City with Ever Increasing Budget to Aid Homeless, Ignores Pleas for Help

Barney Chapman had been homeless off and on for about 17 years until two months ago when Kate Monroe found him living under a tarp in Oceanside. But where California and its billions of dollars earmarked for homeless services failed, the local activist took action, providing Chapman with shelter and reuniting him with a sister he hadn’t seen in decades.

Monroe is the CEO of VetComm, which has a nonprofit arm helping homeless veterans obtain disability compensation and transition into housing. In early May, she interviewed dozens of people living on the streets of San Diego and Oceanside, hoping to gain a better understanding of the region’s homeless crisis.

Barney, a 65-year-old man who lost his leg in a car accident prior to becoming homeless, was the final person she interviewed. A local news station aired the video and, the next morning, Barney’s sister called Monroe after friends saw the clip and recognized her long-lost sibling.

When she first met Barney, he gave her a business card from an employee with the city department responsible for helping homeless people secure housing. Barney said he’d called “a hundred times” without a response. So Monroe and others interested in Barney’s case started calling too — she estimates a combined 50 times — but never heard back.

“He does not have a drug and alcohol problem, doesn’t have a mental health problem, he desperately wanted to be inside the whole time,” Monroe said. “If this is happening to Barney … you got to think what’s going on with all the people who aren’t good self representatives.” (Excerpt from Fox News.)