Fresno Council Approved $5 Million State Grant for Homeless Encampment Services, Nearly All Going to One Contractor

The Fresno City Council voted in April 2022 to accept $5,070,057.68 in state grant money aimed at addressing homeless encampments and approved sending $4,662,554.80 of it — 92 percent — to a single service provider, Poverello House, to run a triage center.

The funding came from California’s Encampment Resolution Funding Program, administered by the state Interagency Council on Homelessness. The City applied for the grant in December 2021 and was approved as a recipient.

The council’s April 28, 2022 action had three parts: accepting the grant, appropriating the money into the city budget, and approving the services agreement with Poverello House for the triage center work.

The Breakdown

• The total grant award was $5,070,057.68 from the state.
• The council approved a contract with Poverello House for $4,662,554.80 to provide “triage center services” under the program.
• That leaves roughly $407,502.88 — about 8 percent of the total — for other program activities not detailed in the material.
• The measure passed on April 28, 2022, with the action marked as “Adopted.”

What This Means for You

When the council accepts state grant money and awards a contract like this, they’re deciding which organizations get to deliver services with taxpayer dollars. That $4.7 million to a single provider represents 92 percent of the total grant concentrated with one entity.

What to Watch

The material provides no detail on what “triage center services” actually means in practice — what the center does, how many people it serves, where it’s located, or how success is measured. A $4.7 million contract deserves more than a two-word description. What services are included? How many people can the center handle at once, and for how long? What happens to someone after they leave? The city’s own staff report was cut off in the material before any of that was explained.

The other question: why 92 percent of the grant to one provider? Finally, $407,000 is left over after the Poverello House contract. The material doesn’t say what that money is for, who decides how to spend it, or whether it’s already committed. That’s not a rounding error — it’s a meaningful amount of public money with no stated purpose. Voters should know where it went.