September 10, 2024 • 53 mins
It's a busy week on We the Unhoused -- Theo travels between California and Michigan to take a closer look at the intersecting struggles of the unhoused and the housing-insecure.
First, we speak with journalist Phoenix Tso of LA Public Press and Alejandro Gutierrez of the Hillside Villa Tenant Association on the current struggle to keep longtime residents housed in the face of brutal landlord rent hikes and complicity within the city government.
Then, we head to Michigan, where Theo speaks to Tyree Guyton of the Heidelberg Project in Detroit, where we discuss how art and political education intersect with the liberation of the unhoused people.
Over on Unhoused News, Theo continues to cover the developing horrors of the Grant's Pass Supreme Court decision, and discusses the current brutal heat wave across LA.
Follow the Hillside Villa Tenant Association here: https://www.instagram.com/hillsidevilla_
Follow Phoenix Tso here:
https://www.instagram.com/phoenixtso
Follow the Heidelberg Project here:
https://www.heidelberg.org/history
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Previously on Wadian House.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's interesting to me because the people that are trying
to criminalize and demonize homelessness have probably never experienced it.
So let me throw that back. If the shoe was
on the other foot and if they had to endure
the you know, the heat, the excessive heat, the lack
of resources, which if you're not part of the solution,
(00:27):
then you're part of the problem. You are not giving
the community the ability to scratch out of this. You
want to criminalize it, but yet you know we are here.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Welcome back to Weedian House. I'm your host, Theo Henderson.
Today on the show, I wanted to take a moment
to explain things that are not obvious in the episode,
but I want to call attention to Like all of
my episodes, it was created with intention for a purpose.
(01:02):
This week's purpose is exposing eviction in different circumstances and
how it impacts the person that's being evicted. In mainstream society,
we focus only on house evictions and the stressors that
come along with it. This week's Unhoused news and interviews
will showcase the dimensions of evictions and how people cope.
(01:26):
For example, a current hillside villa tenant in Chinatown, LA
will take us through their journey of facing eviction. In
Unhoused News, we will also learn what the Elmonte residents
facing evictions are experiencing. Pay attention to the similarities and
the differences that occur in real time. This episode can
(01:47):
affect you whether you're housed or unhoused. Evictions are the
connective tissue, so please listen carefully.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
But first, on House.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
News, foreign house people were executed in Chicago while sleeping
on the train on Labor Day twenty twenty four. V
in House were killed shortly before five thirty am. When
victim's name is Simeon Berrow, twenty eight years old. Another
victim name unknown male, was fifty two. Another victim name
(02:23):
Annou was a sixty four year old woman. The fourth
unhoused person name ann was taken to the hospital and
that of their injuries there. The attack appeared to focus
on unhoused people. Surveillance caught the culprit who was apprehended.
Our next story on September sixth, twenty twenty four, and
(02:44):
resuming September thirteenth through the fifteenth. At six thirty am,
the US Army Corps of Engineers with the Los Angeles
Sheriff's Department offering aggressive sweep support. We will be removing
one hundred plus unhoused people on federal property in LM. Monte, California,
using ordnance violations that's justification such as three hundred twenty
(03:04):
seven DOT seven camping, three hundred twenty seven Dot nine sanitation,
three hundred and twenty seven Dot ten fires, three hundred
and twenty seven Dot twelve restrictions, three hundred and twenty
seven DOT fourteen, public property, three hundred twenty seven Dot fifteenth,
abandonment and empowerment of personal property, three hundred twenty seven
(03:26):
Dot twenty unauthorized structures, three hundred twenty seven DOT twenty
two unauthorized occupation, and three hundred and twenty seven Dot
twenty four interference with the government employee. The unhoused community
have not been offered viable resources from the Core to
aid in relocating. Law enforcement have threatened to arrest the
(03:47):
residents if they remain Our next story. A major heat
wave will descend on Los Angeles this week. It's highly
encouraged to freeze and hand out cold water bottles to
the unhoused community wherever you see them. Cooling stations will
be open from ten am to nine pm. Here are
(04:09):
the cooling centers. Lincoln Heights Senior Center at twenty three
twenty three Workman Street nine zero zero three one, Sunland
Senior Citizen Center at eighty six forty Fenwick Street, Sunland.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
California, Mid Valley.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Senior Citizen Center eighty eight zero one Keester Avenue, Panorama City,
ninety one for zero two, Fred Roberts Recreation Center forty
seven hundred Hondura Street, and lastly Jim Gilliams four thousand
South Lebrae Avenue. In addition to these cooling centers, libraries
(04:45):
offer a cool place during business hours. Remember, public libraries
offer the one bag rule for unhoused people. No outreach
vans are available to transport people two and from the
cooling centers.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
No storage fill facilities.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Are available for unhoused people if they utilize these services.
Outreach teams are not available to direct you to the
nearest cooling center. Our last story is our true research fact.
Can you guess how many unhoused children are in Iowa?
(05:21):
The answer when we come back this is unhouseless. We'll
be right back. Welcome back to Weedi and Howes. I'm
THEO Henderson. When we last left off, the question was raised,
(05:43):
can you guess how many unhoused children are in Iowa?
The answer is seven hundred and twenty four thousand, four,
one hundred and eighty three.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
This week we.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Are delving into eviction, housed and unhoused. Our first story
deals with the threat of eviiction people are facing at
Hillside Villa in Chinatown, LA. Our guest was this conversation
Phoenix So, a journalist with Los Angeles Public Press and Alajandro,
a Hillside Villa resident.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Here's the conversation.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
My name is Phoenix, I'm a reporter at LA Public Press.
I'm working on a podcast called The Tenant Association. It's
about the Hillside Villa tenants. Hillside Villa is a low
income apartment complex in Chinatown and the tenants have been
fighting for six years. They've been fighting against rent increases
of hundreds even thousands of dollars. Six years ago, their
(06:38):
rents were protected by something called a covenant, which restricted
their rents to affordable levels. But as soon as that
covenant expired, their landlord tried to raise their rent like
by you know, really punishing levels, and so the tenants
actually organized and have been fighting back for six years,
really long time, and they've really they've really had a
(06:59):
lot of fluence. They got the city council to vote
to explore eminent domain as a solution.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You went through too, if I may introject to city
council members, because I remember, this fight was a long
laborious process to forrest then the city council member Gil Cidio,
to even fight for the community, put the imminent donain
and get them actually to do the right thing. You know,
am I missing that because I remember hearing it in
the news and seeing some of the press conferences that
(07:29):
I covered.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
So yeah, No, the tenants were able to you know,
they protested outside of Citio's office, his events, gil Cidio's
office and his events, and they were able to get
this really powerful council member to put eminent domain on
the city council agenda, and they outlasted him because then
soon after he lost the election and everything like that.
So yeah, the hillside Ville attendants, they really changed the
(07:52):
conversation about housing in LA And the podcast that I'm
working on right now and that will come out soon
is all about that.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Who So let's take a little bit warp of step back,
because like, when this happened, how did I'm going to
this is directed to you, Alahundra, How did the residents
at the time feel that this was so such an
important issue? Because most often or not, and I have
been person that I currently live in SRO, but I've
lived in places that always never is the most best
(08:23):
of places or low income and usually what I was
always instructed there's nothing you can do. Just move because
it's a lot of big castle because this is a
very landlord favored kind of environment, and no matter what
you do, you're really just it's really got anything that's
going to be done about it. So what changed that
(08:44):
kind of thinking for you guys that were pushing for
this for over six years?
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Like Phoenix said, the covenant expire and actually we're we
were living good, we were paying a random time, we
didn't have much problems. So they're maybe taking kind of
long time to fix stuff, but not in major until
we receive the notifications that rents would be increased. And
(09:10):
we thought, well that's one because the first notification we
got is that O rens might increase. Then the second
notification we got is that rent would increase in my
case from one thousand and sixty three dollars to twenty
four hundred and.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Fifty and they asked what type of apartment was this.
It's a two bedroom apartment. So I would say, my goodness, still.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Betroom my apartment. So then one of the tenants, she
unfortunately passed away. Her name was Louis Louisa. She got
in contact to a Spanish news and they came to cover,
you know, what was happening, and they called a member
of Los Angeles Tenant Union and that's how we started
to organize. They help us to organize to fight back,
(09:56):
and that was basically how we started. Because we're in
there for years, like in my case, I lived there
for twenty seven years. November, it's going to be twenty
eight years. I move into Kilsavilla.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
And there are most of the tenants that we are fighting.
We've been there for fifteen years, twenty years, thirty years.
We have the first two families who move in when
the building was run new, over thirty years living there, wow,
So those our home. Actually I know we're paying train.
We don't own it, like we don't have any papers
saying oh, this is Jews, but this is our home.
(10:32):
This is our neighborhood. We're in there for years. Everything
is close to everybody there, like schools for the kids.
People go to their doctors close by. So that's our home.
That's why we started fighting for it. We don't want
to move nowhere to have a community. It's like it's
a difference between just the hood or a community.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
The community.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
You guys have been there for establishing men at times,
which is why I was very intriguing when I saw
these things going on. It says, this is interesting because
also I used to stay near the in the Chinatown area,
and I knew the area well, and I knew some
of the families that had matriculate to the school and
then you know, move over to play in the park.
I knew some of the parents there, and I knew
(11:14):
that this was brewing, but I didn't know the intensity
and how long this fight was going to be. And
also what you're mentioning too, you said that there was
not much of attention or any kind of conflict with
the landlord at the time, So I guess it's reasonably
to assume that things was going to take a very
reasonable ending that was not going to be just long
(11:36):
protracted affair, but then this became a long protracted affair.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So Alejandro, how do you feel about what's going on
right now?
Speaker 5 (11:45):
But it disappointed about councerer member uniss Tornando's because I.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Still used to city council members.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
How come ANIX mention about hill City. You put in
this motion to acquire Hillsville, that the city could acquire
hills Avilla through Amine the Maine And we've been fighting
for that for these many years until last year that
UNICS took over the city one council district, and now
(12:15):
we're in a situation of a very awful contract that
they want us to sign in order to continue living
there for ten years at the affordable brend that we
were paying before. So that party is really good. According
to the deal that the city and the lander made,
we're gonna pay the same trend that we were paying
(12:38):
before for ten more years. But I know we're going
to talk a little bit about the leases that they
want us to sign. But I am very disappointed, frustrated.
