Grants Pass: The Pieces of Horrors

This week, Theo gives insight into what the election means for the unhoused population, and speaks with activists on how to move forward. Rooflesser returns to the show to discuss their work on the ground in LA, and we check in with home reclaimer and advocate Martha Escuerdo to talk about her continued fight for safe and sustainable housing.

Follow Rooflesser here:

 https://x.com/rooflesser

Follow Martha and the reclaimers here: 

https://reclaimingourhomes.org/

Martha's GoFundMe here: 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/roh-eviction-defense?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cp_guide_do&member=23980295&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaacbK7ZifQKOIKl7BDWFNecK55yFoHqgwLa99w3V6972xQu-S2dPL4j6BA_aem_E1B2NBvWaOlNoIVy3m7g5Q

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Previously on Weedian House. Whether you have to get a
very clear definition of what crime is. I mean, if
someone is living.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Outside in their quote making noise, that's not a crime.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Sitting down is not a crime, Sleeping is not a crime.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Transpassed really just as an extension of what I see
has been happening in the community for many years. And
to criminalize, you know, sleeping on the street. What it's
very clear in a lot of cases is there's nowhere
else for people to go is definitely going to take
us back to the system that support mass incarceration, that

(00:41):
you know, criminalize people who are most marginalized rather than
dealing with, you know, why it is that they're in
these circumstances.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
And I just think that it's really unfortunate.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Welcome to Weedian House. I'm your host, Theo Henderson. First,
I want to share some post election thoughts. By now
the country, nay of the world has been informed of
the Trump presidency, most logically have acts. How bad is

(01:16):
it going to be? The unhoused community is no different.
Here's something Trump said in April twenty twenty three, ban.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
Urban camping wherever possible. Violators of these bands will be arrested,
but they will be given the option to accept treatment
and services if they're willing to be rehabilitated. Many of
them don't want that.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
But will give them the option under a democratic administration.
The Grants Pass ruling was handed down by six Supreme
Court justices, three of which were hands selected by Trump
himself one hundred forty four days past where aggressive laws

(02:02):
have been placed in effect to target the unhoused community.
How will Trump continue to support this cruel decision?

Speaker 1 (02:12):
He is more of the same speech.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
We will then open up large parcels of inexpensive land,
bringing doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, and drug rehab specialists, and
create ten cities where the homeless can be relocated and
their problems identified. But will open up our cities again,
make them livable, and make them beautiful.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
In April twenty twenty four, the Los Angeles City Council
approved a ban on overnight parking for vehicles that are
more than twenty two feet long or seven feet high
on thirty streets across four districts, including Ban Eyes, Arlentin Heights,
and Porta Ranch. But ban is in effect from two

(02:58):
to five am, and residents can only purchase a three
day permit for ten dollars. As we drink in the
arduous rolled ahead, we must remember there are punitive laws
from when we fall through the cracks. In our last episode,
we interviewed candidates for Judge Erker Wiley and George Turner

(03:19):
who have successfully been voted in. We must also take
our time in understanding the implications. I am an African
American male that has had family members in my line
that have lost their lives fighting to even be able
to register to vote. Then the issue was fought with
every fiber of sweat and blood to make sure that

(03:41):
this was the right that they could pass on to
their descendants. Some of us in circles that contested the
election gave short strip to this reality of many African
American people. They ridiculed or laughed outright in derision when
it's brought up. Understandably, electing people is complex and the
issues therein impacts people's lives. However, we must not diminish

(04:05):
another race of people to try to hold space for others.
We don't have to be anti black to be pro Palestinian.
We don't have to be anti black to be pro Ukrainian.
We don't have to be anti black at all. I
am sorry to say our country is embedded with this
anti blackness in all of what we do, from us

(04:27):
eating cats and dogs, to us being seen as criminals,
for us being seen as anything but good except for
our entertainment. There's a saying in the black community that
many people want our rhythm, but not our blues. As
we move forward and speaking out against the injustices of Palestine,
let us remember the Congo, let us remember Sudan. Let

(04:50):
us remember every neocolonial state that has taken advantage, especially
in the darker continent. We only hear minor discussions on it,
yet we see the flags waved of certain communities, only
fueling the anti black sentiment. I also want this to

(05:11):
be a teachable moment for our unhoused community who did
not understand the implications or we're not aware of the
gathering noose around one's neck. Especially important if one voted
for Trump. Many are now googling how can I change
my vote?

Speaker 1 (05:30):
But it's too late. We're going to reap what we
sow in this country.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Violence isn't at an uptick with people of color, people
in different spaces, and we must do what we need
to do to keep safe, to endure for another day,
and please take off those damn blue braces. They're not
doing anything for us. This episode is going to be

(05:58):
about too divergent, but simil the issues rants passed and
the consequences of evicting a reclaimer from her home. We'll
be right back. Welcome back to Weedian House. Our first
interview today. It's with Ruth, a returning guest, who offers

(06:22):
new insight on the grants past ruling, among other things
within the un housed community, including of course, her own story.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Here's our chat. We have two guests.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
We have a returning guest and we have a new guest,
mister Zachary Allison, who is a journalist in his own right.
And we have a other correspondent who also does extensive
research into matters of city policy regarding to the unhoused community.
Ruth Lesser, without further ado, thank you for joining my

(06:55):
show and tell us a little bit about yourselves, if
you will.

Speaker 5 (06:59):
Thank you so much for having me. I love being
on Median House and working with you. Yeah, I'm Ruth.
Basically I tried to document from my iPhone, you know,
things that are happening and exposed corruption, like Misspending. I've
been unhoused and technically unsheltered in LA continuously since at

(07:20):
least twenty seventeen. And I have Zachary Ellison here if
he wants to introduce himself.

Speaker 6 (07:28):
Hell deo, my name is Zachary Ellison.

Speaker 7 (07:30):
I'm an independent journalist here in Los Angeles and I
cover politics, investigations, and media.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
To start the conversation, I want to begin with a
quote from Zora new Hurston and then we can take
a conversationally from there. Zora Newhurston was a famous writer.
She's mentioning on the xicon of a lot of the
struggles that were going on in the earlier twenties and thirties.
But one of the quotes that she mentioned, I think

(07:56):
it's apropos for today. If you are silent about your pain,
they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it. I think
this is the overarching thing that with this episode is
going to discuss in the landscape of how Mayor Karen
Bass is painting her inside starving or her inside safe debacle,

(08:18):
as well as the focus on her displacing people that
are in RVs. She has savvy, she is cannily and
I guess cunningly using two different narratives in order to
make it sound like she is moving forward and she
is the solution to the problem of houselessness, and if

(08:38):
she's doing it in the long gang, in the way
of trying to be re elected, the second thing she's
doing is she is using sound bites from nimbies, but
she's couching it in humanity and empathy when in the
reality of it is it's still violent, but it's just
sugarcoated with you know, like you know, roses over defecation
or excrement. But let me get your take on that,

(09:01):
miss Dallison, and then I will ask the same question
to Roofe.

Speaker 7 (09:06):
You know, I think that the Mayor's office has a
very determined communications strategy and this is something we see
with like most of the council members, like they won't
even talk with you.

Speaker 6 (09:16):
And I think that like they think that they can.

Speaker 7 (09:20):
Just power through, you know, a human crisis with like
what we would call it usc optics, and it's not
really working. They're they're spending more money than ever and
only getting a little.

