Less than 48 hours from now I will be homeless.
I was given the news last night. I must leave by 10 am on Sat April 30, 2016. That is pretty bad considering that I am in a homeless shelter that I pay 1/3 my income to and that receives thousands of dollars in Homeless Veteran Reintegration Program (HVRP) and Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program fees for me to live in Salvation Army Bell Shelter. It is the largest shelter on the west coast.
My crime?
The greatest of all crimes. The one that gets people assassinated so often that people aren’t surprised when it happens anymore: I participated in speaking out against oppression.
Arundhati Roy, Sydney Peace Prize Winner
Protests in Sydney, Australia on April 6, 2016 the Historic First International Protest Against Salvation Army taking place in multiple countries on the same day.
To be exact I participated in the historic and first international protest against the Salvation Army as we desire nationwide to have our constitutional rights and we desire worldwide to have human rights. I moved in about 5 months ago but exactly one week after the protest they told me I had to leave in a fraudulently backdated Three Day Notice to Quit.
In the United States the right to petition is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which specifically prohibits Congress from abridging…
“the right of the people…to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.“
This article I am writing is a petition to the US Government asking for a Federal Investigation of Salvation Army Bell Shelter (Bell Shelter) and especially the Veterans Administration who are supposed to protect us from the illegal activity at Bell Shelter.
To fully understand Salvation Army Bell Shelter, located in Los Angeles County, please read a passage from a Salvation Army Los Angeles County former staff member of nine years found here. His resume is here on Linkedin.
Excerpt:
“Like many organizations that struggle to maintain their original identity, the Salvation Army has lost its course and evolved into a monolithic, selfishly convenient, vertical power hierarchy, with a meek and distant commonality with the poor they now profess to serve or the original mission they were once passionate. The Salvation Army is remarkable in the fact that for the no good reason other than they profess they are Christian faith based, they have been given a pass when it comes to any serious scrutiny.”
Speaking of institutions that are not scrutinized by Federal agencies and thus evict clients illegally, if you are facing any type of eviction I recommend Eviction Defense Network. Amazing people. I have referred people there and had no complaints. They saved me from Salvation Army’s illegal eviction attempts not once but twice, April 18 and April 19, 2016.
As far as I can see the only international organization holding Salvation Army accountable is The Royal Commission and you can contact them about Salvation Army crimes on their contact page here.
As an African-American it is worth noting that the civil rights movements picked up the most speed when African-American soldiers were sent overseas and they discovered that people overseas treated them better than Americans. Overseas African-Americans could drink from any water fountain but in the USA they could only drink from the one marked ‘colored people’ and that was usually broken. That is what motivates me to speak now. Salvation Army is able to be held accountable to the tune of billions overseas in Australia due to their part in abusing so many people and children overseas, but here in the USA they can get away with obscene crimes of overflowing toilets violating health code laws, vanishing clients money and near daily illegal evictions with no compensation? The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans states that at least 45% of all homeless veterans are African American.
What we are experiencing is a new institutionalized Jim Crow… visible only by the homeless who are stripped of our constitutional rights. The building they have me in now has three dryers with 100% of them broken and 2 out of 3 broken washers.
A brief summary of the major things that we, of all races, face at Salvation Army Bell Shelter under the current administration includes:
#1. Raw Sewage and feces overflowing indoor bathrooms several times per week.
Overflowing sewer photos in Salvation Army Mens Room.
#2. The outdoor portapotties that are supposed to replace the indoor bathrooms also overflowing several times per week (see video) because management refuses to have them emptied more than once per day to save money. Sometimes they would skip having them emptied on weekends (health inspectors never show on weekends) and the smell would burn the eyes and throat.
Outdoor toilets. Outdoor showers in background. Salvation Army Bell Shelter, April 2016.
#3. Clients have hundreds of dollars given to Salvation Army Staff come up missing and not refunded (audio interview).
#4. The biggest bed bugs we have ever seen (photo and two videos taken April 2016)
Bed bug in Salvation Army Bell Shelter. April 2016.
