The paragraphs that follow are for the eyes only of Manny Fialkow, A. J. Robinson and Horace Sibley. If you are not one of these gentlemen or the representative of one of these men, I ask you to read no further.
Mr. Fialkow, we have never met. I have seen you on television; however, I do not believe I would recognize you. I was not present when a real estate agent took you through our building some momths ago. My men at the Pine said to me that you said in their hearing that you “bought” the building to make money. My sources tell me you told the truth, that once.
Mr. Robinson, I have not had the privilege of being introduced to you. I feel that I know you, however, as I was present at your deposition at Troutman, Sanders in February. I have read every word, several times, of all your words. If we met in church or at a Braves game, I believe I would know you.
Mr. Horace Sibley, I know you only at the Art Studio on Peachtree Pine. It was there that you told me whenever the Task Force has no friend, we could count on you as the Mayor’s Chair of her commission to be a true friend. I watched your lovely daudhter paint many men at Peachtree Pine. You displayed seven of those exquisite portraits at Atlanta Kiwanas where I was a member. You didn’t bother to mention Peachtree-Pine until I asked from the audience their place of origin. Only then did you mention the work of the Task Force. Believe me, I do not crave your mention.
I appeal to the three of you for justice. JUSTICE is best defined by scholars such as Walter Brueggemann and Rabbi Abraham Heshel as “giving back to the people what is rightfully theirs.” It would be so easy. The millions of dollars blocked illegally that the HUD investigation will reveal, very soon, could be repaid today by any of you. Based on Deuteronomy 15 and all of the Hebrew prophets, you could pay this, and you all three may be Scot free.
The City of Atlanta could have played it differently. No one at Peachtree-Pine wanted the shelter to be so big. It was and is so huge because the need is so huge. Our board, our staff, God bless them, (several of them work at your model Gateway,) didn’t get out on the streets and beg destitute people to come into PP. They came. We welcomed them. And you Horace and your minions criticized PP for not doing a good job. We couldn’t pay our bills because you had ravaged our contracted funds. Ethical Debi named the shelter at Peachtree Pine “abysmal.” We do word studies explaining how brilliant Starnes has become. She’s not been in the place for years, yet, she knows our every condition. Same as Manny with his “three toilets working and feces on the bathroom floors.”
Manny, A. J. abandon the neighborhood pressure, abandon the Peachtree Corridor worship centers, abandon what you treasure and grasp what REALLY matters. You can have the joy of returning what you have stolen As an elderly gentleman who will welcome you when you become homeless, I plead your hearts to respond. Please, love and it will be returned to you.
James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16
May 26,2010
A Strange Thing Happened In Deuteronomy
May 26, 2010
Have you ever wondered how the CANON folks let some things in the Bible? I have wondered more what churches and synagogues and mosques do with Deuteronomy and other teachings in all scriptures that the peddlars of doctrine “swear” by. Can you imagine that “two coat” thing in the FIRST church or the MEGA thing or the SYNAGOG next Sabbath or next Sunday in Atlanta?
Did the formers of the CANON intend for Deuteronomy 15.4-10 to be in holy writ? Did they dream that anyone who has his wits about him would ever heed such teachings. For the twenty-first century Jewish business person in Atlanta, the content of the following passage surely has no relevance. I’m sure his rabbi could help her or him out of that dilemma. For the twenty first century Christian business person in Atlanta, the content of this passage does not apply. I can’t imagine my bishop holding any Episcopalian to such drivel. Besides, that’s in the Hebrew Bible. As a “Christian” business man said to me when I quoted Jeremiah,” I’m a New Testament Christian.” I bit my lip. I thought, “Jesus tells this business man if he has two coats, he’s mandated to give one of them to that bum that he loaths.” And if that’s not enough, Let his Jesus take him to the widow who gave ALL that she had. She followed two big donors who according to Jesus had given out of their ABUNDANCE. She gave all she had. This was one of three times in the New Testament, for the New Testament Christians, that Jesus was beside himself with unbridled joy.
Wouldn’t it be fun to ask God if Deuteronomy 15.4-10 applies to any one, to any church, to any synagogue, to any mosque, to any civic organization, to the Boy Scouts of America, to Jim Beaty, to Peggy Denby, to Bruce Gunter, to A. J. Robinson, to Manny Fialkow, aka Fanny Fiasco. Surely this brutal passage doesn’t apply to any of us.
