May 21, 2024 • 34 mins
This week, Theo learns about the origins of a successful, ever growing mutual aid group — the Echo Park Trash Club, and what they offer to the unhoused community.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Previously on Weedian House.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We know we can voice out an opinion, you know
we can, We can talk to whoever. We just we
just weren't aware of how to go about it. And
we are going to blow the wistl on this. We
are going to blow it out of proportion because it's
too much. They created a system that's designed to fail
on itself. When is enough ever going to be enough?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
There's a war on the poor here in this country.
There's a huge war on the poor in the Philippines,
and that's a huge part of why so many of
our people are here too. Right, all this money going
to war, all this money going to policing, Like, where's
the money for the people? Right? Why is it also
that we see the war and the police actually be
turned out against our own people.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Welcome back to Weedian House. I'm your host, Theo Henderson.
Thanks so much to everyone who listened to our last
three uppis series Unblow the Whistle. One quick correction. Last
episode we spoke to Ina, not Anya, and this week
we've got something a little different, a look at mutual
(01:13):
aid group in Los Angeles that came to be during
an important moment in local unhoused history. Today we're talking
to Echo Park Trash Club. Like every mutual a group
out here, it has an origin story. Echo Park trash
Club story is riddled with resistance and backlash. And that
(01:35):
may seem a little bizarre, but this came during the
situation while the unhoused community was under a brutal.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Attack by its own local government.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
There is a lot to cover the first unhoused news.
Earlier in my episodes, I have spoken on a concept
many house members of society used to repel and the
two her the unhoused community. Violence, of course, is the
leading tool used against the unhoused community. Sweeps are violence.
(02:09):
Forty one eighteen is violence as well. However, a seemingly
innocuous tool with equal violent repercussions is hostile architecture. Large boulders,
huge alien aggressive looking plants, spikes, and huge wood farmer
boxes are some of the ever evolving types of tools
(02:33):
used to displace the inn housed in their communities. Thus,
Hollywood businesses have stepped up the campaign of displacing the
un housed by using large planter boxes on sidewalks. House
business owners have long used tactics to make the unhoused
community un welcome near their businesses and in the community.
The city, meanwhile, has largely turned a blind eye as
(02:57):
house business owners have taken the matter into their own hands,
giving TACIT approval. The only time the city comes alive
is the enforcement of forty one eighteen or the creation
of new policies and tactics used to erase the unhoused.
This is a developing story and we will keep you
a prize of the current situation. In alternative medical circles,
(03:23):
Indigenous tribes are using opioord funds for a sweat lodge detoxification.
The Megma Nation are calling it a vital to inhaling.
They are using the funds from settlements with companies that
made or sold prescription handkillers, which has had a devastating
effect on their community. Moving on, the state of California
(03:47):
has awarded fifty one point five million dollars in grant.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Money to sweep.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Encampments and freeways. The program is called Halfway Home. It
claims it will move six hundred people into interim housing
along with the six hundred people who are currently in
the program. The communities affected will be West Athens, Willowbrook, Downey, Norwalk, Southgate, Lynn, Wood,
(04:16):
Santa Fe Springs, South LA and some metro stations.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
And that's unhouse news.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
This week, we're in the field talking to the Echo
Park trash Club for listeners who aren't in the LA area.
Echo Park became ground zero for military occupation tactics orchestrated
against unhoused communities by the LAPD, then council member Mitchell
Farrell and then Mayor Eric Garcetti in early twenty twenty one.
(04:52):
At the time, their goal was to remove over fifty
unhoused communities in Echo Park who were sheltering in place
due to to COVID nineteen precautions. On March twenty fourth,
twenty twenty one, over four hundred cops descended on the
sheltering unhoused community in Eco Park and their allies and
(05:14):
subsequently fenced, cattled, and arrested the community. I was there
recording that night and it was horrific. Since then, O'faraoh
and Garcedi are gone, but the antipathy towards the unhoused remains.
Here's some of my coverage from that night.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Cvidially this is the o an innocent from Median House.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
What the sounds that you hear from is the helicopter
and the protesters are protesting these situations that police officers
have come in the darker knight to remove the unhoused community.
They have three police arrest buses.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
They have two trucks as well as they have over
sixty officers converging.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
All different battage points the cattle, the protesters as well
as arrest them in a different states from the era,
probably Dodgers or another area where.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
They would hold them and detain them.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
Also, they have a yellow line preventing people from coming
in to protest the situation. As you can see over here,
the park is slowly descending on darkness. Their orders were
from what I've gathered is they waited to T thirty
to do the justifiable running in and removing people for.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
The park.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
From this horrific event. The Echo Park Trash Club was born.
Aaron Fine created a club that was unlike how many
clubs are created. They're not solely a beautification project. They
were created with intention intention of creating a sense of
community with the young house in Echo Park given their
(06:47):
hostility the un housed community received in Eco Park. Under
the leadership of ven council member Mitchell Farrell, Aaron set
out to foster a connection a community and in repairment
to the fraction relationship done by o' pharaoh's actions. When
we come back, we'll talk to the founder of the
(07:07):
Echo Park Trash Club. Welcome back to Weedian Howse I'm
THEO Henderson. We're in the field talking to the Echo
Park Trash Club.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Here's Aaron's story.
Speaker 8 (07:26):
Hey everybody, so thank you for coming out today. It's
wonderful to see that you are here and that people
came today in the rain, which just speaks to the
way that at least some of our wonderful community members
continue to want to show up.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Why did you create Echo Park Trash Club.
Speaker 8 (07:44):
That's a good question, you know. It was in twenty twenty.
I think, like so many people were feeling you know,
isolated and scared, and I also saw that the trash.
Speaker 9 (07:58):
Build up in my community becoming really noticeable in a
way that I had.
Speaker 8 (08:06):
Not seen honestly and even honestly before the pandemic. You know,
I understood that there's something going on where trash really
builds up in LA just in general, you know. So
at that point I noticed, Okay, this problem seems to
be getting out of control. I don't know enough about
the infrastructure with city to know why, but I know
(08:28):
that at least I felt like, you know, maybe there's
a way that I can help. And I have, like
many people, you know, just done different volunteer initiatives.
Speaker 9 (08:37):
Over the course of my life. I've got some a few.
Speaker 8 (08:41):
Organizational skills that I have, you know, built over the years.
And I thought, Okay, I think maybe I can pull
together my neighbors and maybe we can help. So I
started by posting in next door, which I know you're
familiar with you It's not it doesn't always attract the
(09:01):
types of folks that are aligned with us in terms
of our social justice orientation. But I started it there
because I wanted to start a group that would work
on a neighborhood with the people living in that neighborhood.
Speaker 9 (09:16):
I thought that, like that.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
Might actually get people to come out. So I put
a post up and there was a huge amount of
interest initially, and I just picked a set of cross
streets where there was a concentration of trash and thirty
I think maybe twenty five to thirty people showed up
that day, and I thought to myself, Okay, like there
are actually people who do want to help, as you
(09:40):
know THEO. We then had to navigate the different perspectives
that people had on the situation. And once we got
access to a trash truck and we were able to
go to encampment areas and help, it was very clear
to me that we needed to take a stance and
(10:00):
make it very clear that we were not here to
be a part of removing people's homes or taking people's items,
or you know, working without permission. So it's interesting you asked, like,
why did I start it?
