The kicker, said DeLoach, who has been homeless for three years, was that Winslow didn’t even let her keep the t-shirt she had been given before she started working for the politician, whose bio at the City of Atlanta website touts her community activism and involvement in other progressive causes.
Atlanta city councilwoman and community activist Cleta Winslow paid homeless people less than minimum wage to work on her campaign — and the checks were cut from tax coffers.
WSB-Channel 2 News and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed the scheme.
Last year, the incumbent Winslow’s election opponent, Torry Lewis, recorded two homeless people on cell phone video doing clean-up work in Winslow’s district.
They were wearing Winslow campaign t-shirts while also passing out campaign fliers for Winslow’s re-election.
Winslow allegedly used the t-shirts as a sort of uniform for her homeless employees.
“She said, ‘Once I give you this shirt you’ll be part of my campaign and you’ll be working for me,’” another homeless person, Samantha DeLoach, told WSB-Channel 2.
WSB-Channel 2 and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution used open records requests to obtain financial records of Winslow’s spending. The records showed that Winslow used taxpayer funds to pay six homeless people.
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