How come we came from trying to acquire a kill
Sevilla through Amine in the main to try to get
a fair leases for ten years.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Phoenix tells us a little bit about unises because I
think it's important to know where does she stand with this,
because that's a question I have for you that I
saw and I wanted to get a little bit of
verification on.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
So anisas Hernandez is the current council member for Council
District one, Chinatown, where Hillside Villa is is in Council
District one. Asas Hernandez was an organizer. She started OU
as an organizer, and so she ran for city council
as an outsider. Before that, she had been done a
lot of criminal justice organizing. She started a nonprofit called
(13:35):
La Defensa, which has been instrumental in trying to redistribute
money from car sooral solutions to other needs that people
have and everything like that. And for she's been instrumental
in the campaign to close Men's Central Jail. And again
she ran for city council as an outsider. She ran
(13:57):
against a very powerful incumbent named Gil Sidillo, and she
actually she unseated him in the primary, which is unheard
of in La You know, I think what's interesting in
terms of Hillside Villa is, Yeah, the Hillside vill attendants
had been protesting gil Cidio for a long time, and
you know, right before he put the eminent domain vote
(14:19):
on the agenda, they had protested outside his office on
the first day that city Hall reopened after covid started,
and on that same day she had actually tweeted in
support of eminent domain. And you know, if we haven't
been able to reach gil Cidio for common as to why,
you know, he did what he did in terms of
(14:40):
putting eminent domain on the agenda. But you know, the
timing is interesting because soon after eminent domain was on
the agenda and everything like that. And I'm sure Alejandro
can speak to this as well, but yet it definitely
seemed like anssis Hernandez was really you know, supporting the
tenants and she was going to like try to really
get you know, eminent domain or a solution that would
(15:02):
really help the tenants.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I was going to ask because there was something too
that was going on prior to the big horrible contract
that we're going to get to. I remember seeing that
there was something some deal was made behind the backs
of the tenants before the contract. There was another thing
that we need to talk about, am I missing this
when I'm wrong?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
What was that about?
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Oh yeah, so publicly there was this eminent domain vote
and everything, and in the ensuing two years, Tom Botts
was negotiating a deal with the LA Housing Department, with
particularly the head of the LA Housing Department, her name
is Anne Sewell. So they actually negotiated this deal to
(15:46):
extend the covenants for ten years at the affordable rents
at the tenants we're already paying. What's interesting about that
is there was a similar deal that gil Sidio had
tried to negotiate, but it fell apart. There was a
lot of back and forth as to why it fell apart,
but yeah, this deal got reopened. Just a few months ago,
(16:07):
the LA Housing Department recommended that the city not go
forward with eminent domain. They said it would be too
expensive and it would be less expensive to pay Tom
Bot's fifteen million dollars to extend these covenants and everything
like that, and a Eunyssus Hernandez she got on board
with supporting that because she actually said she didn't have
the votes for eminent domain. So yeah, everything shifted to
(16:30):
this deal after that.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Was it true that she surreptitiously agreed the deal or
then because I heard a couple of rumblings that the
input from the tenants wasn't sought.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Was that correct? Do you have anything to add on it?
What do we know?
Speaker 5 (16:45):
But the deal is that it was between the head
of Housing department at the time, anshol and the landlor
and we got an email from the city hall. The
supervisor Heldo Solis was asking about some evictions that were
(17:05):
happening at the time, and she knew the Lanyard and
city were in negotiations and those victions were for section
some Section eight tenants. So the reply was from the
Mayor's office that those were from Section eight that was
separated and she wanted to supervise her. Helder Soles wanted
to know any update about what's going on, and right
(17:29):
that it says from Carmebus offices, all City one is
stepping aside. They're not gonna go in the negotiation. They
want the city attorney and ANSU or Housing department to
conduct this neglistation. So approximately two to three months after
Unicia Hernandez took over the District one, she didn't want
(17:53):
to negotiate with the lanner. She had the opportunity to
help us to have a good deal, but instead of it,
she just slifted to house in department and the legal
things to the city attorney.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
So I don't know what else, like say.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
It sounds very scary because the people that they are
including doesn't necessarily have your best interests at heart. But secondly,
are not there to advocate for the equity for you,
but for only on the side of the landlord. But
that's just what it seems from from the outside. Look
at you, like I said, you know, it's just very concerning.
So from that, how did the tenants react to this?
(18:32):
Because I would be a bit appalled, a bit afraid,
for one, being a house on a fear of being
on house that would probably make me anxious. Because many
of the residents and tennants have families. That's another thing
that's or an advanced age or not in the best
of medical conditions that may need to be in these places.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
So you know, how did they react to this?
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Well, there were different reactions among the tenants, but basically
there are like two or three tenants who were influencing
the others, like, oh, Unesses is new, you know, we
need to give her more time. She has a female
she has Latina, she don't have much power. Myself, I
(19:15):
really wanted to go protest her since last year because
I could see that she was not doing nothing for us.
But you know, we go by majority. Iorty said no, no,
until last Sunday we went to protest her. After two
years she's been in office. And I know, for some reason,
these two three tenants, I don't know how come they
(19:38):
became kind of friends or close to City one or unises,
but that was this kind of influence that refrained tenants
from like going to put pressure on cons remember her Nandez,
you know until now. That's kind of division that happened
at the time. But I think we solved it already
(19:59):
and we they re united again.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Well that's wonderful to hear because sometimes it's like, even
in the in house community, we're not a monolift. So
of course no community is. And sometimes it seems that
some people are more invested in their own oppression due
to respectability politics, to internalized oppression, whatever it is to
really have that Stockholm syndrome, if there's a word for that.
(20:22):
But moving to the question again to Phoenix, as this
is going on and trickling down now, it's this new
protest is a bigger explosion. It's a bigger conversation to
be had. And I want to talk about the contracts,
to talk about how problematic is this least because I
don't think we are taken the full time to appreciate
(20:44):
that this is going to be disastrous in many levels.
So could you give us some a thumbnails catcher on
how this is going to be?
Speaker 4 (20:51):
Yeah, So basically, the tenants where they wanted a contract
that would drop the evictions that Tombots currently has filed
against them, but the new contract actually allows Tombots to
evict the tenants if they break a number of rules
that have been written out in the agreement.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Such as give us an example.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
I think it's important for us as residents and tennants
to understand how dangerous this is.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
It ranges from like if they pay rent one day late,
which is like very very punishing. It's it ranges from
playing a radio in the common area. The rules they are,
they're very vaguely written, so they're very open to interpretation.
You know, they're like, oh, if you defame the landlord
and the property management, but what does that mean in
(21:43):
what forum? And everything like that Basically, it makes it
very easy for tombots to like revive any eviction case
against a tenant. And even more than that, like if
the tenant gets evicted because they like so called, violated
this agreement that they had to sign in order to
get these affordable rents back, they are on the hook
(22:08):
for attorney fees. And the contract that I've seen estimates
the attorney fees to be almost thirty thousand dollars, which
like who can pay that and everything on top of
getting evicted and everything like that. You know, I talked
to a lawyer who had looked at this contract. He's
the one who had obtained the contract, and he was
he was just he said, just from skimming it. He
(22:28):
just thought it was like very unreasonable. And you know,
from some of the reporting I've done, the other lawyers
that are involved in this, you know, they say that
they would not recommend that their clients sign something like this.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
We'll be right back with more from our conversation with
Phoenix and Alejandro.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Welcome back to Weedian Howse.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Today we're talking about residents fighting eviction at Hillside Villa.
We spoke with Phoenix, so, a journalist with loss at
Public Press and all one hundreds a hillside villa resident.
Here's the second part of our conversation. How do you
feel about the contract? Do you feel comfortable with what's
been offered?
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Not at all, Not at all, because, like Felix said,
I mean, first of all, the negotiation or the deal
that the city made with the Tom Lanner Tom Bods
is that in order for him to extend the covenant
for actually it's going to be fifteen more years from
twenty nineteen to twenty thirty four, So from now until then,
(23:35):
it's ten more years. So in order for him to
extend the covenant until twenty thirty four, he's going to
receive fifteen million dollars in compensation for that.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
And also there.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Is an original loan that they haven't paid since the
since the building was constructed, So it's about five and
a half million dollars that not a penny has been paid, interest, nothing,
and they extended that debt until twenty thirty for us well,
so it was even twenty million dollars for that. Now
(24:09):
they're giving him twenty million dollars, you know, cash to
preserve this affordable housing for ten more years, but also
given many tools that he could use to evict us
for any little thing. Like the evictions, They're not gonna
(24:30):
be dropped. They're gonna be like on hold for six years.
And that's one of the things that cut the attention
to these lawyers. They specialize on housing that they haven't
heard or seen seeing anything like this. How come an
eviction could stay there, you know for six years.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
We need to explain a little bit.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
We were in rend strike or we're in rent strike
for like twenty a half years now. In order for
us to get that benefit to pay the rent that
we were paying before, to go back to af affordable rent,
we need to pay that rent debt in six years
and with a three percent interest, so like in my
(25:17):
case is about four hundred dollars four hundred and fifty dollars,
and I need to pay a month extra every month.
The first of the month, I need to pay my
regular rent, the one that I was paying before. But
on the fifteen of the month, I need to make
my payment for the rent debt. And if I miss one,
if I miss one payment, if I cannot pay on
(25:39):
the fifteen, but I am able to pay on the sixteen.
That's a reason where this landlord combots can use the
fction thing that isn't whole to go to before I
judge and kick me out of the building. Plus the
landlord's attorneys feel like Phoenix said about thirty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
So what if people, say, example, are unfixed income that
don't have the financial like most people don't. I don't have,
you know, extra moneys to be giving out for extra rent.