Speaker 9 (10:14):
At first, it was.
Speaker 8 (10:15):
I wanted to just sort of generally help with the
trash build up in LA Quickly I realized like, this
is not just about trash.
Speaker 9 (10:23):
It's also about the connection to people.
Speaker 8 (10:26):
It's about protecting folks that are living outside from the city.
It was about, you know, I think making a point
to showcase, like, look what we can do just as
a group of regular community volunteers, and to show hey,
what's going on with the city of Los Angeles. Why
isn't this being dealt with? So it became so much
(10:47):
bigger than just sort of local trash pickup group.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
We are really in the field. As you can hear
the trash truck.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
I wanted to ask is because I remember the journey
and how it started. It was it was always a
major turnout. And I also watched as you quite correctly mentioned,
how you started to make the stance and started to
let people know this is not about a nimby kind
of of wonderland running up on house people throwing their
(11:14):
housing away. I can attest to sometimes coming to speak
to educate people of.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
What it is with housing.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
No one comes to people's houses and start throwing their
stuff away and to create the issue of empathy.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I will say with your club, I did notice.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Something was going on too that some people that maybe
initially had those viewpoints, and I hopefully we saw it too,
started to melt started to re examine some of those
harsh or cruel ideas.
Speaker 9 (11:44):
Did you notice that absolutely?
Speaker 8 (11:46):
In fact, it was a beautiful thing to watch, because
I think those of us who are into the space
of education know is that a lot of the times
what's going on when people hold sort of ignorant belief
is that they have just not been exposed.
Speaker 9 (12:03):
To information like crucial information.
Speaker 8 (12:06):
And so early on when I knew, okay, we need
to take a stance and do it right. I did
some research and I was so lucky to find you,
and I'll, you know, just to let everyone know, like
I sent THEO a message just in Instagram.
Speaker 9 (12:21):
You got back to me very quickly.
Speaker 8 (12:23):
You're very willing to answer questions to help me understand
what was going on with our sort of council member
person at the time, where I was like, this doesn't
seem right.
Speaker 9 (12:32):
I need I need to know more.
Speaker 8 (12:34):
So you were so giving of your time, and as
you mentioned then, you came out joined us, did some
wonderful educational sort of speeches to the group, and made
yourself available for folks to be able to ask you questions.
And folks who were coming that I think did have
that sort of Nimbi perspective, they.
Speaker 9 (12:55):
Either left or they had a change of heart.
Speaker 8 (12:59):
And there are still folks today that really their whole
perspective shifted in terms of how they see people who
are living outside, how they understand what's happening with the city.
And it's been very beautiful to watch over the years
as people now come up and they know, they'll run
up to me and they'll say, has anyone spoken to
the folks in the encampment yet like have we checked in?
(13:21):
I mean, people have become educated. And now when we
go to one of our main encampments that we work
with at silver Lake in London area, you can just
tell that like people are peaceful. There's a peaceful feeling
because they know who we are, we know who they are,
and we can just focus on the trash remover part,
which you and I spoke about early on. Everyone regardless
(13:43):
of where they're living, would like to have their trash.
Speaker 9 (13:46):
Remove when new people come.
Speaker 8 (13:49):
Or frankly, when I hear folks kind of talking about
that perspective that we fight against, which is like, oh
they you know all this trash and the encampments, I
always say, you know, think about this for a second.
Speaker 9 (14:01):
If you at your.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
Apartment or your home want one week without your trash
company coming, what would happen? And then I say, what
do you think might happen after a month? You know,
you're no different than anybody else. A human right is
to get trash servicing in this society that we live in,
and so ultimately, I think the Trash Club, I hope
(14:24):
stands as an example of trying to show up for
each other in that way especially when our city will
not do it.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
How was you able to create the trash club because
other communities may want to do it. What was the
steps that got you into this?
Speaker 8 (14:39):
Yeah, that's such a good question. So it really went
in a certain order. I did start in the next
door app. I will caution people that you have to
be mindful of the kind of folks that sometimes hang
around in that space.
Speaker 9 (14:52):
So you know, that's just something to keep in mind.
Speaker 8 (14:54):
But there are also people with their really you know,
with their head on straight there too.
Speaker 9 (14:59):
I did notice it.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
Okay, it's it's not a completely ineffective social media tool
because because you can target people that live in a
very specific radius. I would just caution folks who are
wanting to get started if you use it, you know,
come in with your stance clear. That will help you,
you know, to draw in people who are going to
(15:20):
be safe, especially if.
Speaker 7 (15:21):
You're working in encampment area.
Speaker 8 (15:23):
So I did use nextdoor first. I got sort of
the attention of my direct neighbors that way, you know,
people living in the Echo Park area. Then we pivoted
over to Instagram since that's such an incredible tool as well,
started up that page and started really building like an
infrastructure there and slowly but surely. You know, I can
(15:45):
tell you for anyone who starts on your own, if
you just keep showing up, people will come. And then
when I started to get a little overwhelmed, I no ceo.
Speaker 9 (15:54):
You can relate to that, right, trying to do something
on your own.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
People started to say, hey, you know, I can take
over the newsletter. I can help you, you know, gather
the trash bags. I can take the truck and get
it worked on. We even did you know crowdfunding where
we were able to raise money just from our community
to get a supply truck.
Speaker 9 (16:14):
And I wasn't Yeah, we got tools. I didn't have
to use my own car.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Anymore, which is really helpful because you know, picking up
trash is a dirty business. Yeah, so yeah, I would
say another important thing for folks who are trying to
start one get in touch with your city council people.
Now you again have to be cautious who's working there,
what are their perspectives, But you can start changing things.
(16:40):
I mean, we went from a situation that was not
great and Echo Park became more aware and we do
have a better situation.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Now you were able to do at the height of
the infamous Mitchell Farrell with his occupation of Echo Park,
how he treated you and how even though he was
trying to use it for his benefit, you were able
to make sure that you professionally distance yourself and then
make sure that you would not want to be his
The post of girl to be able to push you
(17:08):
back against the legitimate discussions against Mitchell Ferrell. Wh who's
not the council member here now, is Hugo Martinez?
Speaker 9 (17:16):
Have I recrrect Yes, that's exactly right.
Speaker 8 (17:17):
Yes, And you know, in terms of getting in touch
with your city council and what's happening in your neighborhood,
you can find out, Okay, are these folks actually trying
to help or are they problematic? We discovered at the
beginning that it was very problematic what was happening.
Speaker 9 (17:35):
So you know, we took a stance in opposition.
Speaker 8 (17:39):
And that was fruitful, even though we couldn't get as
much support because we took that stance, but over time,
I think we helped to draw more attention to the issue.
Certainly there are many people that were working on that,
but our group, you know, I think played at least
a small role and then it changed, you know, and
so you and you can get you know, some valuable
(17:59):
support from your community city where you may be able
to at least get tools trash bags, You may be
able to get access to a bin or a truck,
and those tools are very invaluable, especially when you're picking
up large amounts of trash.
Speaker 9 (18:14):
So I think the number one.
Speaker 8 (18:16):
Piece of advice I have is do your research as
you're building, you know, because it is important to get
familiar with what's going on in your city and make
sure you're doing it safely and carefully and considering not
just people that live in traditional homes, but people who
are living outside as well.
