Wednesday, April 28, 2010

My HPRP Complaint

Here is my beginning draft for a report against the CDCA. I will probably edit this to make it more professional:

Wenatchee, Washington has an organization called Chelan-Douglas Community Action (hereafter abbreviated as CDCA) which applied for an HPRP grant. I believe this organization is violating the heart and intent of the federal program monies and has committed fraud and abuse by withholding correct information from the public and holding a homeless program as leverage for retaliation.

1. I applied for HPRP money as I have been unable to secure work in this town and state, and also unable to secure unemployment as for 8 months I had people tampering with the weekly claims I tried to file. As a result, without work or employment, in the middle of a custody case involving the only thing I care about--my son--I was forced to apply to HPRP money for housing.

The first time I tried to secure an apartment I was told I could apply for only one place at a time, even though I had landlords telling me they would rent to me and then stringing me along and cancelling on me last minute. Because I could only apply for one place at a time, I was stuck in a cycle where I had to depend upon the integrity of someone claiming they were going to rent me and then getting screwed over, time and again, for over 3 months. As a result, because Wenatchee HPRP did not tell me that hotel vouchers were covered by HPRP, I was literally staying all night at restaurants and sleeping outside or in back corners of businesses open all night. I spent at least a total of 12-20 nights, getting zero sleep or staying in foreign places when the point of this program was to immediately prevent homelessness. It should also be noted that I have never been in a "homeless" position until I have had to live in the town of Wenatchee and be subjected to a hostile town used to leveraging its weight. This might be the only town that can sing "I am my own grandpa" with sincerity.

I submitted at least 15 applications for an apartment and in case, was told I was getting the place and then would be dropped last-minute, and told my references didn't check out. I called the persons I listed as references and they were not called once. In this kind of environment, I was not only out of housing, but in extremely dangerous situations as well. During the time I was prevented from obtaining housing, when HPRP was designed to intercept such a condition, I was threatened, followed, assaulted, and propositioned for sexual favors.

I have never, in my life, been in this position until I separated from a fiance and the town decided to go to work against me. I was pressured to get back together with him by some and told I was at the mercy of others without him by others. I have never been refused work to this degree, after making a determined and exhaustive search for over 4 months every day, to at least 10-30 businesses per day. My entire life I have either been employed or in college full-time.

After I found an apartment, it was not ideal and my premises was trespassed on a regular basis and my privacy invaded. I had this apartment for 3 months through HPRP. When I complained about the invastion of privacies and theft, among other things, I was penalized with an eviction and then my property was vandalized the last day I was there. All of this occured during a time where I was attempting to counter a custody case where my son (age 1 1/2 at the time) was wrongfully taken from me. The constant disruption and instability created by the tampering of my unemployment claim, inability to find work, and intimidation and retaliation by Wenatchee landlords in preventing me obtaining housing, immediately made it impossible to secure any kind of normalcy as I am accustomed to. It also proved detrimental to my custody case.

I allowed Wenatchee trustees of HPRP to then tell me I had to go to a home for severly mentally disabled persons and that they would pay for nothing else through HPRP. This, 12 hours after telling a landlord who was willing to rent to me that they could only pay for 3 more months and then backing out on it when they knew I was out of my former apartment and had nowhere else to go.

When I signed up for HPRP, CDCA told me it was for no more than 6 months total and that only the cheapest studio would be paid for, at no more than $400-$500/mo. I found out this was a lie and that HPRP covers up to 18 months and that there is no cap on the amount spent per month.

I actually made a diligent effort to even examine the one place the CDCA said they would pay for and found it unsuitable as I was harassed by one semi-normal person there, and then confronted with the other tenant who was was sweet and maybe had an I.Q. of 70 but was being manipulated by some kind of guardian who instructed her to make comments to me that were hurtful, and coming from this poor woman who was wearing a stuffed bear backpack for a child around her neck and shuffling through the halls in slippers. The manager told me to please divulge all of my concerns and woes to him as he was experienced with mentally ill people.

When I complained to CDCA and stated I wanted a hotel voucher until I was into another apartment, they refused, telling me to either stay at the mentally ill person's place, or live on the street.

At this point, with my custody case of my son in serious jeopardy, I had to resort to looking up the laws governing HPRP on a federal level, for myself. When I still had a phone to use, I was harassed by some of the workers at a federal level, in the Department for Housing. I was also unnnecessarily transferred to a grand variety of locations and mocked by some employees who told me to take it up with "The White House".

