With all the problems we are experiencing with our staffing and proposed cuts, its hard to say with any certainty where this all started. I want to say it began with George Block, CEO of Haven for Hope in this piece on MySA.com. Or maybe it would be more fair to say thats where I feel it started, at least for me anyway. Not only was the piece full of complete ignorance about the jail, the officers that work there and the Sheriff, it had several misleading and flat out incorrect claims. Interestingly enough, I tried to comment to the article to at least rebutt some of the claims being made by Mr. Block, but the commenting mechanism on the website would not allow a post to be made. To this day, there are no comments to that piece. How convenient. When I emailed the CEO of MySA.com to complain about this issue, I never received a reply. Im typically not conspiracy minded, but it seems odd that they would not permit commenting on such a blatantly ridiculous piece.
Then theres the issue of MySA.com claiming to be a media source for news and claiming to have journalistic integrity. Really? Journalists fact check claims. They investigate stories and determine the facts of both sides and let the readers be informed. We get nothing like that from MySA.com, but if you want to know whats going on with Lady GaGa, theyre a great source. And so it goes...
Anyway, I was doing some preliminary digging around on Haven for Hope and found out that a boatload of money gets funneled into that place. Now, I need to say that as an independent progressive, I love the idea of helping people in need and I know that HfH does a considerable service for the homeless community in San Antonio. My issue with them begins when their leader, Mr. Block, starts stamping his feet and getting angry at not getting enough funding from government sources. His whole project over there was started with private donations to the tune of about $100,000,000. Since then he has received millions more from the City of San Antonio and of course, Bexar County with $11,000,000 given to him in the last fiscal year. The County money spigot got turned way down though for FY2011-12 with only $50,000 being thrown his way. Add to the fact that State and Federal funding sources for him have cut way back and he stands to lose almost 20% of his overall funding. So, fast forward to late August and his piece where he loudly proclaims that privatizing the jail will save money and free it up for "community investments" and "social services" rather than jails and hospitals. Why he would decry hospital funding is a question only George Block can answer.