Speaker 6 (09:31):
Bit of results. And then, you know, I think the
question of you know, our.

Speaker 7 (09:36):
People being treated humanly, and you know, particularly we're talking
about RVs, you know, towing that is really starting to
fill the test here a little.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Bit roof what's your take on it?

Speaker 5 (09:46):
Thank you? Yeah, I agree, and yeah, Jack and I
have been trying to find the plaintiff's voices lately in LA,
with like the LA Alliance and everything. These things have
been on fold and there's just not unhoused people fearing
them much less informing them. And sometimes like it's interesting

(10:08):
because we can't really be present, like like I can't
necessarily leave my house and expected to be here when
I come back. So it's been hard to get our
voices heard and feel like we're participating in this process.
And people take that as like that we don't care,
or that we're ambivalent, or that we endorse whatever decision

(10:29):
that they come up with, and that's not the case.
You know, when people's RVs are getting towed, you know,
some of them have lived on the same block, like
in houses, you know, and then they couldn't afford their
house anymore, or maybe they purchased an RV so they
were able to upgrade from a tent during the pandemic
because of stimulus and to show them away, Like, I

(10:50):
feel like the city has a history of making temporary
housing as like a solution for housing crises, Like after
World War Two they made like the Roger Young Village
in Griffith's Park and it was the first integrated housing
for veterans, but it was it had a caveat that

(11:12):
it was temporary. So I feel like it robs people
of the ability to be able to like invest in
a place like anyone else typically can if they've lived
there for a certain number of years or anything like,
that's their community. But with the unhoused people, we just
keep getting shuffled around and that's cruel and I think

(11:33):
it goes back to like trying to oppress people, you know,
like how can somebody actually succeed or get ahead if
they if they have to keep moving and resetting their relationships,
their finances. You know, moving is expensive and it takes
a long time to get settled back into a new community.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
You mentioned several interesting points, and I was thinking why
you were mentioning these things about the reality of what
I'm hearing is the city is running out of funding
or they're hitting some snacks in they're trying to sustain it.
The larger question is recently I saw some footage where
there was conversation was trying to open up housing, affordable

(12:14):
housing for displaced people in other places like Westminster, I believe,
and the vociferous protests that they had against it is
also telling and in many respects, it is the people
that are tired of seeing a house or displaced people.
They fight tooth and nail when it is time for

(12:35):
people to create solutions where they can be housed. They
don't want them in their neighborhood. They don't want these
very displaced people because of the narratives that are being placed.
So where is the solution into doing this unless it's
a incarceration, which is what a lot of Nimbis are
trying to undercut and say. But they don't want to
come out and seem like totally evil. But what's your

(12:57):
insight on this, Zach?

Speaker 7 (12:59):
You know, I think there's there's a lot of tension
in the city right now about homelessess policy, and like
it's certainly something we see playing out in the LA
Alliance hearings that have been going on now for years.
In the courtroom of Judge Carter's kind of like we've
got to do something, but like, how do we do
it right? And then what do we do when we
only have limited funding? And you're absolutely right that the

(13:21):
city's budget is getting quite on ice, mostly because of LAPD,
LAPD's salary and overtime costs and then liability payouts for
mis conduct, and whenever you're sweeping people, you're taking a
chance with more liability, and like say, like we had

(13:41):
a video from Adam Smith of LA CAN the la
Community Action Network that showed a police officer running over
and unhoused individuals belongings and I sent the video around
to all the different.

Speaker 6 (13:54):
Departments and nobody wanted to comment on it.

Speaker 7 (13:56):
So I think they think that brutality and abuse is
when they shouldn't be happening because simply be swooked under
the rug and that's not really healthy and it is
not really going to make any of this functional. City
clearly has to get better at doing this right now,
we're not succeeding, and I think everybody agrees with that,
whether you're NIMBA or NB or on housed.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
I also think it's like it's tacit approval because I
have covered sweeps in my time as well, and I
noticed that there is this unspoken aggression, it's unspoken approval
when they descend upon unhoused people. Or most recently, when
I was covering the sweep out in Elmonte, it was
the open aggression. Well, if you in any way around

(14:38):
on house people, are you stopping the sanitation from destroying
their stuff, You're going to jail.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
You're going to be arrested.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
And to have those kind of entries where you're interacting
with unhoused people and then claiming that you had brought
the team that was supposed to help with unhoused people,
it's sending that subtle, veiled threat.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
It's sitting that violence.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
It's sitting that threat, the specter of violence that the
specter of criminalization that is going on that I'm noticing
the city is heavily relied on. You made an excellent
point about is that we are close to four billion
dollars in the police budget. But not only that, we
also understand that there are other programs that are feeding

(15:21):
also on top of the three or four billion dollars,
money's to LAPD like the Library, LA Public Library, other
entities that are dealing with on housed and their focus
is they pouring money for them to be at the
forefront of eliminating, arresting, or removing unhoused people and the

(15:42):
areas they are. But they have again, which begs the
question about Grant's past. Grant's past has unleashed the beast.
I'm set loose on them because they don't have to
offer housing, they don't have to offer services. If they
say you got to move, you got to move, they
can cursory give you a notice. It doesn't have to
be a notice, it doesn't have to be forty one

(16:04):
to eighteen. Other cities are taking a page from the
book from the Supreme Court and just setting themselves up
to set themselves upon on house people, Which brings up
to what is your feeling on how do they feel
about Grant's pass in these city council mediu How does
it come up?

Speaker 5 (16:21):
Well, the Grants has, like we talked about last time,
how that came out of downtown Los Angeles, Like the
lawyers did. They traveled from Los Angeles to Oregon to
go represent the city of Grant's pass to the Supreme Court.
They were not from there. So it's interesting that you know,

(16:42):
it's okay for lawyers to go to a city that's like,
isn't you know their city, right? But like it's not
okay for an n house person to move from another state,
you know, like people act like if you weren't born
in Los Angeles, then you shouldn't be allowed to be
homeless here. And pretty much everyone I know that an
house has a connection to Los Angeles. You know. I

(17:05):
have a friend who was born here in nineteen eighty
two and his family just moved to Texas because they
had to downsize the couldn't afford it anymore. So he's
here in Los Angeles without shelter, and like he doesn't
know anywhere else, you know, like he doesn't have another
city that he's ever had any connection to. And it's

(17:27):
interesting when people act like, you know, this is a
problem of others coming here or things like that, and really,
like I think I calculated using open LAPD data that
there's been more than forty one thousand arrests or forty
one eighteen since I think it was twenty ten, And

(17:50):
that was without Grant's past. That was when it was
still constitutionally questionable, you know, like like there was a
chance the Supreme Court might strengthen it, and instead they
we in our protections and our civil rights. I think
that it's interesting because like a lot of times, forty
one eighteen is used to achieve voluntary compliance. I think

(18:10):
the only thing they're supposed to be able to arrescue
on immediately is if you refuse to exit your tent,
which is so messed up on its own, because like,
if you are camping in a tent because of a protest,
that's protected by the First Amendment. But if you're in
a tent because you're poor, like that's not like to

(18:31):
me that that should be protected too, especially in the
absence of notice and a good reason. Like I think,
you know, maybe there are good reasons where like the
city has to maybe protect like a power line that's
dangerous or something, and they need you to move out
of the area so they can do that. The reasons
that they use for forty one eighteen closures are not

