The Non-Profit Industrial Complex on Trial

One Poverty Skolar Challenges the Non-profit Industrial Complex in Court!

Leo Stegman/PNN Special Report
Monday, June 7, 2010;

The corner stores, health insurance, same day loans services are examples of how Poor folks, People of Color, and women overpay for services. We also get paid less for the services we provide the public. The mainstream media and the educational systems indoctrinates us with the propaganda the this society is based on equality and the rule of law. Yet, we pay the most and get the less, and try to exercise these so called rights becomes a monumental task. There is a cottage industry set to help the the houseless, poor and us that are receive public assistance. Just like in “Confession of an Economic Hit-man”, the billions of dollars raised for the relief the Haitian or the funds raised by the Red Cross that was supposed to assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the funds never reached the people These funds created jobs for a herd of non-profits that hide behind their tax exempt status like wolves in sheep's clothing sucking those scarce resources from those they are allegedly helping.

Transitional Housing Providers are the wolves that suck the government resources meant to assist us poor people. California has a system of laws that are set up for individuals renting real property, enacted to protect tenants. These aren't rights that landlords just gave tenants, they were hard fought by the people.

A rental agreement establishes tenancy, these simple contractual relationships are the pillars of the American Housing Rental Market. This relationship is accompanied with a series of due process rights that are codified in the statutes. In order for a Landlord to regain any rental property from a Tenant, the property must use the unlawful detainer process better known as the eviction process. This the bedrock of a Tenant's rights in California.

Yet, in the progressive blueness of Alameda County very low income tenants find themselves victims of unlawful and illegal behavior by Transitional Housing programs that received funding from governments. Most of the residents of transitional housing facilities are the poor, people of color and women, and we become marginalized, invisible as human beings not deserving of the bundle of rights that others receive.

California Civil Code § 1940 defines what is renting of residential property, and the Landlord must use California Code of Civil Procedure §§ 1159 -1170. Which gives tenants a right to trial, and notice of termination of tenancy before a landlord can file a lawsuit against a tenant for eviction.

The legislature passage of Health and Safety Code §§ 50580 – 50591 defines “Transitional Housing”. This gives a providers an option of getting Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) for those individuals accused of egregious behavior. The California Judicial Council as even created Judicial Council forms to be utilized by Transitional Housing Providers to use in accusations of misconduct by residents at Transitional Housing Facilities.

However, under no means can Providers forcibly remove residents from the facilities without going through the legal process. A trick used by many providers to attempt nullify a tenants' rights with the practices is having residents sign a document waving their rights has tenants. According to the Civil Code § 1953 that practice is prohibited It is against public policy for a tenant to waive any right to litigation. The forcible eviction of human beings from their place of residence without due process is not only illegal and unlawful, it is inhumane.

In 2007, after my Unemployment Insurance Grant had been exhausted, and i was having a difficult time finding employment, and as I got further behind in my rent. without the prospect of a job in sight , I decided to take a relative's offers to move in with them. After a few days, it became very evident that this living situation was not going to work, so I moved out.

In my previous employment at a local non-profit, one of my tasks was assisting Alameda County residents in defending themselves in evictions. I also assisted people in obtaining emergency, food, shelter and transitional housing. Now, it was me seeking the same assistance. Alameda County offers General Assistance to single adults without dependent children, if the applicant is homeless they will not obtain a cash grant, but they offered a bed in Community Housing and Shelter Services (CHASS) program for 90 days. In the CHASS program the participating Housing Provider receives in kind cash aid for each GA recipient which amounts to more than twice the amount of a normal monthly cash grant. If I would have received the money that they paid the Provider I would have been able to stay in my original residence.

I was assigned a top bed on a bunk bed and a locker at the East Oakland Community Project (ECOP) a CHASS program located in the flatlands of East Oakland on International Blvd. $720 a month for a bed and shared locker seems kinda steep even in the Bay Area. The ECOP receives over $400,000 annually for providing space for the CHASS programs.

It is abundantly clearly that GA recipient participants of the CHASS programs are tenants under California Law. Therefore, they are entitled to a basic modicum of due process. Yet, in the Big I and little Yous attitudes of the a Transitional Housing programs of the Non-profit Industrial Complex you bascially have no rights the Provider will respect. Yet, the attitude of many Transitional Housing Providers is the California Statutes don't apply to their residents.

On many occasions residents of Transitional Housing have been forced out of their housing without any use of any legal process. Just imagine being kicked out of your housing or place to stay, without any means and told to move your belongings. On many occasions, after the Transitional Housing Provider accepted a Tenant's rent, and assigned them a bed, they would evict the tenant for the most minor infraction of the rules, things like disagreements with staff are grounds for forcible removal from the facilities.

37 days into my stay in the ECOP facility during a Saturday morning meeting with a Case Worker I was ordered to take a drug test. The refusal was because the ECOP is a not licensed drug treatment facility or medical facility. Also, there were concerns about adequacy of the testing procedures and facilities, and doubts to the legalities of both. California Statute does allows a County to drug test General Assistance recipients unless drug test requirement have been expressly approved by County Board Supervisors. Alameda County has not enacted a drug testing requirement for General Assistance recipients.

This is a prime example, of when you live in Transitional Housing, you become less than an adult, we no longer have choices. No longer are we capable of making choices for ourselves. Staff decides how you spend your day, what you eat and who you see, when and where you urinate. It is like being on parole or probation, our crime is that de-facto crime of being poor and homeless.

When presented the option of being subjected to a intrusive and illegal test or getting put out on the streets, it can be a difficult decision. Imagine a mother with kids, disabled person, or an elder being presented with that choice. Or how about being forced out the street during the cold, wetness of the winter? It is a difficult decision, it is easy to understand why many refuse to participate in any Transitional Housing program, The residents are automatically criminalized. marginalized and dehumanized.

After a 30 minute interview the Staff at the Transitional Housing facilities becomes experts on your life and know exactly what you need in order straight out of your problems. Now, most of the times these programs don't really help folk, but it does provide jobs the work in the Non-Profit Industrial Complex.

This primary purpose is not to help people, but to create jobs and employment and a cottage industry of Poverty Pimps that suck the life, resources and humanity out of us. How does the $24 per day the ECOP receives in the Alameda County Social Services help the Tenant?

We need real housing, not overpriced rented bunk beds and lockers in a crowded facility.

A political stand is necessary to shed light in the way the non-profits like the ECOP, violates the rights of its residents. “power concedes nothing without a demand”. I filed a lawsuit against the EOCP in Pro Per . However, I am not under any illusion, I know that I am the underdog in this action. The Defendant has an annual budget of several millions dollars. In additional, they are represented by the Narayan Law Group an insurance defense firm that represent municipalities in police misconduct case. The Courts through out United States History has not look favorably on the rights of the poor and people of color, but rather favors corporations over individuals.

Being out numbered and out-gunned is a situation that people like me are used to what get us moving is the belief in the power of the people. This case is a referendum of the unlawful and illegal conduct of the Non-profit Industrial Complex that takes our resources and still disenfranchise us and treat us has second class human being.

My next court date is June 11th, 2010 at 9:00 am in Department 25, of the Alameda County Superior Court, located at 1225 Fallon Street. Please show up, I need the support of the people in this struggle for the humane treatment of CHASS program recipients.

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