FRESNO, Calif. – Rizpah Bellard’s home isn’t a typical West Fresno property.
The first difference is the animals. On a recent afternoon in her shady backyard, Bellard tended to sheep, goats and a pony. She showed off a miniature pig named Thomas, who’s learned how to sit and oink on command, as a hen – named Beyoncé – strutted across the yard in search of bugs to snack on.
“This is a peaceful place,” Bellard said. “They let me know when something is not right or if the vibe is off.”
Bellard’s a rancher, and believes herself to be one of the few – possibly the only – Black female ranchers in the state.
The house on the ranch, named Blynd Essence Ranch, is also huge. Seven-and-a-half baths. Two living rooms. Fourteen bedrooms.
She rents it all out.
The tenants here are also, what many might consider, an unlikely crowd: people who have psychiatric conditions or disabilities, like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. According to Bellard, many of her tenants were at risk of becoming homeless – or already were – before moving in.
That’s exactly who her house is ready for.
Bellard is a landlord, also known as an “operator,” through the Independent Living Association, a program in Fresno County that aims to lower barriers to housing for at-risk people on fixed incomes.
A month after the city and county of Fresno began enforcing an anti-camping ordinance, the city’s nearly 4,500 unhoused residents are looking for where to go next. Programs like the one Bellard helps run are just one of the options around.
And although the little-known program has been in operation in the county since 2018, it’s poised to play a potentially greater role in the county’s homelessness crisis now.
“It's getting somebody off the street into a room,” Bellard said, “off the street into a bathroom, off the street into a place where they can cook their food and lay their head.”
How this ‘housing first’ program works
The Independent Living Association (ILA), got its start in San Diego in 2012 as part of another organization known as Community Health Improvement Partners.
With funding from the state Mental Health Services Act, the program expanded into Alameda, Santa Clara and Fresno counties. Operations in Alameda and Santa Clara shuttered earlier this year due to lack of funding.
The program follows what’s called a “housing first model,” a housing strategy that prioritizes secure shelter ahead of other additional resources.
Locally, the ILA has made more than 150 beds available across 20 homes since its start in 2018.
Unlike many homeless shelters, ILA homes do charge rent. However, thanks to state subsidies, monthly costs are typically below market rate, mostly ranging between $700 and $1,000 for a bedroom or shared room in a house. Rental agreements are month-to-month. Prospective tenants aren’t required to undergo credit or background checks, pay hefty deposits, be sober or be involved in therapies like rehabilitative services.
Ignasio Liscano, ILA’s lead program manager in Fresno, said the program is best suited for those who don't need around the clock services, but do need extra support.
“A lot of times our operators work in tandem with case managers, housing navigators, and community supports to ensure the individual gets the coaching and the skills that they need,” Liscano said.
ILA operators are not paid to run the homes, and joining onto the program is free and voluntary.
To join into the ILA, operators have to complete a six-hour-long “boot camp course” where they learn about the legalities of running a shared home and the best practices in working with people with mental illnesses and disabilities.
To ensure quality living conditions, the homes undergo a recertification process annually, with two unannounced visits each year.
Liscano said their assessment process is on a par with the county’s own housing code enforcement. Tenants can send in anonymous tips to flag any issues inside the homes, or can submit a complaint to the county Department of Behavioral Health.
For Bellard, the value of offering housing outweighs the financial benefits for her.
“It's not a business where I'm in it to make money…You can't make money off of housing poor people. I just want to help people,” Bellard said. “They need to be rehabilitated back into society…They need to go to the movies. They need to get their haircut. The way these homes operate is that we have allowed them a space where they can make those decisions for themselves.”
Could these homes be a widespread solution for the unhoused?
Social science research generally seems to show the housing first model can help connect unhoused people with stable housing as well as health-related services. But other analyses warn rising housing costs make the program too expensive.
Fresno County officials contacted the ILA in 2018 after receiving numerous complaints about living conditions in shared homes and other room-and-board facilities.
Since bringing ILA homes into the county, Deputy County Administrative Officer Amina Flores-Becker said such complaints have dropped significantly.
Although she said the county doesn’t view this form of housing as a means to solve the problem of homelessness, it can be an effective way of educating landlords on how to better serve people with mental health conditions and disabilities.
“[The] ILA can facilitate landlords and tenants through that process,” Flores-Becker said. “But they don't increase inventory. They don't increase housing.”
Flores-Becker also warned that stricter requirements under recently-passed legislation like Prop. 1 could impact how funding for homeless and mental health services in local jurisdictions is used. She said the county is conducting a “deep dive” into the new requirements and how they affect state-funded contracts, including the ILA.
Some homelessness advocates have also raised concerns of insufficient third party oversight of living conditions in ILA homes, as well as rents that remain prohibitively high even if they are lower than market rate.
“If you want to help the homeless…financial stability is the problem,” said Dez Martinez of the homelessness-focused nonprofit We Are Not Invisible. “We need people that are going to charge half [of what they already are]. Charging over 50% of somebody's income, that's not right.”
Tenants say the ranch helps them ‘be a brand new person’
Residents at Blynd Essence Ranch say the arrangement – and the home’s calming environment – have helped them overcome tough times.
“I like the quietness. I have my own space, my own room,” said Steve, a long-term resident at the ranch who requested that KVPR not share his full name for safety concerns.
Steve is an autistic transgender man with fetal alcohol syndrome.
Two years ago, he was at risk of becoming homeless after his caretaker couldn’t provide the resources he needed. For a time, he says he lived in hotels. Now, at the ranch, his favorite thing to do is to watch Thomas the pig graze.
“When I [go] outside and I feel nervous, they help me with my anxiety,” Steve said.
Before Jerry Rodriguez moved in, he had lived on the streets for years after becoming estranged from his family. He says the ranch helped him become stable after battling addiction.
He’s hopeful he’ll be able to return to his family soon.
“It's peaceful, it's easy to start your life again,” Rodriguez said. “I could be a brand new person and then go back home.”