But there's something that I want to do to talk
about from the tenant level. When you mentioned that you
can't defame or sully his name, he can take action
to get you out of there for them not doing
(26:20):
their job. That leaves them off the hook, but it
leaves you in a precarious situation to be abused, disrespected,
and harmed because you just have to accept. Like again,
like what they used to say with the in house community,
beckers can't be choosers.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
You just have to just accept it.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
But you guys live in a community and everyone looks
after each other and they want the best of the
resources to be available. But that can't happen if there
is something that needs to be done like you mentioned
that take a minute to get the things cleaned or repaired.
We have a storm or something is flooded, or if
something's collapseding in your house, you're just going to be
sitting in very illegal conditions because this person is put
(26:59):
this in his contract that you can't make a whimper
or you can get thrown out. I think that that's
to me, It's what I'm thinking as a tenant. I
don't know, you mean, maybe I'm bringing too much into it,
but I.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
Could give you a good example. In my building. It's
a four floor building plus two parkings, and we have
three elevators, two are together and then one single elevator.
Three elevators were apparently they were renovated last year, and
for the last month, this single elevator has been broken
(27:34):
three times already, and they take three or four more
days to fix it, and sometimes in the past they
took like a month.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
To fix it.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
And I have a neighbor in the fourth floor. They
used the wheelchair, and that elevator is right next to
her door and leads to the parking, very close to
her car. So when the elevator is broken, she has
to go all the way around to the other tolevators
and then move all the way down to the parking
(28:06):
on the parkin to go to her car, very inconvenience
for her, and it takes that long to the learner
to fix it, so she cannot complain about anything because
like you said, the lender is going to feel like
attacked or offended or something that we cannot you know,
raise our voice to tell them this is wrong.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Fix it.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yeah, And that to me it portends to be very
very concerning because in this wave a punitative, corrective kind
of actions that our society is being pushed into from
the elections and to how they're looking at on house
people and it's like this wave of injustice that we
(28:47):
are not to speak out because you've noticed that there
has been this active thing about woke or people protesting.
They use it as a denigrative kind of force to
sallence you to accept violence, accept injustice. And that is
concerning too. Really strikes a nerve, like you know, is
this is going to be things to come with other landlords,
(29:09):
other slum lords, other people that have taken property and
now that they got vulnerable people in to take their
money just to be quiet or to pimp them to
get more money, and they have no recourse. And this
was wondering does this look like this is where this
is headache Phoenix?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
What do you think?
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Oh? Well, I mean I think you know, with the
contract that just came out, there's this fear that, you know,
if this were to go forward, and in the open letter,
the lawyers, you know, wrote that they had this fear
that this would open the door for other landlords to
do something similar. You know, I will say about Tom Botts,
(29:51):
the way he operates, the incidents I've heard and everything.
You know, they're not easy to hear about and everything
like that, but his behavior is pretty typical of a
landlord because you know, they're empowered to do stuff like this.
They're empowered to think of housing as profit, not as
you know, some place where people actually live. They're empowered
(30:12):
by the law to not be accountable to their tenants,
and they're empowered to retaliate if the tenants speak up
or anything like that. So, yeah, like what's happening to
the Hillside Villa tenants. You could say it's like one building,
but they're actually you know, their impact is that they've
shed light on how tenants are treated throughout LA and
(30:36):
you know, they had a covenant protecting their rents for
thirty years. There are a lot of buildings in LA
like that, and there are a lot of buildings around
the country that are like that. You know, if you
want to go with a national figure, it's almost a
million apartment units that actually are in danger of having
their rent restrictions lost in the next ten years. Actually,
(30:59):
So that is all to say that they really shed
light on something that's happening to a lot of people,
not just in LA but around the country. And yeah,
if this contract were to go forward, who knows. I
can't really predict the future or anything like that, but
it's concerning for sure.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
I was having a conversation with someone about the fact
how we are at this precipice of is this going
to go the most positive of ways or if this
is going to go back over another one hundred years
of injustice. And one of the things that was mentioned
is that the fact that it doesn't seem like after
(31:38):
all of this has happened, people have been successful in winning.
And Alexandra, I want to tell you where do we
go from this now that this is being out here
the protest, where do you see this going?
Speaker 5 (31:50):
We're going to put the most pressure we could to
comes member units or Nanda because she has the power.
She'd come back and negga negotiate with Tom Bods the
learner to improve this contract. She has that power because
if not, the learner cannot receive the fifty million dollars
(32:11):
the city has ready for him. I mean that's something
that she used to use for renegotiate. And I think
the problem here is that she assigned some members of
her staff to do this negotiation or to do this, yeah,
this contract because we found out that two persons from
(32:33):
her staff having involved on reducting this contract for us,
so they could have done better. So she needs to
go straight herself to do it better because unless she
doesn't care about her constituents, which you know, that's why
she has shown, she's acting the opposite that she presented
(32:56):
herself when she was in campaigned. She came to her
building to ask for our sport. She came to Chinatown
a couple of times to ask for our sport, and
we did. She she won't she beat kill Salil like
she said in the first round, And she presented herself
like she was gonna she is from the community that
(33:17):
she knows how people are struggling with the housing. I'm
gonna help you, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that.
But at the end, she just done anything that, you know,
what she promised. So we're continuing putting pression on her
because we know she could do better for us for sure.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
That right there is like indicative of where things are
in this conversation on housing, houses, security and in order
to maintain It's one thing to maintain housing when you're
in a financial discobobulation, but there's another thing when you
have places where we have a dearth of affordable housing,
(33:57):
our abilities to keep affordable housing, and we have greed,
and we have you know, lack of political will or
indifference to vulnerable people that could be potentially put on
the street. And then that's going to add on to
the housing a house crisis because we keep saying we.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Don't have enough housing.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Now with these covenant agreements coming to an end, this
is going to be troubling for the country if we
don't put a stop to or aggressive effort to make
housing affordable and to make sure we don't have those
kind of concerts with Tom Botts exactly.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
They need to prevent, they need to prevent homelessness. Yeah,
I know there is a big problem now with people
living on the streets for whatever reason. Some people need
mental help, some people need addictions, help to come out
of the addictions. But some people loast their job or
their income and they couldn't afford to continue paying Is
(34:53):
not that they're not that they are, but people they
don't want to pay rent. Is that for some reason
in their lives, when rown for a couple of months
and they couldn't pay the rent, they were evicted. And yeah,
like you said, I mean they need to be more
aggressive to prevent homelessness. I think the problem with people
living on the street, yeah, is very bad. But if
(35:13):
they want to control it, I think they need to
do this step first to try to prevent more people
go into the street. And maybe at the same time, yeah,
try to bring these people to house.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
I mean to in house.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
But we also have what we always don't talk about,
and I'm going to take the opportunity the increasing houselessness
of elderly people. And that's one of the things because
most people really run to substant usage or mental health.
As a person that didn't have these issues easier, but
on house we get ignored the other part of it.
(35:46):
Were also not talking about the high rates of unhoused
children that are in la USD. They just can't just
find a job. They're miners, they just can't get off drugs.
They're not on drugs, they're just kids and they're just
in a bad situation. And we need to acknowledge that
all of these things, like for example, in Hillside Villa,
there were kids that attended those schools. And if you
(36:07):
can continue to get a confluence of negative type of
leasing and environments that they cannot live in, they're going
to be unhoused. And they're going to be part of
a new generation of unhoused people that we're going to
have to deal with either from the criminal justice standpoint
or from this thing standpoint that we are at now
(36:27):
in difference or pretending that they don't exist.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
Yeah, I mean, just to jump in there a little bit. Yeah,
there are seniors at Hillside Villa on fixed incomes. This
rent increase, they can't afford that at all. A lot
of the tenants have raised kids, are raising kids, they're
members of the tenant Association, have grown up during this
fight and everything like that. So yeah, like I think
(36:52):
this story really brings to light like how vulnerable people
are to becoming unhoused and everything like that. And I
think I think you said this before that this story
shows that this is quite an uphill battle to fight
your landlord, to fight the politicians like this. But I
think what's really inspiring about the Hillside Villa tendance is
(37:13):
that they've done it like really successfully. They really like
put this at the forefront. They have raised awareness of
eminent domain and everything like that. I mean, I don't
even know what would have happened if they hadn't, you know,
organized and become a tenant association and fought back. So
you know that there's that as well, is that they
(37:34):
have accomplished so much and really challenged like how we
think about housing and what's acceptable and everything like that.
And they're holding, like Alehundra just said, you know, a
unissus Hernandez, you know, with this contract and everything. They're
holding to her to account for that contract, you know,
And that's that's the way they have a fighting chance
out of this.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
And no one signed it, hopefully no one signed this
contract yet, which is great to because we're at a
negotiating point at a pivotal point that things could change
for the better. And if without the conversation, without the
sustained reporting, the conferences, the protests and things with the
Hillside Villa and the Tennis Union, this conversation wouldn't have
(38:16):
been progressed even today. And it all connects with this
housing insecurity, capitalism, but also this unnecessary explosion of reed
and aggressive method of silencing people that have been harmed.
I think that's what's going on. We're in the seizing
of this and then these protests are really trying to
(38:37):
get people's attention to get out of the adultrums, but
people are looking at it as a negative. They want
some want to stay in adultrums, and some just resent
that how dare you fight back? You know, when I
came to this place or I was here with nothing,
how dare you fight back and asks for equity and
be treated as a human. But we are trying to
(38:59):
show the humanity and the differences and the layers and
textures of this conversation for people to help grasp it
in order to be able to change it. Did I
miss anything? Is there anything that you guys wanted to add?
Speaker 5 (39:12):
There is something that Okay, I told you that we
went to rent strike. We owe about twenty eight twenty
nine months of rent during the pandemic. You know, there
was this era program from the government from the federal
to the states to distribute money to help pay rent. Right,
So at the time, we had to fill out an
application on the tenant side and the landers had to
(39:34):
fill out their application. So when we flowed application, we
put the rent that we were paying, and the landler's
side he put the rent that he wanted to charge us.
So in my case, you received more than a thousand
dollars extra every month for about twelve months or more,
I think twelve to thirty months anyway, So he received
(39:55):
that money for the rent that he was asking. Now,
after they closed this deal with the city, the lander
in the city, we're supposed to pay the rent continue
paying the rent that we were paying in twenty nineteen.
