Investigating Hadassah Robeson’s Gan Rivkah Center Part 5: Selling Donated Goods, Using Disabled Residents For Profit, Turning On Volunteers

 

To catch up on this series make sure you read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 first.

The Gan Rivkah Center allegedly gets their money from three places according to Hadassah Robeson – 1) rent from residents, 2) profits from the “businesses”, and 3) donations. We got about halfway through #3 in the last blog, so let’s tackle the rest of it in Part 5.

Huge companies like Panera Bread are always looking for local charities to donate to and don’t have the time to research who’s receiving their philanthropy.

But on top of the monetary donations the GRC gets from places like TJ Maxx, they also get lots of supplies from regular people who donate clothing, refrigerators, or whatever else she claims residents need. However, there’s no organization and bags of donated clothing and goods sit outside for weeks at a time. We’ve spoken with people who donated only to drive by the house three weeks later and see their bags rotting on 16 Cedar Street’s front porch.

The fact of the matter is that the GRC doesn’t really need many supplies in the house because there isn’t much room to move around with 20 something beds in a 3 bedroom floor of a house. Here’s a video of the entire apartment that a former resident who was kicked out in the middle of the night sent us.

As you can see, they can’t fit much else in there. That’s why Hadassah sells almost everything that’s donated to her. In October they had a huge yard sale.

The women of the shelter all worked at it, but Hadassah disputes that they were forced to. Then again, Hadassah is a pathological liar so anything she says has to be taken with a grain of salt.

Some did notice that the stuff they gave, which was specifically asked for, was being sold in a yard sale, and weren’t pleased.

I wouldn’t have a problem with this if the GRC kept accurate books. That way they could show people who donated how much money they made off the donated goods, and what that money was then being used for. If they made $4,000 on a yard sale and used that to pay off the electric bill I think most reasonable people would think that’s OK.

But the GRC’s accounting is a mess, and there are lots of expenditures for ridiculous things like court fees, cigarettes, trips to the buffet, Uber, and rent for her for-profit businesses that allegedly pays for the GRC.

Stuff that doesn’t get sold at yard sales is sold online by Hadassah’s oldest daughter Cassandra, who lives upstairs with her brother Russell/David. Check out her Facebook page and her Letgo account to see what happens to most donations given to the GRC.

(Who donates a Watermelon keg tap to a women’s and children’s homeless shelter?)

I don’t know how they’re acquiring Honda CRVs, but the backyard of this children’s shelter is literally a chop shop at times. Check out the background of this ad.

Look at all that donated furniture! None of it was used. The stuff just sits in the yard for months on end if it’s not sold online. This should not be allowed since the Town of Milford’s Board of Selectmen created a commission called The Neighborhood Task Force in 2011, for the sole purpose of preventing property owners like Hadassah from driving down property value. Here’s what they allegedly do:

Milford Neighborhood task force  – The Neighborhood Task Force was commissioned by the Selectmen in 2011, coinciding with Nuisance Bylaw designed to regulate urban blight. The task force is a collaboration between the Town Administrator, Milford Police Department, Milford Fire Department, Health Department, Assessor’s Office and the Building Commissioner. The main focus of the task force is to identify areas with unregistered vehicles, excessive garbage\junk, illegal or overcrowding apartments, blighted structures or anything that violates local\state\federal health\safety\zoning codes.

Unregistered vehicles?

Check.

Excessive junk?

Check.

Overcrowding apartments?

Check.

Blighted structures?

Check.

What else do they need to see? They literally created this task force for this exact scenario, and now the Fire Department, the Board of Health, the Board of Selectmen, and the Town Administrator are sitting on their thumbs doing nothing. Because hiding homeless people away from everyone else is doing the town a favor as far as Milford’s leaders are concerned.

Here’a another question – why is Hadassah asking for furniture if she’s already a member of a referral group that gets free furniture?

A concerned citizen messaged Cassandra Robeson to ask her about some of the items for sale. According to Cassandra she had “so much more in storage,” and told a lie about moving to a smaller apartment in order to explain why she was selling so much stuff.

This is a family operation. Cassandra, her son, her daughter, and her husband Vladimir are all participants, although in my opinion they all fear her and are too emotionally damaged to tell her no. More on that in Part 6.

She was also selling kid sheets.

But Cassandra doesn’t have any kids.

Local businesses have helped out too. Hadassah has gotten Snippetts and Shears to hold fundraising events and give the residents free haircuts.

Except there’s just one problem – look who got her hair did.

That’s Hadassah’s thirty something year old daughter Cassandra, who lives rent free upstairs. She also gets her hair styled for free at charity events for homeless women.

The non-profit wasn’t incorporated until late 2013, but the Milford Performing Arts Center was having benefits for the GRC since February 2013.

