Treatment Of Homelessness Case Study

After the aforementioned incident, Mr. Rhodes said he started to ask Dave questions about what it was like to be homeless and how he was treated. This is when Mr. Rhodes found out that this type of treatment was very typical of the law enforcement in Fresno. In fact, it sadly gets much worse. The homeless are constantly forced out of the city and have their belongings throw in the trash compactor. He sought after help from other activists in the community who had a better understanding of the community and kept learning how terrible the homeless were being treated in our town. In 2006, one of the biggest accomplishments of Mr. Rhodes began. After not getting anywhere with law offices in Fresno, he reached out to the ACLU in San Francisco. He said that the city had no right to trash this populations “homes” and belongings. The treatment of the homeless community was atrocious and current policy made it nearly impossible for homeless people to live. He said the law enforcement and city officials made it
as uncomfortable as they could in hopes of driving the homeless out of the city or to “kill them off.” They were truly being treated like human cockroaches.
The grounds of the class action lawsuit was based upon the cities illegal destruction of property among this population.
(Rhodes. 2006) The police officers and sanitation crews would come through encampments without notice and just start tossing tents and other personal possessions into the dump truck. Unattended shopping carts were automatically classified as trash and thrown out, regardless of their appearance. (Rhodes. (b) 2006.) They were throwing away not only their bedding, tents, and clothes but much more personal and important items such as photographs and medicine. In fact, many of these individuals depended on their medications to treat diabetes or high blood pressure and would end up in the emergency room or were “left to die” in Mr. Rhodes words. The main plaintiff in the case was a homeless women Mr. Rhodes had worked with named Pamela Kincaid. She died during the lawsuit under suspicious circumstances and sadly was never able to celebrate the
success.
His work organizing the class action lawsuit paid off greatly—in the amount of over $2.3 million dollars. Not only did it award nearly 300 individuals with needed money, but it was also the beginning of new policies that would enforce better treatment of the homeless. The initial lawsuit, Kincaid vs. Fresno City, forced the city to stop taking and destroying the homeless’ property. The city was now forced to give the individuals 90 days to claim their possessions. Not only this, but the city lost because they were treating this community different than the rest of the population. The federal court found Fresno City guilty of violating the 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments. (ACLU of Northern California. 2009.) Mr. Rhodes said that during this time it was clear there were different rules and laws that applied only to homeless. It was another step towards equal treatment and protection. Another later success was the association he had with the “Find Housing First” initiative that Fresno created. There are no stipulations for the homeless, such as requiring mental health treatment, substance abuse treatment, or health qualifications. It is a program that provides a place to live and provides social workers to help create stabilization in life.
Mr. Rhodes has received numerous threats for his work in helping the homeless of Fresno and his involvement with the ACLU case. He mentioned that his address, including directions, was being circulated as was his phone number. His daughters were also being targeted and harassed due to his advocacy work. He received a call from one person stating they “had a scope aimed at him and he was in their sights”. Also, he received a phone call from a caller who told him he “ought to get a better security system.” Two days later, his house was broken into. Nothing was stolen but many of his belongings and papers were scattered throughout the house and clearly had been searched. During the ACLU federal case, he was cornered by the chief of police and told that he “needed to stop before he got himself in trouble.”