And the Youth Shall Lead Us

Theo continues his exploration of the wreckage of the Grants Pass ruling with a focus on the effects of youth houselessness, and goes in depth with Dr. Robin Petering and Tonny St. James to discuss the Young People to the Front initiative. But first, Theo speaks with Emptea about the uptick of evictions in Los Angeles in district one, and how they're taking City Councillor Hernandez to task for failing to protect residents like them from eviction.

Follow Young People to the Front here: 

https://www.instagram.com/youngpeopletothefront/

Venmo Emptea at @emptea

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Previously on Weedian House, I'm gonna make a player. If
you guys interfere, you will go to JEL.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
What if what if the interference you delay us from
cleaning standing the way, anything that is struck from them
cleaning or disrupt them from cleaning, will go to Gems.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
But I think everybody to help get it good.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
But I was trying to be let me just finished.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I'm trying to be fair and I'm explaining it so
in the case an event happens, which I'm not saying
it will, and I hope it doesn't, everybody's aware and
we're on the same page.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
There is nowhere to go. There is nowhere after there
is it. This was the last resort for me.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
I don't know, I know it.

Speaker 5 (00:42):
It's gonna be a pace because yeah, that's where it
looks like they don't have no rights to.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (00:47):
Yeah, welcome to Whedian How. I'm your host Leo Henderson.
This week we have two contrasting topics to explore youth,

(01:08):
houselessness and the effects of Grant's past.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
But first on House News our first story.

Speaker 5 (01:22):
On October first, twenty twenty four, a heat wave advisory
was given in the Los Angeles area. Here are the
augmented cooling centers that will start Tuesday, October first and
in Wednesday, October second. The first cooling center is Fred
Roberts Recreation Center forty seven hundred Hundura Street, Los Angeles, California,

(01:43):
nine zero zero eleven. The next one is Mid Valley
Senior Center eighty eight zero one Kester Avenue, Panorama City, California,
nine to one for zero two. The next one is
Sunlands Senior Center eighty six forty Fenwick Street, Sutherland, California,
nine one zero four zero, Jim Gillion Recreation Center four

(02:08):
thousand le Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, nine zero zero
zero eight, and the last one is Lincoln Heights Senior
Center twenty three twenty three Workman Street, Los Angeles, California,
nine zero zero three one. It is also important to
note that there are recreation and park facilities that are

(02:31):
open to help stay cool. Bear in mind there are
strict restrictions on baggage and luggage for unhoused people. In addition,
there are no transportation services offered to help unhouse people
get to these cooling centers. Our next story takes us
to Asheville North Carolina. There is a high number of

(02:53):
currently unhoused people there and surrounding areas. People have lost
their homes, lives, their pets, and community support. The question becomes,
are they now subject to Grant's past ruling but those
that are recently tuning in. Grant's past ruling was handed

(03:15):
down on June twenty eight, twenty twenty four. In some
Grant's paths give leaders the right to criminalize displaced people
without any offer for services. It does not say that
people displaced from acts of nature are exempt from the ruling,
which leads the conversation to this, why would they be

(03:37):
exempt from Grant's past and other unhoused camptets would not.
It is important to remember that FEMA aid was not
approved by Congress and the insurance industry will not be
paying but newly displaced the correct and fair amount of
their property that has been destroyed, thus leaving vulnerable people

(03:59):
to the mercy and empathy of our society. Bear in
mind Hurricane Katrina on House community members are still displaced
and are now subject to the Grants past ruling as well.
Our final story is inexclusive, with someone's subject to eviction
from Glassow Park with renewed fervor by law enforcement, park

(04:21):
and Recreation, and City Council member Unices Hernandez as Grant's
pass casts a ferocious and dark pall upon the city.
Empty shares their story frustration and fear of arrest touted
by council Member Hernandez office and law enforcement.

Speaker 6 (04:39):
We don't want to be arrested for not being able
to pay the rest if that is what she is allowing.

Speaker 7 (04:45):
She is allowing people to get arrested.

Speaker 6 (04:47):
For not paying direct my ki Stamus.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
We had a chance to speak more at length. Here's
our talk.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Definitely the better two years.

Speaker 6 (05:02):
And I'm like I know her, like she came to
one of our karaoke luncheons that we used to have
for the food distribution participants.

Speaker 7 (05:14):
Because I run a.

Speaker 6 (05:15):
Weekly food or bottom line, a weekly food distribution that
has been going on for over two years. She came
to one of our karaoke luncheons just as a meet
and great, you know, just like talk to talk to
the tenants, talk to people you know. Prior to that
and after that, I have been in regular, regular you know,

(05:35):
like weekly communication with Eric Garrez, but only over phone.

Speaker 5 (05:40):
And what was the subject of the conversations that was going.

Speaker 7 (05:43):
On well various, you know.

Speaker 6 (05:46):
Initially I tried to explain to them that I had
been and will continue to embrace the necessary a condition
of living houselessly as a political act, which I already
believe it is because the system we're living under literally

(06:10):
creates and requires houselessness in order to maintain the entire
concept of private property. They were all down with that
until a whole bunch of Nimbis decided that they that
the Nimbis were not down with that, and then things changed,
Our communications started to change the nature of.

Speaker 7 (06:31):
Our you know.

Speaker 6 (06:31):
They were their office and Eric Arez in particular was
not all down with that, you know, And so slowly,
then more quickly, their stance, in my experience, changed from
sympathetic to the understanding that the system that they are

(06:55):
managers of now literally creates and necessitates how houselessness, to
one where they were defending the landlord class essentially. And
what I mean specifically in my case is that they
were not transparent despite their statements to the contrary of

(07:16):
their role in evicting me from the Glashaw Park rec
Center where I lived for a year and a half
and ran them weekly food distribution free.

Speaker 5 (07:26):
You know, do you think it has anything to do
with the acceleration of Grant's Pass.

Speaker 6 (07:32):
Well, Grant's Pass has changed everything, as you well know
and have well documented THEO. I mean, Grant's Pass has
definitely changed everything. But you know, Grant's Pass is the
codification of what was already popular opinion and being popularly practiced,
and that is the criminalization of houselessness.

Speaker 7 (07:54):
And again, that's a criminalization of.

Speaker 6 (07:57):
A way of life if we can all at that,
that the system requires in order to maintain the concept
of private property. So to me, it's really similar to
the way cheap beer works. Bear with me, I'm going somewhere, okay.
You know, people can easily go into any liquor store

(08:21):
in any corner and buy a two dollars you know,
nine percent ABV beer, drink the whole thing, and then
get chastised for being a fucking alcoholic.

Speaker 7 (08:31):
Well, that's the way houselessness works.

Speaker 6 (08:33):
You know, you're definitely going to very easily become houseless
because the rents are too high intentionally because we live
in a hierarchicalized system where some people are able to
afford rent based upon their identity and hierarchical position, and
some people are not and the people who are not
able to afford the rent then become houseless and a disease.

Speaker 7 (08:56):
Is very aware of this.

Speaker 6 (08:58):
You know, her campaign was in part centered on the
eviction to homelessness pipeline. I mean she said that phrase
how many times. We could probably go through all of
her stone speeches and find, you know, hundreds of times
that she said that phrase.

Speaker 7 (09:15):
She's very aware of it.

Speaker 6 (09:17):
She started Law of defensa, she was a major component
in making sure the most recent jail that was going
to be built that that project was shut down. She's
absolutely aware that eviction happens because of gentrification, and homelessness
happens because of eviction, and she is also aware that
homelessness is criminalized. So the fact that her office shifted

(09:44):
from being sympathetic with a way of life, that is,
for lack of a better phrase, out loud and proud
in its acknowledgement of all these facts that I am naming,
to a stance where essentially they are reliant upon the

(10:08):
carceral state, not just a vict me, but arrest me.
And they are explicitly fine with that. Literally, that's what
he said.

Speaker 7 (10:18):
To me on the phone.

Speaker 6 (10:21):
No, Eric Gaz Eric Garrez multiple time, CEO, I have
asked him.

