FRESNO, Calif. – Yonas Paulos’s advocacy for homeless veterans is driven by his own struggles.
Paulos, 56, is an immigrant from Ethiopia. He fled his home country to escape war and poverty. He said he first experienced homelessness as a child – and it left a lasting impact.
“I never forgot how horrible it felt to be homeless at age seven,” Paulos said.
Paulos later settled in Fresno, where he lived for 40 years. In those decades, he still experienced periods of homelessness. The most recent was last summer.
He said mental health struggles were factors. But also a divorce.
Today, Paulos has a place he can finally call home.
There, he writes poetry and occasionally plays his bongo drums. These creative outlets bring him peace after decades of uncertainty.
But his home is no longer in Fresno. Paulos lives about an hour south in Kingsburg, where he says he found more affordable housing.
He said rising costs in Fresno made it impossible for him to stay.
Paulos’ economic situation is playing out amid signs that Fresno’s economy is improving, after decades of its own economic instability. Fresno has long struggled with deep-rooted poverty. In 2005, a report by the nonprofit think-tank Brookings Institution broke this out in the open, revealing that Fresno had the highest concentration of poverty of any U.S. city.
The study showed that a significant number of Fresno’s census tracts had at least 40 percent of residents living at or below the poverty line. Those findings left city officials with a big task ahead to improve conditions.
Ashley Swearengin, who would later be elected mayor of Fresno, was working at the Office of Community and Economic Development at Fresno State when the report was published.
"It was like a sucker punch that our concentration of poverty and the racial segregation of our city was that bad," Swearengin said.
The report was a major impetus for her mayoral run. And after she won, it influenced her eight years in office.
"It was the first time I really saw so concretely that our neighborhoods are such a huge driver in whether or not a person has access to economic opportunity," Swearengin said.
Now, she leads the non-profit Central Valley Community Foundation. It aims to create jobs and economic opportunities in the Fresno region.
The organization has been the leading group helping to develop projects in recent years to boost the regional economy. It has sought to respond to evolving technological changes that could impact the workforce.
It oversees initiatives around the food and farming industry, and seeks to build a private donor base to sustain future economic projects.
A recent report by the community foundation showed that some of that work – along with other potential factors in the wider economy – could be making a difference.
The organization found that the rate of concentrated poverty in Fresno has dropped by 68% since 2014.
"I fell off my couch when I saw that in the draft numbers," Swearengin said.
She said she was so surprised she even asked her team to double-check the figures.
"It was the first time I really saw so concretely that our neighborhoods are such a huge driver in whether or not a person has access to economic opportunity."Ashley Swearengin
But this work takes time, some officials concede, and despite signs of economic improvements, residents in Fresno still feel the pinch of the economy today, and their perspectives may not always reflect what data shows.
A majority of people who responded to a recent KVPR survey found that most believe the city’s economy has either remained stagnant over the past two decades or has even gotten worse in their view.
Much of that sentiment is driven by the rising cost of living, particularly higher housing and utility expenses, while wages for many workers have failed to keep pace.
For families struggling to cover basic necessities, incremental economic gains can feel distant or even invisible. Progress touted in reports or statistics is often overshadowed by day-to-day financial pressures.
Richard Burrell, who launched the nonprofit Live Again Fresno, said the economic needs are real.
His nonprofit has offered after-school programs and free meals to kids living in under-resourced neighborhoods since 2012.
“All I really wanted to do is make sure that these kids had a healthy meal when they came from school and help with homework,” Burrell said.
Many of these students live in motels that line Parkway Drive in downtown Fresno. The motels offer a form of affordable housing for families straddling the Highway 99 corridor. The area has also been the focus of city action to refurbish motels into affordable housing projects with state support.
The economic reality is also visible on Thursday mornings in downtown Fresno.
That’s where hundreds of people line up at Martin Park for food distribution events.
Residents who show up to pick up food say economic conditions for them have not seemed to improve.
“It's really hard right now for everybody,” said Corinna Sanchez. Anthony Lopez shares that frustration, saying the economic situation in the community in recent years has seemed to have gotten “extremely worse.”
But neighborhood organizations are trying to respond.
Martin Park, where the food drives take place, focuses on providing parks and community spaces for neighborhoods in need.
At its food drives, it offers residents in Fresno’s Lowell District fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, and meat.
Andrea Barajas has volunteered for Martin Park for the last three years. She has shown up even when she’s faced her own hardship, like the death of her daughter.
“To help in the community, it is something that came naturally to me. I felt compelled to come and get involved,” Barajas said in Spanish.
Editor's Note: The Central Valley Community Foundation is a financial supporter of KVPR.