(18:54):
like they don't even have to come up with the reason,
and they never do, like occasionally they do, like tree
trimming or something, But you know, it's really it's really
just about like forcing us to be submissive and have
to move and obey, and denying us the right to
have ties to a neighborhood. Like I've been in my
same neighborhood since at least twenty seventeen continuously, and like

(19:18):
I feel like I'm a part of it, Like I
am involved in a neighborhood council, you know. But now,
like like the neighborhood council that I'm in was advocating
for grants past, and they, I guess, like they don't
really see me as like a legitimate member of their neighborhood,
you know, And like they got rid of their homelessness committee,

(19:38):
and I volunteered to take it on because I do
a weekly displacement meeting, you know. So I was like, hey,
like I can handle a monthly displacement in a local
meeting because I already do it every week, and they
like decided not to have one. But it's okay because
my closest neighborhood council adopted me and they endorsed council

(20:00):
files d F nineteen ten twenty. It's about creating a
commission on lived Experience of homelessness, and the city was
supposed to do it. The motion was introduced in twenty
nineteen and voted on in twenty twenty unanimously and it
got jammed up like in the CLA I think office,
where they they just never moved forward with the next steps,

(20:23):
and it was supposed to be in the Civil, Human
Rights and Equity Department. I feel like if it doesn't
have action taken soon, because it does expire on November eighteenth,
that it'll be very hard to get our currency Council
to pass another motion or even just to hear another
motion like it, because in the last five years, you know,
our civil rights have been rolled back so much, and

(20:45):
we don't have Mike Bonnen on the council anymore. He
was the one who introduced it. We have Tracy Park
now and Mark Keith has Dawson is the one who
seconded it. He's now our city council president. So I've
been talking with his office about bringing it before the council,
and I hope they do. I last spoke to them,
I think on Friday.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
You know, one of the things that I have been noticing,
and I think it's so important to do, is to
take the time to get even even in the movement
where people are just dialing into understanding the difference between
forty one eighteen and Grant's pass because sometimes what I'm
hearing is that it's interchangeable, and it's not. Forty one

(21:28):
eighteen was completely different than Grant's passed Forty one eighteen
was born out of the Supreme Court Circuit deosition from
Mars versus Boise's actions that stated that it was cruel
and unusual punishment to penalize unhouse people because they had
no place to go. And in order to get around that,
Los Angeles particularly utilized forty one eighteen with certain rules

(21:52):
and certain steps in order to justify when they displace people.
For example, they have to have a sign that you
are not permitted to lodge or sit, sleep, or lie
at approximately at least at least one hundred feet from school's,
maybe hospitals or places that they consider a sensitive area. Now,

(22:15):
with that in mind, they also have they follow up
in order to duck them being violent against dunhouse people.
Is that they will offer it doesn't mean you have
to accept it. They offer shelter, Now that may be
a shelter that's over capacity. At least they offer it.
They will drive you there. You go in there and

(22:36):
there's no room in there. You're on your own. You're
just out of the way what they want, what they
wanted to do. They did that in Little Tokyo a
few years ago, and they would literally deposit unhoused people
and they actually did it also when they occupied Echo Park,
when they started dumping unhoused people out there and Pomona
and the other places, saying that they had services, they

(22:58):
had offered it, and.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
It basically was a lie.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
It was just a goal to remove them from the
area that they wanted to be removed. Now with Grant's pass,
this is a different track. They don't have to offer
you anything. They don't have to offer you a shelter.
They don't have to offer you a glass of water.
They don't have to offer you a tissue if you sneeze.
If they come and say that you have to move,

(23:23):
they can, you know, they can try to be legalistic
and put up a notice, but the day comes, like
what they did to ELMNTE is they stated they told
them that people come out there. They didn't a step services.
One of the residents on the show, when I interviewed her, said,
they came, they offer a hotel for five days, and
that was it. They can wash the hands of it,

(23:44):
but the point of it is they basically check the box,
they justified it. And if you're there, like what they've
been doing in the night, running up on unhoused people
coming back, they're arresting them and using this as a
motivating who from in San Francisco, it's a long beach
in Santa Monica, they're trying to ban blankets and pillows.

(24:07):
They're usualizing everything in their power to override what forty
one eighteen does here or any other ordnance, or they're
creating ordinances in the spirit of what grants passes.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
And that is the difference.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
And I think making the distinction is very difficult because
sometimes it seems like it's interwoven or it's the same,
and it's not the same, and it's like it's becoming
a challenge trying to let people that are involved with
unhoused people to understand which is why voting on house
voting matters and we need to do more of a

(24:42):
better job and letting them know you may not see
the use of voting, but people are voting against your
interests all the same, and it behooves you to understand
what laws around that you have and what rights you
have in order for you to protect yourself in this
kind of dilatorious environment.

Speaker 6 (25:00):
That's definitely truth to you.

Speaker 7 (25:03):
Like for example, Kevin dal Leone just recently expanded forty
one eighteen zones in his district council District fourteen, and
it includes underpasses which are nowhere near schools really, so
like it does seem like after Grant's passed overnight, they
have kind of just changed the illegal rationale behind what

(25:23):
forty eighteen was when it was passed and then Grant passed.
Of course, as he noted, it's basically almost an open
power to arrest people.

Speaker 6 (25:32):
And like say like Long Beaches pounced on that and
is already doing it.

Speaker 7 (25:36):
Other cities like Capacady and have been more reticent, but
they kind of view was just like a toolkit, you know,
an item in their toolkit down the line to begin
to do this.

Speaker 6 (25:43):
What are we going to say, Ruth?

Speaker 5 (25:45):
Thank you?

Speaker 7 (25:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (25:45):
I have this quote like from the Judge Carter court room,
from from like one of the first hearings where Judge
Carter says like, Okay, now let's just go on for
a moment. I think I've got I'm I'm going to
show you a sign just to leave you here with
kind of a smile on your face. For the law
enforcement and for our folks out there, could you find

(26:07):
the last sign that the community introduced me to you.
It's a parking sign? Yes, right there, right there? Okay,
this is great. If you ever want to see a
parking infraction, here it is. I want you to try
to park your car and read this sign. Sometimes I
can give you a ticket under any circumstances because this
is so convoluted, and I want to keep this sign

(26:28):
here for a second, I just chuckled. The city might
want to clean that up, clean it up. So, like,
I think what he's saying here is like basically, you
can get your car towed no matter where you park
in the city because it's unclear where you're allowed to
be and where you're not. And I think that there's
a parallel between that and the enforcement that was going

(26:53):
on in our city before Grant's pass and now is
going on where like now they can just arrest you
even if you know there's no signs, even if there's
no notice, you know, even if there's no place for you.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
To go, and they don't have to offer services.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
That's that's there is the rub to This is because
what forty eighteen provided was a way around Martin v. Boise,
and because they have come down heavily on the cities
that were criminalizing unhouse people in mass they had to
find something in order to slow that kind of aggressive
violence that they were doing. But with this grants past ruling,

(27:34):
it removes the bridle from the horse, or if you will,
if it's that's a metaphor, or opens the gate and
then allows the beasts to run and descend upon, you know,
the vulnerable as they see fit. That's why I reiterate,
they don't have to have a sign, they don't have
to offer services. They don't have to give you a
clean ass while you're crying about, while they're throwing your