Speaker 7 (10:28):
All I want is a like an eviction date, and
I'll leave your district. I'll leave your fucking district.

Speaker 6 (10:37):
Dudes, I don't want to get arrested, you know, don't
criminalize me. And that's my specific you know, obviously you
can see I'm getting worked up because it affects me
fucking directly.

Speaker 7 (10:49):
It affects me directly. I also do.

Speaker 6 (10:54):
Community service, shall we say, in the form of activism,
and of course, the legal system does not like that,
as you can not only imagine, but perhaps have experienced.
So you know that exacerbates the consequences for my facing
and arrest. They're aware of that. They don't care. They

(11:18):
do not care. That was said to me explicitly multiple times.
So somewhere along the line that you know, this person
who began as a community organizer, a very powerful one,
developed into a very powerful community organizer whose stated interest
was the people, has now shifted to defending the fucking

(11:41):
landlord class and making sure that I will be arrested
by basically focusing on her careerism. And that is the
way her office works too. They're all careerists. They cannot
be bothered to lift a finger to try to communicate
with the police and just say, you know, negotiate in
some way and say, look, we don't want this person

(12:03):
to be arrested, and they do want to leave. They
are giving me nothing, you know, and they were not
transparent with me in their role evicting me from the
park that led me to where I am now.

Speaker 7 (12:16):
They had reckoned parks come.

Speaker 6 (12:18):
In postnoice, and so I removed, removed everything, like I
got out of there because I didn't want to be.

Speaker 7 (12:26):
You know, arrested and the like.

Speaker 6 (12:30):
Then literally that day, the day of the that was
listed on the notice, they brought in what I refer
to as hostile architecture, hostile.

Speaker 7 (12:40):
To houses people.

Speaker 6 (12:41):
I mean, they brought in like, you know, two picnic tables,
two benches. They posted like line on like four or
five signs all over the area saying and it's it
was a small area I was taking up. It's a
little mini park right next to the pool, A small area,
you know, so four or five signs, it's in a
small area basically you know, like LA MC code like whatever, whatever.

(13:05):
No lodging, no camping, no storage or whatever it is. Yeah,
so they essentially had you know, what they had done
is have a confab and decided that because the police
are the only twenty four hour service in Los Angeles,
the police were now going to have jurisdiction over this
tiny portion of the park where normally legally and honestly

(13:29):
fucked the settler colonial legal system. It adjusts itself to
whatever its needs are to control our behavior. So I
have no faith in it whatsoever. But by its own rubric,
by its own standards, reckon Parks would have.

Speaker 7 (13:41):
Been responsible for that area.

Speaker 6 (13:43):
They then just decided a priori to turn it into
a site that would be jurisdicted by the police by
LAPD using these signs saying LAMC Los Angeles Municipal Code.

Speaker 7 (13:57):
Whatever, get the fuck out, Like that's what I mean.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
Code.

Speaker 5 (14:00):
I have means because I too had lived in the
park downtown and I had faced similar harassment of the signs,
the ongoing threats with the park rangers that was initially started.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Then they handed it off to the cops.

Speaker 5 (14:14):
Still, the conversation, the question Steel begs, is you're still
a citizen here, you still have the right to use
that part I was saying that you can't use the
park like anyone else, or they're saying at a certain
time the park closes that they're going to move in
on you.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
That that is the question that I would like to know.

Speaker 6 (14:33):
Well, I mean with these signs that they put up,
you know, to your point deal, you know, they're essentially saying,
this is the Los Angeles Municipal code that prevents you
from camping, which would one would assume meaning staying overnight,
lodging meaning staying for long periods of time I assume,

(14:54):
and storage meaning don't bring your shit here and leave
it so that you know that's what they can move.

Speaker 5 (15:00):
Then well, here's the thing too, because I too had
experiences there's very unless you can condense maybe too, like
two bags or things of that nature, they cannot legally.
And this is what I was so greated with my
episode where the ACLU lawyers said, you still have rights.
You're not literally having a camp set up there. They
cannot move against you legally because you're still a resident

(15:24):
or a citizen of wherever you're at. But the issue
is is after ten thirty, that's when they started to
come down heavier on you, on people, you know, but
again they again, look, this is supposed to be but
we're operating in legal checks and balances.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
That they're supposed to follow.

Speaker 5 (15:43):
But the most important thing is you have the right
to be there as.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
Long as you want. This is a free it's a
free park.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
It's not.

Speaker 5 (15:49):
You don't have to give it an explanation. You can
sit there, you can get your ease, and then when
it's time to leave, you can take your things and
leave and then come back, which is.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
What I did for you.

Speaker 7 (16:00):
A long time.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Feel along, But.

Speaker 5 (16:02):
I had to be the well berthed because they will
come with the intimidation. They will come with a brain.
You force you to self adigt until like we can
have a lawyer to start to document it. Then that
became a different conversation. But I'm digressing. But I wanted
to make share how what tactics are they using to
make your self a.

Speaker 6 (16:19):
Bitt Okay, they don't need a reason. Let me let
me say this clearly. Okay, they don't need a reason.
We do not have rights. We are not citizens. What's more,
the entire structure of rights is a disservice to us
understanding how our enemy works. Okay, we do not have

(16:44):
rights are our negotiation as people living houselessly because houselessness
is criminalized, is at the wrong end of the barrel
of a gun. Okay, we don't have rights, That's what
I think. That's why all these people are here right
now trying to pressure her to, you know, negotiate with

(17:07):
the with the barrels of the gun. The guns basically
even more with Brant's pascio.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
You know, it's even.

Speaker 7 (17:14):
It's even worse.

Speaker 6 (17:15):
But you know, rights are dolled out to people who
are higher in the social hierarchy that we're all subjugated under.

Speaker 7 (17:22):
And that's also.

Speaker 6 (17:23):
A racial hierarchy, a class hierarchy, a gender hierarchy. We
can we can name all of the rungs of the
ladder that compose a hierarchy. But after putting in the
new benches and new tables, they receded everything.

Speaker 7 (17:37):
They reinstalled, like all of the irrigation.

Speaker 6 (17:41):
It was like a massive two day project to completely
revamp the way that tiny little area of the park presented.
So a lot of labor was put into it, and
a lot of planning was put into my eviction. You
know that the signs, the hostile architecture, the receding.

Speaker 7 (18:00):
Paint job, you know, all of it.

Speaker 6 (18:03):
And then I came back that night and tried to
re establish my encampment there, and by the morning the
police were there. By ten am, the police were there
and at the other end of a gun demanded that.

Speaker 7 (18:18):
I leave, And I said, how did you know I
was here?

Speaker 6 (18:22):
And they said, oh, they hired a private security guard
to make sure.

Speaker 7 (18:25):
That if you came back, we would, you know.

Speaker 6 (18:27):
And the private security guard called us to let us
know that you had come back.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
And so.

Speaker 6 (18:34):
That's how we knew you were here, and you have
to get out of here right now, this minute, this minute,
you know. So that's a lot of planning. That's a
lot of planning. Absolutely not co governance whatsoever, Absolutely not.
But they what they claimed is that they didn't know

(18:55):
that Reckon Parks was going to do all of this,
nor that LAPD was going to do all of this.
This was not part of their understanding of how it
was all going to go down.

Speaker 7 (19:06):
Now, I don't know what her fucking job is that
she's doing.

Speaker 6 (19:11):
If she doesn't fucking know about all the planning that
went into that, what is she doing?

Speaker 7 (19:17):
What is Eric Garaz doing?

Speaker 6 (19:19):
Like I don't know, going to lunch and habittack coffee
or something like. I don't I don't get it. You know,
I'm sure they're doing a ton of stuff. I'll tell
you what it's. It was nothing related to all of
the planning that literally went into me being evicted, and
they are wiping their hands in the same manner with
this eviction that I'm currently facing. I mean, it's literally like,

(19:42):
we don't know what the police are.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
Going to do.

Speaker 6 (19:44):
They're gonna come whenever they want. They're gonna do whatever
we want they want. We don't have any you know,
we're not going to be able to influence them. We
don't have any poll with them.