There was an wine and painting event that raised money for the GRC as well.

Perhaps the most generous organization in terms of time and labor has been the Montgomery Lodge. Again, I want to clarify that I consider people who donated to the GRC to be victims of fraud. They donated to this organization under the guise that it would go towards helping homeless women and children with pets. They were all deceived, and likely none of them would’ve participated if they knew where the money was really going. The Montgomery Lodge is an organization for Mason’s that’s renowned for its charity work. Here’s a video of several of their volunteers paining the GRC during its “renovation” while Hadassah filmed them.

The paint was free too.

Just for the record, Hadassah is lying when she says that they’re the only homeless shelter in the country that allows pets. Here’s a list of others who do the same. They also claim to be a women’s and children’s shelter, except when Hadassah frequently and accidentally admits that men can stay there too.

The Montgomery Lodge installed a new hot water heater, free of charge.

They worked with the Cub Scouts to donate blankets.

And because Vladimir is a member they’ve welcomed Hadassah with open arms. She made their 2017 cover photo on Facebook.

She used this image a lot to promote her new “restaurant.”

“We are now a restaurant.”

No, you are allegedly a homeless shelter. The restaurant is a completely separate entity that should have its own accounting.

In May of 2018 the Montgomery Lodge gave an unspecified monetary donation to the GRC after Vladimir won a chili cook-off they hosted.

In March of 2019 Hadassah announced that a second wheelchair bound boy was moving into the GRC so she needed a ramp built and began to fundraise for it.

She only raised $135, but needless to say there is no ramp.

But why would Boston Children’s Hospital call a relatively unknown shelter 40 miles from Boston when there are so many other shelters closer by, most of which probably have ramps? A concerned citizen asked Hadassah.

“She has legal issues.”

So the reason that a Boston hospital contacted Hadassah first is because the mother of the paraplegic boy in the wheelchair has “legal issues” and doesn’t qualify for welfare. Obviously that’s not true, since a homeless mother with a child in a wheelchair qualifies for all sorts of public assistance regardless of her “legal issues.”

The other boy in the wheelchair who was already living there is named Alex. I know this because just like she does with all of her residents, Hadassah forced Alex to participate in an Facebook Live video designed to pull on your heartstrings and get you to donate to the GRC.

The kid said he wanted a laptop computer because he wants to open his own business, which is great, but it’s exactly the kind of feel good propaganda Hadassah could use to get donations. Immediately there was a woman in the comments offering her one.

If she donated a laptop then that would mean the GRC got two of them, because Green Team Junk Removal in Holliston issued a press release that they’d raised money for a laptop for Alex too. But Green Team did a lot more than just that:

We collected 14 bags of clothes (more still coming in as I am writing this). I then reached out to a few business owners that I know. I spoke with Guy Oliver who owns Affordable Mold and Duct Cleaning in Holliston. Guy and I have referred each other business in the past and are friends. I told Guy that during my tour I saw an empty TV mount. Ms. Rose informed me that she had bought a TV off craigslist from a guy.She brought it back it to the shelter and it was broken and she couldn’t find the man anywhere. Guy’s response was Fred I want to help and I will buy the shelter a brand new television. I then reached out to some Milford business owners that I know and who I do business with. Bright Insurance in Milford handles my companies insurance policy. I met with Scott Ellis and we sat down told him what I was doing and he was in. Bright Insurance donated a gift card for items for the shelter. I am friends with Jacob from The Chop Shop owns a very respected barber shop in Milford. Once I told Jacob the story asked if he could help donate a gift card his response “done” and he did just that. I then spoke Vince who owns Pepperoncini’s that I know personally. Vince probably makes some the best food in Milford and surrounding towns at his restaurant. He wanted to help and he donated a gift card as well. Many of residents of Holliston wanted to reach out to the organization of Project Just Because. I met with the organization and they donated clothes and toiletries. I wanted to special on this one for the shelter.

Hadassah is always mentioning the flat screen TVs and cable at the GRC, both of which seem unnecessary for a shelter. But as it turns out those were paid for by a local business owner who thought he was doing a good thing. I spoke with the owner of Green Team Junk Removal today, and will be including more on this in Part 7.

Because Hadassah’s Facebook posts always makes it seem like the shelter is struggling to get by a group of local women decided to team up with Tony Chianese to help the GRC become better organized and get back on track. One of the women I spoke with works with non-profits for a living, and helps them stay in compliance and keep track of their finances. When they first saw Hadassah’s books they were alarmed to see that she had spent money so frivolously, and that the business and shelter’s money was all in the same account. They were also shocked to hear that Hadassah hadn’t filed her 990’s with the IRS.