I was told by both Linda Price and her supervisor Julie, that hotels were not permitted when I knew this was not true. They instructed me, last minute, after I was out of housing, to live outside. I had to argue in my own defense, equipped with some information I read myself from the HPRP section on the HUD website, and asked them to sit down with me to conference-call the HPRP hotline for more clarity about the program provisions. They refused. I was told they got their directives about not paying for hotels through Seattle's Chamber of Commerce, and that an email was sent to Linda with directions on refusing hotels. I was told hotels were only an option if I had an apartment already lined up and I said I HAD had one lined up which they said they were paying for until I was out of my former apartment and then they backed out, leaving me with nothing. The excuse was that it was "too expensive" at $1,000 to $1,600/mo. I asked why they had reversed their decision overnight, from saying they were paying for it and assuring me housing, to telling me when I was out of my apartment, to sleep on a park bench.

At the last minute I was told they would pay for 7 nights in a hotel through a different program. I was given a name and number for a landlord but told there was no guarantee he would rent to me. This evoked the other occasion of 3 months where I was intentionally jerked around on housing and I didn't believe I would get this apartment but Linda continued to hound me about it.

I put in a search for at least 40 additional apartments as well as the one she recommended. Just as I was out of hotel through their "other" program, I was told I was being terminated from the HPRP program.

I was terminated from HPRP the day they knew I was out of a hotel with no place to go.

This also occured after I began to blog about their dishonesty and the day after I got a notary to certify a Public Records Request I made for information about who, at the Washington State level, told CDCA hotel vouchers or alternative forms of immediate housing placements could not be used.


The very same day that I was out of hotel housing and after I had made a statement for obtaining their public records, I received a letter from the Board of Directors, Robert Soule, copying both Linda and Julie, and telling me I was being cut off of all housing help.

They then knew my only alternatives would be to live in the home for mentally ill persons (which is not suitable for me and is an intentional attempt to degrade me and negatively affect my standing in this custody case) or to live on the street.

This was then the second time I was promised help with housing and then told to live on the streets at the last minute, when they knew I had no other options. Instead of using HPRP monies to PREVENT "homelessness" they abused their authority to mislead me and BLOCK me from having a stable place to live. And staying at a hotel until I got into an apartment would be the most stable situation and the most logical use of monies if they were going to claim they couldn't pay for more expensive housing.

I was lied to--told they couldn't pay for hotels and also lied to and told they couldn't pay for more expensive housing when it was the only other, and the best alternative. I said I chose to get into housing immediately, at any cost, and have the HPRP allowance used up in a shorter timeframe, than to be told to live on the streets or in housing which was degrading and harmful to both me and my case. I have not been diagnosed with any severe mental illness or illness of any kind.

When I was with Alvaro Pardo, from Colombia, as the U.S. well knows, I wasn't mentally ill by state or federal standards. But if I was separated from him, I was immediately, overnight, attacked as being mentally ill. My mental illness was apparently one of those "rapid onset" viruses. It worked to the advantage of those in this small community who get away with quite a lot of corruption, to keep me from getting onto my feet on my own.


I received this letter for termination of HPRP the day after I:
A. Was known to be out of hotel housing,
B. Was blogging about misconduct and dishonesty by Wenatchee CDCA,
C. Obtained a notarized statement requesting disclosure of public records,
D. Made it known I was going to see a doctor for short term anxiety due to the harassment and abuse of HPRP funds, and the intentional infliction of emotional distress that was caused by disrupting my housing by lying about the program and not taking action to remedy the problem for which HPRP monies are designated.
E. After I applied for General Assistance for migraine disability, which they knew would ensure my housing at the place for mentally ill persons to be paid for rather than through their HPRP program. They knew that cutting me off of their program would leave only this option and nothing else and coordinated their handling of my case with HPRP to benefit the objectives of the state to put me into housing which made me look more unstable and "homeless", which they knew would work to the advantage of the state in trying to prove there was something wrong with me. Having normal housing would work to my advantage in my custody case, which is not what they want in a town where collusion is commonplace and they are all inter-related, socially and biologically.

The letter from Mr. Robert Soule instructed me I was being terminated, without warning or advance notice, because I had not complied with some of the program requirements and because I had been evicted by my former landlord even though they knew about this situation. They are aware of my online documentation of problems with my former place of tenancy and of police reports I had to file regarding this same tenancy.