Speaker 7 (19:52):
What is her job?

Speaker 6 (19:53):
Then? Why did we elect her? She's protecting the landlord class.
She was a by the poor and working class people
who live down the hill from her, and now she's
protecting the landlord class who is evicting me, you know,
and they don't know about it. I mean, it's absurd.

Speaker 7 (20:13):
So I don't know.

Speaker 6 (20:15):
I wish you would quit her job and do more
direct action with us, you know, quit your fucking job, Innesses.
Nobody wants to be criminalized simply for existing.

Speaker 5 (20:36):
Thank you to empty for educating us on the reality
is a fourth diviction. As a consequence from Grant's pass,
you can contribute to empty at their venmo at Empty.
That's e M P T e A. We will delve
deeper in this topic as the episodes go by. Stay
tuned for our exciting guests, doctor Robin Petering and Tony

(21:00):
Saint James, who are going to tackle a very underdiscussed topic,
youth houselessness. It's been one hundred and three days since
the Grant's Past ruling has been handed down. We have

(21:22):
an incredible amount of people instantly unhoused due to climate change.
We had a heat wave in Los Angeles, and now
we're going to talk about a community that doesn't get
discussed enough, youth houselessness. Did you know that a high
number of unhoused youths are Native American or Indigenous American people,

(21:43):
people of color, and the lg QBTIA plus community. Their
voices are often unheard, but we're hoping to change that
with this episode. Let me introduce our two guests, Doctor
Robin Petering and miss to Tony Saint James. I'm excited

(22:05):
because I have finally found the opportunity to interview one
of a great person who has been really working in
these streets in getting the youth voices out here in
the most creative ways, the most concentrated ways, and the
most intentional of ways. Many times in our society the

(22:25):
youth is put to the side, silenced, dismissed, and not
given the opportunity to express themselves and what they see
in the world. And sometimes their insight is much more
piercing than the ones of my age now that have
been dulled by the crashes of life, and they may
offer new insight and new leadership in which we always

(22:48):
will need that kind of dynamic in our society. So,
without further ado, I'm going to introduce doctor Robin Petering
and mister Tony Saint James, and we are together going
to embark of a conversational journey, if you will, on
what they see into the world and their leadership and activism.

(23:09):
Without further ado, I'm going to talk with doctor Petering
and see what she has to say on her inspiration
and her motivation and getting these stories began. So let's
start and once upon a time, doctor Peter, and what
can you tell me?

Speaker 8 (23:24):
Oh man, wow, well, thank you so much. For that
introduction as really inspiring. Actually it was like wow, so exciting.

Speaker 4 (23:32):
Where to begin?

Speaker 8 (23:33):
So I, doctor Petering, I am in the CEO and
founder of an organization, Young People of the Front. Formerly
we were called LENSCO up until a couple months ago actually,
and the organization is oriented.

Speaker 4 (23:47):
We're essentially a research and policy lab.

Speaker 8 (23:51):
That focuses on youth homelessness and we have a particular
passion and commitment to Los Angeles as well.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
I would like to stop you right there, Doctor Petering.

Speaker 5 (24:00):
She's being modest, so I'm going to have to really
judge up her accomplishments because she just minimized what before.
When doctor Petering was on lens Coe, she also had
a podcast.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
You know what they call give me a hint, Well,
I won't give you a hint.

Speaker 5 (24:16):
It called Dogtown, and I was on the show incidentally,
and what she had was the youth interviewing currently un
housed or recently unhoused community members from youth in all
walks of life and asked about their experience. But the
difference the twists was it was the youth being the
ones that were initiating interesting dynamic. Cop I enjoyed being

(24:36):
on the show, and I enjoyed that it was very,
very timely, particularly during the COVID era, and most importantly,
it got the stories out there in new novel instead
of traditional ways. Because if you think about interviews, most
often than not, you think about old white men that
are interviewing and they have a certain script that they

(24:58):
aligned themselves with. And in doctor Petering's instance, she had
people of color, she had people of all walks of
life with different intersections. It was an excellent I cannot
sing its praise is enough that it was so timely
and so important. So it is a natural progression that
you're bringing you to the front is the most logical
progression for her.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
So I have to just emper her up a little more.

Speaker 5 (25:21):
Just she just well, yeah I did this, and then
I just don't want to be the end of the conversation.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
Oh yeah, thank you so much.

Speaker 8 (25:29):
Yeah, I can kind of talk about maybe how we
got there and how I started.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
I've been and don't be modest.

Speaker 8 (25:34):
I actually started when I was twenty two working as
an outreach worker at a youth organization that served on
How's Youth and Eugene organ and I quickly just kind
of fell in love with it. Just was very passionate
for it, realizing just how the system and breakdown policy

(25:55):
was actually creating these such inequities across young people across
the West Coast and things like that.

Speaker 4 (26:02):
So I'm a problem solver.

Speaker 8 (26:05):
I am intrigued and motivated by cracking the tough problem.
So that's why Los Angeles is a perfect place for me.
It's the biggest problem to solve, and that just kind
of motivated me to continue to pursue ways to impact policy,
which I ended up getting Masters of Social Work. That's

(26:27):
what brought me to Los Angeles, and thank of my PhD.
Also in social work, someone told me that research was
a really great way to impact policy and I was like, okay,
and that's what I was doing. But then left academia
to create a little bit of my own path. So
I formed a community based research company and we're not

(26:49):
a nonprofit. We're kind of professional services is almost what
I call it. And yeah, and I think I was
always motivated by honestly thinking outside of the box a
bit of like, you know, we have all these rules,
particularly in the nonprofit space, and there's those ways that
things have been done and just I think challenging that

(27:10):
a little bit of how we really like to take
inspiration from other industries, bring things in, try to push
back on some of these norms. I bet, I think
in the way that services are delivered, the way that
policies are made. So I mean, I think that's one
of the ways why we're intentionally even not a nonprofit,
we're a for profit and we want to show that

(27:33):
you can be a for profit and still have a
big impact on this world.

Speaker 5 (27:38):
And yeah, speaking of big impact, I'm also neglected to
mention that they were responsible for helping me at the
time when I was doing Leon House town Hall when
there was one of our colleagues from the show, or
actually one of our allies from the show, Gina Viola,
was running for mayor. We had people, I would say
people from the front, but had lens Cod youth helping

(28:00):
with the sound and the equipment of that time too
to get their presence known into the conversation. And I
think that's one And when you were mentioning the novel
or thinking outside the box, that's a clear example of
what they were doing involving youth into having to say,
into the electoral process, which is also unnecessary, which I
want to quickly just before not to omit or neglect.

(28:24):
Mister Tony, mister Tony, what can you tell us a
little bit about yourself?

Speaker 3 (28:29):
Oh? Wow, pressure, no pressure, following doctor p. Yeah. So
I moved to LA almost ten years ago, and you know,
like any of the young person just wanting to pursue
a career in the culinary industry. Actually so not TV
or film. But I was gonna say the Shark chef

(28:53):
for but you know, I guess that could have been one.
But yeah, so it ended up, you know, not going
my way. I think I moved here with a little
bit of savings and being like, Okay, in two weeks
I'm going to have a job and I'm going to
have an apartment. And it didn't go like that. So
I ended up experiencing homelessness and crashing in my car

(29:16):
and couch surfing for six months. And during that time,
you know, I was able to connect to a lot
of orgs in LA And I guess it's just like
I was always a motivated person in the sense of
like I didn't want to get comfortable. I knew there

(29:36):
was always this mantra in me that's like I saw
what it was like, and I was like, I don't
want to be that person who ends up living in
a tent and being okay for the rest of my
life doing that. So I was like, what can I
do to get myself out of this situation. So this
was back when they were still doing like bus tokens,

(29:56):
and you're like traveling across all this town trying to
get here and there whatever resource was made available, and
eventually I did find out or here in Hollywood. They
gave me an apartment for two years rent free, and
that allowed me to go to school, but also it
allowed me to meet people in the system and want