(27:54):
things away. They don't care. If you don't move, You're
going to go get your rest. That's the conversation. If
you are in an RV and you don't take their services,
they will tell your RV their justification is because you
want accept shelter. Now, you know, some of the RV's
may be down, you know, a little bit of weathered
or whatever, but it provides a shelter that they could

(28:18):
live with without worrying about the car through structures of
some of the shelters, or the impermanence of the idea
of staying in the shelter like for a few days
and being thrown out or having to find that the
shelter is full. They have somewhere stable that they can
count on or rely on and be able to be in.
Which is the thing The conversation is that Baron Bass

(28:42):
is making these things like she's offering services, and you know,
RVs are being moved or told. You're towing people's property,
their livelihood, and most importantly their structured to live in
a hostile CRW world. Not everyone wants to have a
tent out on the street. Not everyone wants to have
to shuffle from point A to point B. What I

(29:05):
noticed with some of the RV's, because they have been
part of the community structure, they usually know the community well,
and the community knows them because they're there for a
sustained period of time, and they do their best to
be the best neighbor as they can. You know, there
are always exceptions, because it's the same thing with house people.
But you know, sometimes some of the nimbies take it

(29:26):
to a distance farther without understanding you know, there are
things that we can all do is to be good neighbors.
We can also have public restrooms. This is not just
an unhoused conversation. These are people that go to the
city and there are places and stores and restaurants that
don't offer bathrooms because you're not a customer. And I
say bathroom access.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
Is for all.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
They are disabled people. There are people that just come
in from the town. They can't wait to go back
home to the restroom. You know, we need to as
a city, instead of pushing so much money into the LAPD,
we need to be able to divest that money into
making our city much more welcoming and much more empathetic

(30:07):
and humane. But I'm digressing. I feel like I'm preaching
to the choir. We'll continue this conversation after this break.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
And we're back.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
I also wanted to take this conversation from the Grants
past as well. Where do you see this is going
to be Because the World Cup is coming up in
two twenty twenty five, and then we are hosting the Olympics.
How do you see from moving forward, how Grant's pass
is going to affect the end house community. And you know,
in the house community if you will.

Speaker 7 (30:41):
So I think this is going to come to a
head much sooner than the World Cup, for Super Bowl,
or even the Olympics.

Speaker 6 (30:48):
You know.

Speaker 7 (30:48):
I think there's been a lot of talk about, you know,
they want to clean the city up, you know, absensibly
by sweeping people away. The mayor has said she's not
going to do that necessarily, but we're not getting a
lot of answers, Like Ruth and I have tried to
talking with LA twenty eight and they don't respond to us.

Speaker 6 (31:03):
Ruth, what do you think?

Speaker 5 (31:04):
Yeah, I mean, I think that people thought that Grant's
past was about the unhoused, but it's about everybody, and
people will start to realize that soon that it means
if you're out in public, you're arrestable, you know. And
I think that making it seem like it was about
the unhoused was maybe.

Speaker 6 (31:25):
A clever trick.

Speaker 5 (31:26):
But like it said in that quote, like he's saying,
like here's a little gift for law enforcement. But he's
saying is like, you know, all these vehicles are towable now,
all of these people are arrestable now, and that's really
really ominous. You know. I don't think that people realize
that like that's the effect it had. But like housed

(31:47):
people are going to start getting arrested and start having
their cars towed to and maybe are going to be
unable to bounce back from that. Like we've seen people
at suites that are there for defense have their cars
threatened or towed. And we've seen the press that are
covering sweeps be arrested and put in handcuffs and put
in the back of police cars. Just last week, Lexus

(32:10):
Olivier Ray was put in a LAPD car in handcuffs
and he was not ticketed or charged with a violation.
But basically, yeah, I think that it's also going to
come up at protests, you know, like people who are
protesting in public are getting arrested now and it's not right,

(32:31):
like you used to have to break a law, like
an actual law, like hopefully a constitutional one, to get
put in handcuffs and taken to jail, or break a
parking law like to have your car towed, Like your
car couldn't just get towed because it was ugly, Like
it used to have to be blocking like regress or
taking up too many spaces, and now it can just

(32:53):
get towed because you know, they want to tow it
and you know, it's it's not right, Like people should
not want to go to jail. And I think that
what the argument was in Grant's path was that it's
not a punishment until you're charged with a crime. Like
it's like the punishment doesn't start until the arrest process

(33:14):
is over. But like, I just I don't see how
that can be because people know that going to jail
is rough and cruel and deprived, Like you lose your things.
You know, if you have a bicycle or something and
you get arrested, a lot of times the cup just
leave it on the scene and then you can't get
it back later and now now you don't have a bike.
You know, you could lose your job because you got arrested.

(33:34):
You know, going to jail is not something that people
should take lightly, and it's not something that we should
be doing to more people. It's something that we should
be scaling back from. And I think that that goes
back to the you know, the LAPD thing, like funding
these interim shelters has indirectly funded LAPD because they've managed
to siphon accounts that were for interim housing and homelessness

(33:56):
services away from those purposes by saying that lap overtime
is a homeless service. And at the same time, people
in these shelters are deprived of the ability to even
receive mail, so they can't necessarily vote. And so by
like disenfranchising the people that are benefiting from Measure A,
they might be hurting its chances of becoming a permanent

(34:19):
source of funding for housing because the people who are
benefiting from it maybe don't even know and they definitely
can't easily vote because they can't get their ballots.

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Just so, for clarity's sake, what is Measure A for
my own edification as well?

Speaker 5 (34:34):
So it's basically increasing taxes by a quarter cent on
non essentials forever, so we're supposed to fund housing services.
I think it's a sixty percent like it's supposed to
us on services. And one of the problems with Measure
H was that there was no oversight for the city portion.
There was only oversight on the county portion. So that's

(34:55):
maybe how the city's portion kind of got diverted to
the LAPD over time and stuff, And I think that
that's probably one of the ways it could be fixed,
is like if you know there was more oversight at
the city level.

Speaker 6 (35:08):
You're not crazy either.

Speaker 7 (35:09):
The mailers they sent out didn't adequately explain that it
was attacked increased, yes, and that got spotted by the
La Times.

Speaker 6 (35:18):
So like that that's kind of like.

Speaker 7 (35:20):
To some of the confusion, and like Ruth and I
have tried to figure out kind of like what even
like you know, measure HS did exactly that you know
had a positive impact, and like you know, halfcent doesn't
seem like a lot, but like it is, it is
a pretty penny. And then mostly you know, there are
the city's in a budget crisis anyways, and the county's

(35:40):
not much better. So like they're worried about the kind
of just the funding house of cards coming down here
and you know, what people call the homeless industrial complex
kind of crumbling a little bit. Obviously, nobody wants to
see decrease spending, but at the same time, we don't
have good accountability on the spending we have now, as
Ruth noted, So like Ruth and I have been pushing

(36:02):
really hard on you know, we were talking about CEEF
nineteen ten twenty to get that lived experienced body going.

Speaker 6 (36:09):
So there is feedback.