Deuteronomy 15. 4-10 (New American Standard Version)
“However, there will be no poor among you, since the Lord will surely bless you in the land which the Lord is giving you as an inheritance to possess, if only you listen obediently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all this commandment which I am commanding you today. For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.
If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.
Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near, and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the Lord against you, and it will be a sin in you. You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all your ubderstandings.
For the poor will never cease to be in the land,; therefore, I command you saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.”
Note: I need not add to the words of the fifth book of the Pentateuch. They speak sufficiently, period. I do not know to whom these words apply. I’ll leave those scholarly questions to the rabbis and the bishops. In the meantime I listen daily to men, mostly citizens of the City of Atlanta who are petrified, physically ill, wondering what will become of them when Developer Fialkow and Debi Starnes and United Way come to take them away from the place that for now they call “home.” They lie down on a cot, some 400, in some semblance of peace. They tell me we don’t bother that man in Midtown who responded to your blog. They say, “That’s somebody else.”
James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16
May 26, 2010
“How does it feel?
May 22, 2010
How does it feel to watch your life’s work go down the drain? How does it feel to have the bottommost land grabbers like Manny Fialkow and Central Atlanta Progress steal your building? How does it feel to have the city shut you down in the name of good? How does it feel to have no support from local politicians? How does it feel to be defamed regularly by the local media? How does it feel to have had the man’s heel on your throat for 15 years? How does it feel to be hated by the business community? How does it feel to be accused of deliberately “warehousing” helpless, homeless people? How does it feel to be handing human beings over to Manny Fialkow and Horace Sibley and Milton Little and Debi Starnes and the United Way and the jail system? How does it feel to be called a poor manager when all your funds were deliberarely cut by your accusers? How does it feel when you know there is no place for your 700 friends to go? How does it feel when the letter from United Way promising placement contains not one word of truth? How does it feel when some homeless person says you, Jim Beaty, have gotten rich pretending to serve homeless people? How does it feel when churches and synagogues and mosques remain as silent as the grave itself?
These and other questions, equally painful, have been asked in recent days. Some of these questions bring to mind Job when he looked ahead, behind, to the right and to the left and could not find God. He felt abandoned. He cried to the Lord, where are you? Some of these questions bring to mind Odysseus when he said, “a thousand shapes of death surround us.” Some of these questions bring to mind the thousands of men, women and little babies who received love for years from indefatigable staff persons being God to the least of these.
Some of these questions make me hear Sinatra singing, “Things are never as bad as they seem.” All of these questions bring to my mind the words of my Lord, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5.11,12
I was asked by a loving friend to tell him what is my deepest disappointment? Immediately, I screamed, THE CHURCHES. And my pain comes not from what they could have done for me or for the homeless men I represent. My pain rests in what they could have done for themselves: they could have been THE CHURCH.
Manny Fialkow’s reward is with him. I look forward to mine.
James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.6
May 22, 2010
MANNY FIALKOW files TRO against Anita Beaty
May 21, 2010
Developer Manny Fialkow has filed a (TRO) Temporary Restraining Order against Executive Director, Anita Beaty banning her from the 94,000 sq. ft. Peachtree-Pine shelter at 477 Peachtree Street. Anita Beaty directs the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, inc.. Mr. Fialkow’s Ichthus Community Trust, Inc. recently foreclosed upon the building.
Manny Fialkow holds the support of TEAM GOLIATH: the City, Central Atlanta Progress, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, the Chamber of Commerce, the AJC, CREATIVE LOAFING and the complicit silence of Atlanta’s religious community.
Anita Beaty holds the support of TEAM DAVID: two law firms and five smooth stones.
A hearing is set for 2 p.m. on Monday to determine whether Anita Beaty is barred from the building where she has served thousands of homeless people for the last dozen years.
James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16
May 21, 2010
Richard “We’re in” Orr is a prophet too!
May 21, 2010
Richard Orr is the Senior Projects Manager at Central Atlanta Project. He’s good at what he does. High among his projects over the last few years was turning off the water for 700 homeless people at the Peachtree Pine shelter. He accomplished this noble feat three times. Orr’s raison d’ etre is PROFIT.
Without knowing, he became a PROPHET in his email written on December 2, 2008, to Beverly Isom at City Hall and copied to Debi Starnes, the self-proclaimed Czar of homelessness in Atlanta. Upon learning that the water was OFF at the “abysmal” (Starnes) Peachtree Pine, Orr wrote, “Beverly, Has anyone from the Mayor’s office talked with Rhonda Cook to let her know there’s a plan to take the shelter folks if it closes.” Then Orr wrote prophetically, “Anita is going to win this one the way it’s spinning now.”