Speaker 7 (18:33):
You know.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
And they're not just magically going to disappear. It's going
to even no matter how much criminalization that we are
trying to do with young house across this country, across
the city, we are not going to have house susteners disappear.
And still the issue of trash, whether your house or unhud,
is one of the commonalities that we have in common.
I see we're standing right here, and this seems like
this is very very karmic. It says here on the
(18:54):
statement here, it says, I hope we always find a
way back to each other. I think that's a very
good place to end and I thank you all for listening.
Thank you to you, big thank you. Thanks so much
to Erin for sharing her story. And when we come back,
we'll talk to others who have started volunteering with Echo
(19:16):
Park Trash Club.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Welcome back to William House again.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
A big thank you to Erin for sharing her story
and providing inspiration to others to come in and beautify
the community. One such beautifier is Eliza and here's eliza story.
Speaker 10 (19:41):
Thanks so much for joining us today THEO It's really
great to meet you. I got involved with Echo Park
Trash Club in twenty twenty one following my involvement in
supporting the Echo Park Rise up movement situation over at
Echo Park Lake, and you know, I was looking for
(20:02):
a way to get involved in the community. I had
moved to Echo Park in October and was just noticing
that there was quite a bit of trash. And then,
somewhat serendipitously, I started seeing billboards for Echo Park Trash
Club seeing them on Instagram, and after my experience with
the police at Echo Park Lake, I thought I want
(20:23):
to do something to help people who are.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
Being criminalized and being.
Speaker 10 (20:30):
Cast a side by our city, whether it's a police
you know, mayor's office, or just private citizens. And I
also wanted to do something about the amount of trash.
And then once I learned about Echo Park Trash Club's
mission of providing and passionate trash servicing, did my research
made sure things look cool. I'm pretty sure I noticed
(20:52):
that we the un Housed was a partner, and all
of those felt like green flags, and so I decided
to get involved.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
And then, in.
Speaker 10 (21:00):
My experience of seeing the work being done on the ground,
the care and compassion in addition to the marriage of
like our mission and our practice, I would say it
just has continued to speak to me. And then I
shifted my professional work to also become more involved in
service delivery.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
So what were you before you change jobs?
Speaker 10 (21:23):
Yeah, so I've always done fundraising for like nonprofits and stuff,
but I was working for an organization in Santa Monica,
and I realized I wanted to be working somewhere more
local to where I live, being in silver like Echo
Park area. So I started working for Chryslis, which is
located downtown helps people find employment. But yeah, so I
don't know, it felt like for me personally, and it's
(21:44):
not about me. It just felt like a lot of
things converging. But in terms of trash club in particular,
I just really appreciate. I don't know, I feel like
we as Americans, as Los Angelinos, get really comfortable with trash,
and so I think it's important to say this is
going on. It's something in a way that kind of
(22:05):
unifies us. It doesn't matter where you live or how
you live. Trash is around all of us, and we
all play a role in mitigating it, and we.
Speaker 7 (22:12):
Also all play a role.
Speaker 10 (22:14):
Creating it, creating exactly all.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Then the house people have great trash. There's no way
around it.
Speaker 10 (22:19):
Right, And so I think like when we see trash
around an area where folks are living outside who aren't
house then it adds to our stigma. So to me,
it's not to say like people are dirty or gross.
It's just to say we all deserve to have trash
removed around us. It's not safe for people to live
in those conditions, not fair for us to determine that
that's how it should be.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
I like how Aaron says compassionate trash pickup with the
in the house community. I always say this conversation is
if I kicked in your door and told you you
had ten minutes to move your things and put it
into trash bags, and I just start throwing away all
of your things that you consider essentially important. That's not compassionate.
That's just you know, doing something that's violence. And one
of the things things that touched stood out for me
(23:02):
with the conversations that she would have with the residence
on house community about what this trash do they want
take it? And once that started to when I'm witnessed
with my own eyes and seeing how that they trusted
that they're worth going to have all of their whole
livelihood or their whole survival mechanisms thrown away, they respected
and welcomed eco part trash clup.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
That's a different other colt.
Speaker 10 (23:24):
Yes, it's a partnership, and there's damage that's been done
to that relationship. Like you know, it could be a
trigger to see a trash club a trash truck come up.
So that's why it's important to us to as humans arrived,
first introduce the situation, get permission right.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
There's a there.
Speaker 10 (23:38):
Consent is a critical part of our process here, and
it's a partnership. Sometimes we're all cleaning up together. Sometimes
we're asked not to and we go because the consent
is not ours to get in terms of what is trash,
and we also need to flip sometimes our understanding of.
Speaker 7 (23:56):
What is trash.
Speaker 10 (23:57):
I appreciate that what Aaron did informing the group was
identify a gap in our city services and what we
as private citizens do, and say we can do something
about this.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
With that question in mind, I've been watching and hearing
about the audit that Kenny McKee is talking about with
house business Services, and in he's sounding the alarm that
we may be in financial distress soon and some of
the services may be cut. Do you think this issue
with trash is going to be impacted by.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
Back Honestly, I don't know.
Speaker 10 (24:29):
I've only been looking at the law enforcement side of that,
so I hadn't thought about the impact on the trash budgets.
But I will say it's impacted. At least our partnership
with the city has impacted us before. I would be
curious to see now that the election's over, right, because
I noticed that we got more inclusive. I'm using air
quotes trash servicing during the election cycle, So what's going
(24:51):
to happen now that that's over and these budget cuts
are on the table. I don't honestly have an educated projection.
Speaker 7 (24:58):
But I share your.
Speaker 10 (25:00):
Curiosity is not the word, maybe a dreaded, dreadful curiosity
about what that will look like. But I think something
that we can hold is that there are other groups
that are willing to step in. Is it right that
we have to step in where the city does not.
I don't know, but we're here.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Any successful mutual aid group always has sprung out of
a necessity for the survival of vulnerable, impacted people, and
I just look at Echo Park trash Club as no different.
It's because the conversation was not getting anywhere because there
was more criminalization, more demonization of unhoused people. Therein like,
one of the creative solutions in order for the unhoused
(25:41):
community to just stopped being slammed was something like Echo
Part trash Club to be able to restore some of
the empathy that's been lost in the conversation.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
That's just my insight. You have anything to add on.
Speaker 7 (25:53):
That, I completely agree.
Speaker 10 (25:56):
I mean, I think we say every week there's someone
new and I think every single person that is new
and has this experience at least once comes away with
a more compassion, more perspective, better clarity around a situation
or an issue that they may have never been had
proximity to before.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
Well, I think this is a good place to end,
but I thank you again, thanks so much to Eliza
for talking with me. Most of the volunteers of Eco
Park Trash Club deserve five stars, but there are rare
exceptions where one volunteer deserves an extra five stars, and
that is Cass.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Here's cast story.
Speaker 11 (26:44):
Hi THEO as you said, Yes, my name's Cass. It's
good to talk with you today. I actually found the
Echo Park Trash Club. I literally googled Echo Park trash
Club because I think it's more impactful to pick up
trash in a community versus by yourself. And when I
first moved to LA I started picking up trash in
alleyways and I found by the time I finished the
alleyway by myself, it was already worse than when I started,
(27:06):
and it was so heartbreaking. And then I would go
to the beach and then people looked at me like
I was a felon, because they're like why would someone
come pick up trash the beach? And so I was like,
you know what, I just need to find my people. Google,
let's utilize that. And I searched Echo Park Trash Club
and what do you know, it's that's the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
How did you how did you find How did you
know that there was a trash club?
