Company promising to help South Bay homeless receive stimulus checks fails to deliver on promises
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (KGO) -- A group of homeless people in the South Bay say a company that promised to deliver stimulus checks to them failed to distribute them as promised. ABC7 spoke to the cofounder of that company, who said they tried to do a good thing: Get stimulus money to those who lacked a physical address, phone or ID.
The company is now vowing to make good on those checks.
Rafael Arellano is one of many homeless people who comes each Saturday to Hope's Corner in Mountain View for a free meal and shower.
He says he was at St. James Park in San Jose last month when he received this business card from representatives of a company known as Docuprep.
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The company's website says it "decided to create an easy way for people who are non-filers and without various resources" to get their stimulus checks.
Arellano says he gave them his Social Security number and other personal identifiable information for his application.
He says he received instructions to show up near Emmanuel House, a homeless shelter which has no association with Docuprep.
"All I know is that they gave me the business card to pick up the check Dec. 3. I went there. Nobody knew anything about it," said Arellano.
Armando Montero is another homeless man who benefits from Hope's Corner.
He also says he signed up with Docuprep, but is still waiting for his check.
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"I'm not mad, but they have my information. I don't like that. They have my Social Security," Montero said.
We reached out to Docuprep and a man who identified himself as cofounder Charles Frederick returned our call.
He says a mailbox store he declined to name became suspicious of fraud when Docuprep began receiving so many checks from the IRS.
He says the company shut his mailbox down and refused to release his mail until last week. He also says US Bank is refusing to let him deposit the checks also out of fear of fraud.
The bank declined to comment or to confirm if Docuprep was a customer.
Wei E. is a volunteer at Hope's Corner. She also came to Emmanuel House earlier this month to assist the homeless in getting their stimulus checks.
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"We are very angry. We're angry at these people. We want the government or you to do something so they can get the money back to the people who really need the money," she said.
Docuprep promises they will be near Emmanuel House Jan. 3 to distribute checks to those customers who qualified.
Both the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office and the IRS confirm they are aware of the situation and are looking into it. We'll stay on top of this and keep you updated.
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