Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin Asks Residents To Donate $1 A Month To Help Homeless

Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin has unveiled an ambitious program to help homeless people get off the city streets and rebuild their lives by finding access to housing, education and jobs.

Swearengin is asking Fresno residents to donate $1 a month to help fund the homeless initiative. Donors can give online to Fresno First Steps Home, the city-sponsored nonprofit organization. Swearengin is also telling residents to spread the word about the services the city is offering by distributing cards to the homeless that give information about how to get help by calling 211.

ABC News affiliate KFSN reports from Fresno.

WATCH:

Comments

[belyeu]

07:14 PM on 07/04/2010

Every city should do this.

[socialmistfit]

07:25 PM on 06/02/2010

Now I will start sending some to Fresno too.

[socialmistfit]

07:25 PM on 06/02/2010

In my city, I got downtown merchants to give to a program that provided our homeless population a one-way bus ticket to San Francisco with a a 2-day meal ticket only to be redeemed in S.F. It solved most of our homeless problems.

[Freevo]

04:42 AM on 06/01/2010

Finally something worth tweeting about!

[Blackorpheus]

02:23 AM on 06/01/2010

Finally a politician comes up with a good idea.

[maxfax]

09:53 PM on 05/31/2010

This is where the country is headed, charities and big multi-national corporations, no more middle class.

[ECB]

09:42 PM on 05/31/2010

Good for her - Best of luck.

[proggirl]

07:11 PM on 05/31/2010

Heder Camara's famous quote sums up the liberal vs. conservative perspectives on the homeless:
"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a Communist."

[nobodynowandforever]

05:57 PM on 05/31/2010

This story represents nothing more than negligent reporting from the Huffington Post, which obviously does not care enough about the homelessness issue to even have a clue about what they're publishing. Everything about this story, regurgitated from the mainstream media, is false. Fresno does not have a ten-year-plan. They just have something they call a ten-year-plan as a public relations ploy, but there is no actual date on which they even claim they will end homelessness nor is there any credible presentation of how they will get to that goal. The figure the mayor uses of 3500 homeless people in Fresno is a figment of her imagination. More realistic estimates put the number near 20,000. The cards they're handing out won't help the homeless but the poverty pimps who profit from the problem. This mayor is not a person with a heart as some people have wrongly concluded from this bad reporting. The civic administration in Fresno will not allow homeless people any legal place to sleep, so campgrounds are regularly raided and destroyed, even though the homeless campers have nowhere else to go. Fresno is the city that had to payout a record $2.3 million for its cruelty to the homeless and the situation has only gotten worse since then. The Huffington Post should do some real reporting and not treat this humanitarian crisis as a cutesy-poo news bit.

[Fran1972]

04:13 AM on 06/02/2010

Thanks for doing this for me. I couldn't believe HP made my republican mayor a saint. Ha!! They don't know her AT ALL.

[ResearchtheFacts]

03:22 PM on 05/31/2010

I applaud her effort!!! Finally a politician with a heart.

When they ask you on your federal tax return do you want to donate for elections they should replace that with do you want to donate to remedy homelessness. Then it becomes a nationwide campaign.

[smoovejef]

12:15 PM on 06/02/2010

That's actually a good idea. Of course, you may be accused of supporting a welfare state, and be assaulted with tea bags.

[Tierce]

01:10 PM on 05/31/2010

I think Mayor Ashley Swearengin is a genius ! !

[TXfemmom]

01:00 PM on 05/31/2010

This is a start and a dollar can lead to larger donations. This is a wonderful initiative and I hope it works.

[Sievehead]

06:39 AM on 05/31/2010

My gosh, a whole dollar! Do you really think they can spare it? I mean, what with parking meters costing so much these days and a can of coke going for almost twice that, I don't know if most Americans can pony up such extravagant sums! After all, charity begins at home, as our Puritan forefathers so sagely put it, and, well, if'n ya ain't got no home, I reckon ya doesn't really deserves no charity, now does ya?

[ArticulateAndClean]

10:04 AM on 05/31/2010

Exactly right.
They should give $100/month and it should be mandatory.
No wait, it should be $1000/month.
Jail sentences for those who don't comply.

[jezzgeo]

10:14 AM on 05/31/2010

What the eff are you two talkin' about??

While you're busy explaining it, try growing up, too.

Add yourselves to the list of people needing a heart transplant- sounds like you're missing yours.

[Danielck62]

12:51 PM on 05/31/2010

Typical over exaggeration and distortion of the facts.
She is calling for DONATIONS to a good cause. Like many other good causes. If you don't like the cause don't donate.

[William Young]

08:07 PM on 05/30/2010

This is a great idea, but I can hear the elitists saying "Why should I donate to these lazy bums? They should just get a Job!" I wish they could do this in Texas but maybe once Bill White gets in office we can get something similar like this.

[ArticulateAndClean]

07:25 PM on 05/31/2010

So you are unable to voluntarily donate to homeless programs in Texas unless Bill White is elected governor?

Is there a state law preventing you from donating right now?

[topachic25]

05:26 PM on 05/30/2010

Its a shame to see based on the comments that we have come to expect corruption. When someone try's a new way to solve an ongoing problem with an untried or tested method, we assume that history will repeat itself. Come on people, you spend more money a day on a coffee than this. It's completely voluntary. So if you don't see the result you were looking for, stop donating to the homeless and donate to another worthy cause. It beats not doing anything at all!

[jezzgeo]

10:16 AM on 05/31/2010

Here, here