Orr explained in other e-mails that reporters are going to ask what other places and businesses have delinquent water bills. And his TEAM GOLIATH better have a response. When Orr wrote this e-mail in his warm office that December afternoon, he could not have imagined that Washington attorneys would read his subpoenaed e-mails and his deposition taken on February 22, 2010. In his wildest nightmare he would not have dreamed that he and Central Atlanta Progress and his pals at City Hall would be the focus of a mammoth investigation by Washington HUD. In the complaint CAP is named as part of the 14-year media campaign to shut down the Task Force.
Orr earned his middle name “We’re in” as he exclaimed that Rhonda Cook was on her way to sit with him to be filled in on what to write in the Atlanta Journal Constitution. His other middle name comes from his e-mail to Beverly Isom asking about the “crap” in Dr. Chuck Steffan’s Op-Ed piece that miraculously reached the pages of “The Narrow.” The rock of Rock Hill knows crap when he sniffs it unless, of course, it’s CAP crap.
Richard “We’re in” “Crap sniffer” Orr is A. J. Robinson’s little Goebbels, and he became a prophet that cold December day when he predicted who is going to win. Good night Rich! Good night A. J! Good night Manny! Good night Milton! Good night Chuck Berry! Good night Chuck Steffan.
Do you remember the Chuck Berry hit in which he sang, “by-pass Rock Hill”? Why would he do that? Would he by-pass Central Atlanta Progress or Atlanta Downtown Improvement District?
James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16
May 21, 2010
The Nazis and the German Church
May 20, 2010
When Hitler’s Gestapo troops broke into buildings, shops, houses and synagogues to remove the Jews, the German Church was close at hand. One third of the national church called itself the “German Christians.” They hailed Adolf Hitler as a gift from God. Some of the German Christian pastors wore the swastika on their vestments during worship services.
A second third of the churches removed themselves only to teach and preach the Bible, carefully avoiding any negative voice against the atrocities of the state. The remaining third, if that much, opposed Hitler’s regime. Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s tiny Confessing Church was a part of this third group.
DIETRICH BONHOEFFER, CALLED BY GOD, by Elizabeth Raum, published in 2003, describes the church in Germany during the rise of Hitler as follows,
“Of the eighteen thousand Protestant pastors in the mid-1930s, about a third became strong supporters of the German Christian movement. Another stood by watching, waiting, and hoping that they could avoid political entanglements. These pastors felt that their job was to preach and teach the Bible, not to become involved with the affairs of the world. Another third sought to return the church to its traditional values and realized that to do so, they must speak out against the teachings of the German Christians. As time went on, the balance shifted until the voice of the true church was a distant whisper” (Raum 64).
These days are filled with “people” coming to Peachtree Pine to “help” the men by trying to remove them from their home, the place Czar Debi Starnes labeled “abysmal” and the place Horace “Sinon” Sibley said all 700 men captured there are “chronically homeless.” Please note how perfectly the Starnes/Sibley descriptions fit their ten year plan to seize the Peachtree Pine property.
Where is the church, mosque and synagogue leadership along the Peachtree Corridor as Emanuel “God with us” Fialkow’s smoke screen blows the same yarn that the conspirators have spewed for years. Now developer Fialkow is the instrument, the tool being used to accomplish two goals: seize the property and remove the African American from downtown.
James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16
May 20, 2010
Elizabeth Raum’s DIETRICH BONHOEFFER, CALLED BY GOD was published in 2003 by The Contiuum International Publishing Group, Inc., New York. The following paragraph is quoted from her Chapter 8, “Speaking Out – 1933.”
“Far more important and inflammatory were Dietrich’s suggestions that it was the church’s responsibility to assist the Jews and, if necessary, to take action against the state. Whenever Dietrich spoke openly in sermons or lectures or wrote articles that disagreed with Hitler’s government, he knowingly placed himself in danger, but his conscience would not allow him to be quiet. One of his most often quoted Bible passages — “Speak out for those who cannot speak” (Proverbs 31:8) — drew attention to the plight of the voiceless Jews. Among his church colleagues, Dietrich seemed alone in his understanding that anti-Semitism would ultimately destroy a people and a nation. Dietrich believed that the church could not support Hitler and remain Christ’s church. He believed that the church must participate in the activities of the world and support all who suffer injustice and discrimination.” (Raum 66-7)
Note: Is there any doubt where on Peachtree Street Pastor Bonhoeffer would be standing today?
