodations.

Frost’s response was: “We had to spend it or lose it.”

That was the explanation I received for a decision involving millions of taxpayer dollars.

A spending deadline does not establish that a property is suitable, reasonably priced or capable of providing help when people need it. The county’s inspection and feasibility records should show what officials knew before committing public money.

A premium purchase, followed by a different plan

The property at 4837 Watt Avenue in North Highlands, an unincorporated Sacramento County community, sold for $12.45 million in September 2021. About fourteen months later, the county purchased it for $22.8 million. An independent appraisal reportedly valued it at $16.9 million. [5]

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Feds Storm Skid Row with a 100-Vehicle Convoy to Take Down Drug Network Operating in Tents and Storefronts

Federal agents and Los Angeles police raided Skid Row before dawn Thursday, serving dozens of warrants in a takedown of dealers supplying fentanyl, meth, cocaine, and PCP to the blocks of homeless encampments that plague downtown Los Angeles.

Authorities called the raid Operation Skid Row, and targeted more than two dozen suspected street dealers and suppliers after a three-month investigation.

The FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the LAPD used phone taps, undercover officers, and drones to build the cases.

By morning, agents had arrested 28 people.

A convoy of roughly 100 law enforcement vehicles cordoned off blocks and parks around Fifth and Crocker streets, trapping dealers who had been working the sidewalks.

Investigators said the dealers were not standing on corners in the open. Some sold from a Mercedes. Some posed as homeless men living in tents that were in fact drug dens. Others used storefronts or posed as social workers and homeless-services providers.

Drugs were also stashed in single-room-occupancy units and low-income housing.

Agents seized narcotics, guns, and luxury cars.

Officials said homeless people were not the target. The warrants were for dealers, and multiple gang members are among those facing charges.

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Agenda of Seattle’s Socialist Mayor Crashes Into the Reality of Crime and Homelessness

Seattle’s new socialist Mayor Katie Wilson entered office with a grand, left wing agenda, but it is stalling out because of a little thing called reality.

It turns out that creating a progressive utopia takes a back seat to dealing with the very real problems of crime and homelessness, and Seattle has plenty of those things.

Maybe the city should have elected someone with a little more real job experience.

FOX News reports:

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s socialist agenda stalls amid homelessness and public safety concerns

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, a democratic socialist, has run into major roadblocks while trying to enact her agenda in the city as she grapples with public safety concerns and homelessness.

Wilson campaigned on adding 1,000 homeless shelter units in each year of her term, despite concerns from some advisors about the feasibility of the goal, according to The Wall Street Journal. However, her administration’s current plan calls for adding nearly 1,000 shelter beds by the end of 2027, the Journal reported.

The mayor told The Seattle Times in September that her original goal was a way to get people talking about the crisis…

Wilson surprised her supporters with a proposed budget released in September that included no new taxes and more funding for police, the Journal reported.

“I have made the difficult decision to transmit a budget without major new revenue,” Wilson said in a speech in September, according to KOMO News. “Right now, we don’t have good options to raise more progressive revenue that don’t also come with great risks. Our economy and especially our downtown are fragile. In that context, raising additional revenue through JumpStart is not the right move.”

Welcome to the real world, Madam Mayor.

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Federal appeals court orders Trump admin to release Los Angeles homeless funds

federal appeals court on Thursday ordered the Department of Housing and Urban Development to release federal funding that has already been allocated to homeless service organizations in Los Angeles but was not distributed. 

The court order was in response to the Trump administration’s attempt to oversee how homeless service organizations in Los Angeles can seek millions of dollars in federal funding, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angles Homeless Services Authority was seeking up to $239 million on behalf of dozens of organizations, but HUD suspended LAHSA in June, citing a record of mismanagement, and directed the groups to apply directly through the federal government.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday largely upheld a district court ruling in a 2-1 split, which restored LAHSA as the applicant for the organizations.

The court determined that HUD “chose to suspend LAHSA at a time when it would leave the Los Angeles region particularly vulnerable” with ill effects on “vulnerable populations, critical programs and ongoing services.” 

“It is likely that its plan is unworkable and, at this late stage, extremely difficult if not virtually impossible to implement,” the decision added.

The new deadline for LAHSA to apply for HUD funding is Oct. 14. The original deadline was the end of August.

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OH GREAT: Los Angeles is Now Reporting an Outbreak of TYPHUS

The city of Los Angeles is now reporting an outbreak of the disease Typhus. It is connected to fleas on rats which are flourishing in the city’s numerous homeless encampments.

California has the highest tax rate in the country. Why? What do people get for paying such high taxes? They get preventable diseases because their leaders are worthless.

There’s really no excuse for this at all.

NBC News in Los Angeles reports:

Flea-borne typhus rising in LA County with latest case reported in Wilshire Center

Typhus, a flea-borne bacterial disease, is on the rise in Los Angeles County, with the latest localized case reported in the Wilshire Center neighborhood, public health officials said Tuesday.