#5. A variety of illegal evictions against elderly women with service dogs (Mary), evictions against single mothers who speak up (Robbin), evictions against wheelchair users (Rodney) and Salvation Army shelter director Steve Lytle following and stalking clients off the property. Yes, following clients in his car off the property many blocks away. (Video Petition) — http://tinyurl.com/videopetition or https://youtu.be/6RLZzJGk7W4 This video is in solidarity with the Boycott Workfare movement (see BoycottWorkFare.org) against Salvation Army’s unpaid forced labor in England and the April 6, 2016 protest in Los Angeles and simultaneously in Australia against Salvation Army. BoycottWorkfare states “Already nearly 400 voluntary sector organisations have pledged to Keep Volunteering Voluntary, and over 20 councils have pledged to avoid workfare too.” The LA protest was also in solidarity with the White Shield Appeal (see www.WhiteShieldAppeal.org) statement and by Care Leavers Australia Network release: “Care Leavers Australia Network wants a national commitment to a National Independent Redress Scheme that requires financial input from all Churches, Charities and State Governments, including the Salvation Army. “
#6. Leaking roof with water stains beneath bed.
Water stains beneath bed from leaking roof.
There are a lot worse problems of illegal evictions, threats and more that we could not record.
How is this possible from a non-profit with 1.4 Billion in assets?
What is the Salvation Army’s history for doing this to others?
Mass evictions from Salvation Army were first featured in an article by the New York Times titled, “Twist in Eviction Fight: Charity as Landlord”
HUD fought against four of these illegal evictions when the Salvation Army illegally evicted four pregnant women, as reported by the Washington Times.
Since January 2016 I, a resident have worked to stop these illegal evictions. After the shelter director saw me at the April 6 protest I was given an eviction notice the next time he saw me exactly 7 days later.
Everyone else fought their illegal evictions quietly no doubt due to the humiliation of it. I will share mine as a public petition to the government because Salvation Army is federally funded. Here is my description of my most recent illegal eviction experience at Salvation Army Bell Shelter:
Today is April 28, 2016.
They tried to force the envelope with drugs on me again. The drugs are not a current prescription so there is no need for me to have them on me other than them trying to give me an illegal eviction for having drugs on me. Vicki said they would have to write me up for not taking the package. She had that sad look on her face like most of the cool non-administrative staff have on their face who are forced to do illegal things to clients by a few extremely corrupt administrative staff members.
Today is April 27, 2016.
This is Salvation Army’s fifth illegal attempt to illegally evict me. The time is 8:41pm on April 27, 2016. I was sitting in the building where they put me after the fourth illegal eviction. I just got finished talking to two women on the phone from the Veterans Administration who said they were social workers today. I kept asking them if the people who engage in illegal activities are going to be held accountable. They kept telling me they have to deal with one thing at a time...with that VA air of:
“No one will get punishment at the VA for neglecting to inspect a homeless veteran shelter. It’ll never be our fault because we are too overwhelmed with homeless veterans . The complainer is the real problem. ”
They said they would try to make things better and replace Toni White as my VA liaison case worker. I notice every time that I speak to the Veteran Administration and they assure me things will get better in Salvation Army I get another illegal eviction attempt from Salvation Army within a couple hours, not days, hours.
I think the Los Angeles VA uses an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to fixing the homeless shelter problems as is consistent with their reputation in the media as reported in the Washington Times: “Los Angeles VA shredded veterans' claims instead of processing them, IG report says."
Example:
I called Anthony Young, supervisor of the West LA Veteran Administration Liaison about 15 times from late February to April 18, 2016. He ignored me. My hope was he could help before the problem got worse. He called me on April 18 while I was in the hospital after they gave me the fraudulent backdated Three Day Notice to Quit. I made an official ADA request for written documentation of the client confidentiality policy because he and/or his staff passed on my name and endangered all who signed the petition after I was promised repeatedly it would not happen. I requested accountability and at the very least an official reprimand of who did it. He said he would not give it to me. Several hours later my friend in Bell told me they cut my lock illegally and took out all my things.
The ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind…Shred the veterans’s complaint’ solution. That is why so many veterans steer clear of getting ‘help' from Veterans Administration.
Back to Today, April 27, 2016. Two women (staff) came up to me and tried to force another package of things on me. The last time staff tried to force something on me was my April 2016 rent several days ago in an attempt to invalidate my housing rights. This time, today, they said they were trying to force it on me because they “don’t have anywhere to put it.” Keep in mind Salvation Army Bell Shelter is the largest shelter on the West Coast… at least two giant separate warehouses in size.
Photo of Bell Shelter’s two warehouses.
I told her I would not accept it. She said it had drugs in it. I definitely knew I would not accept it then. Fraudulent accusations of drug use and incorrect ‘False Positive’ drug tests and accusations are the #1 method they use to illegally evict people without a doubt. If you have any doubt about it please look at this video of Mario who was illegally evicted after a drug test. He even had a letter from his nurse stating he was clean and they still evicted him in April 2016 just a few days ago. This is what is known as Eviction by Fraudulent Test. The short video is on the below link:
tinyurl.com/evictionbyfraudulenttest
You’re strictly not supposed to have drugs on your person in Salvation Army Bell Shelter. Its supposed to be in the medicine cabinet.