So it means that he received extra money and we
were asking Conso remember Hernandez, that we could get that
(40:17):
money that the lander got extra to credit credited to
our debt. In my case, it would reduce my debt
one year for sure, instead of owing twenty something months,
I would I would or less than that, like almost
half of it what they told us they they're gonna
(40:38):
do or they're doing. That money that he got extra,
they're gonna deducted from the fifteen dollars million dollars that
the city approved already. And my question is how the city,
the city can decide what to do with that money
that doesn't belong to them. It belongs It came from
the federal to the states, to the tenants. So the
(41:01):
logical thing is that they would, I mean, the lander
would credit us for that money to our debt. But
they're saying, Okay, let's say the learner got and I'm
sure he got at least a million dollar extra during
the pandemic. Now the city approved fifty million dollars already,
so they want to instead of give him the fifty millions,
(41:22):
they're going to give him forty millions. That's an example.
So the city is saving one million dollars and have
aut tenets. We are struggling with this debt, and that's
why I've been asking and.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
They check that money and pay the debt of the exactly,
I mean, doesn't make any sense exactly. And that's my question.
That's the question that we've been asking Hernandez and doesn't
give us an answer why the city is deciding what
to do with that money that doesn't belong to the city.
It came from the state. So I just wanted to
(41:54):
put this on the table because I think it's important. Yes,
I'm glad you did. Did we miss any saying Phoenix
to you want to add anything?
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (42:01):
Sure, I'll just ask really quickly, just in terms of
what you're saying. I think one thing that we the
un House does really really well is, you know, showing
the importance of solidarity among people, especially between unhoused people
and house people. And I think I think the Hillside
Villa Attendants show that as well, because you know, these
systems are so powerful and entrenched, but if you have
(42:24):
a lot of people fighting together against them, you know,
you can accomplish some things, a lot of things that
I think the Hillside Ville Attenant Association really shows that
how they organized and really became powerful because they fought
this together. Yeah. Again, the podcast that I'm working on
the Tenant Association is really going getting into that how
to do that.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Which brings up to when is it going to drop?
What is your episode going to drop? And I can
direct my listeners to hear more on this too, because
this is such an pivotal and important conversation. Even with
the in house community, we need to understand how the
sausage is made or how it gets made surreptitiously, and
look how we.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Benefit or don't benefit from it. So I think that's important.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
Yeah, but yeah, we're working really hard on it. But yeah,
the first episode should be out in mid September, everything
like that.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Yeah, Well, I want to thank you guys for coming
in on such a hot day and also to take
the time to tell the stories. And I hope this
makes a better outcome for what's going on. And basically
it was a victory for that community. He'll side feeler.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Thank you guys for you Thank you.
Speaker 5 (43:34):
I just to say I would like to say something
that we have a chance always in all the protests
about the you know housing stuff, that is housing is
a human right and we should consider it and think
about it, because human is a basic human right, just
like education, just like having food on the table. And
(43:56):
it's important that we think about it because everybody's supposed
to have a roof over the head, even if you're
rich or poor. Nobody's supposed to live on the street
on those conditions. Housing is a basic human right that
these rich, greedy people don't understand and they take it
like a business, you know, to make money for them.
(44:19):
So sorry, yeah, I wanted to say that.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Thank you very much, and thank you again Phoenix for
taking the time.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Thanks so much to Phoenix and Alejandro for that time.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
If you want to learn more about what's happening at
Hillside Villa in Chinatown, go to La Public Press dot
org and Hillside Villa ta dot org. When we come back,
we're heading to Detroit, Michigan, where I tour at the
Heidelberg Project. Walking up to the Heidover Project in Detroit, Michigan,
(45:03):
there were different times stamps and clocks painted all around
the street. That's an o car, burnt out house, discarded,
burnt clothes and kids toys were strewn around the installation.
Seemed to imply that houselessness it's one burnt house away.
Tyree Gutting is taking an artistic approach to fighting against eviction.
(45:27):
Mister Gutton is determined to use his time on Earth
productive to raise awareness and let us know what time
it is.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Let's listen in on his views funy fiction.
Speaker 7 (45:39):
Tyree, my name Tree Dyke.
Speaker 6 (45:42):
I saw you doing there and I have been watching
for lott using when people are from unfaying attention.
Speaker 7 (45:47):
Thank you voting, you got state beautiful? Okay, thank you
so much. Don't have a sitt Oh okay cool? So
I'm gonna make it very profession I'm Tyree. The founders,
the artists of this project, which is an over air
(46:08):
all your exims, they together, what would you? Why did
you do it like here?
Speaker 8 (46:13):
Because, like I said, this.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Is worthy of the tastes of union papers. What you here?
Speaker 6 (46:20):
I went to art school, I grew up in that
house that through my love for your rights over there,
I grew up there.
Speaker 7 (46:27):
And over time I'm witnessed the.
Speaker 6 (46:31):
Whole world change, the city, the church is changed. And
I want to say this.
Speaker 8 (46:36):
I was some time out of a tour, but I
had a burning design in here to do something with
right now.
Speaker 7 (46:45):
So don't you wow?
Speaker 3 (46:48):
And And as result of this, what is the message work?
Because I know that the interspersion of time. I know
that you have time interwoven into your pieces. So when
we talk little on that, because I'm curious on your
insight on.
Speaker 8 (47:01):
That, well in the Book of Ecclesiastics, the third chaps
its stakes in seven there's a time in the season
for all and you look along here and.
Speaker 7 (47:14):
It's just the three blocks.
Speaker 6 (47:17):
And time was kind of like the focal point of
this product because I'm talking about the time of the Wall.
Speaker 7 (47:24):
Our time here was creation and it gives me a chance.
That's a very important question. What are we going to
do with? What do we want to know? That's very tmperable.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
One thing that I noticed like that was pointing out
to me.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
You had like.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
There was a broken or burnt building over there, and
there was a stroller in there with I think the
toys and things of that nature there, And was there
a particular reason why did you put that in that position?
Because like I noticed certain things like there was sperm shoes,
and then they're noticed there was burnt out cars, and
then I noticed, like there's so many things that catches
(48:02):
your eye. I can't enumerate them all for the listener,
but we try to do the best you can. So
what's your inspiration for that?
Speaker 6 (48:09):
Well, if you look over that house, the foundation wants
a house there, and someone perfectly set that house wi fire.
And so I decided that I would take the advantage
to let it and turn it into good.
Speaker 7 (48:26):
You have to become the afterness of your life in
this creation, Uncail. It's your time.
Speaker 6 (48:35):
And if I sit here and I think about what
you said, they got the baby downs downstairs and invasion
of our house.
Speaker 7 (48:43):
Sometimes you have to look deep down the side to
find out who you are. And that's what I'm doing
with that household and everything.
Speaker 8 (48:51):
Baby undone that plan and then we grew up in
life and we forget the importance of life.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
You have to learn and have a good time, no
matter what's your certain step might find the joy and
even the most artus of time. That wow. So I
notice that you also have a voting center. There is
there any message that you wanted in partner with that?
Speaker 7 (49:13):
Particularly, I notice the.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
Clown page of Donald Trump with you know, I know
that's like a pivot there, but I just definitely want
to throw that in to see what your insights on
that as well.
Speaker 7 (49:24):
I would say, use your power. I would say, this
election that's coming up here, I'm voting. Yeah, another afraid
I'm voting for her.
Speaker 6 (49:35):
I'm voting for her. I don't have enough of that
clown And what else do you need so use your
power on that day to go off there make difference
in the world because you have the power power to
the people.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Okay, right, I also wanted to went out too.
Speaker 7 (49:57):
It's like you mentioned that you was going to do this, we.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Change it, will it be different like and once it
changes because they're different, but will keep you basically the
core of this inspiration or whether you change the instellation
completely to something different to cause people to think, or
to keep this on a consistent type of thing.
Speaker 6 (50:18):
I think that change is so important in its inevitabone.
You change your direction, you change your mind, you change
the way you see things, and change keeps you alive
because if your stay the same, you will die.
Speaker 7 (50:36):
Get here, I'm talking about change the way you see life.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
One of the things.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
Also that it's apparent too, is to drive down that
there's been more and more I think abandoned.
Speaker 7 (50:48):
Or broken down building around here.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
That's things that there is. We are inflation period, particularly
in Detroit.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
Is that am I seeing this?
Speaker 7 (50:59):
Direct or?
Speaker 1 (51:00):
Is this is something that is h maybe off the mar.
Speaker 6 (51:04):
Well, yes, but you just said and has a lot
of truth to it. Everything must change and what want
is not today and so on. As we are changing
in time. The world seems to be getting smaller and smaller,
and dams never told that it was gonna stay in
(51:26):
the same So you see a lot of find instructions
here and things of that nature.
Speaker 7 (51:31):
But it's changing, and it's changing. It's such such a
way that we don't pay attention, we will miss out.
Government can't fix it for you. How to the people.
People's got to do. Yeah, well, mister Guidan, you've been
very gracious enough.
Speaker 6 (51:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
Yeah, it does and like I say, this is very
very important.
Speaker 3 (51:55):
I'm I'm glad that you spoke out and artistically is
all in this purpolyg with beings to have a conversation.
Speaker 7 (52:02):
And I wish you can success.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
And I find I'm back here hopefully I see something
else in this far.
Speaker 7 (52:07):
I want to leave this with you.
Speaker 6 (52:09):
Yeah, Plato said, the time is a moving image of reality,
and I want to go back to something. You tell
the house what's up here? He said, Plato, time is
a moving image of your reality. You have the creature over.
Government's not gonna do it, so thinking as you see,
(52:31):
it's up to the people to do something about it.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Hell sir, thank you very much, thank you, thanks to
Tyree for his time.
Speaker 3 (52:46):
Next week we're going to hear more on the topic
of evictions from the end house perspective, as I chronicled
the major eviction that took place Friday, September sixth and
El Monte, California. And as always, please like and subscribe.
If you'd like to share your story on Whedian House,
please reach out to me at Whidian House on Instagram
(53:08):
or email me at Wiedianhouse at gmail dot com. Thank
you again for listening, and may we again meet in
the light of understanding. Wheedian Howes is the production of iHeartRadio.