(30:20):
my case manager, who to actually referred me to into
that program, was also like, oh, you should look into
advocacy because I was just always curious as to you know,
how come it took me six months to get an apartment.
Yet there's still people that I know to this day,
even my current where I am today, that I still
go to certain places and I still say the same

(30:40):
young people that you know, I first met when I
moved here. So that just that curiosity of wanting to know.
I think we all have that in claning of like
you see something and you really, you know, whether it's
you trying to figure out how to remote works or
TV works. And I think for me was trying to
understand how the system worked and why it worked faster

(31:01):
for me than it did for certain other people. So
I joined several youth boards in LA and just started advocating.
And I think twenty eighteen is when I through some
of the work I was doing, and then I was
introduced to Robin and Laura and they were planning an

(31:22):
event around young people and advocacy, and it was like
the first time in this work that I was being
invited to be part of the beginning stages of something,
as opposed to being like, hey, we need someone with
lived experience to show up at this event. It was
like one of the first few. It was actually the

(31:42):
first time I showed up and someone was like, we
don't have anything planned like the zero We just know
we want to do this thing and we want to
plan it with you guys. And I think for me
that was kind of just like the beginning of it all,
just realizing that someone valued what I had to say
and what I had to say meant something rather than

(32:02):
just showing up to a big meeting at city 'all
and saying something and wondering whether that went in and
out the other year. So I think that kind of
really just like as a young person, especially in this system,
or as a young person in general looking at the
system or looking at people older than you, it's always
going to be like do this, And especially if you're
someone who spits system impacted, I think there's always a

(32:26):
voice in your head being like, oh, these people don't
they're not listening to you, or they don't care what
you have to say it, or this is for show.
And it also comes from experience of being in a
lot of these spaces across LA and just showing up
in spaces and you know, being tokenized and having my
voice and my experience used, but not knowing to what

(32:48):
end or why do I need to do this? So
for me to be at that space and for us
to then plan the event and have a successful event
and tying into the podcast was my first time being
a guest on the podcast on Hella Doc Town. Because
they were recorded during the event. There was like a
little thing in like in the middle of the whole

(33:11):
space at Colin Dowtment. It was just recording and I
think there's a picture of me, yeah, being being in
and I wanted to start my own podcast. From there on,
I was like, this is my purpose is I would
love to talk to people for the rest of my life.
And you know, took a couple of years with things

(33:32):
finally worked out, and you know, I found myself now,
you know, working for Lenscoe now young people at the front,
and yeah, that kind of just been kind of how
our journeys came together and now here we are talking
to you.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Wow, as a fellow podcast.

Speaker 5 (33:51):
Do you find it difficult because they would use you
as the measuring stick of the acceptable and house guy
I pulled themselves out and those other guys don't want
to get help and they deserve what they get or
what they deserve be criminalized. Do you find that in
that conversation or in that space. I think for me, definitely,

(34:13):
it can relate to a lot of that. But I
think everybody's experience is different from how they enter the system,
whether it's through the CFS, the juvenile system, whatever, however
your entry point, and you said it, it doesn't matter. Everyone
is one paycheck away from illness.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yeah, literally from being homeless and there's definitely a lot
of negative stigma, and I think there's obviously a whole
lot from twenty eighteen to twenty twenty two, when I
finally started working at Lensco. I think for me, the
six months of being there, it's definitely been something that

(34:52):
I don't talk a lot about often because then obviously
there's that bias of people have an image or an
idea of what that looked like, and then I hate that.
Then I go into the offensive and defensive of Okay,
well I wasn't on the street, you know, I was,
you know, sleeping in cars or a scout surfing or
a house. Yeah, but it's just like the It was

(35:14):
harder to explain to my friends, but it was easier
when I started adding those details to it, because then
people are like, oh okay. And also there was the
fact that I was a student at trade Tech, so
that's a whole different thing where I wasn't the typical
image of what you would think an housed person looks like,
because when we think about unhoused person in LA, you

(35:36):
don't think about a young person under twenty five. So
I definitely think I had that going for me versus
someone who's an adult who can be like, oh, I
experienced homelessness during my adult year. So as a young person,
it's so easy to slip by in the fingers and
go unnoticed because no one is going to assume that
a young person who's going to community college who does

(35:56):
not physically look like they're in housed is in housed,
because you know, I was on taking the train, I
was taking showers of gyms, like I had different clothes
on every day. So unless I wanted to give you
that detail about my life, like nobody knew and now
going into the podcast, I genuinely think had ninety nine

(36:16):
percent of the people come in the podcast probably do
know that I've lived experience, or when I'm talking to them,
it does come up, but I think I bring it
up in a very comitic way, or I try to
find light in it and not make it a very
dark subject, because also there's a I feel like sometimes
when I do bring it up, then somebody doesn't I
have experienced or don't know how to handle it, then

(36:38):
it just kind of makes the conversation, Yeah, it just
becomes weird. But we just we had a really good
guest on that everyone's been talking about recently Sage, who
was another young person that I met, and we talked
a lot about how you know, this for me was
in twenty eighteen, but yet there's still certain places that

(36:59):
we go too and we're still viewed, like especially if
it's like a place that helped me when I was
a young person, Like there's still rooms that if I
show up, someone might still remember me as one of
the youth that was in their program. But it's just
a weird bias where sometimes there's still people who treat
you like you're like they haven't removed you from that category.

(37:20):
So I think the conversation that we're having, or I
guess I'm trying to have, is that how do I
be in this work and be this guy and be
a host of this podcast and have this as part
of my identity but not letting it define me because
I'm past that. But I'm also like not defending, like
something could happen tomorrow and I could be right back

(37:43):
to ground zero. But I'm also like, I don't want
to get stuck in a circle of where everything I
do is defined by the fact that I was once unhoused.
But also it's like I wouldn't be where I am
today if it wasn't for me going through it. Like
you said too, if it weren't for the podcast, you
wouldn't be where you are today. So it is part

(38:03):
of my identity, whether I like it or not. But
I think it's just how I use it and if
I give people power over it or how they should
and also what they think about me and whatnot. It's
never going to be any of my business. But it's
just I think it also depends on what day it is,
because there's a day where if I'm talking to someone like, oh,
I don't want this person to know about my story,

(38:25):
and then I find another person I'm like, oh, I
would love to tell you about my story. So I
don't know if that answers your question, but all it does.

Speaker 5 (38:32):
But you also gave me things to think about, like
for example, I do have like for me before to
even go on my first podcast, to even do it,
it was like a like like a crucible, like I
was going through fire in order to let it know
and to also letting people know and being comfortable telling
my experience because it was like it was shameful thing

(38:54):
or I felt embarrassed because you know, sometimes people would
make a point, but you can get a job right
right away, you know, because I also have disabilities, and
I have invisible disabilities. I don't so you don't always
unless I tell you I have these disabilities, you were
going to know. But most importantly it was the dismissiveness hearing, well,
you're so articulate, you already have a college degree, you know,

(39:16):
you know, why aren't you just go back into you know,
because I was a teacher, Why don't you just go
back and teacher?

Speaker 1 (39:20):
I Let, dude, I'm intelligent enough to have a degree.

Speaker 5 (39:23):
I think I'm intelligent to know that I know I
can't do the same things after having a stroke and
having other things that's going on with me, that I
cannot do the same things anymore.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
It's very clear to me.

Speaker 5 (39:34):
So if I'm telling you I'm not able to do
in that kind of format, then understand that and respect that.
But it's very difficult because our society, unfortunately, is a
blaming and shaming society. We must attribute value in your
ability to work, and in your ability to work until
your death or overwork, which is why I ended up

(39:58):
with the stroke anyway, because of that, and now I'm
having to move more with intention. I have to be
very careful of certain things. Have to make sure I
don't overwork myself. I have to make sure than my health,
I have to make sure my diet. I have to
make sure certain stressor is dealing their depression. I mean,
it was all of these things that I have to
do now that I just basically listened to earlier societal

(40:21):
messages and ignored it and just says, well, I'll deal
with it. And I was a younger man, and my
dad wasn't always the greatest, and I just worked and
worked and just put things off and thinking that I
had this invincibility until I had a stroke, and then
it totally changed and I had no idea. I had
no plan of having a stroke as a young person.

