Controversial shelter goes underground Controversial shelter goes underground (May 07, 2004)

Use of site for donated cars raised conflict with city laws

By Grace Rauh

A man long believed to be operating an illegal car lot that he claimed paid the bills for a battered women's shelter has abandoned the property, but he told the Voice last week he has gone underground to continue his work.

Gary Kegel, whose Web site, www.cars4care.org, implies that proceeds from car sales provide housing for battered women, said that he continues to operate at an undisclosed Mountain View location, although it is not clear if he is offering women shelter anywhere in the community.

"We were chasing this guy out of town. We were getting ready to prosecute him," said City Attorney Michael Martello. Kegel operated his former car lot at 1950 Leghorn St. on land not zoned for car sales and believed the city was trying to evict him.

"The city is chasing us, OK?" Kegel said. "We were forced underground by the city of Mountain View."

Still in operation

Without his car lot and the three-bedroom house on Murlagan Avenue that he said was used as a shelter, Kegel's apparent plan to use proceeds from donated cars to cover his expenses and offer housing to women in need may have hit a standstill. But he said the Community Fellowship for Battered Women of Silicon Valley, Inc. is still accepting donations and putting a roof over women's heads.

A Voice employee recently called the nonprofit's toll-free telephone number and left a message indicating she was interested in donating her car to the Community Fellowship. Kegel called her back twice.

According to documents Kegel shared with the Voice last summer, the Community Fellowship drew in $186,000 in revenues in 2002 and spent roughly $10,000 on program services. The remaining dollars paid employee salaries and operating expenses.

But Kegel said he does not pay himself a salary. He has a job outside the nonprofit, although he would not say where he works or what he does.

"I never took a dime from Fellowship," he said.

Changing faces

Jean Crawford, a lawyer with Bay Area Legal Aid, has referred four clients to the Community Fellowship and one of them became self-sufficient through Kegel's assistance, she said.

Based on the services her clients received -- free housing, clothing and food -- she was not shocked by the amount of money the organization raked in in 2002. Crawford said she "wouldn't be surprised" if the women she referred to Kegel consumed a significant percentage of the organization's revenues. Kegel paid for telephone and utility bills and provided housing for one family for an entire year, she said.

Yet despite Crawford's initially positive relationship with the Community Fellowship, she stopped referring clients to the organization when it changed case managers just over a year ago.

"We began to receive calls from different staff," Crawford said. "I just want to say that they seemed less professional than the first case manager."

Instead of reaching Community Fellowship employees in an office or a quiet room, Crawford received calls from people who spoke loudly and sounded like they were talking on their cell phone in the street.

"We contacted Gary about that and he expressed some frustration about the operation."

According to Crawford, Kegel told her he initially set out to serve reformed alcoholics and assist them with becoming self-sufficient. When that clientele became too difficult to serve, he changed his mission to reach women in need.

The truth about the women

Kegel readily admitted that contrary to the promises on his Web site, the women he has helped in the past are not necessarily "battered," but simply in need of a place to stay. Many also are addicted to dangerous drugs, according to a former employee.

"They don't have to have a battered women history, they can just be -- you know -- destitute. It depends on the story. If they tell a good story and they are very persistent," then we provide them with housing, Kegel said.

"And they are welcome to stay as long as they want. As long as they follow some simple rules, no drugs or stuff."

His Web site also states that Dr. Harry Samuels performs family counseling for the organization, although Kegel admitted the doctor left Community Fellowship "some time back." Kegel said he has asked Yahoo! to update the online information.

Rafael Sanchez, Kegel's former employee, said his boss took in women with drug problems. Sanchez has sued Kegel to recover roughly $5,000 he claims he is owed for unpaid wages and a personal loan.

A recovered drug addict who has been clean for seven years, Sanchez said he can easily recognize drug addiction. He noted that drugs regularly moved in and out of Kegel's shelter and the car lot.

"They got all the addicts there, all the women," Sanchez said.

Kegel denied the allegations. "There was no drugs in the apartments, that's just another scandalous story."

A history of generosity

Indeed, scandalous stories seem to plague Kegel and the Community Fellowship at every turn. Officials from the Support Network for Battered Women, another Mountain View-based nonprofit, chronicle complaints they receive about the other shelter in town.

In February they received a call from a woman whom Kegel allegedly told to sleep in a van. The woman called the Support Network thinking she had reached the Community Fellowship and told them her van was towed because it was a stolen vehicle. Kegel said his group does not deal in stolen cars.

The Support Network first interacted directly with Kegel when he offered to make a donation to the group roughly three years ago. The Support Network's development officer was immediately confused by his offer. She didn't understand why one nonprofit organization wanted to give to another, said Nancy Fomenko, the Support Network's director of community education. Kegel reportedly became very angry and hung up on her.

Kegel said doesn't find anything odd about donating cars or money to other organizations and admitted he does it regularly.

"We gave out hundreds of cars to all the shelters," Kegel said. "Other shelters referred women to us, and we gave out cars."

Kegel contacted Crawford at Bay Area Legal Aid, looking for groups that needed donations.

"He seemed concerned when he called that he had not been able to identify recipients for these funds, or enough recipients for these funds. He was very interested in making sure he had an opportunity to assist folks with these funds," Crawford said.

City hears two sides

Kegel soon had other challenges to face. The city of Mountain View gave him several $500 citations for selling cars illegally on the Leghorn Street lot and City Attorney Michael Martello was preparing to prosecute Kegel for his zoning violations.

"To me this was a completely fraudulent operation," Martello said. "It is a scam completely. ... They weren't supposed to be repairing cars (or) selling cars."

But last fall, after Martello made it clear he wanted Kegel off the lot, he began receiving calls from the offices of Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss and state Assembly member Sally Lieber.

Kegel contacted the officials and won them over with stories about the city's efforts to evict his nonprofit. Suddenly, county and state representatives wanted to know why Mountain View officials were bothering a battered women's shelter with technical zoning issues.

"The calls we were getting were pretty amazing," Martello said. "Basically, we wanted him off the property."

Pressure from the city appears to have worked. Kegel cleared out from the car lot on his own but won't reveal details about his new whereabouts in the city or the women he is serving.

"I can't get into that because the city of Mountain View is chasing us right now," he said. "Maybe it just works best underground."

Michael Miller and Candice Shih contributed to this report.

E-mail Grace Rauh at grauh@mv-voice.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.