It is written, posted, and created by me Theo Henderson,
our producers Jbie Loftus, Kailey Fager, Katie Fischal.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
And Lyra Smith.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
Our editor is Adam Wand and our logo art is
also by Katieficial.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
Thanks for listening.
Previously on Wadian House.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It's interesting to me because the people that are trying
to criminalize and demonize homelessness have probably never experienced it.
So let me throw that back. If the shoe was
on the other foot and if they had to endure
the you know, the heat, the excessive heat, the lack
of resources, which if you're not part of the solution,
(00:27):
then you're part of the problem. You are not giving
the community the ability to scratch out of this. You
want to criminalize it, but yet you know we are here.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Welcome back to Weedian House. I'm your host, Theo Henderson.
Today on the show, I wanted to take a moment
to explain things that are not obvious in the episode,
but I want to call attention to Like all of
my episodes, it was created with intention for a purpose.
(01:02):
This week's purpose is exposing eviction in different circumstances and
how it impacts the person that's being evicted. In mainstream society,
we focus only on house evictions and the stressors that
come along with it. This week's Unhoused news and interviews
will showcase the dimensions of evictions and how people cope.
(01:26):
For example, a current hillside villa tenant in Chinatown, LA
will take us through their journey of facing eviction. In
Unhoused News, we will also learn what the Elmonte residents
facing evictions are experiencing. Pay attention to the similarities and
the differences that occur in real time. This episode can
(01:47):
affect you whether you're housed or unhoused. Evictions are the
connective tissue, so please listen carefully.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
But first, on House.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
News, foreign house people were executed in Chicago while sleeping
on the train on Labor Day twenty twenty four. V
in House were killed shortly before five thirty am. When
victim's name is Simeon Berrow, twenty eight years old. Another
victim name unknown male, was fifty two. Another victim name
(02:23):
Annou was a sixty four year old woman. The fourth
unhoused person name ann was taken to the hospital and
that of their injuries there. The attack appeared to focus
on unhoused people. Surveillance caught the culprit who was apprehended.
Our next story on September sixth, twenty twenty four, and
(02:44):
resuming September thirteenth through the fifteenth. At six thirty am,
the US Army Corps of Engineers with the Los Angeles
Sheriff's Department offering aggressive sweep support. We will be removing
one hundred plus unhoused people on federal property in LM. Monte, California,
using ordnance violations that's justification such as three hundred twenty
(03:04):
seven DOT seven camping, three hundred twenty seven Dot nine sanitation,
three hundred and twenty seven Dot ten fires, three hundred
and twenty seven Dot twelve restrictions, three hundred and twenty
seven DOT fourteen, public property, three hundred twenty seven Dot fifteenth,
abandonment and empowerment of personal property, three hundred twenty seven
(03:26):
Dot twenty unauthorized structures, three hundred twenty seven DOT twenty
two unauthorized occupation, and three hundred and twenty seven Dot
twenty four interference with the government employee. The unhoused community
have not been offered viable resources from the Core to
aid in relocating. Law enforcement have threatened to arrest the
(03:47):
residents if they remain Our next story. A major heat
wave will descend on Los Angeles this week. It's highly
encouraged to freeze and hand out cold water bottles to
the unhoused community wherever you see them. Cooling stations will
be open from ten am to nine pm. Here are
(04:09):
the cooling centers. Lincoln Heights Senior Center at twenty three
twenty three Workman Street nine zero zero three one, Sunland
Senior Citizen Center at eighty six forty Fenwick Street, Sunland.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
California, Mid Valley.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Senior Citizen Center eighty eight zero one Keester Avenue, Panorama City,
ninety one for zero two, Fred Roberts Recreation Center forty
seven hundred Hondura Street, and lastly Jim Gilliams four thousand
South Lebrae Avenue. In addition to these cooling centers, libraries
(04:45):
offer a cool place during business hours. Remember, public libraries
offer the one bag rule for unhoused people. No outreach
vans are available to transport people two and from the
cooling centers.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
No storage fill facilities.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Are available for unhoused people if they utilize these services.
Outreach teams are not available to direct you to the
nearest cooling center. Our last story is our true research fact.
Can you guess how many unhoused children are in Iowa?
(05:21):
The answer when we come back this is unhouseless. We'll
be right back. Welcome back to Weedi and Howes. I'm
THEO Henderson. When we last left off, the question was raised,
(05:43):
can you guess how many unhoused children are in Iowa?
The answer is seven hundred and twenty four thousand, four,
one hundred and eighty three.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
This week we.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Are delving into eviction, housed and unhoused. Our first story
deals with the threat of eviiction people are facing at
Hillside Villa in Chinatown, LA. Our guest was this conversation
Phoenix So, a journalist with Los Angeles Public Press and Alajandro,
a Hillside Villa resident.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Here's the conversation.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
My name is Phoenix, I'm a reporter at LA Public Press.
I'm working on a podcast called The Tenant Association. It's
about the Hillside Villa tenants. Hillside Villa is a low
income apartment complex in Chinatown and the tenants have been
fighting for six years. They've been fighting against rent increases
of hundreds even thousands of dollars. Six years ago, their
(06:38):
rents were protected by something called a covenant, which restricted
their rents to affordable levels. But as soon as that
covenant expired, their landlord tried to raise their rent like
by you know, really punishing levels, and so the tenants
actually organized and have been fighting back for six years,
really long time, and they've really they've really had a
(06:59):
lot of fluence. They got the city council to vote
to explore eminent domain as a solution.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You went through too, if I may introject to city
council members, because I remember, this fight was a long
laborious process to forrest then the city council member Gil Cidio,
to even fight for the community, put the imminent donain
and get them actually to do the right thing. You know,
am I missing that because I remember hearing it in
the news and seeing some of the press conferences that
(07:29):
I covered.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
So yeah, No, the tenants were able to you know,
they protested outside of Citio's office, his events, gil Cidio's
office and his events, and they were able to get
this really powerful council member to put eminent domain on
the city council agenda, and they outlasted him because then
soon after he lost the election and everything like that.
So yeah, the hillside Ville attendants, they really changed the
(07:52):
conversation about housing in LA And the podcast that I'm
working on right now and that will come out soon
is all about that.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Who So let's take a little bit warp of step back,
because like, when this happened, how did I'm going to
this is directed to you, Alahundra, How did the residents
at the time feel that this was so such an
important issue? Because most often or not, and I have
been person that I currently live in SRO, but I've
lived in places that always never is the most best
(08:23):
of places or low income and usually what I was
always instructed there's nothing you can do. Just move because
it's a lot of big castle because this is a
very landlord favored kind of environment, and no matter what
you do, you're really just it's really got anything that's
going to be done about it. So what changed that
(08:44):
kind of thinking for you guys that were pushing for
this for over six years?
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Like Phoenix said, the covenant expire and actually we're we
were living good, we were paying a random time, we
didn't have much problems. So they're maybe taking kind of
long time to fix stuff, but not in major until
we receive the notifications that rents would be increased. And
(09:10):
we thought, well that's one because the first notification we
got is that O rens might increase. Then the second
notification we got is that rent would increase in my
case from one thousand and sixty three dollars to twenty
four hundred and.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
Fifty and they asked what type of apartment was this.
It's a two bedroom apartment. So I would say, my goodness, still.
Speaker 5 (09:33):
Betroom my apartment. So then one of the tenants, she
unfortunately passed away. Her name was Louis Louisa. She got
in contact to a Spanish news and they came to cover,
you know, what was happening, and they called a member
of Los Angeles Tenant Union and that's how we started
to organize. They help us to organize to fight back,
(09:56):
and that was basically how we started. Because we're in
there for years, like in my case, I lived there
for twenty seven years. November, it's going to be twenty
eight years. I move into Kilsavilla.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Wow.
Speaker 5 (10:10):
And there are most of the tenants that we are fighting.
We've been there for fifteen years, twenty years, thirty years.
We have the first two families who move in when
the building was run new, over thirty years living there, wow,
So those our home. Actually I know we're paying train.
We don't own it, like we don't have any papers
saying oh, this is Jews, but this is our home.
(10:32):
This is our neighborhood. We're in there for years. Everything
is close to everybody there, like schools for the kids.
People go to their doctors close by. So that's our home.
That's why we started fighting for it. We don't want
to move nowhere to have a community. It's like it's
a difference between just the hood or a community.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
The community.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
You guys have been there for establishing men at times,
which is why I was very intriguing when I saw
these things going on. It says, this is interesting because
also I used to stay near the in the Chinatown area,
and I knew the area well, and I knew some
of the families that had matriculate to the school and
then you know, move over to play in the park.
I knew some of the parents there, and I knew
(11:14):
that this was brewing, but I didn't know the intensity
and how long this fight was going to be. And
also what you're mentioning too, you said that there was
not much of attention or any kind of conflict with
the landlord at the time, So I guess it's reasonably
to assume that things was going to take a very
reasonable ending that was not going to be just long
(11:36):
protracted affair, but then this became a long protracted affair.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
So Alejandro, how do you feel about what's going on
right now?
Speaker 5 (11:45):
But it disappointed about councerer member uniss Tornando's because I.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Still used to city council members.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
How come ANIX mention about hill City. You put in
this motion to acquire Hillsville, that the city could acquire
hills Avilla through Amine the Maine And we've been fighting
for that for these many years until last year that
UNICS took over the city one council district, and now
(12:15):
we're in a situation of a very awful contract that
they want us to sign in order to continue living
there for ten years at the affordable brend that we
were paying before. So that party is really good. According
to the deal that the city and the lander made,
we're gonna pay the same trend that we were paying
(12:38):
before for ten more years. But I know we're going
to talk a little bit about the leases that they
want us to sign. But I am very disappointed, frustrated.
How come we came from trying to acquire a kill
Sevilla through Amine in the main to try to get
a fair leases for ten years.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
Phoenix tells us a little bit about unises because I
think it's important to know where does she stand with this,
because that's a question I have for you that I
saw and I wanted to get a little bit of
verification on.
