Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer’s proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year includes adding a second Homeless Assistance Response Team, which some advocates say displaces and destroys the property of unhoused residents rather than providing long-term housing solutions.
A handful of residents spoke out against a second homeless task force, also known as HART, after Dyer presented the record-breaking $2.55 billion proposed budget to the City Council on Thursday. They argued that HART’s actions when they dismantle homeless encampments or arrest homeless people have been cruel and criminalize homelessness rather than trying to solve it.
One of those advocates was Brandi Nuse-Villegas, an artist who has partnered with the homeless community to create memorial portraits honoring those who have passed. She said she knew of an unhoused resident whose deceased mother’s ashes had been thrown away by HART team members as they removed a homeless encampment. She heard of other instances when medication, identification and phones were thrown out. Another advocate described an instance when someone’s dog was accidentally put in a garbage truck…