Speaker 11 (27:27):
I literally was just like, I live in Echo Park,
let me just see if there's a trash club here.
And I never did I think it would actually be
called Echo Park Trash Club.
Speaker 7 (27:34):
But it was.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
So when did you come to La.
Speaker 11 (27:39):
I've been in LA for about six years now, Yeah,
and yeah, I was living in the valley and so
once I moved to Echo Park, I was like, you know,
at this, let me get more involved in the community.
Speaker 12 (27:49):
I could not find my community in the valley.
Speaker 11 (27:50):
So I was like, Echo Park seems like a place
where I'm gonna be able to find my people, and
I sure did. I am really happy with what we're
doing here in the community. I think that picking up trash,
you know, it can mean a lot of different things
to different people. Some people are doing it because they
just don't want to see trash on the streets and
for me, I really appreciate that. You know, the issue
with how many unhoused people we have in this city
(28:13):
is not going to be something that I can help
out with like solving.
Speaker 12 (28:17):
And I think it.
Speaker 11 (28:18):
I think it's a really complicated issue, and I don't
think it's something that's going to be solved in the
next year, five ten years. And I'm not in I
don't know my politics, so I'm not the person to
help that. However, in the meantime, well, hopefully we can
get some people who are qualified to actually come up
with solutions and resolve that and come up with long
term solutions that will help this and more permanent issues
(28:39):
or permanent solutions for this permanent issue. There's still that
need right now. And we were finding that so many
and canas were being swept due to hygiene, even though
you know, they weren't supposed to be doing sweeps at
the time.
Speaker 12 (28:51):
They were finding these loopholes.
Speaker 11 (28:52):
As you know, I'm so sure you are so familiar
with this and yeah, like this.
Speaker 12 (28:56):
Is not news to you, yeah, yeah, And so I
don't know what to do about that.
Speaker 11 (29:02):
However, we can step in and help keep those encampments
clean and you know, come in with compassion and just
the first thing we do is just check, like what
are your boundaries today? Like, is it okay if we
clean up your encampment? If not, have a great day.
Here are some trash bags. Do what you're comfortable with.
If you do want us to clean up your encampment,
We're going to clean up only what you want us
to take.
Speaker 12 (29:21):
And I believe everyone deserves hygiene.
Speaker 11 (29:24):
I think that is such a basic human right and
it's such a sad thing to see that, Like if
you don't have the resource to be hygienic, you just
get swept ye, like so many curse words come to mind.
So we've built the society to have waste, and so
if certain people don't have access to removing that waste,
like that's not their fault.
Speaker 12 (29:41):
We need to help.
Speaker 11 (29:42):
And yeah, so I just am really passionate about like
helping the people who like if I mean, also, oh god,
it's just sorry, I'm getting frustrated now, but yeah, so
for me, it's really important to be able to help
a problem now. And so many people are like, well,
what are you gonna do to fix this long term?
And I'm like, personally, I don't have that answer if
I can help, I will. I see an immediate need
(30:03):
right now, and I think it's important to help that.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
And here's the rejoining it to that.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
What are you going to do as on my long
ternal instead of just complaining and wagging your finger, because
that always magically has the most vile or most disgusting
idea about the situation. But when you ask then call
upon them to do anything, it's always criminalization. It's always
something that's dystopian or I'm getting on.
Speaker 12 (30:25):
Yeah, we're being brought up.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
What the fact of the matter.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Is, this is a viable thing because trash is an
ongoing thing. Trash is not going to magically disappear. Even
with you housing now human beings. You create trash.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
It's got to be taken care of.
Speaker 11 (30:40):
And that's a great point you bring it because even
when you know ideally the sooner the better, but as
soon as we resolve getting permanent housing for all of
our neighbors, you're right, we're still going to have trash.
And I think something like the Trash Club is still
necessary because the city is never going to have enough
resources to deal with the amount of waste we're creating.
Speaker 12 (30:58):
And it just kind of goes than that would like.
Speaker 11 (31:00):
Sustainability is not always the biggest factor with companies.
Speaker 12 (31:03):
And so it's just we could just we're gonna have
waste forever.
Speaker 11 (31:07):
And I think certain things like this where if you
can just give up two hours of your day every
other week to just pick up a couple of bags
of trash like boom, there's a community service. Even if
you're doing it, just feel good about yourself you're doing something.
Or if you're doing it because you want to be
able to walk down the street, if you're doing it
so that a disabled neighbor has good access to their ramps, great,
whatever your reason is, come out here and pick out
(31:28):
some trash. You know, if you are someone who leads
with compassion and you care about your neighbors regardless of
their situation, and you don't mind getting a little dirty,
just come join us.
Speaker 12 (31:37):
We would love to have you.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
And when do you guys do trash pickup?
Speaker 11 (31:41):
We do trash pickups. We like to do it twice
a month, every other Sunday. It's always on Sundays from
ten am until noon. The best way to keep up
with that is Echo Park Trash Club Instagram. We are
very communicative we're posting during the cleanups and we're gonna
let you know when to come find us.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
On one other thing, is there any kind of any
fundraisers that people may not be able to come? Can
they do any donations? Step in to fundraise for you guys?
What's the four one one on it?
Speaker 11 (32:07):
Absolutely, we have a gofundbe which is linked on our Instagram.
And then if trash isn't your thing, I actually do
kind of an earth Day Music festival, So if you
were lucky enough to come to earth Day Music Festival.
Last year we raised thirty five hundred dollars for both
Trash Club and Sila And so it's a little early,
but I'm currently working on it.
Speaker 12 (32:27):
It will not be on.
Speaker 11 (32:28):
Earth Day because we celebrate Earth Day every year, so
we're hoping for July. But it's gonna be a really
special event. This year is going to be a much
bigger production. So if you really want to support what
we're doing, but packing up the trash is not necessarily
your thing, which I totally get, you can either donate
to our GoFundMe or keep your ears out and then
just support us at the music.
Speaker 12 (32:47):
Fest because it's it's gonna be a good time.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Well, hopefully I can stop in and see what's going
on there as well. Thank you very much, Cas, thank you,
thanks so much to cast and to every volunteer I
got to speak with. You can follow the Echo Park
Trash Club on Instagram at Echo Underscore Park Underscore Trash
(33:13):
Underscore Club. If you would like to share your story
on whedian House, please reach out to me at Wiedianhouse
dot com, at whidian House on Instagram, or email me
at Whedianhouse at gmail dot com. Until next time, may
we again meet in the light of understanding. Whedianhouse is
(33:34):
the production of iHeartRadio. It is written, hosted, and created
by me Theo Henderson, our producers Jbie Loftus, Kailey Fager, Katiefischal,
and Lyra Smith. Our editor is Adam Wand and our
loco art is also by Katieficial.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Thanks for listening.