But they were there to help her fix this problem and knew there was a way to turn this shelter, which sounds great on paper, into a functional place that could help homeless families with pets. Tony took the lead in organizing a meeting to discuss how they’d proceed moving forward.

They organized a fundraiser.

They came up with a plan moving forward about what to do with excess donations and trash, and they kept meticulous notes of the meetings because that’s what legitimate non-profits do.

Hadassah wants people to help her, but she wants to call all the shots. She saw these people as useful for raising money, as she pointed out in this followup email.

This group had gotten State Rep Brian Murray to donate $1,000, something Hadassah never could’ve done on her own. (Representative Murray has responded in detail to our concerns today and I’m satisfied with his response.) But ultimately she wanted to be able to decide how that money would be spent. And this is how Hadassah chose to spend the money they raised.

Teach a child how to farm in a kiddie pool. Of course she held the event at the restaurant because it’s one of the only ways she can attract business there. The event was supposed to bring in impoverished children to teach them how to be self sufficient vegans like Hadassah, but most of the kids who showed up came in BMW’s. Just like the “No meat” sign on the fridge in the GRC, Hadassah wants to use donated money to force everyone else to embrace her lifestyle choices. This event was a gross mismanagement of resources, and it wasn’t done for kids in need – it was done for Hadassah.

During this time more people were coming forward offering to host charity road races for the GRC.

And the fundraising committee was planning their next big event for the GRC – a pizza party fundraiser at Craft Roots Brewing in July of 2018.

But after the build your own garden disaster many of the volunteers began to privately grumble. This wasn’t why they were taking time away from their families to form fundraising committees.

Someone finally broke the ice and said what many were thinking in a July 18th email.

“I am a little dismayed that one day we are told that the center has no funds and all of a sudden there is $500 spent on teaching children to grow vegetables.”

He mentions Hasbro CEO John Frascotti making another donation, along with $500 from  Joe Molle.

By this time the volunteers were still being patient and friendly with Hadassah, because they’re genuinely nice people. But they also were pointing out things that had to be addressed, and wasteful spending was one of those things. One of them pointed out that they’d just raised a significant amount of money specifically to pay down the utility bills, and wanted proof that this was happening.

Hadassah said they’d only raised $400, which had been spent on the utilities, and suggested that the check to the GRC must’ve gotten lost in the mail.

Except these volunteers had been keeping meticulous accounting of the money and showed me that they’d raised over $4,000 during this short time period.

At this point many of them had decided they no longer wanted to volunteer their time and elected to cancel the pizza fundraiser on July 26. Nevertheless, an email from a volunteer on July 23 showed that their goals were altruistic.

Hadassah was furious that these women were asking so many questions about her finances, in the same way she accused me of “nit picking” by asking questions about specific expenditures in her books. She was using them to raise money, but she didn’t want them butting into how she spent that money, and on August 2 they were officially cut off after Hadassah changed the PayPal password.

On August 20 they found out that Hadassah had drained the PayPal account they had raised money for.

When I first began investigating this story Hadassah immediately vilified these women, who she alleged had been bullying her. She cried spontaneously several times while telling this story for dramatic effect. She refers to them as the “nasty foursome” and calls Tony Chianese (who sponsored her husband for citizenship) a “very bad man.”

She said it was her support of Donald Trump and Chief O’Loughlin that made them upset with her, but everyone we spoke with supported Chief O’Loughlin. (I try not to discuss Trump with anyone I’m attempting to get along with). She told me she had irrefutable proof of this, which she sent to me via email. The proof? A letter she initially claimed was sent to her by an anonymous person who somehow was at the fundraising committee meeting, but later claimed the letter was written by her husband Vladimir. Vlad barely speaks English, so there’s no possibly way he could’ve written this. Read this letter and you tell me who you think wrote it.

Those are verbatim the talking points Hadassah repeats ad nauseam when she brags about what a public service she’s doing. She is a narcissist who has to be told how great she is, and any criticism of anything she does is met with anger. That letter, which is clearly written by her, makes the volunteers seem like left wing cartoon villains, while she’s the heroic leader just trying to make life better for homeless women and their pets. We’ll delve more into her personality in part 6, which is the one I’m looking forward to writing the most.

 

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Hello Turtle Riders. As you know if you follow Turtleboy we are constantly getting censored and banned by Facebook for what are clearly not violations of their terms of service. Twitter has done the same, and trolls mass reported our blog to Google AdSense thousands of times, leading to demonetization. We can get by and survive, but we could really use your help. Please consider donating by hitting the Donation button above if you'd like support free speech and what we do in the face of Silicon Valley censorship. Or just buy our award winning book about the dangers of censorship and rise of Turtleboy:  Qries
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