NPACH: The National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness

For Immediate Release:

Contact:

- Jeremy Weir Alderson, Director, Homelessness Marathon, 607-546-2084,
radio@lightlink.com
- Mike Rhodes, Editor, Community Alliance, 559-978-4502
mikerhodes@comcast.net

THE MAYOR, THE BROADCAST AND THE TRUTH

The Tenth Annual Homelessness Marathon will originate from Fresno,
California starting at 4 p.m., PST (7 p.m., EST), on Tuesday, February
20th and ending at 6 a.m., PST (9 a.m., EST), Wednesday, February 21st.
The Homelessness Marathon, the world's leading radio broadcast focusing on
homelessness and poverty, airs on over 100 radio stations. More than 30
stations across Canada carry a parallel Canadian Homelessness Marathon.
"We picked Fresno," explains the Homelessness Marathon's director,
Jeremy Weir Alderson, "partly because of the extraordinary cruelty with
which homeless people are being treated there." Allegedly, in the course
of making sweeps, the City of Fresno has thrown away people's money,
ID's, sleeping bags and tents as well as a list of items Alderson calls
"particularly shocking," including someone's false teeth, a cane, a
wheelchair, the ashes of someone's dead grandchild and a tent thought to
have kittens inside (the kittens were never seen again).
In response to a lawsuit filed by a group of volunteer lawyers,
including the ACLU and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, U.S
District Judge Oliver W. Wanger issued a preliminary injunction ordering
the City of Fresno to stop throwing away the possessions of its homeless
citizens. In his decision, Judge Wanger characterized the City's
arguments as "disingenuous" and "dishonest." Fresno's mayor, Alan Autry,
responded by calling Wanger's ruling "cavalier" and "veracity
challenged," suggesting that the judge, "enter the real world." He
didn't stop there.

In a radio appearance, Autry insisted that one homeless encampment
had to be cleaned up because kids in the neighborhood were "watching
[homeless] people have sex," and because the encampment was "a disease
factory." "This mattress that the judge says we should have gave back
was riddled with everything from e. coli to hepatitis... something that
it would take a hazmat suit to give back to that person." But according
to Mike Rhodes, editor of Fresno's Community Alliance newspaper and the
only reporter to attend the entire court hearing, "the evidence at the
hearing was clear - the City of Fresno was violating the constitutional
rights of the homeless. There were no bizarre allegations, like the
mayor made, about sex in the street or mattresses with e. coli. These
continuing lies and attacks on the homeless are just more evidence that
this city has a long way to go in understanding how to treat the
homeless with dignity and respect."
The broadcast will be available free to stations over the NPR
satellite, the Pacifica satellite and a webcast. It will be hosted by
local community radio station KFCF and an ad hoc committee of activists on
poverty and housing issues. "Mayor Autry says he wants the truth to come
out," says Alderson, "and we're going to help him with that, but unlike
the mayor, we're going to see to it that the homeless people of Fresno --
and across the country -- get their say too."
Additional information about the Homelessness Marathon, can be
found at www.homelessnessmarathon.org.
Additional information about the court case can be found at:
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/14787.html and
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/11/23/18332519.php