(40:44):
I had no idea that the hell that I have
to do to recover from that and to get better
with that. But the point of it is people have
these preconceived notions of what houselessness is or what people
are and how to be able to to see them
in that. Now I'm at the point where was I
don't care if he's known I'm on house. I don't

(41:05):
care if you know that I've had these medical issues.
It is a part of me, and I have to
own that I'm more than that. But I'm also I
won't run from if you know that amn house, because
it was kind of pretty hard to do it when
you see me out here doing the show and people
come by and say, I listen to your show. I
didn't know you. That was you, da da da dah.
Oh my god, I didn't you know. So it became

(41:26):
a point like, well, I can't. I can't just put
on a stretchcoat sculpe and from shadow to shadow people
know who I am.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
But it does take a process.

Speaker 5 (41:35):
It does take a kind of being stronger in your
own spirit to be able to go in and move
in these places. And then I wanted to now that
I'm at this position, like I want to get the
story out, but I also want to expand the conversation.
But returning back to doctor Petering, I wanted to talk
to you about on what vision do you have that

(41:57):
is going to be a long term vision? What do
you see this this advocacy taking off into.

Speaker 8 (42:03):
Yeah, that's a great question, you know. I just want
to reflect to listening to both of you all and
and I think this as part of our long term plan. Right.
What's so important is the storytelling and advocacy. And it's
really incredible that you all, both of you have been
able to share your story in ways that are very powerful.

(42:23):
And I know it's not easy as well, you know,
and I think one of the best ways, and one
of the goals of the original podcast, Hello dog Town
and also with the Young People to the Front podcast
is always to bring in like the diversity of voices, right,
highlighting that there are these this expansive number of experiences
of houselessness and housing instability. I think also houselessness look

(42:47):
different than it did five years ago, ten years ago.
And you know, if we talk about the way that
you know, if you talk about insecure housing, I like
to think of also in the terms of like just stability.
You know, you could be in an apartment, but you're unsafe,
like you're with an unsafe partner that's not stable, So
like that, it's really about that kind of overall stability

(43:10):
factor that I think is the goal, not always necessarily
physically house versus on house. I guess I just went on,
but you've brought up.

Speaker 5 (43:20):
Something very very clear too, because when I was in
Washington at the National Conference for Houselessness. They were talking
about a new form of houselessness, which you're mentioning to
the double stacking of unhoused people a house and secure
people that are not counted in the unhoused count because
of the fact that they've sink to your house, but
you're living like ten or fifteen to like two rooms

(43:42):
and things of that nature in order to avoid living
on the street. But that's that's a conversational point that
you made that I want to, Yeah, come back to it.

Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, come back a little bit, but please continue.

Speaker 4 (43:54):
Oh yeah, I'll talk about that for sure.

Speaker 8 (43:55):
But yeah, so I think you know, bringing in the
stories and we've one of the reason is why we
started Helloed Dogtown too is we got the small funding
from Department and Mental Health, and we said, I've always
been kind of a nerd of using comms, communication and
marketing almost for advocacy, right, So much of even the

(44:16):
important part of advocacy is the public opinion is bringing
the public along with you. In your book, we all
just talked about how much stigma there is, how much
assumption of things. So part of solving homelessness, besides you know,
these kind of bigger policy things is really just changing
public perception. I do think that a lot has changed

(44:37):
in the last ten years in terms of public perception.
I think I talk about this is when I first
moved to LA in twenty ten, and homelessness and lots
angels was pretty much understood to be happening in skid
row and I was going to social work school and
so that was something that I was tapped into. But
you know, my peers that weren't, you know, in those spaces,

(45:00):
had no understanding of homelessness and they knew skin row existed,
and that was kind of that. But now you know,
most people know, and I think the majority people in
Los Angeles also know that homelessness is not an individual problem.
They can say housing is the ked to ending homelessness,
like all those things that that wasn't true at all

(45:21):
ten years ago. So we've made like a lot of progress,
but partially because homelessness has also become more visible, so
people now even understand the seeing experience it in a
different way than they did ten years ago. But also
people are relatively well versed on some of this stuff,
some in a bad way, but most people.

Speaker 5 (45:39):
Yeah, when we come back more with doctor Robin Petering
and Tony Saint James.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Welcome back to Weedie and Howse.

Speaker 5 (45:52):
Here's the rest of my check with doctor Robin Petering
and Tony Saint James. Tony, I wanted to ask for
you were vision. Do you see what's your platform and
your advocacy? Where do you see yourself?

Speaker 3 (46:05):
Oh? Wow, it's crazy how I'm often the one asking
the question, so I yeah, it's I think the vision
has always been and I think Robin talks a lot
about it, but I think it's always like, hey, we
can I would love to see youth homelessness ended. I

(46:26):
think those numbers of those young people are much lower
than the adult population. And I think, you know, again
going back to the whole conversation about stigma, it's you know,
you're talking about kids in LUSD who you know, we
have kids, young people who are exiting out of the
Fosse curious system and they're you know, there's like this

(46:47):
pipeline where everyone just keeps ending up in one system
to another to another. And I think I would love
to see a world where young people are not ending
up in the adult system. So I think that's a
huge part of my advocacies that you know, in the
youth system, they help you until you're twenty five. I

(47:09):
turn twenty five during COVID in twenty twenty, so no
twenty twenty two, Like I still even today, I still
there's still a lot that I'm figuring out on how
to take care of myself. So when you're talking about
young people and homelessness, I think there's a different approach
to take and recognize that it is a thing that

(47:29):
is happening. It is it's a serious problem when you
have students going at two of the biggest universities in
America and they're leaving in advance to be able to
afford to attend these institutions. So I think I want
more visibility. I want when we talk about homelessness in

(47:51):
LA to also recognize that they are young people because
I think if if politicians and funders and everyone's recognizing
the youth homelessness is also a thing that we can address,
I think then more money is poured in to it
and we can end youth homelessness, and that's preventing people
from ending up in the adult system, and those numbers

(48:12):
can keep going down. So I think for me, that's
that's my vision.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
Do you think the reason why the numbers are going out?
Because I remember seeing one of the ads from Covenant
House and they're saying, one of the things that's going
on with the youth is that the youth that going
into the adult shelter systems, And could it possibly be
that they're being counted as more of the older adults
instead of being connected with the resources that can count

(48:39):
them accurately or count them to the point where do
you think that That's.

Speaker 4 (48:43):
A good question. So we also we can talk a
lot about the homeless account.

Speaker 8 (48:48):
This is also an area of our expertise as we
actually coordinate the entire youth count and the shelter count
is something that yeah, it's just a one night tally,
but I hope they're getting counted, but again we don't
necessarily know.

Speaker 4 (49:03):
It's an imperfect exactly science.

Speaker 8 (49:06):
This is kind of what almost like citizen science, right,
your data collectors are you know everyone, right, the citizens
of Los Angeles. So, but the numbers, I think we
have seen the youth numbers have been going down, and
I think there's two reasons, right, and this is at
least with the youth count and just generally because we've

(49:29):
seen like a trend of the numbers of youth going down.
The most recent count was a little bit over three thousand.
We saw the same trend that we saw on the adults.
That it was it kind of flipped that more young
people were sheltered versus unsheltered, So we're getting a higher
proportion of people inside versus outside. So positive things, but
I know we have such a you know, we're we

(49:49):
don't trust these numbers just by not only because there
have been mistakes and we know it's not counting every
now and we know a lot of experiences are missing
from that. So I kind of think kind of always
our gut reaction is like, well, I don't I don't
know if I believe that. But knowing that there are
kind of these this amount of error and this amount

(50:10):
of undercount, we're still seeing a little bit of a
trend down. And one of the things is COVID really
shifted the way that youth homelessness looks like and in
Los Angeles and all of homelessness, but youth holmlessness in particular,
and I don't think we still really understand what that means.
And that's one of our things like, I think we
have a lot of unanswered questions about youth homelessness post