Speaker 7 (36:11):
And then we've also been talking with the Controller's office
about ways that we can better manage reports about waste,
fraud and abuse to get to where we want to
be as far as accountability, because otherwise voters are very skeptical.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Well they should be. And also the people that have
been impacted because thanks to Kendethmyhia's investigation on the food
crisis or the food or lack of food, adequate food,
they were just giving you know, unhoused people ramen noodles
and that's it. They were not balanced meals. They were
just an over abundance of it, and people were just

(36:45):
coasting and just taking money and just you know, giving
the bare minimal.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
And that's the thing.

Speaker 2 (36:50):
Too, is that the conversation, i believe needs to also
shift in when we're dealing with funding that giving dignified
solutions to unhoused people as well, because there is that
pocket of people that believe you can accept anything. Beggars
can't be choosers, but we have human beings. The human
spectrum is diverse and the needs are varied as well.

(37:11):
We just cannot just do a cookie cutter kind of
solution and think, you know, they have it. If you
don't like it, then don't be on house. But that's
a pernicious thoughts school that it needs to really be
challenged as well.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
But I'm digressing on that. But Ruth, what's your intake
on this?

Speaker 4 (37:26):
Well?

Speaker 5 (37:26):
Yeah, like the messaging on Measure A has been a
little bit confusing, like because they're calling it the bold
New Way, which is super vague, but it makes it
sound like it's new. It doesn't make it sound like
something's renewing or like being extended that's already existing. And
you know, it's hard to get accountability when like I

(37:46):
was trying to advocate for someone who was removed from
a hotel program at a home key in the pouring
rain with no notice, and like I could not get
any action, you know, I couldn't get like the nonprofit
to reconsider anything. And you know, when you think of
like what you would normally do, Like I didn't know
what to tell them to do, Like like if you

(38:08):
were removed from your house, if you were locked out
of your rental apartment, like what would you do? Like
how would you get back in?

Speaker 4 (38:13):
Like?

Speaker 5 (38:14):
And I didn't know what to tell this person. And
I tried to help them get a tarps at least
before it rains, but it made me feel really disenchanted
by like the whole thing, like because you know, we've
had a inside Safe in our neighborhood since December of
last year, contracted, but none of us have been able
to access it. And then I guess, like what happened

(38:37):
recently was they let families into this hotel through two
one one to the heat waves, right, and like I
don't know if these families are getting food or anything,
if they're getting meals or if they're getting gift cards.
But you know, like I have not even gotten a
noodle from Inside Safe, So you know, I think it's
that there's a big issue though with what happened with

(38:58):
the ramin scan, because like if nonprofit employees are stealing food,
like that's sad, and that means that they're not making
enough money to feed their families. And like another whole
problem is that like they don't have job security because
they don't know if their jobs are going to be funded,

(39:19):
you know, six months from now, and if they're going
to have to go on unemployment or or something like that.
So you know, it's an interesting thing that like I've
also heard about vouchers getting diverted and sold by nonprofits,
and that's sad too because if they can't afford housing
close to their jobs. Like I'm advocating for people who

(39:41):
are inside, but I think, you know, it's best to
align ourselves with the people working for service providers too,
because like a lot of times, they end up butting
heads because they end up trying to like assert some
sort of dominance over us, but like a lot of times,
they're being oppressed by the same people that are oppressing us.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
I think you make it excellent point.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
And you know, and I have been saying this for
some time sometimes which makes it very difficult. Some of
us are invested in our own oppression. And when I
say this, this is what I mean. I mean that
there are people that are suffering some similar There is
a house and security, they're poverty and secure, and then
here is someone that's a little bit more vulnerable, and

(40:20):
they believe that they did a couple of extra steps
better than those vulnerable people, and then they get a
chance to be over them, and in order to ingratiate
oneself to the lagress of the oppressor or oppression system,
they outdo themselves. There's a saying in the African American community.
Sometimes the worst police officer that engages in white supremacist

(40:43):
behavior are people of color because they want to maintain
the crumbs that they get, so they will go above
and beyond. If you remember the case with Tarry Nicol,
the police officers that brutally beat this unarmed black man,
they went above and beyond in order to stay in
the good graces of other police officers that did not

(41:06):
share their same color. But the point of it is
that we have, even in the unhoused community, I unfortunately
have met people that were pro police that were great
on launching themselves against other unhoused people that may not
have their maladies, or may have mental challenges, or have
some and usage issues, and they will break their neck

(41:27):
to make sure people know that they're not like those people,
and they are perfectly on board with criminalizing and harming
those people in order to get an extra few extra
pats on the head or some extra food, or maybe
a couple extra dollars, or even just the notion that
they are one of the good, good unhoused people, you know,

(41:49):
which you know, it's just horrible in itself to say,
you know, to be at the house and you know,
we all are the human spectrum, have good and bad
in every facet of life. But the fact that it
is when we have oppression, we always are fighting for
the little crumbs or the little extra space or the
little extra grace that the oppressor has given us.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
But again I'm digressing so well.

Speaker 7 (42:12):
You know one thing I should not is today is
a national day of action for Black Lives Matter to
stop cop nation. And like as Ruth mentioned, one of
our colleagues, a Lectis Olivia Ray of the Ali Taco
was actually arrested the other day covering sweeps in skid Row,
despite the police knowing who he was, the mayor's office
knowing about it, and then having letters from the aclu

(42:33):
so Cal in the First Amendment Coalition, And he was
actually detained for forty five minutes simply for covering the
sweep and then he was released after they acknowledged.

Speaker 6 (42:41):
That he was pressed.

Speaker 7 (42:42):
So like, you know, we know, right the system compromises
people and get to perform their functions and that you know,
even their humanity sometimes you know, comes in the way.

Speaker 6 (42:52):
Like I was watching Molina.

Speaker 7 (42:54):
Abdullah the Council that they speak and her time is
up in the officer was trying to usher her away
from the podium, and he was just like, I don't
want touch you.

Speaker 6 (43:01):
I don't want touch you. I just want to don't
I don't want to touch you.

Speaker 7 (43:03):
But like, you know, it's kind of like Marquise was
up there today and you know, a woman who was
there with the ashes of her dead son, and Marquise
wouldn't even take control of the situation and express empathy.
They actually went into recess today to get rid of
the crowd that was there and was you know, effectively
disrupting the meeting. And like, you know, it's not that

(43:25):
like nobody thinks government shouldn't function, but people are rightfully angry,
and when you don't acknowledge their anger and their pain
and you don't show them respect, you don't get respect back,
and you just get more corrupted system. Absolutely, And so
unfortunately that's where we're in Los Angeles. People don't have
a lot of faith in the government, and the government
doesn't have a lot of faith in the people.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
And I think you've nail on the head because I've
noticed in the way they treat people that are righteously
indignant against some of the injustices that's being dacted by
the city. For example, I remember in the beginning when
was in his I almost say emphasy, but in this
adolescence and people were speaking out, and they have tried
to limit the speaking time. Then they moved the time

(44:06):
to the end of the day. Then they try to
jumble up the topics. They did everything in their power
to make sure that there wasn't a concerted, unified, concerted
effort in order to speaking out injustice. And I dare
say that they're continuing that campaign. And in order for
them to continue to do that, they must create the also,

(44:28):
which is why I take exception to how Marabas is
making this polyanna kind of propaganda, making it sound like
that she's doing these things, these great things, that's moving
the city forward, when in essence, she's moving them out
of sight behind where people don't see, you know, or
they're or willing do you trust me or you trust
your lying eyes? And that is exactly what the city

(44:50):
is doing. They're putting in money into the harmful systems,
and the extracting the money where it could go into
people that need the assistence and more vulnerable, and vulnerability
is just not with the young house, there's the houses secure,
there's the job insecure. Where is the poverty stricken? There
are so many intersections to push the needle against the

(45:12):
most vulnerable and vulnerable in order to get an extra
crumb or to get the violent actions against them off
of them and the pressure onto someone else in order.
We need to organize as well, but we also need
to be educated on our struggles a little bit more.
But also once that is having some hard conversations, having

(45:33):
some unified conversations, and then really going after the people
that are trying to divide the conversation or community. Am
I off the mark or do you guys think that
that's a reasonable plan?