I told them I don’t accept any envelopes from Salvation Army because they try to illegally evict me at least once per day. They said they have a witness. I told them I am not touching anything that they give me unless I can see it out of an envelope. They said Ms Alexandra Tostes aka Alex Tostes aka “Ms. T” , the operations manager of Salvation Army Bell Shelter said they have to give it to me. I notice a pattern that when the extremely illegal things happen the name ‘Alex Tostes’ keeps coming up. They said that Alex Tostes said that Saturday, April 30, 2016 at 10am is my last day.
So now there is a giant envelope with drugs in it (I presume) sitting in the middle of the table on a table in a room in a homeless shelter and half of the lights will go out at 10pm so anyone will take them at that point. This is like some kind of very weird movie. How do they get away with this?
I do not understand how these people keep getting funded by the veterans administration if they keep doing illegal things to veterans.
The strange thing is that they have been doing these illegal things for so long and so many homeless people are so scared, and the people who are supposed to protect them like Toni White, Anthony Young and Jamie Cannon are so negligent that they keep getting away with it.
Today I received a call from Davin Corona at Castelblanco Law Group. They are located at 10944 Ventura Blvd in Studio City, CA. I highly recommend Gavin because he was very friendly. He specializes in eviction cases. When I spoke to him on Wednesday he told me something that cleared things up for me. He said they fought against a lot of these type transitional home cases and the problem he said is that the government just dumps money into their laps and doesn’t make any laws. He said no matter how many photos, videos and recordings of the abuse that you take of the transitional housing or shelter the judge doesn’t pay attention to that. The judge only cares about health department violations. So all this time that we spent begging Salvation Army Bell Shelter to clean up was just a waste. It all makes me sad. I feel a great desire to teach people about this. This place is like a tiny ‘Twilight Zone’ where illegal things can happen and no one cares.
Today I contacted the Los Angeles Mediation Services. I submitted the mediation information. Pilar once told me on April 14th, 2016 that she might be interested in mediation. I knew it was a stalling attempt so they could illegally evict me (which they did on April 18th, 2016) but I guess I have to try. So I submitted the information on their form and after it was done they emailed me a copy and here it is:
— -START OF MEDIATION INFORMATION
Other Party’s Information
Business Name: Salvation Army Bell Shelter
Contact Name: Kyle Smith
Title / Position: Divisional Commander
Address: Divisional Office: 180 East Ocean Blvd Suite 500 Long Beach, CA 90809
Address of Bell Shelter: 5600 Rickenbacker Rd, Bell [Los Angeles County], CA 90201
Primary Phone for Kyle Smith: 562–264–3679
Email: Kyle.Smith@usw.salvationarmy.org
International office based in London England: websa@salvationarmy.org
Website: http://www.salvationarmy-socal.org/southern-california/Leadership
Details About Your Dispute
Facts of Dispute: I am a US Marine Veteran. Salvation Army Bell Shelter illegally evicted me. “I asked Officer Kyle Smith could he stop the fraudulently backdated 3 day notice to quit’ and he said “I’m not sure I want to.” He definitely was the highest ranking person who allowed the illegal action to continue against me who I spoke with. “You have been exited from the program as of today.” These words were sent to me in Salvation Army Bell Shelter in the Homeless Veteran Reintegration Program (HVRP) one week after I participated in the April 6, 2016 protest. Multiple lawyers at Eviction Defense Network law firm told Bell staff including Steve Lytle it is an illegal eviction. April 6, 2016 was the most historic protest against Salvation Army ever because it was the first time that various protests against Salvation Army in two separate countries and cities, Los Angeles, USA and Sydney, Australia, took place on the same day for the same cause. A common cause for justice united. I spoke to Pilar Buelna and I suggested using mediation. Pilar was only interested in offering solutions which she did not have to put in writing and from dealing with Steve Lytle, Pilar Buelna and Alma Martinez I know that means they will not keep their word in any way, manner or form and instead use the additional time to stall so they can utilize an illegal eviction such as they have become famous for nationwide. I predicted it in a grievance I gave her — Still, Pilar said they might be interested in mediation on April 14th, 2016. So I trusted her & they did the illegal eviction on April 18th when I was in the hospital as I knew they would. So I am once again making the attempt at mediation but I again know that with May 1st, 2016 coming up they will stall and illegally evict. Sad.