(50:31):
COVID because we haven't had the ability to go out
and and really get like an accurate assessment of what's
currently happening. I think we saw a lot more young people.
Young people are really resilient, and we saw a lot
more young people kind of tapping into that CouchSurfing, tapping
into these you know, relationships that they could they could
double up. We have a service provider friend that at

(50:55):
my friend's place and she said, you know, the worst
thing that ever happened to their services was COVID when
they had it close, because she's like, the one thing
that we offered was that consistency, like that someone that
we will be open always in that time. And the
second that we lost that, young people just didn't come
back because they weren't sure if it would be open.
And so there's just already less young people going in

(51:17):
and getting services. But also before COVID was happening, there
are a lot more housing options for young people. Prior
to COVID, we worked really closely with the agency in
Venice that had a high number of young people experiencing
homelessness on the boardwalk, there was no youth specific housing
on the west side of LA In a week or

(51:37):
so or in the next couple months, a safe place
for youth is you know, cutting the ribbon to a
permanent supportive housing unit there. And so there's already like
notably more housing options. Right, So we have seen that
it's not enough. But what we as advocates are trying
to say is we have been given some resources and

(51:59):
the youth system we have some intentionality, really thought about
this and it made some progress, but we need more,
Like can you imagine the impact that we would have
if the youth system was actually funded the way that
it should be funded, because it's been underfunded for a
long time. One of our advocacy talking points is ending
youth homelessness is totally possible.

Speaker 4 (52:18):
Right, there's three thousand young people. We could house three
thousand people.

Speaker 8 (52:22):
We could do that pretty quickly, as opposed to you know,
forty five thousand people beyond that that's a little bit overwhelming, right,
But if we house three thousand young people, there's a
stat that we have that one in five adults in
permanent support of housing downtown had their first experience of
homelessness before twenty five, so that would have at least

(52:43):
a minimum of one fifth of a system impact would
like be reduced.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
You know.

Speaker 5 (52:48):
One of the things that I wanted to point out
because there is like you mentioned downtown there now have
like a youth home houselessness kind of program too. But
also like for example, when I was the activist in
Residents and I was figuring UCLA has for a young
because there were so many on housed youth there, particularly
during COVID because when it closed they were not able

(53:11):
to get back to families or then they were relying
on the same you know, kind of loose skeleton kind
of systems too over to survive. Like the guest I
had here was able to try to be several steps ahead.
But when you have COVID and you're just on house
and youth, they needed something to be able to counteract
because there was obviously a lot of numbers of youth

(53:32):
on house. And it was very telling that one at
the end of one of my speeches, one of the
unhoused youth students came up to me and was so thankful,
And then the next time I went, you know, it
gave them courage to say, I'm college student here, I'm
on house. See the look on the students' faces to

(53:52):
realize that they're sitting next to you know, it's just
you don't know, you know, just you know, it's just
not one layer of the onion. That's just what I
wanted to say.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
Yeah, I forgot about that shelter. Yeah, it's a perfect example.

Speaker 8 (54:04):
And I think, you know, these housing and these resources
that have come online is a result of a lot
of really great advocacy from a lot of really amazing people,
including young people.

Speaker 4 (54:13):
The youth system used to be.

Speaker 8 (54:15):
A little bit of like, let's just take the adult
system and kind yeah, and that doesn't work, And so
there's done a lot of effort about like youth specific
designing programs that you know are going to be the
best for young people.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
Right that often the pathways.

Speaker 8 (54:32):
Into homelessness for a young person are often different than
pathways into homelessness for an adult, So you would think
that the pathway out would also be different. Things have
gotten harder and harder, you know, in economics are being
like one of the biggest drivers of homelessness. That's becoming
the biggest driver of homelessness. So I also just want
to preface that that most of this is because the

(54:54):
rent is too damn high and the wages are too
damn low. So like that's a big problem. But you know,
as a listeners advocates like, wow, this is working in
an environment that's completely hostile to everyone. Yeah, and we
do have to make some really big, serious changes at
some big levels.

Speaker 4 (55:11):
And it's overwhelming in nonsense too.

Speaker 5 (55:14):
And I think too sometimes our society was so help
bent on trying to make it a one type binary
because if you could blame the person that is experiencing houselessness,
it's easier to retract services, retract empathy, retract a kind
of a caring eye to the situation. But now that
the thing is exploded, particularly with like the governor Abbot

(55:37):
sending a house migrants and immigrants to other places, dumping
them into places, the conversation, it's like I said, the horses.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
Out the barn, We cannot bring them, you know, close
the barn.

Speaker 5 (55:49):
Now that the horse is there, it's out there and
it's open for people to look at and to look
at and to search for the empathy and humanity. But
I was talking to and I wanted to include you
in the conversation.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
So I want to ask you this question.

Speaker 5 (56:05):
It's like, as a podcaster, when you're talking with your guests,
what is the common theme on occurrences that they want
to emphasize if you will.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
I think one of the things that we've definitely that
we want to highlight is a youth voices and hearing
those stories because you know, so often you were talking
about earlier about that man, and I think so often
there's so much stigma is like oh, these young people
don't want to work, or there's it's a you have
to understand. And also Robin's point of we live in

(56:38):
a city where there's a lot of us who can
afford to make three times the rent. So when you're
asking a young person with no rental history who's working
a minimum way job, like technically they can't afford to
be in your apartment, but you're just making it so
hard for them to be there. So I think hearing
those stories and recognizing its young people are not lady

(57:00):
and it's not that they're not working or whatnot. I
just think it's that it is a very hostyle city
to people who are making minimum agent who are also
young people. And I think The second people that we
definitely want to hear or that I'm talking to are
frontline workers. I think from talking to other people and

(57:23):
also seeing the discord between having an organizational leader CEOs viewpoint,
I think not to throw shade at them, but there
was an ORG who reached out and they's just they
wanted their CEO on the podcast and we just had compositions.
It's just like sometimes the people at the way top
don't know what's going on at the bottom. So I

(57:44):
think having frontline workers like day staff and people who
have been doing this for years, who are also activists
in their own way, who are also and it doesn't
have to be in the homeless system. It just has
to be, you know, someone who's trying to make a
change in LA or bring light into situations that are
going on in LA. I think those are the conversations

(58:06):
that I've been meaningful for me to talk to and
also learn, because you can learn a lot from a
CEO and their experience and how they got to an
ORG and what they're doing or what their org is about.
But the CEO of I don't want to say, like
LA Mission, I don't know if he's there every day
like on the ground talking to the people who are

(58:27):
walking in and out every day. So it's like, you
want to talk to the front desk person because that
front desk person's probably heard more stories and talk to
a lot of those folks that are coming in and
out every day more than someone who's up high that position.
So I think part of why I really got involved
with Lenscoe was always like and also yeah, having young

(58:48):
people to the front was always like, if you're going
to fix homelessness, like, why are young people not at
the table to talk about their experiences and why they're there?
Why or not the front line workers, Like why you
not getting their input about what they're list hearing and seeing.
You know, when you're trying to implement things because you're
asking people who are high up in a C suite

(59:09):
that are very disconnected. You know, when you look at
how much all these people are last and how much
money they make, it's like you, it's the same amount
of money that your people in your HRT teams are making,
and those are the ones on the ground who are
actually seeing what's actually going on. So I think for
me having guests on, I think those are the stories
that I've wanted to hear from. Is just people who've

(59:31):
done hands on direct services, but also people like Shyla Myers,
who's like a lawyer and is very knowledgeable and stuff like,
you know. I think a huge part of it has
also been about me learning because I don't know a lot.
I didn't go to college to be work as a
social work or be in the system. So I think
having people on that also educate and maybe try to

(59:53):
change the minds of namebies or people who are listening
who may not know who have a different image. It's
like if you talk into a lawyer who who can
explain and break down something to you, you know, journalists
who can explain why they're writing about certain things, or
young person or city official like whatever. That looks like.
If the people that are listening to you do not

(01:00:15):
have an entry point into the system and don't work
in the system, how can I have people who are
actually on the ground, involved in the system to educate
you and me about what's actually going on. I think
that's been one of the reasons why I've been excited
about the guests we've had on.