Speaker 5 (45:45):
Absolutely? Like, I'm not trying to like advocate for a
world where like the press can stand by a sweeps
happen and not get arrested. I don't want a world
where sweep player happening period, like you know, but it's
just yeah, it's like the right violations on top of
right violations on top of right violations, and you know,

(46:07):
people need to like, you know, put their foot down
and demand that people's rights are respected and demand that people,
you know, are treated with dignity no matter who they
are and where they came from and what they're going through.

Speaker 7 (46:22):
There's this proposal that's been floating around. It's it's simply
a Diraft spreadsheet, actually, and it estimates that the cost
for the City of Los Angeles in ten years to
meet its housing and homelessess golls is twenty one billion
dollars approximately, And like it sounds like a lot of money,
but it's actually still just a portion of the ILPD budget.

(46:45):
And then the other question you come into is, even
if we wanted to house everybody, where do the units
come from? Because the shelter bad system is toothmall, we're
not building permanent housing fast enough, and interim housing is
the same issue.

Speaker 6 (46:59):
We're do you begin to do it?

Speaker 7 (47:00):
And that's just played out on the Veterans campus actually,
where the Veterans have succeeded in powers McDonough their lawsuit
against the VA, which is kind of a rehash of
the lawsuit ten years ago. And Judge Carter is in
the position of placing modular units on the VIA campus
and then getting the VA to pay for it, and

(47:21):
the government is actually objecting to his plan and indicating
that they want to appeal it, that they are prepared
that they don't feel they have any obligation even how
as a veterans.

Speaker 6 (47:32):
And there's about three thousand on house.

Speaker 7 (47:33):
Veterans in Los Angeles, where the nation's capital veteran hopelessness,
and we can't even rally around that. So I think,
you know, as far as like getting the disruptive voices,
you know, you know, away from it, there's bad actors
on both on all sides.

Speaker 6 (47:47):
There's people who just want to see chaos.

Speaker 7 (47:49):
And then there's people who just want their special interest
to pavalue, you know, namely, you know, the real estate
developers who want the unhoused away from their buildings so
that the buildings will go up in value. And that's
where we get, you know, kind of the business, this
improvement district, people riding around on bikes and security guards
and all those other soft measures that are not you know,
that's the hammer of forty one eighteen or Frans pass.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
I think we can have to stop here at this moment,
but I would like to invite you guys back. I
had a brain wave myself is to create maybe a
tentative kind of lived Experience commission where we have people
that are in the know not just here in Los Angeles,
but other House community members that I've reached out to
and just have a conversation on what accountability could look like,

(48:33):
what solutions that we could offer. And basically, because Ewitian
House is to uplift the voices of unhoused people, that
we've got to start in a way somewhere. But also,
you know, I think our ideas will be more grounded
in reality and in a way that it shapes it.
Who knows, maybe we'll shape public policy, not just in
Los Angeles but around the world.

Speaker 5 (48:54):
I love that that would be amazing.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
So stay tuned for further details on it. I have
to flesh it out of it with Mike Excellent and
Mike Awesome producers, and I thank you all for taking
the time to chat with me and you're out of
your business schedules. I hope to invite you guys back,
and I hope we all meet in the light of understanding.

Speaker 5 (49:12):
Thank you THEO.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Thanks so much to Ruth. You can follow her work
on Twitter and Instagram at Ruth Lesser. When we come back,
I check in with returning guests and housing activists. Martha Isquerdo,
Welcome back to to Theo Henderson with Weedy and Howes.
Martha is another returning guest on the show, with an

(49:40):
update on her eviction status. Here, we discuss a harsh
new world under the grant's past ruling.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Hi, so yes.

Speaker 8 (49:52):
We're hearing and said in no where. Me and my
daughters became the house in twenty twenty and then we
we were transferred into the Path program, which is temporary
housing with hot Lab, a housing authority here in Los Angeles,
for two years. Then that ended. The problem is that
I've been fighting eviction since then, which is since twenty

(50:16):
twenty two. I believe it's been four years living here,
and I have a community. My house is like a
hub for mutual aid. I've done healing here as a
garden that provides medicine for community. We had a homeschooling
co op, so it's more than just our house. Like
me and my daughters, it's for community. It's also organizing space.

(50:41):
And we don't want to move out of here. I
mean to me, it would be a very just really
difficult and challenging displacement, especially because my daughters have a
lot of different needs that are met in their local
schools and Hot Law I was offering our path was

(51:02):
offering homes that are really far away. As a single mom,
I also have my support system here and they don't
really meet the needs that my family has, and so
I was willing to move if it was nearby, if
it was the equitable rent. A lot of the housing
that's called affordable housings aren't really affordable anymore, and the

(51:25):
problem is still remains surrounds really high, the wages are low,
and I just think we need to really create a
significant shift in the system that is super shitty right
now that it's a fabricated housing crisis where the state
has hoarded houses and not only the state, the city
and the county and even the unified school system. So

(51:48):
they're hoarding houses while people are suffering on the streets.
And it's just not single people. These are families. These
are elders or people that are you know, disability, that
have pen and fixed incomes and cannot afford this high rent.
And so I just feel like I'm really upset and

(52:09):
frustrated that we are not doing more and we could
in creating significant shifts in how unbalanced the rent is
and the housings. And I have like more humane processes.
And I also feel it's really important the people that

(52:29):
are directly affected by this crisis have more of a
creative way in actually coming up with these solutions, because
the people on top, they are housed and mansions or
big houses, They're not going to come up with our solutions.
They're not and so it's up to us to like
really pave the way and create this.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Well, looking back on when you first started, what made
you suddenly decide to reclaim a house because you are
a reclaimer, and why it was such an important part
of doing reclaiming houses, and most importantly why this neighborhood.

Speaker 8 (53:08):
So I did it because I knew how the system was.
I have worked with moms that are in need for
many years, and I knew that the solutions were not
equitable and even good for my family or for anybody,
for any human and so I felt I had to

(53:29):
push the limits and figure out ways to call at
tension on this crisis and on meeting the needs of
families and people in general. I found this neighborhood because
I worked here, and also they had been abandoned. They
were trying to do the seven ten freeway, and the

(53:51):
community fought against it. So they had been abandoned for
thirty years some of them. Some of them they were
like abandoned like ten years ago.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
It depends.

Speaker 8 (54:00):
But when I reclaimed, there was one hundred and twenty
I believe, empty homes with the it's called the seventeen corridor.
It's et Seto a Hambra and South Pasadena, and so
all these houses had been empty for so long, and
a lot of people don't know, and even people that
lived nearby, because they were kept by Caltrans, they didn't

(54:21):
look like they were abandoned. Some of them now they
do because they're boarded up after they were reclaiming, but
before they were not even boarded up, so people weren't
aware of that. And meanwhile, we're in a Holsey crisis.
So I did it, not just for myself because I
did want to be housed, but also just to bring awareness.