CDCA did not send me any notices of what I needed to do to follow requirements. In 3 months I was on the program, they told me they were waiving the requirements for the time being and when I was out of the first place, I was told if I wished to remain in the program, that I then had to come in and fill out an update of my financial status. I was told I didn't have to attend the financial classes or meet with an advisor every 2 weeks until later.

So I went in, and filled out an update of my status, and I was led on to believe I still qualified for the program until this day of April 28, 2010, where, after being told I was to get into an apartment they told me to call about, they backed out of everything on the same day they knew I was going to be homeless.

Instead of using HPRP funds to prevent homelessness, CDCA has used HPRP as leverage and wasted and abused the program and put me into severely dangerous situations which have threatened my life and safety and caused me to be unable to attend to legal matters involving my son. They have lied about what the program covers and have lied about what they will pay for, promising to have me into housing and then backing out last minute, knowing I would be put in a bad situation.

CDCA also has attempted to shift blame regarding their management of the program and what requirements they enforce, by telling me it was not necessary to comply with these requirements and allowing me to stay on the program for over 3 1/2 months and then suddenly reversing at the last minute, claiming I was being terminated for non-compliance rather than admit this is their problem and fault, not mine. The record shows that on more than one occasion, CDCA preferred to have me homeless by being misled up until the last minute, rather than preventing this.

The HPRP program is designed to immediately prevent homelessness which would occur "but for" HPRP.

The information I received from CDCA, and from the State of Washington (apparently) contradicts the information available online at the federal HUD/HPRP site. Through fraud, dishonesty, and mismanagement, CDCA abused the HPRP grant, knowing I would be put in a bad situation, and knowing how this endangered my safety in the past and caused distress.

2. I know because I am personally involved. I read the federal rules and they contradict what I'm being told.

3. This misconduct has been ongoing since December 2010.

4. $8,000 or more. I believe CDCA initially committed fraud by accepting me as a recipient of the grant monies and then claiming it was for only 6 months at $500 (at most). The truth was that it is allowed up to 18 months, or up to $8,000 or so. Six months at $500 comes to $3,000. What would were they going to do with the rest of the money?

5. The misconduct is ongoing and accruing. They know there are no other housing options for me in this town and therefore know that by cutting me off of HPRP I cannot afford to live anywhere other than the streets or at this place for mentally ill persons where they wanted me to go even if I had HPRP funding. Which is also, coincidentally, immediately next door to an adversarial law firm which I have legal claims pending against.

6. They lied about getting me into housing and what they would cover, and told me to sleep on the streets or to go into a situation which they knew already to be harmful and dangerous to me. Alternately, they lied to keep me out of stable housing to put me in a more unstable form of housing which would prejudice my custody case and reputation.

7. They attempted to cover for their misconduct by blaming me, and they did this to me in retaliation for what I was writing and publishing about them on my blog. They also did this in order to force me to rely upon General Assistance funds which I newly applied for on April 22, 2010, and which they knew would only cover the housing for extremely mentally ill persons which they knew I already found unsuitable and degrading and when they knew I was subjected to harassment on the first walk-through.
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I submitted my complaint, which they wouldn't accept no matter how I entered the "time", until I used fucking military time.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

that's as honest as i'm a vedran empress

Anonymous said...

Well, similar problem with HPRP happened to ME. I found myself in danger of losing my home after my offices closed, laying off 100+ executives (including me). I lived on unemployment which was not sufficient to cover my rent. The HPRP was intended to be my saving grace from homelessness. Long story short, the administrating agency did NOT pay the rents (for up to 18 months) as agreed and my landlord evicted me, placing me on the streets.

An executive who lost their job on the streets? THIS IS REALITY!

These "administrating" agencies abuse the program funds and advocate to place individuals in homeless shelters rather than in reasonable and secure housing that the program was designed to secure. They fabricate reports to HuD to obtain the funds then use these funds for purposes the program was not intended to cover, including paying executive directors 6 figure salaries to "administer" the program and to hire non-existent case managers.

I'm once again facing homelessness as the administrating agency failed to pay the rent. The excuse was that I was terminated from the program due to my willful refusal to comply with their program requirement of physically applying at 10 or more per week minimum wage jobs. Here I am taking in $390 per week on unemployment, previously making my own 6 figures per year; and this agency states I need to take a minimum wage job at $240 a week (before taxes) to remain in their program. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE???????????????

HPRP is a joke and the joke is on us if we think