Speaker 8 (01:00:32):
Youth Homelessness is so one of the things that we
kind of think of the podcast is youth homelessness is
so intersectionual, right, So you know, the mission of the
podcast is to both hear from young people and bring
their voices to the front, but also to learn about
the things that impact and cause youth homelessness. Just that
allows us to you know, speak to so many different people.

(01:00:54):
You know, we've had someone that you know is doing
a nonprofit specifically for foster care, younge people. We did
have Shila Myers, you know, we had even Alisa Walker
results on recently. So and we're going to get.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
You on earlier. But I can return I.

Speaker 8 (01:01:10):
Can be returning this because it's so expansive. It just
really does allow us to learn so much, right or
because we have a mission and an issue that is
so expansive.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
We'll finish this conversation after the break.

Speaker 3 (01:01:29):
And we're back.

Speaker 5 (01:01:30):
It all interconnects, and I do with my show similarly,
is to connect the dots, like the housing with the
hillside villa, but also show the different branches. It's so
many facts of houselessness that you know, to listen in
the show, you get you learn because I've learned a
lot because of course it's not binary that everyone got
sick and ended up on the street. But I learned

(01:01:52):
so many branches of the tree on I would say
the tree of life, but the tree of houselessness and
the displacement and how it connect.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Have I missed anything that you guys want to talk about?

Speaker 4 (01:02:03):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 8 (01:02:03):
I was like, you said five things, just so I
have a ton of thinks. I think I want to
talk about Grant's Past for a second. You said if
people are watching to see who's going to be the
most egregious, and it's gonna be California, when it's gonna be.

Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
In Los Angeles, I think.

Speaker 8 (01:02:20):
And oh and I heard that things are really gearing
up in San Francisco, right, yes, yes, yeah, and all
eyes are on California. I mean, Gavin Newsom has a
national platform talking about this stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:02:34):
It's really it's really wild.

Speaker 8 (01:02:36):
But when the Grant's Past decision was made, one of
the things is that really well, everyone came out with
a statement, right do you remember reading Everyone was like, oh,
we totally don't agree with this statement, blah blah blah,
all this stuff. Everyone came out and I think, you know,
maybe it was because we've been I've been out you know,
working in Los Angeles on this stuff for a while.

(01:02:58):
We came out with the state, we said, this grants
pass is a terrible thing that just happened. But we
were like, this is totally expected. We know that in
Los Angeles homelessness has been illegal for years. If you
know like that, our government has already been criminalizing people
and displacing people. So you know, we were kind of like,

(01:03:20):
now y'all are just tuning in, like, no, learn about
what's really happening, Like this has been happening here locally
this entire time. Gavin Newsom and Heidi in our city
Council and Heidi Funk, they wrote to the Supreme Court
and said, please turn this over.

Speaker 4 (01:03:36):
Yeah, you know like that.

Speaker 8 (01:03:38):
And we were, yeah, our government was doing that, and
where were you guys when when they were no knowledgeably
doing that? You know, we all we knew that that
was happening, and you know, people kind of jump on
after the fact, which I think was a you know,
but that happens.

Speaker 5 (01:03:54):
I guess it's like sometimes you don't really realize the
injustice until it's right in your face or is affecting
you personally. Yeah, like now, like for example, San Diego
and Santa Monica is working to have a band against
pillows and blankets for unhouse people.

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
So yeah, so.

Speaker 5 (01:04:12):
It's like I've been like in a way, I feel
like I'm like cisphinging trying to pull up that stone,
letting people that are attuned to foreign injustices, which they
should be, and like most injustices, we all all have
justices require some kind of response. But it seems like

(01:04:32):
there's a glitch in the comprehension of how visus Palestine
is happening here. Palestine has been happening here, and on
your way to these protests, you're walking stepping over during
the heat wave unhoused people. Which is why I've been
on my you know, like I've been on my soapbox
every year. Every place I go that's in a heat

(01:04:54):
wave zone, I make a mention where the cooling centers?
Like when I was in Washington, I'm like, I'm looking
at unhoused people on the ground, where are the cooling service?
Why we don't have places where some places offer to
drive unhouse.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
People to these cooling centers.

Speaker 5 (01:05:10):
You know, you're expecting them to take all of their
stuff and then find out that they have a two
bag limit and then all of a sudden they can't
get into the place and now they're stranded. We need
to really think about our humanity and empathy factor here.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
And that's again I'm getting on.

Speaker 5 (01:05:23):
My clothes, but I just there's small things that I
just just really because I my own health. When I
was out in Elmonte, I literally had to take several
days off because it was so the incline, the terrain,
the heat, and the fact that you had people older
than me telling people that they had ten to fifteen
minutes to move their stuff. It's just, I mean, it

(01:05:46):
was the border on the ridiculous. I don't even know
why that was would have been improved and thought that
that was going to be acceptable, and then threatening them
with the rest if they don't hurt a move. I mean,
it just these things need to be Grant's Pass needs
to be on the tongue of everybody here in Los Angeles.
It's California in general, and how we should be fighting

(01:06:08):
against it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
But that's my thing.

Speaker 3 (01:06:10):
So we and you've talked about it too, Robin, is
that one of the things that we do is that
we now live in the digital era where everything is
videotaped and is tiktoks and people are able to take
their phones and record everything, and I think that has
helped in the public education of what's going on. People

(01:06:33):
are able to tell their stories, like I love seeing
the stories of people who are getting house because of
TikTok and other videos that I think one of the
things that I want people to learn about is a
lot of us. I think if you live in this city,
you twice or once removed from a person who's somehow
involved in the community doing things, so you know, like

(01:06:56):
organizations like water Drop that are doing water distributions every
sun day, you know, down in schedule on downtown, Like
how just raising awareness and being like how can we
use our platform to educate people and know way they
can get plugged in because I think there is a
majority of us there are very opposed to grants pass

(01:07:16):
and I think we need to let that be known
because I think they've made us think that they're in
the majority, But realistically, I don't think anyone sees the
treatment like I could barely be in my own house
like this past week with the with the severe heat wave,
and to know and in talking to water Drop and
hearing how many of the water going scisions downtown are

(01:07:38):
not even working. It's just like all these despicable things
that have been happening for years and whatnot, and people
are now just tuning in. There is a part of
it where I'm like, great, but also like start calling in,
start showing up for public comment. Like I know it's
boring to sit down at city Hall and just wait
for your turn, but it does make a difference, and

(01:08:02):
you know it helps you educate you, but you can
also educate your neighbors and your family, and I think
together we can work to improve our city. And I
think one of the biggest things that I've learned and
that drives me in this work and how I see people,
is remembering that, above all else, these are human beings

(01:08:23):
that you're talking about. One of the things that I
always tell people is like half of these nambies and
half these people that are complaining about homelessness in La
are not even from La. And it's like you're complaining
about someone who's lived in this city way longer than you,
Like this is more their city than it is your city.
So remembering to see these people as human beings and
not the perception of their current circumstances. I think is

(01:08:46):
the biggest thing that I strive to try to teach people.
And the thing is you can't fault for people for
not educating themselves and not knowing. Like if I educate
you and then you choose not to hear it and listen,
then that's on you. But I recognize that a lot
of people are moving here, and I know several people

(01:09:06):
who've now lived in LA for a minute and have
never been downtown in LA. But yet you're opposed to homelessness,
and you have this weird perception of things. I think, Hey,
I always want to teach people. It's like find out
a way you can get involved and meet people and
hear their stories, because when you get to see them
as human beings, then it changes your perception about the

(01:09:26):
whole situation.