James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16
May 19m 2010
Nobody “bullies” a Corporation – Not Even Horace “The Bully” Sibley
In his CREATIVE LOAFING blog essay entitled, “Siege mentality,” Scott Henry writes the following sentence, “Jim Beaty, meanwhile, accuses Horace Sibley, former chairman of United Way Regional Commission on Homelessness, for bullying the Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta’s largest Episcopal church, into pulling its support for the Task Force.”
I must correct the rarely if ever completely correct Henry. I never accused Horace “Sinon” Sibley of “bullying” the Cathedral of St. Philip into pulling its support. I did state what Sibley admitted reluctantly in his deposition on January 10, 2010, that he had spoken with a female, the Chair of the outreach committee at St. Philip’s Cathedral. I would add that I believe that Sibley “lunched” with ministers from St. Philip’s. I can’t prove that he lunched with ministers; however, the old parish grapevine tells me so.
Sibley’s other middle name in addition to “Sinon” is “The Bully.” Horace Sibley bullies homeless women when he scolds them with their children standing at their side. He tells them they have been homeless too long. Sibley doesn’t bully St. Philip’s Cathedral; he can’t bully a corporation.
Scott Henry, the top writer at CL closes his article with a quote and a prediction, “Nothing has changed since the days of the ‘negro removal laws’ of the ‘50s and ‘60s,” Hall adds. Then REPORTER Henry wrote the following, It’s a safe bet to expect more such rhetoric when Anita Beaty convenes a shelter press conference Thursday at 1 p.m.”
Henry quotes Attorney Steve Hall, calls Hall’s words “rhetoric” and uses the Henry-inserted word, “rhetoric” to blast the press release forthcoming. Is that reporting? I see it as blogging alongside Steve “The Weasel” Visser and Rhonda “the whole truth” Cook.
James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16
May 14, 2010
The Conspirators — City of Atlanta, CAP, ADID – the laws they broke, for starters
The HOUSING DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINT filed by the Washington law firm, Relman, Dane and Colfax, on March 26, 2010, with HUD, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development contains countless telling details, some of which will never be published in the Siamese sisters, AJC or CREATIVE LOAFING.
First, the three parties accused of breaking federal laws are called “respondents.” The respondents are listed as the City of Atlanta, Central Atlanta Progress (“CAP”) and Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (”ADID”).
One person from each of the respondents is “served.” The person “served” at the City of Atlanta is Kasim Reed, Mayor. The person “served” at CAP is Paul B. Kelman, Executive Vice President and Registered Agent. The person “served” at ADID is Paul Kelman, Vice President and Registered Agent.
The alleged violations under “Parties and Legal Claims” are as follows. I quote directly from the filed Complaint:
“The Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless (“Task Force”) alleges that, in the administration of its federal housing and community development funds, the City of Atlanta, (“City” or “Atlanta”) has, on the basis of the race , color and/or disabilities of the Task Force’s clients: (1) made housing unavailable, in violation of 42 U.S.C. §3604(a); (2) discriminated in the provision of services or facilities in connection therewith, in violation of 42 U.S.C.§3604(b); (3) intimidated, coerced and interfered with the business affairs of the Task Force because of its fair housing advocacy on behalf of its residents, in violation of 42 U.S.C. §3617; (4) violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and regulations promulgated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”)pursuant to title VI; (5) violated the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §5304(b); (6) violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §12131 et seq.; and (7) violated the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. §794 et seq.
The other respondents – Central Atlanta Progress (“CAP”) and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (“ADID”) – have worked in concert with the City in carrying out the activities complained of herein and have, on the basis of race, color and/or disabilities of the Task Force’s clients: (1) made housing unavailable, in violation of 42 U.S.C. §3604(a); (2) discriminated in the provision of services or facilities in connection therewith, in violation of 42 U.S.C. §3604(b); (3) intimidated, coerced and interfered with the business affairs of the Task Force because of its fair housing advocacy on behalf of its residents, in violation of 42 U.S.C. §3617; and (4) violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §12131 et seq.; To the extent CAP and ADID are direct or indirect recipient of federal funds, CAP and ADID have also: (5) violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and regulations promulgated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) pursuant to Title VI; and (6) violated the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. §794 et seq.