Speaker 6 (13:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
So anisas Hernandez is the current council member for Council
District one, Chinatown, where Hillside Villa is is in Council
District one. Asas Hernandez was an organizer. She started OU
as an organizer, and so she ran for city council
as an outsider. Before that, she had been done a
lot of criminal justice organizing. She started a nonprofit called
(13:35):
La Defensa, which has been instrumental in trying to redistribute
money from car sooral solutions to other needs that people
have and everything like that. And for she's been instrumental
in the campaign to close Men's Central Jail. And again
she ran for city council as an outsider. She ran
(13:57):
against a very powerful incumbent named Gil Sidillo, and she
actually she unseated him in the primary, which is unheard
of in La You know, I think what's interesting in
terms of Hillside Villa is, Yeah, the Hillside vill attendants
had been protesting gil Cidio for a long time, and
you know, right before he put the eminent domain vote
(14:19):
on the agenda, they had protested outside his office on
the first day that city Hall reopened after covid started,
and on that same day she had actually tweeted in
support of eminent domain. And you know, if we haven't
been able to reach gil Cidio for common as to why,
you know, he did what he did in terms of
(14:40):
putting eminent domain on the agenda. But you know, the
timing is interesting because soon after eminent domain was on
the agenda and everything like that. And I'm sure Alejandro
can speak to this as well, but yet it definitely
seemed like anssis Hernandez was really you know, supporting the
tenants and she was going to like try to really
get you know, eminent domain or a solution that would
(15:02):
really help the tenants.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
I was going to ask because there was something too
that was going on prior to the big horrible contract
that we're going to get to. I remember seeing that
there was something some deal was made behind the backs
of the tenants before the contract. There was another thing
that we need to talk about, am I missing this
when I'm wrong?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
What was that about?
Speaker 4 (15:25):
Oh yeah, so publicly there was this eminent domain vote
and everything, and in the ensuing two years, Tom Botts
was negotiating a deal with the LA Housing Department, with
particularly the head of the LA Housing Department, her name
is Anne Sewell. So they actually negotiated this deal to
(15:46):
extend the covenants for ten years at the affordable rents
at the tenants we're already paying. What's interesting about that
is there was a similar deal that gil Sidio had
tried to negotiate, but it fell apart. There was a
lot of back and forth as to why it fell apart,
but yeah, this deal got reopened. Just a few months ago,
(16:07):
the LA Housing Department recommended that the city not go
forward with eminent domain. They said it would be too
expensive and it would be less expensive to pay Tom
Bot's fifteen million dollars to extend these covenants and everything
like that, and a Eunyssus Hernandez she got on board
with supporting that because she actually said she didn't have
the votes for eminent domain. So yeah, everything shifted to
(16:30):
this deal after that.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
Was it true that she surreptitiously agreed the deal or
then because I heard a couple of rumblings that the
input from the tenants wasn't sought.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Was that correct? Do you have anything to add on it?
What do we know?
Speaker 5 (16:45):
But the deal is that it was between the head
of Housing department at the time, anshol and the landlor
and we got an email from the city hall. The
supervisor Heldo Solis was asking about some evictions that were
(17:05):
happening at the time, and she knew the Lanyard and
city were in negotiations and those victions were for section
some Section eight tenants. So the reply was from the
Mayor's office that those were from Section eight that was
separated and she wanted to supervise her. Helder Soles wanted
to know any update about what's going on, and right
(17:29):
that it says from Carmebus offices, all City one is
stepping aside. They're not gonna go in the negotiation. They
want the city attorney and ANSU or Housing department to
conduct this neglistation. So approximately two to three months after
Unicia Hernandez took over the District one, she didn't want
(17:53):
to negotiate with the lanner. She had the opportunity to
help us to have a good deal, but instead of it,
she just slifted to house in department and the legal
things to the city attorney.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
So I don't know what else, like say.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
It sounds very scary because the people that they are
including doesn't necessarily have your best interests at heart. But secondly,
are not there to advocate for the equity for you,
but for only on the side of the landlord. But
that's just what it seems from from the outside. Look
at you, like I said, you know, it's just very concerning.
So from that, how did the tenants react to this?
(18:32):
Because I would be a bit appalled, a bit afraid,
for one, being a house on a fear of being
on house that would probably make me anxious. Because many
of the residents and tennants have families. That's another thing
that's or an advanced age or not in the best
of medical conditions that may need to be in these places.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
So you know, how did they react to this?
Speaker 5 (18:54):
Well, there were different reactions among the tenants, but basically
there are like two or three tenants who were influencing
the others, like, oh, Unesses is new, you know, we
need to give her more time. She has a female
she has Latina, she don't have much power. Myself, I
(19:15):
really wanted to go protest her since last year because
I could see that she was not doing nothing for us.
But you know, we go by majority. Iorty said no, no,
until last Sunday we went to protest her. After two
years she's been in office. And I know, for some reason,
these two three tenants, I don't know how come they
(19:38):
became kind of friends or close to City one or unises,
but that was this kind of influence that refrained tenants
from like going to put pressure on cons remember her Nandez,
you know until now. That's kind of division that happened
at the time. But I think we solved it already
(19:59):
and we they re united again.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Well that's wonderful to hear because sometimes it's like, even
in the in house community, we're not a monolift. So
of course no community is. And sometimes it seems that
some people are more invested in their own oppression due
to respectability politics, to internalized oppression, whatever it is to
really have that Stockholm syndrome, if there's a word for that.
(20:22):
But moving to the question again to Phoenix, as this
is going on and trickling down now, it's this new
protest is a bigger explosion. It's a bigger conversation to
be had. And I want to talk about the contracts,
to talk about how problematic is this least because I
don't think we are taken the full time to appreciate
(20:44):
that this is going to be disastrous in many levels.
So could you give us some a thumbnails catcher on
how this is going to be?
Speaker 4 (20:51):
Yeah, So basically, the tenants where they wanted a contract
that would drop the evictions that Tombots currently has filed
against them, but the new contract actually allows Tombots to
evict the tenants if they break a number of rules
that have been written out in the agreement.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Such as give us an example.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
I think it's important for us as residents and tennants
to understand how dangerous this is.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:20):
It ranges from like if they pay rent one day late,
which is like very very punishing. It's it ranges from
playing a radio in the common area. The rules they are,
they're very vaguely written, so they're very open to interpretation.
You know, they're like, oh, if you defame the landlord
and the property management, but what does that mean in
(21:43):
what forum? And everything like that Basically, it makes it
very easy for tombots to like revive any eviction case
against a tenant. And even more than that, like if
the tenant gets evicted because they like so called, violated
this agreement that they had to sign in order to
get these affordable rents back, they are on the hook
(22:08):
for attorney fees. And the contract that I've seen estimates
the attorney fees to be almost thirty thousand dollars, which
like who can pay that and everything on top of
getting evicted and everything like that. You know, I talked
to a lawyer who had looked at this contract. He's
the one who had obtained the contract, and he was
he was just he said, just from skimming it. He
(22:28):
just thought it was like very unreasonable. And you know,
from some of the reporting I've done, the other lawyers
that are involved in this, you know, they say that
they would not recommend that their clients sign something like this.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
We'll be right back with more from our conversation with
Phoenix and Alejandro.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Welcome back to Weedian Howse.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Today we're talking about residents fighting eviction at Hillside Villa.
We spoke with Phoenix, so, a journalist with loss at
Public Press and all one hundreds a hillside villa resident.
Here's the second part of our conversation. How do you
feel about the contract? Do you feel comfortable with what's
been offered?
Speaker 5 (23:13):
Not at all, Not at all, because, like Felix said,
I mean, first of all, the negotiation or the deal
that the city made with the Tom Lanner Tom Bods
is that in order for him to extend the covenant
for actually it's going to be fifteen more years from
twenty nineteen to twenty thirty four, So from now until then,
(23:35):
it's ten more years. So in order for him to
extend the covenant until twenty thirty four, he's going to
receive fifteen million dollars in compensation for that.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
And also there.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Is an original loan that they haven't paid since the
since the building was constructed, So it's about five and
a half million dollars that not a penny has been paid, interest, nothing,
and they extended that debt until twenty thirty for us well,
so it was even twenty million dollars for that. Now
(24:09):
they're giving him twenty million dollars, you know, cash to
preserve this affordable housing for ten more years, but also
given many tools that he could use to evict us
for any little thing. Like the evictions, They're not gonna
(24:30):
be dropped. They're gonna be like on hold for six years.
And that's one of the things that cut the attention
to these lawyers. They specialize on housing that they haven't
heard or seen seeing anything like this. How come an
eviction could stay there, you know for six years.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
We need to explain a little bit.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
We were in rend strike or we're in rent strike
for like twenty a half years now. In order for
us to get that benefit to pay the rent that
we were paying before, to go back to af affordable rent,
we need to pay that rent debt in six years
and with a three percent interest, so like in my
(25:17):
case is about four hundred dollars four hundred and fifty dollars,
and I need to pay a month extra every month.
The first of the month, I need to pay my
regular rent, the one that I was paying before. But
on the fifteen of the month, I need to make
my payment for the rent debt. And if I miss one,
if I miss one payment, if I cannot pay on
(25:39):
the fifteen, but I am able to pay on the sixteen.
That's a reason where this landlord combots can use the
fction thing that isn't whole to go to before I
judge and kick me out of the building. Plus the
landlord's attorneys feel like Phoenix said about thirty thousand dollars.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
So what if people, say, example, are unfixed income that
don't have the financial like most people don't. I don't have,
you know, extra moneys to be giving out for extra rent.
But there's something that I want to do to talk
about from the tenant level. When you mentioned that you
can't defame or sully his name, he can take action
to get you out of there for them not doing
(26:20):
their job. That leaves them off the hook, but it
leaves you in a precarious situation to be abused, disrespected,
and harmed because you just have to accept. Like again,
like what they used to say with the in house community,
beckers can't be choosers.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
You just have to just accept it.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
But you guys live in a community and everyone looks
after each other and they want the best of the
resources to be available. But that can't happen if there
is something that needs to be done like you mentioned
that take a minute to get the things cleaned or repaired.
We have a storm or something is flooded, or if
something's collapseding in your house, you're just going to be
sitting in very illegal conditions because this person is put
(26:59):
this in his contract that you can't make a whimper
or you can get thrown out. I think that that's
to me, It's what I'm thinking as a tenant. I
don't know, you mean, maybe I'm bringing too much into it,
but I.