Previously on Weedian House.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We know we can voice out an opinion, you know
we can, We can talk to whoever. We just we
just weren't aware of how to go about it. And
we are going to blow the wistl on this. We
are going to blow it out of proportion because it's
too much. They created a system that's designed to fail
on itself. When is enough ever going to be enough?
Speaker 3 (00:24):
There's a war on the poor here in this country.
There's a huge war on the poor in the Philippines,
and that's a huge part of why so many of
our people are here too. Right, all this money going
to war, all this money going to policing, Like, where's
the money for the people? Right? Why is it also
that we see the war and the police actually be
turned out against our own people.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Welcome back to Weedian House. I'm your host, Theo Henderson.
Thanks so much to everyone who listened to our last
three uppis series Unblow the Whistle. One quick correction. Last
episode we spoke to Ina, not Anya, and this week
we've got something a little different, a look at mutual
(01:13):
aid group in Los Angeles that came to be during
an important moment in local unhoused history. Today we're talking
to Echo Park Trash Club. Like every mutual a group
out here, it has an origin story. Echo Park trash
Club story is riddled with resistance and backlash. And that
(01:35):
may seem a little bizarre, but this came during the
situation while the unhoused community was under a brutal.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Attack by its own local government.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
There is a lot to cover the first unhoused news.
Earlier in my episodes, I have spoken on a concept
many house members of society used to repel and the
two her the unhoused community. Violence, of course, is the
leading tool used against the unhoused community. Sweeps are violence.
(02:09):
Forty one eighteen is violence as well. However, a seemingly
innocuous tool with equal violent repercussions is hostile architecture. Large boulders,
huge alien aggressive looking plants, spikes, and huge wood farmer
boxes are some of the ever evolving types of tools
(02:33):
used to displace the inn housed in their communities. Thus,
Hollywood businesses have stepped up the campaign of displacing the
un housed by using large planter boxes on sidewalks. House
business owners have long used tactics to make the unhoused
community un welcome near their businesses and in the community.
The city, meanwhile, has largely turned a blind eye as
(02:57):
house business owners have taken the matter into their own hands,
giving TACIT approval. The only time the city comes alive
is the enforcement of forty one eighteen or the creation
of new policies and tactics used to erase the unhoused.
This is a developing story and we will keep you
a prize of the current situation. In alternative medical circles,
(03:23):
Indigenous tribes are using opioord funds for a sweat lodge detoxification.
The Megma Nation are calling it a vital to inhaling.
They are using the funds from settlements with companies that
made or sold prescription handkillers, which has had a devastating
effect on their community. Moving on, the state of California
(03:47):
has awarded fifty one point five million dollars in grant.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Money to sweep.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Encampments and freeways. The program is called Halfway Home. It
claims it will move six hundred people into interim housing
along with the six hundred people who are currently in
the program. The communities affected will be West Athens, Willowbrook, Downey, Norwalk, Southgate, Lynn, Wood,
(04:16):
Santa Fe Springs, South LA and some metro stations.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
And that's unhouse news.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
This week, we're in the field talking to the Echo
Park trash Club for listeners who aren't in the LA area.
Echo Park became ground zero for military occupation tactics orchestrated
against unhoused communities by the LAPD, then council member Mitchell
Farrell and then Mayor Eric Garcetti in early twenty twenty one.
(04:52):
At the time, their goal was to remove over fifty
unhoused communities in Echo Park who were sheltering in place
due to to COVID nineteen precautions. On March twenty fourth,
twenty twenty one, over four hundred cops descended on the
sheltering unhoused community in Eco Park and their allies and
(05:14):
subsequently fenced, cattled, and arrested the community. I was there
recording that night and it was horrific. Since then, O'faraoh
and Garcedi are gone, but the antipathy towards the unhoused remains.
Here's some of my coverage from that night.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Cvidially this is the o an innocent from Median House.
Speaker 5 (05:36):
What the sounds that you hear from is the helicopter
and the protesters are protesting these situations that police officers
have come in the darker knight to remove the unhoused community.
They have three police arrest buses.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
They have two trucks as well as they have over
sixty officers converging.
Speaker 5 (05:53):
All different battage points the cattle, the protesters as well
as arrest them in a different states from the era,
probably Dodgers or another area where.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
They would hold them and detain them.
Speaker 6 (06:05):
Also, they have a yellow line preventing people from coming
in to protest the situation. As you can see over here,
the park is slowly descending on darkness. Their orders were
from what I've gathered is they waited to T thirty
to do the justifiable running in and removing people for.
Speaker 7 (06:21):
The park.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
From this horrific event. The Echo Park Trash Club was born.
Aaron Fine created a club that was unlike how many
clubs are created. They're not solely a beautification project. They
were created with intention intention of creating a sense of
community with the young house in Echo Park given their
(06:47):
hostility the un housed community received in Eco Park. Under
the leadership of ven council member Mitchell Farrell, Aaron set
out to foster a connection a community and in repairment
to the fraction relationship done by o' pharaoh's actions. When
we come back, we'll talk to the founder of the
(07:07):
Echo Park Trash Club. Welcome back to Weedian Howse I'm
THEO Henderson. We're in the field talking to the Echo
Park Trash Club.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Here's Aaron's story.
Speaker 8 (07:26):
Hey everybody, so thank you for coming out today. It's
wonderful to see that you are here and that people
came today in the rain, which just speaks to the
way that at least some of our wonderful community members
continue to want to show up.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Why did you create Echo Park Trash Club.
Speaker 8 (07:44):
That's a good question, you know. It was in twenty twenty.
I think, like so many people were feeling you know,
isolated and scared, and I also saw that the trash.
Speaker 9 (07:58):
Build up in my community becoming really noticeable in a
way that I had.
Speaker 8 (08:06):
Not seen honestly and even honestly before the pandemic. You know,
I understood that there's something going on where trash really
builds up in LA just in general, you know. So
at that point I noticed, Okay, this problem seems to
be getting out of control. I don't know enough about
the infrastructure with city to know why, but I know
(08:28):
that at least I felt like, you know, maybe there's
a way that I can help. And I have, like
many people, you know, just done different volunteer initiatives.
Speaker 9 (08:37):
Over the course of my life. I've got some a few.
Speaker 8 (08:41):
Organizational skills that I have, you know, built over the years.
And I thought, Okay, I think maybe I can pull
together my neighbors and maybe we can help. So I
started by posting in next door, which I know you're
familiar with you It's not it doesn't always attract the
(09:01):
types of folks that are aligned with us in terms
of our social justice orientation. But I started it there
because I wanted to start a group that would work
on a neighborhood with the people living in that neighborhood.
Speaker 9 (09:16):
I thought that, like that.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
Might actually get people to come out. So I put
a post up and there was a huge amount of
interest initially, and I just picked a set of cross
streets where there was a concentration of trash and thirty
I think maybe twenty five to thirty people showed up
that day, and I thought to myself, Okay, like there
are actually people who do want to help, as you
(09:40):
know THEO. We then had to navigate the different perspectives
that people had on the situation. And once we got
access to a trash truck and we were able to
go to encampment areas and help, it was very clear
to me that we needed to take a stance and
(10:00):
make it very clear that we were not here to
be a part of removing people's homes or taking people's items,
or you know, working without permission. So it's interesting you asked, like,
why did I start it?
Speaker 9 (10:14):
At first, it was.
