Copy of Response Re. HPRP Misuse

I think about it now and I was harsh, but I'm tired of being treated the way I've been treated and I don't think I have to take it. I feel this kind of treatment merits this kind of response, however, Linda is not the one I really have ever felt harassed by. There are a couple who have gone out of their way in public, outside of the office, to harass, and on the day I was served with termination. That was Sarah. As for Linda, in general, at least I don't believe I would see her sitting in a cafe just waiting to harass me. But I don't feel they are treating me or this program with respect on the whole, I DO have a right to be shocked at being told to just have nothing. I had to go over rules and talk for almost 2 hours before they would even do a hotel short term and this program covers hotel.


From: cam huegenot (cameocares@live.com)
Sent: Tue 4/20/10 3:51 PM
To: lindap@cdcac.org

My situation was not "improved" because I was living with zero privacy and theft and then vandalism. It was also not "improved" when my lawyer and his firm did no work on my case and my housemates were stealing documents from my bag to keep me from getting unemployment.

It is not your prerogative to dictate or decide "how long" you think I should be on your program.

It is also not the prerogative of this program to dictate how much to spend for rent when it is a flexible amount of money which purpose is to provide housing at WHATEVER cost.

I am asking you, once again, to please submit to me a copy of the "guidelines" which you said you have from the State of Washington which you claimed do not allow paying for hotel as housing.

You know where to send this information and it should be easy to copy to me.

If you need to have me fill out a release of information, please let me know.

I also want to know what time we could meet to set up an appointment to conference call with HUD to be clear about the discretionary uses of your grant.

I'm also curious as to why you would change your mind, overnight, about paying for the place you said you'd pay for and then flipped around and said you were refusing to do so. How did you come to this reversal in your decision within 12 hours?

I would also like to know, when the goal of this program is to provide housing in a timely manner, at any cost, why you think your role is to act as a social worker. It is not your prerogative to minute-manage recipients of federal grant money. It is not your job to act as a forecaster either, but to immediately provide assistance at whatever cost, to directly and immediately prevent homelessness. If that should mean one has less time on the program, this is fine.

What I am really perplexed by, is how you were telling me to stay the night on a park bench just 12 hours after telling a landlord you would pay for at least 3 months. How is it, that you came to your park bench decision? I am really curious, because I'm wondering if you maybe think the point of the money is to punish people who have run-ins with landlords that are well-known in the community. Or maybe it's that you like to have mothers who are fighting your local lawyers and state workers on corruption, in a custody case...well, maybe it puts some padding in your pocket to tell these mothers to go live outside in an alley rather than in a decent house. Because I am thinking this looks really good to a court and is a surefire way of helping a mother or parent to be established before an important hearing date that is coming up, for which she would need to prepare.

I am sort of thinking, Hmmm...Community Action was withholding money and telling me to live outside...I don't know. I'm thinking this is the perfect solution for spreading the money out because God knows you might be able to pay some city councilor maybe $5 a night to let me sleep on a parkbench. For $5 maybe he'd even throw in some cardboard too. I'm sure you could stretch the money out for at least 10 years that way.

If I remember correctly, you weren't even honest in the beginning about what this program covers. You were telling me it was for $300/mo. housing and only for 6 months. What would you have done with the rest of the money? I had to find out through others that it's many thousands and can be used up to 18 months, IF NECESSARY.

Straighten your shit out or get out of public service.

Thank You.

Cameo

Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:06:35 -0700
Subject: Housing Program
From: lindap@cdcac.org
To: cameocares@live.com

Good Afternoon Cameo
The point of this program is to assist people with rent and help them become self sufficient so they can take care of themselves and pay their own rent at the end of their program. Guidelines for the program is to meet with your case manager every two weeks, to attend the money smart classes for 9 weeks, and to work towards self sufficiency so one can support themselves at the end of the program.

The rents must meet rent reasonableness standards and our guidelines state that we will use fair market rents set by the local Housing Authority and look at the income coming into the household so that the unit will be affordable to the family after the program subsidy is done. A Studio is $509.00, 1 bedroom is $539.00, and a 2 bedroom is $681.00 we can go a little higher than those amounts by about $50 - $100.00 depending on whats available in the area.

I will give you any rental information that I can as I find it but you will also have to continue to search. We did see a few 1 & 2 bedroom units in the Wenatchee World on line that you might want to check out.

You have been on the program for 3 1/2 months and have not improoved your situation so we want to be able to assist you for longer than 3 more months because you need longer to get things completed.

--
Linda Price
Housing Program Director
Chelan-Douglas Community Action Council
620 Lewis Street
Wenatchee, WA 98801
509-662-6156
509-662-1737 FAX
http://www.cdcac.org/