The disease is spread to humans by infected fleas that commonly live on rats, opossums, stray cats and other animals. Common symptoms include headaches, chills, muscle aches and rash.

The Wilshire Center case is the second localized typhus outbreak this year, according to the LA County Department of Public Health.

There were at least seven symptomatic cases linked to the outbreak, health officials said. Six of the seven patients had to be hospitalized at one point. All have recovered, the department said.

So far this year, 109 flea-borne typhus cases have been reported in Los Angeles County.

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HHS Awards $42.3 Million To Push ‘Treatment First’ Model For Homelessness & Addiction

A federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded $42.3 million in new supplemental cash Friday to states and territories with the goal of speeding up the implementation of the Treatment First model for homelessness tied to addiction.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funding supports the initiative falling under President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” and the relevant Best Practices Toolkit that followed. That order from July 2025 directed agencies to put treatment and recovery ahead of the old approaches.

“President Trump has directed us to break the cycle of homelessness and addiction by putting treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency first,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “These investments will help states move people from crisis into treatment and from treatment into lasting recovery, stable housing, and work. We are funding results that help people reclaim their health and independence.”

About $17.3 million of the funds went to Community Mental Health Services Block Grant recipients. Officials say it builds systems, partnerships, workforce capacity, policies, and the technical pieces needed to make Treatment First a success. The funds will go toward technical assistance, training, policy work, and coordination across systems.

Roughly $25 million went to Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Services Block Grant recipients to expand options for safe, licensed, certified, or chartered sober and recovery housing, as well as the requisite technical assistance to ensure that more recovery residences open and quality standards tighten.

“Treatment First means building a system that does not leave people cycling between homelessness, emergency rooms, and the criminal justice system,” SAMHSA Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Christopher D. Carroll said. “These investments will help states strengthen the infrastructure – partnerships, data, workforce, and recovery supports – needed to connect people with serious mental illness and addiction to effective treatment and support them on a path toward lasting recovery, stable housing, employment, and self-sufficiency.”

In June, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a $4.04 billion Continuum of Care notice. It walked away from the Housing First model, which provided permanent housing with no strings attached. Chronic homelessness climbed 81 percent from 2013 to 2025, despite the number of taxpayer-funded beds increasing 151 percent, HUD figures show.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner called Housing First a failure that “warehoused the vulnerable without results.” Housing alone will not fix a crisis driven by addiction and mental illness, he said.

Kennedy earlier this year announced more than $700 million for related work, of which nearly $100 million went to the STREETS program for homeless people dealing with addiction or serious mental illness. In February, he introduced the $100 million STREETS effort itself, built around continuous contact from the street through recovery, jobs and self-sufficiency.

A federal appeals court this week allowed HUD to forge ahead with funding shifts after lower-court challenges. The department has earmarked $1.3 billion for transitional housing and supportive services.

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Amid Crime, Homelessness, and Budget Issues, San Diego Confronts the REAL Problem

At last, San Diego is tackling one of the most serious problems of our age.

San Diego is a jewel of a city. If it weren’t in California, it could present a strong case for being a near-perfect place to live. But it is in the Newsom SSR, and that is its downfall. The last time I was there, a couple of friends and I had dinner downtown a few blocks away from Petco Park, where the San Diego Padres play baseball, and then dodged homeless drug addicts all the way over to the stadium. 

Although San Diego has a relatively low crime rate for a large city, there’s a shortage of police officers that has led police departments to give short shrift to crimes that are considered as serious as others, so that San Diegans who are victims of petty crimes won’t get justice, but they can at least console themselves that they aren’t getting murdered. The city can’t or won’t do much about this because it is busy dealing with a huge budget shortfall. That’s what happens, of course, when far-left city officials lavish money on woke priorities, such as free stuff for illegal migrants, rather than dealing with real problems.

But at last, the San Diego City Council is facing head-on one of the really big problems confronting its fair city. NBC San Diego reported Tuesday that the council “voted unanimously to officially define the term ‘Islamophobia.’” Once the term is clearly defined, you see, offenders can be duly prosecuted. This was necessary, the city council claims, because “anti-Muslim hate is growing and this is a way to fight it.”

And it’s true, there may indeed be a problem: Back on May 18, two teenagers whom NBC San Diego says were “motivated by white nationalism” murdered three men at the Islamic Center of San Diego, and then killed themselves. This was an unspeakable atrocity, and there is no minimizing that fact for the families and friends of the victims. Whether it means, however, that “Islamophobia” is as big, or bigger, a problem than jihad violence and the advance of Sharia in the U.S. remains an open question.

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Homeless Advocate Charged With Recruiting Teens To Make and Sell Drugs

Lisa Kinkade, the Brattleboro homeless advocate who was praised last year for helping create a downtown drop-in center for homeless people, has been arrested following a drug raid in which police say a large amount of crack cocaine and cash was seized.