Speaker 8 (10:15):
I wanted to just sort of generally help with the
trash build up in LA Quickly I realized like, this
is not just about trash.
Speaker 9 (10:23):
It's also about the connection to people.
Speaker 8 (10:26):
It's about protecting folks that are living outside from the city.
It was about, you know, I think making a point
to showcase, like, look what we can do just as
a group of regular community volunteers, and to show hey,
what's going on with the city of Los Angeles. Why
isn't this being dealt with? So it became so much
(10:47):
bigger than just sort of local trash pickup group.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
We are really in the field. As you can hear
the trash truck.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
I wanted to ask is because I remember the journey
and how it started. It was it was always a
major turnout. And I also watched as you quite correctly mentioned,
how you started to make the stance and started to
let people know this is not about a nimby kind
of of wonderland running up on house people throwing their
(11:14):
housing away. I can attest to sometimes coming to speak
to educate people of.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
What it is with housing.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
No one comes to people's houses and start throwing their
stuff away and to create the issue of empathy.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
I will say with your club, I did notice.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Something was going on too that some people that maybe
initially had those viewpoints, and I hopefully we saw it too,
started to melt started to re examine some of those
harsh or cruel ideas.
Speaker 9 (11:44):
Did you notice that absolutely?
Speaker 8 (11:46):
In fact, it was a beautiful thing to watch, because
I think those of us who are into the space
of education know is that a lot of the times
what's going on when people hold sort of ignorant belief
is that they have just not been exposed.
Speaker 9 (12:03):
To information like crucial information.
Speaker 8 (12:06):
And so early on when I knew, okay, we need
to take a stance and do it right. I did
some research and I was so lucky to find you,
and I'll, you know, just to let everyone know, like
I sent THEO a message just in Instagram.
Speaker 9 (12:21):
You got back to me very quickly.
Speaker 8 (12:23):
You're very willing to answer questions to help me understand
what was going on with our sort of council member
person at the time, where I was like, this doesn't
seem right.
Speaker 9 (12:32):
I need I need to know more.
Speaker 8 (12:34):
So you were so giving of your time, and as
you mentioned then, you came out joined us, did some
wonderful educational sort of speeches to the group, and made
yourself available for folks to be able to ask you questions.
And folks who were coming that I think did have
that sort of Nimbi perspective, they.
Speaker 9 (12:55):
Either left or they had a change of heart.
Speaker 8 (12:59):
And there are still folks today that really their whole
perspective shifted in terms of how they see people who
are living outside, how they understand what's happening with the city.
And it's been very beautiful to watch over the years
as people now come up and they know, they'll run
up to me and they'll say, has anyone spoken to
the folks in the encampment yet like have we checked in?
(13:21):
I mean, people have become educated. And now when we
go to one of our main encampments that we work
with at silver Lake in London area, you can just
tell that like people are peaceful. There's a peaceful feeling
because they know who we are, we know who they are,
and we can just focus on the trash remover part,
which you and I spoke about early on. Everyone regardless
(13:43):
of where they're living, would like to have their trash.
Speaker 9 (13:46):
Remove when new people come.
Speaker 8 (13:49):
Or frankly, when I hear folks kind of talking about
that perspective that we fight against, which is like, oh
they you know all this trash and the encampments, I
always say, you know, think about this for a second.
Speaker 9 (14:01):
If you at your.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
Apartment or your home want one week without your trash
company coming, what would happen? And then I say, what
do you think might happen after a month? You know,
you're no different than anybody else. A human right is
to get trash servicing in this society that we live in,
and so ultimately, I think the Trash Club, I hope
(14:24):
stands as an example of trying to show up for
each other in that way especially when our city will
not do it.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
How was you able to create the trash club because
other communities may want to do it. What was the
steps that got you into this?
Speaker 8 (14:39):
Yeah, that's such a good question. So it really went
in a certain order. I did start in the next
door app. I will caution people that you have to
be mindful of the kind of folks that sometimes hang
around in that space.
Speaker 9 (14:52):
So you know, that's just something to keep in mind.
Speaker 8 (14:54):
But there are also people with their really you know,
with their head on straight there too.
Speaker 9 (14:59):
I did notice it.
Speaker 8 (15:00):
Okay, it's it's not a completely ineffective social media tool
because because you can target people that live in a
very specific radius. I would just caution folks who are
wanting to get started if you use it, you know,
come in with your stance clear. That will help you,
you know, to draw in people who are going to
(15:20):
be safe, especially if.
Speaker 7 (15:21):
You're working in encampment area.
Speaker 8 (15:23):
So I did use nextdoor first. I got sort of
the attention of my direct neighbors that way, you know,
people living in the Echo Park area. Then we pivoted
over to Instagram since that's such an incredible tool as well,
started up that page and started really building like an
infrastructure there and slowly but surely. You know, I can
(15:45):
tell you for anyone who starts on your own, if
you just keep showing up, people will come. And then
when I started to get a little overwhelmed, I no ceo.
Speaker 9 (15:54):
You can relate to that, right, trying to do something
on your own.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
People started to say, hey, you know, I can take
over the newsletter. I can help you, you know, gather
the trash bags. I can take the truck and get
it worked on. We even did you know crowdfunding where
we were able to raise money just from our community
to get a supply truck.
Speaker 9 (16:14):
And I wasn't Yeah, we got tools. I didn't have
to use my own car.
Speaker 8 (16:18):
Anymore, which is really helpful because you know, picking up
trash is a dirty business. Yeah, so yeah, I would
say another important thing for folks who are trying to
start one get in touch with your city council people.
Now you again have to be cautious who's working there,
what are their perspectives, But you can start changing things.
(16:40):
I mean, we went from a situation that was not
great and Echo Park became more aware and we do
have a better situation.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Now you were able to do at the height of
the infamous Mitchell Farrell with his occupation of Echo Park,
how he treated you and how even though he was
trying to use it for his benefit, you were able
to make sure that you professionally distance yourself and then
make sure that you would not want to be his
The post of girl to be able to push you
(17:08):
back against the legitimate discussions against Mitchell Ferrell. Wh who's
not the council member here now, is Hugo Martinez?
Speaker 9 (17:16):
Have I recrrect Yes, that's exactly right.
Speaker 8 (17:17):
Yes, And you know, in terms of getting in touch
with your city council and what's happening in your neighborhood,
you can find out, Okay, are these folks actually trying
to help or are they problematic? We discovered at the
beginning that it was very problematic what was happening.
Speaker 9 (17:35):
So you know, we took a stance in opposition.
Speaker 8 (17:39):
And that was fruitful, even though we couldn't get as
much support because we took that stance, but over time,
I think we helped to draw more attention to the issue.
Certainly there are many people that were working on that,
but our group, you know, I think played at least
a small role and then it changed, you know, and
so you and you can get you know, some valuable
(17:59):
support from your community city where you may be able
to at least get tools trash bags, You may be
able to get access to a bin or a truck,
and those tools are very invaluable, especially when you're picking
up large amounts of trash.
Speaker 9 (18:14):
So I think the number one.
Speaker 8 (18:16):
Piece of advice I have is do your research as
you're building, you know, because it is important to get
familiar with what's going on in your city and make
sure you're doing it safely and carefully and considering not
just people that live in traditional homes, but people who
are living outside as well.
