Fresno gets to 115 degrees in the summer.
IS MAYOR AUTRY ABOVE THE LAW?
The City of Fresno will open a Tool Shed City for homeless people at the Poverello House on Monday, November 18. Homeless advocates and many homeless people have concerns that the tool sheds, which do not have heating, cooling, running water, electricity, or toilets are not adequate housing. They would like to see some of the abandoned buildings in downtown converted into housing for the homeless.
See the pictures.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/11/17/18461880.ph... I hope some democrats decide to run for Mayor in Fresno, and help humanity there.
At a press conference held last Thursday, I asked the mayor about the legality of the tool sheds. I said "if I had one of these tool sheds in my backyard and put my mother in law in it, I would probably get a citation and fine." I might even get arrested for elder abuse. I mentioned that I know of an instance where a man was providing shelter for a homeless person in his back yard - the trailer had heating, cooling, running water, and a toilet, but the city’s code enforcement team forced him to evict the person living in the trailer. That person is now homeless and living on the streets of Fresno. How can the city set up tool sheds that are not as good as that person’s trailer and not be in violation of city codes? Isn’t this a double standard? The mayor said "if we look at this with all this paralysis of analysis through these cross comparisons of this or that and the theater of the absurd, we’re not going to get anyone out from under the overpass (homeless people living in New Jack City)." He never answered the question, which was whether the mayor and City of Fresno was above the law.
Cynthia Greene, who filmed the press conference for the Community Alliance newspaper, asked the mayor "are the homeless people that don’t want to move into Tool Sheds going to be forced to move into them?" Greene is homeless and lives on The Hill, which is a homeless encampment that the City Manager’s office has identified as the first target of a "clean up" after the Tool Shed City is established. Autry said "nobody is going to be forced to do anything except obey the law."