(54:43):
I knew that it might be possible. I wasn't gonna
stay in these houses, but I did want to bring
awareness that the state Caltrans is currently courting houses while
people are on the streets, and also to try to
create these pro that are led by people that are
most effective, that are actually going to create changes and

(55:06):
house people permanently. Now these temporary programs, these temporary programs
are usually just a revolving door of homelessness. A lot
of people don't get housed. The media highlights the two
or three people that do find housing, so they perpetuate
this propaganda that these programs are working, when in reality,

(55:27):
when you talk to more people, you realize that they're
not working.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Getting on the topic of propaganda is what I'm noticing
what's happening now. We're in an election cycle, but there
has been this touling, particularly with ABC's Channel seven, saying
houselessness is going down and Mayor Bass's program is starting
to make a dent. And what I've been noticing is
that she's hand picking or cherry picking people who are

(55:54):
not either aware of how their image is going to
are being used or miss shoes and to advance a
conversation point that people don't want help, but people don't
want services. They're getting help and they're getting housing. And
what is happening is they're in temporary places and there
is a backdoor where there are unhoused people that are

(56:17):
leaving these services because it's just a waiting gag and
you don't see It doesn't mean that people are being housed.
They're just being displaced in places where they're being heavily
parceally infected or not only bad, they are being whisked
your way from your eye sight. But that doesn't mean
that the houselessness has disappeared. So the propaganda is very

(56:41):
difficult because having mainstream tacit agreement with how mayor bas
is doing it, you're only focusing on the visible portions
of houselessness, not the other faces of houselessness, from the
children that are unhoused, the elderly, or people that are
having medical emergencies or different other fats as the houselessness
that don't live on a tent, live in a tent

(57:03):
or in encampments or while they're targeting now recreational vehicles.
It's like this is only window dressing, and it's very
difficult for mainstream society to dial into that or to
factor in that. So with that in mind, with the
issue here, and I want to emphasize, you were at
house during the pandemic and you found a place that

(57:26):
was abandoned and you guys took it and you reclaimed it,
and now you claimed it that you came into a
program and they didn't want that to happen. So they're
evicting you to putting someone else into a program where
the resources and solutions that they tried to offer are
inadequate and not appropriate for what you need. So it

(57:50):
sends the message that they don't care what you need.
It's like going to the doctor and you don't have
any agency in your outcome or your health outcome that
you're going to be impacted with. This is the same thing,
but if I missed the mark or is there anything
new to add on to No.

Speaker 8 (58:07):
It's exactly it. You know, they say beggars can't be choosers,
but we're not begging. We know that there's enough resources
and it's like the humane thing to do. Like human
beings all have different needs and we should try our
best to meet those needs so everybody could be well.
And so my family has specific needs, other families have

(58:31):
other specific needs, and I think as an agency that's
trying to do well for the family, they should try
to meet those needs and not just say, oh, well,
anything's good for you. For example, shelter shelters are really
triggering for a lot of people with PTSD or other

(58:51):
mental health issues. So you can't just say, oh, we're
meeting their needs. No you're not. You're actually re traumatizing
them and creating one needs. That's like a waste of
resources because instead of pouring money where something would actually
help heal and bring that person to, you know, be
more productive in society, if that's what's needed right now

(59:14):
on capitalism. But even that, like it just doesn't make
sense even with the capitalism mentality. For me, I'm like,
if your point is supposed need to create a productive
being that's going to produce, that's not effective. That's not
cost effective for anybody. They're wasting our resources that we
pay on taxes and then blame us and criminalize us

(59:37):
for being poor. It really doesn't make sense to me.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
And I hate to say this, but also sometimes there
are people invested in their own oppression. It's like, when
we're talking about these temporary solutions, it's for not the
benefit of the person that's being affected. It's for the
people to keep a whitewashed kind of imagery of being helped.
The second thing is is that for example, or temporary shelters,

(01:00:01):
if you will, are not geared toward people who are
not at their best because a lot of people have
to suffer and cope with the challenges and stresses of
being housed. If they're having challenges of mental health or
challenges of substant usage, and you put them in a
place of temporary housing and then you criminalize or demonize
them for breaking the rules or creating isolating environments where

(01:00:25):
they cannot cope or don't have the necessary staff to
be able to help them, then you are also not helping.
You're just creating another traumatic experience for them on a
tract traumatic environment for them. And the difficulty is which
where I saw that Marri Bass is being sued because
the neighbors in the area of her inside starving is

(01:00:46):
suing because there have been behaviors that they feel unhoused
people out there selling drugs or or allowed or not
being good neighbors. And they're blaming Mary Bassis because of
the lack of force and the lack of willingness to
understand these are human beings and they need to be
met where they are, but they also need to have

(01:01:08):
a comprehensive or starting a service some services to help
people be able to cope. Some of the rules in
these places are so punitive they can't communicate with each other,
they're not allowed to visit each other. It's so punitive
that we wouldn't do this to people that are living
in houses or in the hotels. You don't do that

(01:01:29):
to them, But yet we have this belief system that
they deserve to be mistreated, they deserve to have a
heavy hand dealt to them.

Speaker 8 (01:01:37):
Yeah, now that's really frustrating how people are just criminalized
for being poor on the streets and outside the streets,
and also in regards to like who is housed and unhoused,
not just because you're living on the streets you're on house.
There's people that are on house that are living in
cars that are often not talented. For me and my daughters,

(01:02:01):
we were CouchSurfing, but we didn't have a house, and
that also caused a lot of instability, especially with children.
It's not a way to live to be CouchSurfing. There's
other people that Okay, they say they house them, but
they end up in like really crowded living conditions with
even like friends or family members that they don't necessarily

(01:02:22):
get along with, but they can't pay rent on their
own so they have to be in sometimes abusive relationships
within a household because rent is high and they can't
afford to do it on their own. Domestic violence too,
like it's not just people that are on houses, people
that are housed in situations that are violent and not

(01:02:46):
well because red is high and wages are low, and
there's this produced fabricated housing crisis that hasn't gone away
and there's not adequate solutions, and then you're counted just
as housed when and truly you're not that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
Part two is like it's checked off the box. They
felt that, and into the touting of the twenty three
percent of people that they are housing that goog Soto
Martinez is stating that this is a major success. But
the reality is that if you break it down, break
these down these numbers, you know, Arve house or OURVA
house temporarily and then they're going to be back on

(01:03:28):
the street or they're in a temporary or in this situation,
is they felt the rules or the place is so
untenable that they just left on their own valition and
because they fought when they claim to be helping, which
like other politicians like de Leon and others that come
upon unhoused people and use these narratives that you know,
in house people have a house to stay in which

(01:03:49):
is a tiny shed and things like that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
These things opens.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Doors to more desolations, more harm, and lack of foresight
resistance to it because every time we do it's shut
down by people like Governor Newsom and others like, well,
you can't just have them on the street, or it's
unaccountable to have them on the street. Of course, you know,
if they are on the street, it's not like that's,
you know, a great ideal thing. But let's be clear,

(01:04:16):
I chose to be in a place where I could
control and have agency in my own ability to navigate houselessness.
That's why people are on the street. It is not
because it's the coolest thing to do. But if you
have given a choice where you have demonized and make
it so harsh and so carsoro, of course we're not

(01:04:37):
going to No human being is going to do it.
And that's the conflicting statements that they always diminish or
downplay in the in the conversation. So returning back to
the conversation, here, have they final formally did the eviction
because I knew that you guys were in limbo, have
they nailed down on land of the date that you guys,
guys got to leave or what's going on.