Speaker 5 (27:11):
Could give you a good example. In my building. It's
a four floor building plus two parkings, and we have
three elevators, two are together and then one single elevator.
Three elevators were apparently they were renovated last year, and
for the last month, this single elevator has been broken
(27:34):
three times already, and they take three or four more
days to fix it, and sometimes in the past they
took like a month.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
To fix it.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
And I have a neighbor in the fourth floor. They
used the wheelchair, and that elevator is right next to
her door and leads to the parking, very close to
her car. So when the elevator is broken, she has
to go all the way around to the other tolevators
and then move all the way down to the parking
(28:06):
on the parkin to go to her car, very inconvenience
for her, and it takes that long to the learner
to fix it, so she cannot complain about anything because
like you said, the lender is going to feel like
attacked or offended or something that we cannot you know,
raise our voice to tell them this is wrong.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Fix it.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yeah, And that to me it portends to be very
very concerning because in this wave a punitative, corrective kind
of actions that our society is being pushed into from
the elections and to how they're looking at on house
people and it's like this wave of injustice that we
(28:47):
are not to speak out because you've noticed that there
has been this active thing about woke or people protesting.
They use it as a denigrative kind of force to
sallence you to accept violence, accept injustice. And that is
concerning too. Really strikes a nerve, like you know, is
this is going to be things to come with other landlords,
(29:09):
other slum lords, other people that have taken property and
now that they got vulnerable people in to take their
money just to be quiet or to pimp them to
get more money, and they have no recourse. And this
was wondering does this look like this is where this
is headache Phoenix?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
What do you think?
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Oh? Well, I mean I think you know, with the
contract that just came out, there's this fear that, you know,
if this were to go forward, and in the open letter,
the lawyers, you know, wrote that they had this fear
that this would open the door for other landlords to
do something similar. You know, I will say about Tom Botts,
(29:51):
the way he operates, the incidents I've heard and everything.
You know, they're not easy to hear about and everything
like that, but his behavior is pretty typical of a
landlord because you know, they're empowered to do stuff like this.
They're empowered to think of housing as profit, not as
you know, some place where people actually live. They're empowered
(30:12):
by the law to not be accountable to their tenants,
and they're empowered to retaliate if the tenants speak up
or anything like that. So, yeah, like what's happening to
the Hillside Villa tenants. You could say it's like one building,
but they're actually you know, their impact is that they've
shed light on how tenants are treated throughout LA and
(30:36):
you know, they had a covenant protecting their rents for
thirty years. There are a lot of buildings in LA
like that, and there are a lot of buildings around
the country that are like that. You know, if you
want to go with a national figure, it's almost a
million apartment units that actually are in danger of having
their rent restrictions lost in the next ten years. Actually,
(30:59):
So that is all to say that they really shed
light on something that's happening to a lot of people,
not just in LA but around the country. And yeah,
if this contract were to go forward, who knows. I
can't really predict the future or anything like that, but
it's concerning for sure.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
I was having a conversation with someone about the fact
how we are at this precipice of is this going
to go the most positive of ways or if this
is going to go back over another one hundred years
of injustice. And one of the things that was mentioned
is that the fact that it doesn't seem like after
(31:38):
all of this has happened, people have been successful in winning.
And Alexandra, I want to tell you where do we
go from this now that this is being out here
the protest, where do you see this going?
Speaker 5 (31:50):
We're going to put the most pressure we could to
comes member units or Nanda because she has the power.
She'd come back and negga negotiate with Tom Bods the
learner to improve this contract. She has that power because
if not, the learner cannot receive the fifty million dollars
(32:11):
the city has ready for him. I mean that's something
that she used to use for renegotiate. And I think
the problem here is that she assigned some members of
her staff to do this negotiation or to do this, yeah,
this contract because we found out that two persons from
(32:33):
her staff having involved on reducting this contract for us,
so they could have done better. So she needs to
go straight herself to do it better because unless she
doesn't care about her constituents, which you know, that's why
she has shown, she's acting the opposite that she presented
(32:56):
herself when she was in campaigned. She came to her
building to ask for our sport. She came to Chinatown
a couple of times to ask for our sport, and
we did. She she won't she beat kill Salil like
she said in the first round, And she presented herself
like she was gonna she is from the community that
(33:17):
she knows how people are struggling with the housing. I'm
gonna help you, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that.
But at the end, she just done anything that, you know,
what she promised. So we're continuing putting pression on her
because we know she could do better for us for sure.
Speaker 3 (33:36):
That right there is like indicative of where things are
in this conversation on housing, houses, security and in order
to maintain It's one thing to maintain housing when you're
in a financial discobobulation, but there's another thing when you
have places where we have a dearth of affordable housing,
(33:57):
our abilities to keep affordable housing, and we have greed,
and we have you know, lack of political will or
indifference to vulnerable people that could be potentially put on
the street. And then that's going to add on to
the housing a house crisis because we keep saying we.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Don't have enough housing.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Now with these covenant agreements coming to an end, this
is going to be troubling for the country if we
don't put a stop to or aggressive effort to make
housing affordable and to make sure we don't have those
kind of concerts with Tom Botts exactly.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
They need to prevent, they need to prevent homelessness. Yeah,
I know there is a big problem now with people
living on the streets for whatever reason. Some people need
mental help, some people need addictions, help to come out
of the addictions. But some people loast their job or
their income and they couldn't afford to continue paying Is
(34:53):
not that they're not that they are, but people they
don't want to pay rent. Is that for some reason
in their lives, when rown for a couple of months
and they couldn't pay the rent, they were evicted. And yeah,
like you said, I mean they need to be more
aggressive to prevent homelessness. I think the problem with people
living on the street, yeah, is very bad. But if
(35:13):
they want to control it, I think they need to
do this step first to try to prevent more people
go into the street. And maybe at the same time, yeah,
try to bring these people to house.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
I mean to in house.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
But we also have what we always don't talk about,
and I'm going to take the opportunity the increasing houselessness
of elderly people. And that's one of the things because
most people really run to substant usage or mental health.
As a person that didn't have these issues easier, but
on house we get ignored the other part of it.
(35:46):
Were also not talking about the high rates of unhoused
children that are in la USD. They just can't just
find a job. They're miners, they just can't get off drugs.
They're not on drugs, they're just kids and they're just
in a bad situation. And we need to acknowledge that
all of these things, like for example, in Hillside Villa,
there were kids that attended those schools. And if you
(36:07):
can continue to get a confluence of negative type of
leasing and environments that they cannot live in, they're going
to be unhoused. And they're going to be part of
a new generation of unhoused people that we're going to
have to deal with either from the criminal justice standpoint
or from this thing standpoint that we are at now
(36:27):
in difference or pretending that they don't exist.
Speaker 4 (36:30):
Yeah, I mean, just to jump in there a little bit. Yeah,
there are seniors at Hillside Villa on fixed incomes. This
rent increase, they can't afford that at all. A lot
of the tenants have raised kids, are raising kids, they're
members of the tenant Association, have grown up during this
fight and everything like that. So yeah, like I think
(36:52):
this story really brings to light like how vulnerable people
are to becoming unhoused and everything like that. And I
think I think you said this before that this story
shows that this is quite an uphill battle to fight
your landlord, to fight the politicians like this. But I
think what's really inspiring about the Hillside Villa tendance is
(37:13):
that they've done it like really successfully. They really like
put this at the forefront. They have raised awareness of
eminent domain and everything like that. I mean, I don't
even know what would have happened if they hadn't, you know,
organized and become a tenant association and fought back. So
you know that there's that as well, is that they
(37:34):
have accomplished so much and really challenged like how we
think about housing and what's acceptable and everything like that.
And they're holding, like Alehundra just said, you know, a
unissus Hernandez, you know, with this contract and everything. They're
holding to her to account for that contract, you know,
And that's that's the way they have a fighting chance
out of this.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
And no one signed it, hopefully no one signed this
contract yet, which is great to because we're at a
negotiating point at a pivotal point that things could change
for the better. And if without the conversation, without the
sustained reporting, the conferences, the protests and things with the
Hillside Villa and the Tennis Union, this conversation wouldn't have
(38:16):
been progressed even today. And it all connects with this
housing insecurity, capitalism, but also this unnecessary explosion of reed
and aggressive method of silencing people that have been harmed.
I think that's what's going on. We're in the seizing
of this and then these protests are really trying to
(38:37):
get people's attention to get out of the adultrums, but
people are looking at it as a negative. They want
some want to stay in adultrums, and some just resent
that how dare you fight back? You know, when I
came to this place or I was here with nothing,
how dare you fight back and asks for equity and
be treated as a human. But we are trying to
(38:59):
show the humanity and the differences and the layers and
textures of this conversation for people to help grasp it
in order to be able to change it. Did I
miss anything? Is there anything that you guys wanted to add?
Speaker 5 (39:12):
There is something that Okay, I told you that we
went to rent strike. We owe about twenty eight twenty
nine months of rent during the pandemic. You know, there
was this era program from the government from the federal
to the states to distribute money to help pay rent. Right,
So at the time, we had to fill out an
application on the tenant side and the landers had to
(39:34):
fill out their application. So when we flowed application, we
put the rent that we were paying, and the landler's
side he put the rent that he wanted to charge us.
So in my case, you received more than a thousand
dollars extra every month for about twelve months or more,
I think twelve to thirty months anyway, So he received
(39:55):
that money for the rent that he was asking. Now,
after they closed this deal with the city, the lander
in the city, we're supposed to pay the rent continue
paying the rent that we were paying in twenty nineteen.
So it means that he received extra money and we
were asking Conso remember Hernandez, that we could get that
(40:17):
money that the lander got extra to credit credited to
our debt. In my case, it would reduce my debt
one year for sure, instead of owing twenty something months,
I would I would or less than that, like almost
half of it what they told us they they're gonna
(40:38):
do or they're doing. That money that he got extra,
they're gonna deducted from the fifteen dollars million dollars that
the city approved already. And my question is how the city,
the city can decide what to do with that money
that doesn't belong to them. It belongs It came from
the federal to the states, to the tenants. So the
(41:01):
logical thing is that they would, I mean, the lander
would credit us for that money to our debt. But
they're saying, Okay, let's say the learner got and I'm
sure he got at least a million dollar extra during
the pandemic. Now the city approved fifty million dollars already,
so they want to instead of give him the fifty millions,
(41:22):
they're going to give him forty millions. That's an example.
