If you understand that ‘homelessness’, like most social services, is one big scam meant to enrich ‘providers’ and empower radicals, then this won’t come as a huge surprise to you when this keeps happening.
The former head of a San Francisco homelessness services nonprofit, who has been accused of misappropriating more than $1.2 million in public funds, was charged Monday with nine felonies.
Gwendolyn Westbrook, 71, former CEO of the United Council of Human Services, faces charges that include misappropriation of public funds, grand theft, and filing four years of false tax returns.
Westbrook’s arrest caps years of scrutiny of UCHS. The Bayview Hunters Point organization, which previously operated under the name Mother Brown’s Kitchen, provides meals and shelter to tens of thousands of low-income and homeless residents. A LinkedIn profile for Westbrook says she began working at the organization in 2003.
According to the lawsuit, Westbrook allegedly told staff about purchasing and paying off vehicles, including a Tesla for herself, a Jeep Renegade for a close family friend, and two vehicles for cousins, while also giving an Infiniti SUV to a niece. Other expenses alleged in the complaint include “a trunk full of high-priced jewelry” driven around by Westbrook and obtained from one of the nonprofit’s board directors.
Who among us has not driven “a trunk full of high-priced jewelry” around to help the homeless?
The Chronicle reported on a lawsuit that alleged Westbrook had doubled her own salary, and that “current and former employees were aware of her buying a new Tesla, giving her Infiniti sport utility vehicle to her niece, buying vehicles for a close family friend and her cousins and vacationing in Aruba.”
There’s a plan. Just send the homeless to Aruba.
But let’s be fair here. Gwen here was allegedly making off with pocket change. Especially by California standards.
An audit of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), which gets money from the city, county and the federal government, found that it couldn’t account for $2.5 billion in spending. It also illegally refused to release information about $800,000 in payouts over abuses at the agency.
LAHSA CEO Va Lecia Adams Kellum, a crony of Mayor Karen Bass, who was being paid $430,000 a year, blamed the problems on COVID, and claimed that the billions spent with no paper trail or receipts were “an essential investment that contributed to achieving critical public health and service delivery outcomes.” That may have included the multi-million dollar contract she had signed with her husband’s nonprofit. A spokesperson claimed that she had only “inadvertently” signed the contract.
That’s $2.5 billion with a ‘B’. You can buy a lot of Teslas with that kind of money.