Speaker 7 (18:33):
You know.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
And they're not just magically going to disappear. It's going
to even no matter how much criminalization that we are
trying to do with young house across this country, across
the city, we are not going to have house susteners disappear.
And still the issue of trash, whether your house or unhud,
is one of the commonalities that we have in common.
I see we're standing right here, and this seems like
this is very very karmic. It says here on the
(18:54):
statement here, it says, I hope we always find a
way back to each other. I think that's a very
good place to end and I thank you all for listening.
Thank you to you, big thank you. Thanks so much
to Erin for sharing her story. And when we come back,
we'll talk to others who have started volunteering with Echo
(19:16):
Park Trash Club.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Welcome back to William House again.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
A big thank you to Erin for sharing her story
and providing inspiration to others to come in and beautify
the community. One such beautifier is Eliza and here's eliza story.
Speaker 10 (19:41):
Thanks so much for joining us today THEO It's really
great to meet you. I got involved with Echo Park
Trash Club in twenty twenty one following my involvement in
supporting the Echo Park Rise up movement situation over at
Echo Park Lake, and you know, I was looking for
(20:02):
a way to get involved in the community. I had
moved to Echo Park in October and was just noticing
that there was quite a bit of trash. And then,
somewhat serendipitously, I started seeing billboards for Echo Park Trash
Club seeing them on Instagram, and after my experience with
the police at Echo Park Lake, I thought I want
(20:23):
to do something to help people who are.
Speaker 7 (20:28):
Being criminalized and being.
Speaker 10 (20:30):
Cast a side by our city, whether it's a police
you know, mayor's office, or just private citizens. And I
also wanted to do something about the amount of trash.
And then once I learned about Echo Park Trash Club's
mission of providing and passionate trash servicing, did my research
made sure things look cool. I'm pretty sure I noticed
(20:52):
that we the un Housed was a partner, and all
of those felt like green flags, and so I decided
to get involved.
Speaker 7 (20:58):
And then, in.
Speaker 10 (21:00):
My experience of seeing the work being done on the ground,
the care and compassion in addition to the marriage of
like our mission and our practice, I would say it
just has continued to speak to me. And then I
shifted my professional work to also become more involved in
service delivery.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
So what were you before you change jobs?
Speaker 10 (21:23):
Yeah, so I've always done fundraising for like nonprofits and stuff,
but I was working for an organization in Santa Monica,
and I realized I wanted to be working somewhere more
local to where I live, being in silver like Echo
Park area. So I started working for Chryslis, which is
located downtown helps people find employment. But yeah, so I
don't know, it felt like for me personally, and it's
(21:44):
not about me. It just felt like a lot of
things converging. But in terms of trash club in particular,
I just really appreciate. I don't know, I feel like
we as Americans, as Los Angelinos, get really comfortable with trash,
and so I think it's important to say this is
going on. It's something in a way that kind of
(22:05):
unifies us. It doesn't matter where you live or how
you live. Trash is around all of us, and we
all play a role in mitigating it, and we.
Speaker 7 (22:12):
Also all play a role.
Speaker 10 (22:14):
Creating it, creating exactly all.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Then the house people have great trash. There's no way
around it.
Speaker 10 (22:19):
Right, And so I think like when we see trash
around an area where folks are living outside who aren't
house then it adds to our stigma. So to me,
it's not to say like people are dirty or gross.
It's just to say we all deserve to have trash
removed around us. It's not safe for people to live
in those conditions, not fair for us to determine that
that's how it should be.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
I like how Aaron says compassionate trash pickup with the
in the house community. I always say this conversation is
if I kicked in your door and told you you
had ten minutes to move your things and put it
into trash bags, and I just start throwing away all
of your things that you consider essentially important. That's not compassionate.
That's just you know, doing something that's violence. And one
of the things things that touched stood out for me
(23:02):
with the conversations that she would have with the residence
on house community about what this trash do they want
take it? And once that started to when I'm witnessed
with my own eyes and seeing how that they trusted
that they're worth going to have all of their whole
livelihood or their whole survival mechanisms thrown away, they respected
and welcomed eco part trash clup.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
That's a different other colt.
Speaker 10 (23:24):
Yes, it's a partnership, and there's damage that's been done
to that relationship. Like you know, it could be a
trigger to see a trash club a trash truck come up.
So that's why it's important to us to as humans arrived,
first introduce the situation, get permission right.
Speaker 7 (23:37):
There's a there.
Speaker 10 (23:38):
Consent is a critical part of our process here, and
it's a partnership. Sometimes we're all cleaning up together. Sometimes
we're asked not to and we go because the consent
is not ours to get in terms of what is trash,
and we also need to flip sometimes our understanding of.
Speaker 7 (23:56):
What is trash.
Speaker 10 (23:57):
I appreciate that what Aaron did informing the group was
identify a gap in our city services and what we
as private citizens do, and say we can do something
about this.
Speaker 4 (24:09):
With that question in mind, I've been watching and hearing
about the audit that Kenny McKee is talking about with
house business Services, and in he's sounding the alarm that
we may be in financial distress soon and some of
the services may be cut. Do you think this issue
with trash is going to be impacted by.
Speaker 7 (24:27):
Back Honestly, I don't know.
Speaker 10 (24:29):
I've only been looking at the law enforcement side of that,
so I hadn't thought about the impact on the trash budgets.
But I will say it's impacted. At least our partnership
with the city has impacted us before. I would be
curious to see now that the election's over, right, because
I noticed that we got more inclusive. I'm using air
quotes trash servicing during the election cycle, So what's going
(24:51):
to happen now that that's over and these budget cuts
are on the table. I don't honestly have an educated projection.
Speaker 7 (24:58):
But I share your.
Speaker 10 (25:00):
Curiosity is not the word, maybe a dreaded, dreadful curiosity
about what that will look like. But I think something
that we can hold is that there are other groups
that are willing to step in. Is it right that
we have to step in where the city does not.
I don't know, but we're here.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Any successful mutual aid group always has sprung out of
a necessity for the survival of vulnerable, impacted people, and
I just look at Echo Park trash Club as no different.
It's because the conversation was not getting anywhere because there
was more criminalization, more demonization of unhoused people. Therein like,
one of the creative solutions in order for the unhoused
(25:41):
community to just stopped being slammed was something like Echo
Part trash Club to be able to restore some of
the empathy that's been lost in the conversation.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
That's just my insight. You have anything to add on.
Speaker 7 (25:53):
That, I completely agree.
Speaker 10 (25:56):
I mean, I think we say every week there's someone
new and I think every single person that is new
and has this experience at least once comes away with
a more compassion, more perspective, better clarity around a situation
or an issue that they may have never been had
proximity to before.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
Well, I think this is a good place to end,
but I thank you again, thanks so much to Eliza
for talking with me. Most of the volunteers of Eco
Park Trash Club deserve five stars, but there are rare
exceptions where one volunteer deserves an extra five stars, and
that is Cass.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Here's cast story.