Furthermore, the City has failed in its obligation to affirmatively further fair housing (“AFFH”) as required by 42 U.S.C. §3608 and related federal statutes and regulations. The City Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (“AI”) fails to identify and analyze impediments to fair housing choice of homeless and near-homeless people in the central business district of Atlanta (i.e., those people served by the Task Force), and it fails to outline or to take appropriate actions to overcome those actions. The City’s actions and omissions with respect to the Task Force from 1996 to the present – that is, its discrimination on the basis of race, color and disability – are in direct violation of its express and implied AFFH certifications, made on multiple occasions during the past 14 years. In other words the City has made false certifications to HUD that it is complying with its AFFH obligations while, in fact, it is working actively to put the Task Force out of business because it wants to purge the central business district of the Task Force’s residents and clients. These claims are cognizable by HUD under 42 U.S.C. §§3608 and 5309.
Through the acts and omissions detailed herein, and those to be discovered during the course of HUD’s investigation, the City, CAP and ADID have engaged in differential treatment of the ultimate beneficiaries of federal housing and community development funds – including those provided to the City under the Community Development Block Grant (“CDBG”), HOME Investment Partnership Program (“HOME”), Emergency Shelter Grant (“ESG”), Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (“HOPWA”), Neighborhood Stabilization Program and McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance programs – on the basis of race, color and disability. Furthermore, the City, CAP and ADID have adopted rules and policies that have the effect of discriminating on the basis of race, color and disability, and that have perpetuated segregation on the basis of race, color and disability.”
Note: I have quoted the first 4 paragraphs of the FAIR HOUSING COMPLAINT AGAINST THT CITY OF ATLANTA, CENTRAL ATLANTA PROGRESS and ATLANTA DOWNTOWN IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT. The “U.S.C.” refers to United States Code. That means law.
Note bene please that these some 700 words detailing the federal laws broken by the “respondents” were not written on signs by ragtag protestors at the corner of Peachtree and Pine. The allegations were penned by lawyers in a D.C. law firm that has already won law suits in several cities who have been made to pay hundreds of millions of U.S. greenback dollars. In Westchester County, N.Y. alone the total came to $62.5 million. Note three huge differences in this complaint and Westchester County, N.Y. One, Westchester’s breaking of the law went back only 6 1/2 years. Atlanta’s goes back 14 years. Two, the agency in New York did not house anyone. The Task Force houses an average of 574 every day. Three, Westchester had no CAP or ADID coaching it discrimination.
I promised that HUD would be calling. I can now say that HUD will be investigating the City of Atlanta, Central Atlanta Progress and Atlanta Downtown Improvement District . If these conspirators don’t know now they will know soon. I have and will again call this GOD’S BURNING RAIN. Scott Henry in his usual one-side “blog” in CREATIVE LOAFING mocked me and “Team David.” As a prominent academic said to me recently, “He just doesn’t get.” Of course he gets it; he’s a member of the limp propaganda squad convened by TEAM GOLIATH. And his passing over this complaint with the wave of his hand is somewhat different from the stirrings these days at City Hall, CAP and ADID.
My friend Judy told me recently that of all the questions I ask of the conspirators in my blog, her favorite is, “Does a worm squirm?”
Stay tuned, my little ones; its DOMINO time.
James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16
May 14, 2010
Mayday City of Atlanta! Mayday CAP! Mayday ADID!
May 9, 2010
On the afternoon of May 6, 2010, Washington, D.C. lawyers from the law firm of Relman and Dane filed a Fair Housing Complaint against the City of Atlanta, Central Atlanta Progress (“CAP”), and Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (“ADID”). The complaint filed with Washington HUD names the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless as the aggrieved party. Washington HUD notifies Atlanta HUD. The City Lights, the CAP Lights and the ADID Lights will know soon if they don’t know now.
Before you say, “Ho-hum, just another complaint that will die on some bureaucrat’s desk,” please read the following paragraph that quotes a press release issued by the Relman and Dane law firm on August 10, 2009, (http://relman.com/civil-rights-litigation/cases/westchester.php.) describing the settlement between Westchester County, New York and the federal government. The press release begins,
“On Monday, August 10, 2009, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote approved an historic $62.5 million settlement agreement in U. S. ex rel. Anti-Discrimination Center v. Westchester County. This ground-breaking litigation is the first to employ False Claims Act (“FCA”) to enforce a County’s obligation to “affirmatively further fair housing.” The landmark settlement combines FCA remedies with those traditionally used in housing desegregation litigation. With close oversight by a federal monitor, Winchester will be required to appropriate and spend nearly $52 million in County funds to develop at least 750 affordable housing units in Westchester neighborhoods with very small African-American and Latino populations.”
