A significant number of vacant buildings along Blackstone Avenue in Fresno have been destroyed by fires, ignited by unhoused individuals seeking warmth.

The recent fires that consumed the vacant Carl’s Jr. building at McKinley and Blackstone (owned by the city of Fresno) and the vacant restaurant at Blackstone and Saginaw, once home to the beloved Jeb’s Blueberry Hill, are the visible scars of a deeper wound.

These fires are the predictable consequence of the city’s shelter heavy policies, which have devastated small businesses, displaced hardworking residents, and transformed once stable neighborhoods into corridors marked by fear, neglect, and decline.

Since COVID, 50% of all businesses that closed on Blackstone never reopened. When multiple shelters are concentrated in one area, this is the outcome. Shelters draw an entourage of unhoused individuals, many struggling with addiction or mental illness, and they also attract drug dealers and gang members who prey on them.

Loitering becomes the norm. Break-ins, vandalism, trespassing, and even arson replace the daily rhythm of commerce and community life.

Local law is not silent about these risks. Fresno Municipal Code Article 25 § 9-2502 and Article 27 § 15-2729 require shelters to be placed carefully and to submit clear management plans that address safety, nuisance, and community impact. Article 17 § 10-1700 further obligates the city to ensure public safety for all residents. Yet these municipal safeguard codes seem to disappear the moment shelters are approved.

Lives, Savings, and Hope Are Lost

The story of Jeb’s Blueberry Hill illustrates the human cost. The business owners poured their life savings into their business, only to watch it crumble under repeated break-ins, theft, and vandalism. Eventually, they moved the business to Clovis to survive.

Once vacant, the building stood no chance. Despite the owner’s efforts of boarding every window, hiring patrol services, even gating the property, vandalism continued, and fires erupted again and again. The most recent blaze destroyed the building entirely.

And because insurance policies are automatically revoked when a commercial building becomes vacant, the owner is now personally responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. This is more than property loss. It is the destruction of a livelihood, a dream, and a family’s future.

Residents suffer as well, they feel besieged, trapped, and abandoned. Many tell me they feel like hostages in their own homes.

The situation becomes even more alarming when considering children. Blackstone shelters sit within 1,000 feet of three local schools. In neighborhoods where many students already face
housing insecurity, placing them next to areas plagued with open drug use, loitering, and instability is dangerous. In recent years, several middle school students were recruited into gangs.

To their credit, the Fresno Police Department and code enforcement are working hard, and some shelters have agreed to the Blackstone Merchants Association’s Good Neighbor Policy.

However, patrols are not solutions — they are band-aids. They do not address the root problem of unsustainable concentration of homeless services that draw people to the area, only to leave neighborhoods broken. Simply relocating homeless individuals to other parts of the city is not a solution.

Safe Camps: Structure, Respect, Accountability

We must replace scattered, neighborhood-burdening shelters with a model that is responsible, humane, and functional.

I have proposed to the city the concept of Safe Camps:

— Safe Camps, away from business corridors and residential neighborhoods.

— Wraparound services: mental health treatment, addiction recovery, counseling, job training, employment pipelines, and pathways to permanent housing.

— Separation between those seeking help and criminal elements who exploit them.

— True accountability: Operators must follow management plans, uphold safety standards, and prevent their facilities from endangering nearby communities.

— Prioritizing existing shelters for local students and their families who are experiencing homelessness.

A Call for Order and Respect

Raising these concerns is not heartless. Compassion does not mean surrendering neighborhoods to chaos. When shelters are placed without regard for neighborhood health, when businesses are destroyed, when children are exposed to criminal elements, when families live in fear, this is not compassion. This is turmoil.

We deserve better. Our neighborhoods deserve better. Our children deserve better.

It is time to demand Safe Camps. It is time to restore order, dignity, and prosperity to Blackstone Avenue and to every community affected by the failures of shelter concentration.

About the Author

AJ Rassamni, a longtime business owner and community advocate, is a candidate for Fresno City Council in District 7. He is president of the Blackstone Merchants Association and founder of the nonprofit Success From Within.

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