Speaker 11 (26:44):
Hi THEO as you said, Yes, my name's Cass. It's
good to talk with you today. I actually found the
Echo Park Trash Club. I literally googled Echo Park trash
Club because I think it's more impactful to pick up
trash in a community versus by yourself. And when I
first moved to LA I started picking up trash in
alleyways and I found by the time I finished the
alleyway by myself, it was already worse than when I started,
(27:06):
and it was so heartbreaking. And then I would go
to the beach and then people looked at me like
I was a felon, because they're like why would someone
come pick up trash the beach? And so I was like,
you know what, I just need to find my people. Google,
let's utilize that. And I searched Echo Park Trash Club
and what do you know, it's that's the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
How did you how did you find How did you
know that there was a trash club?
Speaker 11 (27:27):
I literally was just like, I live in Echo Park,
let me just see if there's a trash club here.
And I never did I think it would actually be
called Echo Park Trash Club.
Speaker 7 (27:34):
But it was.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
So when did you come to La.
Speaker 11 (27:39):
I've been in LA for about six years now, Yeah,
and yeah, I was living in the valley and so
once I moved to Echo Park, I was like, you know,
at this, let me get more involved in the community.
Speaker 12 (27:49):
I could not find my community in the valley.
Speaker 11 (27:50):
So I was like, Echo Park seems like a place
where I'm gonna be able to find my people, and
I sure did. I am really happy with what we're
doing here in the community. I think that picking up trash,
you know, it can mean a lot of different things
to different people. Some people are doing it because they
just don't want to see trash on the streets and
for me, I really appreciate that. You know, the issue
with how many unhoused people we have in this city
(28:13):
is not going to be something that I can help
out with like solving.
Speaker 12 (28:17):
And I think it.
Speaker 11 (28:18):
I think it's a really complicated issue, and I don't
think it's something that's going to be solved in the
next year, five ten years. And I'm not in I
don't know my politics, so I'm not the person to
help that. However, in the meantime, well, hopefully we can
get some people who are qualified to actually come up
with solutions and resolve that and come up with long
term solutions that will help this and more permanent issues
(28:39):
or permanent solutions for this permanent issue. There's still that
need right now. And we were finding that so many
and canas were being swept due to hygiene, even though
you know, they weren't supposed to be doing sweeps at
the time.
Speaker 12 (28:51):
They were finding these loopholes.
Speaker 11 (28:52):
As you know, I'm so sure you are so familiar
with this and yeah, like this.
Speaker 12 (28:56):
Is not news to you, yeah, yeah, And so I
don't know what to do about that.
Speaker 11 (29:02):
However, we can step in and help keep those encampments
clean and you know, come in with compassion and just
the first thing we do is just check, like what
are your boundaries today? Like, is it okay if we
clean up your encampment? If not, have a great day.
Here are some trash bags. Do what you're comfortable with.
If you do want us to clean up your encampment,
We're going to clean up only what you want us
to take.
Speaker 12 (29:21):
And I believe everyone deserves hygiene.
Speaker 11 (29:24):
I think that is such a basic human right and
it's such a sad thing to see that, Like if
you don't have the resource to be hygienic, you just
get swept ye, like so many curse words come to mind.
So we've built the society to have waste, and so
if certain people don't have access to removing that waste,
like that's not their fault.
Speaker 12 (29:41):
We need to help.
Speaker 11 (29:42):
And yeah, so I just am really passionate about like
helping the people who like if I mean, also, oh god,
it's just sorry, I'm getting frustrated now, but yeah, so
for me, it's really important to be able to help
a problem now. And so many people are like, well,
what are you gonna do to fix this long term?
And I'm like, personally, I don't have that answer if
I can help, I will. I see an immediate need
(30:03):
right now, and I think it's important to help that.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
And here's the rejoining it to that.
Speaker 4 (30:07):
What are you going to do as on my long
ternal instead of just complaining and wagging your finger, because
that always magically has the most vile or most disgusting
idea about the situation. But when you ask then call
upon them to do anything, it's always criminalization. It's always
something that's dystopian or I'm getting on.
Speaker 12 (30:25):
Yeah, we're being brought up.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
What the fact of the matter.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Is, this is a viable thing because trash is an
ongoing thing. Trash is not going to magically disappear. Even
with you housing now human beings. You create trash.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
It's got to be taken care of.
Speaker 11 (30:40):
And that's a great point you bring it because even
when you know ideally the sooner the better, but as
soon as we resolve getting permanent housing for all of
our neighbors, you're right, we're still going to have trash.
And I think something like the Trash Club is still
necessary because the city is never going to have enough
resources to deal with the amount of waste we're creating.
Speaker 12 (30:58):
And it just kind of goes than that would like.
Speaker 11 (31:00):
Sustainability is not always the biggest factor with companies.
Speaker 12 (31:03):
And so it's just we could just we're gonna have
waste forever.
Speaker 11 (31:07):
And I think certain things like this where if you
can just give up two hours of your day every
other week to just pick up a couple of bags
of trash like boom, there's a community service. Even if
you're doing it, just feel good about yourself you're doing something.
Or if you're doing it because you want to be
able to walk down the street, if you're doing it
so that a disabled neighbor has good access to their ramps, great,
whatever your reason is, come out here and pick out
(31:28):
some trash. You know, if you are someone who leads
with compassion and you care about your neighbors regardless of
their situation, and you don't mind getting a little dirty,
just come join us.
Speaker 12 (31:37):
We would love to have you.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
And when do you guys do trash pickup?
Speaker 11 (31:41):
We do trash pickups. We like to do it twice
a month, every other Sunday. It's always on Sundays from
ten am until noon. The best way to keep up
with that is Echo Park Trash Club Instagram. We are
very communicative we're posting during the cleanups and we're gonna
let you know when to come find us.
Speaker 4 (31:56):
On one other thing, is there any kind of any
fundraisers that people may not be able to come? Can
they do any donations? Step in to fundraise for you guys?
What's the four one one on it?
Speaker 11 (32:07):
Absolutely, we have a gofundbe which is linked on our Instagram.
And then if trash isn't your thing, I actually do
kind of an earth Day Music festival, So if you
were lucky enough to come to earth Day Music Festival.
Last year we raised thirty five hundred dollars for both
Trash Club and Sila And so it's a little early,
but I'm currently working on it.
Speaker 12 (32:27):
It will not be on.
Speaker 11 (32:28):
Earth Day because we celebrate Earth Day every year, so
we're hoping for July. But it's gonna be a really
special event. This year is going to be a much
bigger production. So if you really want to support what
we're doing, but packing up the trash is not necessarily
your thing, which I totally get, you can either donate
to our GoFundMe or keep your ears out and then
just support us at the music.
Speaker 12 (32:47):
Fest because it's it's gonna be a good time.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Well, hopefully I can stop in and see what's going
on there as well. Thank you very much, Cas, thank you,
thanks so much to cast and to every volunteer I
got to speak with. You can follow the Echo Park
Trash Club on Instagram at Echo Underscore Park Underscore Trash
(33:13):
Underscore Club. If you would like to share your story
on whedian House, please reach out to me at Wiedianhouse
dot com, at whidian House on Instagram, or email me
at Whedianhouse at gmail dot com. Until next time, may
we again meet in the light of understanding. Whedianhouse is
(33:34):
the production of iHeartRadio. It is written, hosted, and created
by me Theo Henderson, our producers Jbie Loftus, Kailey Fager, Katiefischal,
and Lyra Smith. Our editor is Adam Wand and our
loco art is also by Katieficial.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Thanks for listening.
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