Kincade, 46, was one of three people arrested Sept. 4 when Brattleboro police assisted the Vermont Drug Task Force in executing a search warrant at an apartment at 69 Elliott Street at about 9:15 AM, according to a Brattleboro Police Dept. statement. She pleaded innocent Tuesday to trafficking, manufacturing and sale of crack cocaine and fentanyl, and conspiracy to sell drugs.

In her arraignment Tuesday, Judge John Treadwell set bail at $ 50,000 for Kinkade, saying she allegedly recruited “young people from Connecticut to come to Vermont to manufacture and distribute regulated drugs in this community,” according to a Brattleboro Reformer report.

The other two people arrested were 18-year-olds from Connecticut: Darrius Tatum of Darien, and Xavier Burgos of Meriden. 

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Calif.: Feds raid L.A. nonprofit figures in sweep over multi-million dollar homeless fraud scheme

In a dramatic sweep on Wednesday, federal agents reportedly dismantled a multi-million-dollar corruption network embedded within Los Angeles’ homelessness services sector.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tactical units in Kevlar vests, armed with rifles and bullhorns, descended on multiple South Los Angeles residences to arrest figures accused of skimming taxpayer funds meant to shelter the city’s homeless residents.

The operation targeted figures linked to contracts administered by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), revealing a deep web of kickbacks, “ghost” participants and lavish personal spending — funded by public aid.

Among those taken into custody during the morning raids was 48-year-old Lakiya Malone, an employee at Special Service for Groups (SSG), a nonprofit operating under LAHSA-funded programs.

Federal prosecutors say that Malone accepted over $180,000 in bribes and kickbacks to approve priority referrals and fabricate ghost participants — which are individuals who never actually received or resided in subsidized housing — to funnel millions in public funds into corrupt hands.

Malone was escorted out of her Westmont residence in handcuffs as First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli and other law enforcement officers oversaw the arrest.

Simultaneously, federal agents also swarmed the Baldwin Hills residence of 46-year-old Michael Young, founder of the nonprofit Home At Last. Federal prosecutors charged Young with wire fraud, alleging that he misappropriated more than $7.5 million in public homelessness funds using a network of shell companies and fraudulent billing practices.

Rather than providing shelter, Young purportedly funneled the public cash into commercial real estate, a bingo hall, private vacations and over $1 million to build and operate a restaurant and nightclub called Six Seven Five Lounge in Inglewood.

The sweeps are tied to an expansive, ongoing federal probe into Southern California homeless service providers, which previously ensnared Alexander Soofer, the former executive director of the nonprofit Abundant Blessings.

Soofer, who was charged with orchestrating a $23 million fraud scheme to buy a $7 million Westwood home and finance luxury travel, agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud and money laundering while admitting to his role in paying kickbacks to Malone.

Meanwhile, authorities are also searching for a third defendant in the new indictment, Donye Mitchell, 55, who faces federal charges for allegedly fraudulent grant applications exceeding $1.2 million.

Federal officials noted that the exploitation of homeless aid exemplifies a major breach of public trust, promising further action as investigations into L.A.’s homeless aid system continue.


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Free Cash for Drugs – Vote Democrat

For years, anyone who dared question the integrity of the election process was treated as some conspiracy nut. We were told election fraud was virtually nonexistent, that safeguards were more than adequate, and that demanding tighter controls was somehow an attack on democracy. Well, take a walk through Skid Row in Los Angeles and explain this one. Federal prosecutors have now charged three people in an alleged operation that paid people on Skid Row to sign California ballot petitions using the stolen identities of registered voters.

They pulled the identities of actual registered voters from a database, handed those identities to people on the street, paid them to copy the information onto petitions, and had them forge the corresponding signatures. That is precisely the type of manipulation we were repeatedly assured should not concern us.

James Brass, known as “Lord,” has been arrested and charged along with Courtney Price and Jateisha Herron. Prosecutors say the operation ran from February through August 2026. Brass allegedly received approximately $41,600 from coordinators associated with one petition-management company, while false declarations were signed claiming the circulators had personally witnessed the supposed registered voters signing the petitions.

Skid Row contains some of the most vulnerable people in America. Homelessness, mental illness and drug addiction are everywhere. Earlier reporting from undercover investigations described people being offered cash, cigarettes and marijuana for petition signatures.

And this is not even the first federal case to emerge from Skid Row this year. Brenda Lee Brown Armstrong (no relation) agreed to plead guilty after admitting that she paid people, including homeless individuals, to register to vote. She normally received money for petition signatures only when the signer was a registered voter, so prosecutors say she began offering people money to complete voter registration forms as well. Some homeless people had no address, so she supplied her own former Los Angeles address for them to use. California automatically mails ballots to registered voters, meaning ballots associated with some of those registrations potentially could have been sent to an address where those individuals did not live or receive mail. How many warning signs does government require before admitting that vulnerabilities exist?

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