Desired Settlement: Promise to Give Appeal Info to future evicted residents, the temporary housing Pilar offered and please make a Donation to Eviction Defense Network Lawyers, a wonderful non-profit organization.
— -END OF MEDIATION INFORMATION — -
Salvation Army’s Fourth Illegal Attempt to Illegally Evict me was on April 18th between 3–4pm when they packed my things up while I was at the hospital because when I signed out they knew I wrote hospital so they knew I was going to the hospital so striking me when I was in the hospital was their method of operation to others as well. They cut my lock and took out all my things. After legal advice I reported the breaking and entering and damage of cutting my lock to the police but when the police came out Salvation Army refused to answer the police. The officer said “they said they did it, the administration did it… (he laughed quickly because I think he too was surprised that they told the truth)… but they are tight lipped about it because they said it is a legal matter.” Wow. I wonder if any African-American ever had the chance to “admit they did it” and then remain “tight lipped about” getting caught red handed when witnesses saw that they broke into someone’s belongings and took all of their belongings illegally and then did not get arrested at that point. Wow. Serious double standards.
This is a video of how my things looked before I left that morning.
http://tinyurl.com/evictionday
Below are photos of what it looked like when I came back (photo taken by a friend inside Bell who called me as soon as they began the illegal eviction because illegal evictions happen so often at Salvation Army Bell Shelter we look out for each other).
They left the area trashed. I always kept my area extremely clean.
I was told from witnesses it was Wolf, the staff who illegally cut my lock, and Ms Alex Tostes, the staff, who took out all my things. I called the police on April 25, 2016 and reported the crime to the police officer who came out.
When my friend called me on April 18th, 2016 while I was at the hospital when it was happening I went straight to the Eviction Defense Network law firm. They heard all the details and called Salvation Army Bell Shelter and told them it was illegal for many reasons. So then they decided to let me in. Instead of a bed in cubicle #268 in the building I was in they made me sleep in a nasty green army cot in a different building with no locker that was extremely cold and the overhead lights stay on above my cot all night so there is sleep deprivation. This is the same thing they did to Robbin.
They made me sleep in a dirty, hard cot rather than a clean, soft bed after I was in the protest on April 6 and they illegally evicted me.
Lights stay on all night in the area for whistleblowers. Serious sleep deprivation torture. This photo was taken at 3am.
Neil, staff member, told me he and staff were illegally ordered not to allow me to see or get my stuff so I knew they were going over it with fine tooth comb to take out anything that could be used against me. It is the strangest feeling of violation to have someone go over every inch of your most private things… and then know they have no positive motivation for doing so.
People ask me, “Do you regret speaking up for others now that you’re being evicted?” The answer is a very clear “Nope. It’s not in me to ignore this many people suffering from such blatant illegal and unethical activity. We walked around in deep pools of feces and urine in the bathroom from the sewer backing up from October 2015 through February 2016 with staff ignoring our cries for help before we submitted the first petition that caused inspectors to show up and force Salvation Army to fix the restrooms. You can hear the first recorded conversation about it here amongst a couple residents, two of whom are veterans. The feces and unidentifiable sewage flowed out to the hall to the medicine room where people get their medicine. My friends in wheelchairs had no handicap stalls available because so many toilets were broken for so long and their options were unthinkable but necessary. There are few things in life that will replace the smile on a person’s face when they receive justice after being oppressed for so very long. You can see their heart shine. The request for human rights is worth the risk of an illegal eviction.”
Martin Luther King once said,
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
I feel 97% of the people at Salvation Army are great. The administration simply have worked too long and forgotten what compassion is. Compassion fatigue is real and it turns the best people into the worst. All the staff under the administration, line staff, follow illegal orders of administration or risk getting fired. They fire line staff quickly. Thevtruth of the mattervis linevstaff have fewer rights than veyeran clients. Many of them were homeless before being offered jobs and are scared they will lose that job. I made a lot of friends at Salvation Army Bell Shelter and I feel I never remained silent when I knew speaking up might stop the illegal eviction of friends or even a stranger who needed my help. We formed a resident advocate group called the Internal Client Association so a lot of people came to us. So many people need help from crimes done by Salvation Army administration. I tried to help resolve these increasing crimes against them. I did the best I could. I have nothing but love for all people and a desire for a better world.”
We need human rights from Salvation Army worldwide.
Our flight for justice will never be chained to a homeless shelter bed.
~Love and Equality for All,
A Disabled, United States Marine Corps Veteran and Former Foster Child