Speaker 5 (01:04:59):
Well, but.

Speaker 8 (01:05:01):
One person here that's a part of the corridor has
also an eviction court day coming up. I believe it's
November seventh, and so after that we're going to get
not only her but other people having eviction dates. We're

(01:05:22):
trying to get it to go to trial so we
could have a little possibility to fight because it's not
an open and shut case right here. We have reasons
why we had to felt forced under like duress to
like sign these contracts. We also feel that it's necessary

(01:05:45):
that we do create programs or I feel it's necessary
that we create programs that are led by the people
that are most impacted, whether it be rental or it
could be like transferred to Alantras, but where we have
agency on what happens with our lives and with housing

(01:06:06):
people in general. Like it shouldn't just be these agencies
that are out of touch with people, but like it
should be led by people that are on house or
in need of housing, because these programs are definitely not working.

Speaker 2 (01:06:22):
I think what really inspires people that have been displaced
or experienced houselessness is the fact that for me, it's
the curcial and hostility that is bestowed upon unhoused people.
And I think that's one of the reasons one of
the few things that will have to change will have
to either, you know, there'll be more training removal of people,

(01:06:42):
because then there's the conversation of people that are employee
fare that are burned out because they are being overburdened
or poorly paid as well. That conversation needs to be
had because there's conflicting conversations. One, you don't want to
see people you know, have a livable wage unless you're
getting a livable wage. Or you have people that are

(01:07:04):
living so high on the hall, that are up in
the upper management and the people that are on the
front lines, they can barely meet their own needs and
their only way they're almost half of a remark or
a half of rite up on their way out and
be on the street themselves.

Speaker 1 (01:07:19):
So it turns it creates a game.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
When I say the investment of oppression, they will out
do oppressive people because they want to keep their the
little remaining job or stability or control in order to
navigate their own life choices and life life experiences. So
moving forward, they haven't nailed down yet that you guys

(01:07:42):
got to leave, but it's better to be prepared. And
so what what would be your future steps?

Speaker 8 (01:07:49):
I think for me it would just keep sharing my
story and bring awareness to what's going on in in
Los Angeles and pretty much all over the country that
people are being criminalized for being on house. That on
house people are to humanize that there are no solutions

(01:08:11):
that meet the needs of people in general, and we
need to do something else. We need to do something better.
We need to provide permanent, stable housing for people so
they could be able to heal and learn and you know,
feel safe.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
How did your neighbors take it when you guys started
to reclaim your home?

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
Was the response, is it?

Speaker 8 (01:08:37):
Well, a lot of them did not agree because they
thought there was like some sort of line or list
for these homes, which is not true.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
That was false.

Speaker 8 (01:08:49):
And also yeah, mostly it was that that reason and
that and we broke the law. But I am always
the type that doesn't follow laws just because they're laws.
But you know, like corny houses is a moral in
my moral compass, it's really not breaking the law when

(01:09:09):
when you do something to uplift others. And so now
some of them have changed their minds because we've proven
that that whole list was of false information. Some of
them may still think that that way, that there's like
a bureaucracy or process you have to go through. But

(01:09:30):
that is really to me, it's a mind bodeling. How
how long it takes just to get like housing, and
meanwhile there's like people that are suffering through that, and
so like, I don't think it should be that complicated.
Once we took these houses, path showed up and created
a contract and you know, made it work. So I

(01:09:52):
just feel like you could do the same again, create
some other program and figure out a way where we
can stay housed.

Speaker 4 (01:10:00):
Well.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
Recently, Governor Newsom has awarded Los Angeles over eleven million
dollars in the Encampment Resolution Fund. And what this is
is their idea of throwing money at the problem, awarding
cities after Grant's passes, ruling to who is going to
outdo each other and removing the encampments and the house

(01:10:22):
displaced community members. And one possible solution to you and
I earlier discussed is the fact that I believe you
instead of having to go through all of this laborious
processes to evict you, using some of the money to
keep you in the place. Because this is an easy win,
This is an easy success. All you have to do
is you allow them to pay what it's necessary to

(01:10:46):
keep up the place and keep you in and using
the money to show us success. Well, here is a
permanently house person. We don't have to reinvent the wheel.
We don't have to put them in a temporary solution.
We don't have to send them to some far from
place in the hubble the community that they need. They're
getting the services that they need. Why cause more trauma

(01:11:08):
and displacement? And that's the question that I have. Why
would you even agree with that? You know, it's just
take the money that you have and now help people
that are in places that they're satisfied with and they've
asked you to keep in. And if we want to
listen to the Agency of Unhoused People, I think that's
a reasonable thing. But you know, I apparently and house people,

(01:11:29):
and the message it's been that we don't have a voice,
or we don't have any say, we should accept the
lot that we're handed.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Am I off the mark on this No.

Speaker 8 (01:11:39):
You're absolutely correct. They think we could just accept anything
and it's okay to move us around and displace us.
And they don't understand, Yeah, because we're dehumanized so much
like they wouldn't want to do that for themselves or
for their own families. I don't think. So people need
to realize that we build community where we stay. We

(01:12:02):
have homes here, and not just homes, but like schools,
we have specific doctors that we need that are here,
and so displacing us, especially children, I feel like they
are in need of a lot more structure, and once
that's broken, it's really chaotic and it's difficult to figure

(01:12:26):
out even how to make friends. And so why would
you do that to somebody? I don't understand the logic.
I really don't, and it's really frustrating, and I think
we have to work really hard just to humanize ourselves
to people in these agencies in order for us to
even listen to us. And even then they'll they'll just
say I'm sorry and move on.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
Also, I believe you're in school, is that correct?

Speaker 8 (01:12:51):
Yes, I'm in grad school right now, and I work
part time, so I'm in grad school full time, trying
to finish that degree so I could have better opportunities
to maybe get a better paying job. So these are
things that I'm working on. I know these homes have
provided a lot of healing for many people, including myself,

(01:13:13):
and so displacing us from this community would be really
detrimental to our mental health, to our health in general.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
Thank you so much to Martha for her time. You
can keep up with her on Instagram at Reclaiming Homes
and donate to her eviction defense fund at the link
in our description. And thank you for taking the time
to listen, to learn, and hopefully make the world a
better place than how we found it. If there is

(01:13:47):
anything that the show wishes upon you, it is to
meet again in the light of understanding. And as always,
please like and subscribe, And if you would like to
share your story on Weedian House, please reach out to
me at wiedian Howse on Instagram or email me at
widianhows at gmail dot com. Whedian Howes is a production

(01:14:10):
of iHeartRadio. It is written, posted, and created by me
Theo Henderson. Our producers Jbie Loftus, Kailey Fager, Katieficial, and
Lyra Smith. Our editor is Adam wand and our local
art is also by Katieficial.

Speaker 1 (01:14:29):
Thanks for listening.