The next paragraph of the August 10, 2009 press release states that Westchester County, New York, had alledgedly received over a six-year period, $52 milliom in HUD and other government funds under false pretenses. Westchester County had falsely certified that it had complied with its obligation under the federal Fair Housing Act to affirmatively further fair housing (“AFFH”) in order to obtain the funds.
The last paragraph of the press release shows that our country has a new HUD in Washington; little ones it’s a brand new game. That paragraph reads,
“Last April, following the summary judgement decision, the Obama Administration took a new look at the case and decided to intervene for the purpose of assisting the parties in negotiating a settlement. In addition to the $52 million in funds that the County must spend to develop new affordable housing in white municipalities of the County, the agreement requires the County to pay $7.5 million as a relator’s share under the FCA (“False Claims Act”) to the ADC (“Anti-Discrimination Center”), and $2.5 million in attorney’s fees.”
The Relman and Dane firm has within the last two month reached a settlement with a city in Texas. The amount of that settlement is reported to be in the range of one-half billion dollars. I’ll keep you posted.
I have said many times recently that GOD’S BURNING RAIN was coming. The following executive summary was written by Attorney Michael Allen who represents the Atlanta Task Force and who filed the Complaint with HUD on May 6, 2010. The following is Mr. Allen’s EXECUTIVE SUMMARY of the Complaint:
“On May 6, 2010, the Metro-Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless filed a civil rights Complaint against the City of Atlanta and two business-dominated “civic organizations” alleging a 15-year campaign of discrimination and retaliation against the Task Force and its homeless clients. The remedies requested include a cutoff of federal funds to the City until such time as it comes into compliance with its obligations under the Fair Housing Act and related laws, and ceases its discrimination on the basis of race, color and disability.
The Complaint alleges, among other things, that the City, Central Atlanta Progress (“CAP”) and Atlanta Downtown Development District (“ADID”) worked together to deprive the Task Force of funding from federal, state and private philanthropic sources, and to denigrate the reputation of the Task Force. The respondents took this action, the Complaint alleges, on account of the race, color and disability of the Task Force’s clients, and with the objective of pushing the Task Force and its clients out of its building at the intersection of Peachtree and Pine Streets in Atlanta’s central business district.
In order to receive more than $20 million per year in federal housing and community development funds, the City is required to sign a certification that it will comply with civil rights laws, and that it will “affirmatively further fair housing.” The affirmative obligation requires the City to identify its own policies and those of private parties that limit housing choice on the basis of race, color, disability and other protected classes. The Complaint alleges that the City failed to do this with respect to policies and actions taken against the Task Force and its clients, and that the annual certifications submitted to the federal government were, therefore, untrue. The Complaint echoes the allegations of recent litigation involving Westchester County, New York, in which a federal judge determined that Westchester had submitted false claims about it civil rights compliance in order to secure federal housing and community development funds. That case settled for $62.5 million and a requirement that the County develop 750 units of affordable housing.
In addition to the City’s actions and inactions, the Complaint alleges that CAP and ADID were active participants in efforts to undermine the Task Force, discredit it with private and public funders, deprive it of essential government services and denigrate it in the media, with the objective of running the Task Force out of business and forcing it to cease operations in the downtown business district. The Complaint further alleges that CAP and ADID, with the assistance of the City, have engaged in a pattern of assaults, batteries, threats and intimidation against homeless people in the downtown business district based on race, color and disability.
The Complaint alleges that CAP, ADID and their respective members provide most of the $96,000 salary for Debi Starnes, a former City Councilmember who serves as the Mayor’s policy advisor on homelessness, and has an active role in City review of applications for federal housing, community development and homelessness funds even as she serves as President of EMSTAR Research whose clients are among the entities applying for such funds.
The Task Force will seek unspecified monetary damages and injunctive relief against all three respondents.”
Beaty’s NOTE: In later blogs I’ll quote and comment on the 16-page Complaint. My redneck cousin from South Carolina upon reading Mr. Allen’s EXECUTIVE SUMMARY said to me, “Looks like to me them good ole boys downtown and the Miseries Starnes have SHIT and fell back in it.”
James Wilson Beaty, PhD
Jeremiah 22.16
May 9, 2010
Dr. Jim Beaty 