Speaker 5 (01:09:28):
One more thing I have to do because I always
try to do this and I don't do succeed. But
I must admit too that everyone that comes through California
has been fed by someone that was un housed. If
you have gone to the grocery store and picked out vegetables, fruit,
you are dealing with people that pick those things that

(01:09:49):
are living out there in the fields on house with
nowhere to go. So we must understand it. And I
try to tell them, like, you have been impacted by
the labor of unhoused person that can't afford the place
to have a stable place to live, that feeds you,
and you're able to freak the nourishment or take the

(01:10:10):
nourishment of them, and then you can then you're utilizing
your platform to demonize and criminalize. I want that to
sit into many people's minds. If you have had a banana,
if you had a bell pepper, or you've made any
type of cuisine, or you've been in a restaurant, or
you've eaten somewhere, you have been had at least one

(01:10:31):
unhoused person vegetable fruits or what have you that has
picked that and you are eating or imbibing on that food.

Speaker 8 (01:10:40):
Yeah, so that's a great point. I've never really thought
of it that way. Bringing back to the grants Pass
and the advocacy showing up, I think, you know, we
were really active as activists and how you know, a
really powerful showing folks that were coming out, coming out
to city hall, you know, showing up, showing up at

(01:11:02):
sweeps and all those things going back to even like
you know, Echo Park, I got three thousand people to
email Mitchell Ferrell. You know, yeah, we not beyond even
just like the folks that were showing up. We have
we had the majority of people in the public on
our side and agreeing that forty one eighteen is wrong.

(01:11:23):
You know, kicking displacing people out of Eco Park Lake
overnight with the fence is incredibly inhumane and violent, like
most people believe that. But then yet we we lust
our forty one to eighteen battle multiple times to the
point where our elected officials were like, we don't care,
you know, really that they they really just didn't care

(01:11:46):
about the public opinion and they were just going to
do what they were going to do because of certain
groups of power. Who was a Hollywood exec that was
doing all the things.

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
Ah, it was a billionaire, wasn't he.

Speaker 4 (01:11:57):
Yeah, gosh, it's been.

Speaker 1 (01:11:59):
So Long'senburg or something like that?

Speaker 8 (01:12:01):
Yes, yes, Katzenberg Jack Ktsenberg, Yeah, yeah, yeah, was coming
in and you know, they do what he says. So
I think, you know, it's really hard to have all
those defeats and putting all that time and energy to
take those ls and so I think it's been hard
to kind of get people to show up in the
same way because of that. But I think that also

(01:12:21):
on the side is you know, we really it is
a long game, right, this is a really voting is
so important. We have the opportunity at this next election
to potentially get two more progressive seats, and if that happened,
like that would be you know, incredible. As much we
should really be making sure that we're supporting those progressive

(01:12:43):
electeds that are in right now. We may disagree with
things that they do from time to time, and you
can critique and that that's totally within everyone's right to
do that.

Speaker 4 (01:12:51):
But you know, that's where we really.

Speaker 8 (01:12:54):
Need to also be putting a lot of energy and
education into, right, is how powerful those local elected are.
And then the other thing, this is another plug. We've
been spending a lot we're spending in the next month
just campaigning for Measure A, which.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
What's just Measure A. So for our listeners to understand this, so.

Speaker 4 (01:13:12):
Yeah, Measure A.

Speaker 8 (01:13:12):
So this is going to be people that live in
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County.

Speaker 4 (01:13:16):
This will be on your ballot. It's really important.

Speaker 8 (01:13:19):
So Measure A is going to be a measure that
ensures that, you know, our homelessness and homelessness system is
funded and funded even more so to a way that
kind of have an impact end homelessness in the next
ten years. Currently, right now, there is a measure called
Measure H and that was passed ten years ago and
it's expiring. Measure A is like the new superpowered Measure H. Okay,

(01:13:43):
So it is it's a sales tax and it's projected
to generate at least one point two billion dollars for
homelessness services across La County per year. So there's two
things like, if we do pass this, it's incredible. We
get a lot more resources. The resources are more expansive.
Money goes directly to the cities to housing infrastructure that

(01:14:08):
Measure H didn't have. There's a lot more of like
renter protections and things like that. Part of Measure A,
something that I've been on the sub box for a
long time is ensuring that the labor and the people
that work in the homelessness sector are going to get
pay increases and make sure that these organizations are getting
funded fully and all those things. So that's why we're
putting in a lot of effort to that. One thing

(01:14:29):
also that we've been talking about about Measure A. I
think it's actually really interesting and different than Measure H.
Measure H was also a sales tax. It was maybe
like a quarter penny. Now it's moving up to a halfpenny.
But for Measure A, it's actually you don't get taxed
on things like groceries, diapers, like gas, like kind of
those essential items. So they have this Basically, if you

(01:14:52):
spend one hundred dollars on a they say on a
tennis rocket, you're building a quarter into the homelessness system.
So it's a tax i'll impact folks that are spending
more of their disposable income will be contributing more, which
I think that's also a progressive and good idea and
an improvement on the previous sales chech. So something that
we should be highlighting. But yeah, Measure A, that's where

(01:15:14):
we're putting our efforts into and so vote yes.

Speaker 4 (01:15:17):
We can say vote yes.

Speaker 8 (01:15:18):
We've endorsed it and that's what we'll be doing some
events around it too. If you follow us on Instagram.

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
Thank you for that. Is there anything should you like that?

Speaker 3 (01:15:26):
Tony? Yeah, one thought that I feel like it's been
on my mind since the beginning. Is COVID reminded us
all of us that were all humans that you know,
we can all die at any given points. So I
think that's I don't want see this has been a
blessing in it because people lost their lives, but I
think it was just as a reminder that people were

(01:15:48):
able to get off their phone and build community. And
I think I'm grateful that out of a tragedy and
a pandemic that's still going on, the more community is
that more people have come together to you know, create
a lot of mutual aids that are helping in situations
because you know, we've recognized the time and time half
of these politicians are not on our side and do

(01:16:11):
not have the best interest for people who are in house.
So I am one of the things that I'm always
I want to start doing more often is uplifting community
organizations that are oriented in helping in house folks and
do have you know, like like I mentioned water Drop
and you know them needing volunteers to you know, distribute water.

(01:16:31):
So I think if you if you're a listener and
you really want to get learn and the beauty of
it is that there's there's so many house folks across LA.
Like you don't have to travel from West LA to
go downtown to to be there to help. Like there's
orgs in the West LA, there's orgs in South LA.
Like wherever it is that you live in this city,

(01:16:52):
there's a community org or a mutual aid in your
neighborhood you can get involved in. And most of them,
you know, just they just want you to show up
and help, like you know, they're not like, you know,
people asking you for money, Like, yeah, money would be great,
but a lot of these places just want people to
show up. And you can also build community because a

(01:17:13):
lot of us isolated a lot during COVID. So I'm
glad that a lot of these beutrades and community orgs
have popped up since the pandemic because it is also
a great way to build community and learn a lot
about the city that you live in.

Speaker 4 (01:17:26):
It's a great plug, yes.

Speaker 5 (01:17:29):
And this is an excellent place. Punctuation mark To end
this show, I want to thank again and hopefully invite
back doctor Robin Petering give your plug again.

Speaker 8 (01:17:39):
From Young People afront were yp twof dot org is
our website Tony.

Speaker 3 (01:17:46):
And Young People at the Front on Instagram, and please
listen to our podcast Young People at the Front on
any streaming services that you.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
Listen to excellent.

Speaker 5 (01:18:01):
Thank you so much doctor Robin Petering and Tony Saint
James for bed time and wisdom. To learn more about
their work, you can follow Young People to the Front
on Instagram and another huge thank you to Empty. That's
it for another outstanding episode and we hope to see
you next time when we will be discussing the Inn

(01:18:23):
Housed and voting with doctor Caitlin Crinn and Ruth Lesser.

Speaker 1 (01:18:28):
And as always, please like and.

Speaker 5 (01:18:30):
Subscribe and if you would like to share your story
on Weedian House, please reach out to me at weedian
House on Instagram or email me at weedianhousat gmail dot com.
Thank you again for listening and make we again meet
in the light of understanding. Weedian House is the production

(01:18:51):
of iHeartRadio. It is written, boasted and created by me
Theo Henderson, our producers Jbie Loftus, Kailey Fager, Katie Official,
and Lyra Smith. Our editor is Adam Wand and our
local art is also by Katie Official.

Speaker 1 (01:19:10):
Thanks for listening.