So the city is saving one million dollars and have
aut tenets. We are struggling with this debt, and that's
why I've been asking and.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
They check that money and pay the debt of the exactly,
I mean, doesn't make any sense exactly. And that's my question.
That's the question that we've been asking Hernandez and doesn't
give us an answer why the city is deciding what
to do with that money that doesn't belong to the city.
It came from the state. So I just wanted to
(41:54):
put this on the table because I think it's important. Yes,
I'm glad you did. Did we miss any saying Phoenix
to you want to add anything?
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (42:01):
Sure, I'll just ask really quickly, just in terms of
what you're saying. I think one thing that we the
un House does really really well is, you know, showing
the importance of solidarity among people, especially between unhoused people
and house people. And I think I think the Hillside
Villa Attendants show that as well, because you know, these
systems are so powerful and entrenched, but if you have
(42:24):
a lot of people fighting together against them, you know,
you can accomplish some things, a lot of things that
I think the Hillside Ville Attenant Association really shows that
how they organized and really became powerful because they fought
this together. Yeah. Again, the podcast that I'm working on
the Tenant Association is really going getting into that how
to do that.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
Which brings up to when is it going to drop?
What is your episode going to drop? And I can
direct my listeners to hear more on this too, because
this is such an pivotal and important conversation. Even with
the in house community, we need to understand how the
sausage is made or how it gets made surreptitiously, and
look how we.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Benefit or don't benefit from it. So I think that's important.
Speaker 4 (43:08):
Yeah, but yeah, we're working really hard on it. But yeah,
the first episode should be out in mid September, everything
like that.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Yeah, Well, I want to thank you guys for coming
in on such a hot day and also to take
the time to tell the stories. And I hope this
makes a better outcome for what's going on. And basically
it was a victory for that community. He'll side feeler.
Speaker 1 (43:32):
Thank you guys for you Thank you.
Speaker 5 (43:34):
I just to say I would like to say something
that we have a chance always in all the protests
about the you know housing stuff, that is housing is
a human right and we should consider it and think
about it, because human is a basic human right, just
like education, just like having food on the table. And
(43:56):
it's important that we think about it because everybody's supposed
to have a roof over the head, even if you're
rich or poor. Nobody's supposed to live on the street
on those conditions. Housing is a basic human right that
these rich, greedy people don't understand and they take it
like a business, you know, to make money for them.
(44:19):
So sorry, yeah, I wanted to say that.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Thank you very much, and thank you again Phoenix for
taking the time.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Thanks so much to Phoenix and Alejandro for that time.
Speaker 3 (44:33):
If you want to learn more about what's happening at
Hillside Villa in Chinatown, go to La Public Press dot
org and Hillside Villa ta dot org. When we come back,
we're heading to Detroit, Michigan, where I tour at the
Heidelberg Project. Walking up to the Heidover Project in Detroit, Michigan,
(45:03):
there were different times stamps and clocks painted all around
the street. That's an o car, burnt out house, discarded,
burnt clothes and kids toys were strewn around the installation.
Seemed to imply that houselessness it's one burnt house away.
Tyree Gutting is taking an artistic approach to fighting against eviction.
(45:27):
Mister Gutton is determined to use his time on Earth
productive to raise awareness and let us know what time
it is.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Let's listen in on his views funy fiction.
Speaker 7 (45:39):
Tyree, my name Tree Dyke.
Speaker 6 (45:42):
I saw you doing there and I have been watching
for lott using when people are from unfaying attention.
Speaker 7 (45:47):
Thank you voting, you got state beautiful? Okay, thank you
so much. Don't have a sitt Oh okay cool? So
I'm gonna make it very profession I'm Tyree. The founders,
the artists of this project, which is an over air
(46:08):
all your exims, they together, what would you? Why did
you do it like here?
Speaker 8 (46:13):
Because, like I said, this.
Speaker 3 (46:14):
Is worthy of the tastes of union papers. What you here?
Speaker 6 (46:20):
I went to art school, I grew up in that
house that through my love for your rights over there,
I grew up there.
Speaker 7 (46:27):
And over time I'm witnessed the.
Speaker 6 (46:31):
Whole world change, the city, the church is changed. And
I want to say this.
Speaker 8 (46:36):
I was some time out of a tour, but I
had a burning design in here to do something with
right now.
Speaker 7 (46:45):
So don't you wow?
Speaker 3 (46:48):
And And as result of this, what is the message work?
Because I know that the interspersion of time. I know
that you have time interwoven into your pieces. So when
we talk little on that, because I'm curious on your
insight on.
Speaker 8 (47:01):
That, well in the Book of Ecclesiastics, the third chaps
its stakes in seven there's a time in the season
for all and you look along here and.
Speaker 7 (47:14):
It's just the three blocks.
Speaker 6 (47:17):
And time was kind of like the focal point of
this product because I'm talking about the time of the Wall.
Speaker 7 (47:24):
Our time here was creation and it gives me a chance.
That's a very important question. What are we going to
do with? What do we want to know? That's very tmperable.
Speaker 1 (47:36):
One thing that I noticed like that was pointing out
to me.
Speaker 4 (47:38):
You had like.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
There was a broken or burnt building over there, and
there was a stroller in there with I think the
toys and things of that nature there, And was there
a particular reason why did you put that in that position?
Because like I noticed certain things like there was sperm shoes,
and then they're noticed there was burnt out cars, and
then I noticed, like there's so many things that catches
(48:02):
your eye. I can't enumerate them all for the listener,
but we try to do the best you can. So
what's your inspiration for that?
Speaker 6 (48:09):
Well, if you look over that house, the foundation wants
a house there, and someone perfectly set that house wi fire.
And so I decided that I would take the advantage
to let it and turn it into good.
Speaker 7 (48:26):
You have to become the afterness of your life in
this creation, Uncail. It's your time.
Speaker 6 (48:35):
And if I sit here and I think about what
you said, they got the baby downs downstairs and invasion
of our house.
Speaker 7 (48:43):
Sometimes you have to look deep down the side to
find out who you are. And that's what I'm doing
with that household and everything.
Speaker 8 (48:51):
Baby undone that plan and then we grew up in
life and we forget the importance of life.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
You have to learn and have a good time, no
matter what's your certain step might find the joy and
even the most artus of time. That wow. So I
notice that you also have a voting center. There is
there any message that you wanted in partner with that?
Speaker 7 (49:13):
Particularly, I notice the.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
Clown page of Donald Trump with you know, I know
that's like a pivot there, but I just definitely want
to throw that in to see what your insights on
that as well.
Speaker 7 (49:24):
I would say, use your power. I would say, this
election that's coming up here, I'm voting. Yeah, another afraid
I'm voting for her.
Speaker 6 (49:35):
I'm voting for her. I don't have enough of that
clown And what else do you need so use your
power on that day to go off there make difference
in the world because you have the power power to
the people.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
Okay, right, I also wanted to went out too.
Speaker 7 (49:57):
It's like you mentioned that you was going to do this, we.
Speaker 3 (50:00):
Change it, will it be different like and once it
changes because they're different, but will keep you basically the
core of this inspiration or whether you change the instellation
completely to something different to cause people to think, or
to keep this on a consistent type of thing.
Speaker 6 (50:18):
I think that change is so important in its inevitabone.
You change your direction, you change your mind, you change
the way you see things, and change keeps you alive
because if your stay the same, you will die.
Speaker 7 (50:36):
Get here, I'm talking about change the way you see life.
Speaker 1 (50:41):
One of the things.
Speaker 3 (50:42):
Also that it's apparent too, is to drive down that
there's been more and more I think abandoned.
Speaker 7 (50:48):
Or broken down building around here.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
That's things that there is. We are inflation period, particularly
in Detroit.
Speaker 1 (50:58):
Is that am I seeing this?
Speaker 7 (50:59):
Direct or?
Speaker 1 (51:00):
Is this is something that is h maybe off the mar.
Speaker 6 (51:04):
Well, yes, but you just said and has a lot
of truth to it. Everything must change and what want
is not today and so on. As we are changing
in time. The world seems to be getting smaller and smaller,
and dams never told that it was gonna stay in
(51:26):
the same So you see a lot of find instructions
here and things of that nature.
Speaker 7 (51:31):
But it's changing, and it's changing. It's such such a
way that we don't pay attention, we will miss out.
Government can't fix it for you. How to the people.
People's got to do. Yeah, well, mister Guidan, you've been
very gracious enough.
Speaker 6 (51:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
Yeah, it does and like I say, this is very
very important.
Speaker 3 (51:55):
I'm I'm glad that you spoke out and artistically is
all in this purpolyg with beings to have a conversation.
Speaker 7 (52:02):
And I wish you can success.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
And I find I'm back here hopefully I see something
else in this far.
Speaker 7 (52:07):
I want to leave this with you.
Speaker 6 (52:09):
Yeah, Plato said, the time is a moving image of reality,
and I want to go back to something. You tell
the house what's up here? He said, Plato, time is
a moving image of your reality. You have the creature over.
Government's not gonna do it, so thinking as you see,
(52:31):
it's up to the people to do something about it.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
Hell sir, thank you very much, thank you, thanks to
Tyree for his time.
Speaker 3 (52:46):
Next week we're going to hear more on the topic
of evictions from the end house perspective, as I chronicled
the major eviction that took place Friday, September sixth and
El Monte, California. And as always, please like and subscribe.
If you'd like to share your story on Whedian House,
please reach out to me at Whidian House on Instagram
(53:08):
or email me at Wiedianhouse at gmail dot com. Thank
you again for listening, and may we again meet in
the light of understanding. Wheedian Howes is the production of iHeartRadio.
It is written, posted, and created by me Theo Henderson,
our producers Jbie Loftus, Kailey Fager, Katie Fischal.
Speaker 1 (53:31):
And Lyra Smith.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
Our editor is Adam Wand and our logo art is
also by Katieficial.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
Thanks for listening.
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