LA: Big Fires Everywhere

In our final installment on the LA fires (for now), Theo speaks to Alex, a survivor of the Altadena Eaton fire about his recent experience, and his previous experience being unhoused years ago. Then, we check in with Rachel Sanoff, volunteer coordinator of the SELAH unhoused coalition in LA about the efforts they've done to assist with those newly unhoused by fire while continuing to support unhoused residents on the east side of the city.

Learn more about SELAH here: https://www.selahnhc.org/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Previously on Weedian.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
House, domestic workers are affected, We're seeing farm workers affected.
There's a historic black community in Altadena that's been wiped out,
and insult to injury. We've got cops out there saying
that people are looting and it's people trying to go
recover their thing.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
We get these distress signals that there are armed guards
here and a contractor telling us that we all have
to get on these buses that have all shown up
and we don't have a choice, and I don't know
where we're going, but they're saying that we have to
evacuate the whole area of the soldiers home there. None
of them were under a mandatory evacuation nor an evacuation warning.

(00:43):
You know, again, to take advantage of something so low
and use it as an excuse to wipe people off
land you're trying to steal and you know, kill more
people would almost.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
Welcome back to Weedian Howes. I'm your host, Theo Henderson.
This is the third part of our coverage of the
Los Angeles fires. We're going to be speaking to a
survivor of the fire and an organizer with the sila
Unhouse Coalition. We're also going to take a moment to
look at two kinds of violence towards the end house

(01:22):
direct and then direct, most recently here in Los Angeles,
as well as in Detroit and Fremont, California. But first
on Housed News. We begin our story with a tragic note.
Detroit native Tatiana Williams lost two of her children to

(01:43):
hypothermia while sleeping in the car. Miss Williams had been
houses for three months. She has also pointed out that
she's reached out to the city multiple times for resources
and in assistance, and outside the city as well. She
asked for the children's father, who did not know that
they were houseless. After the deaths, the city offered to

(02:05):
pay for their funeral and build a house for the
remaining children of Miss Williams. It is unclear if charges
are going to be filed. Our next story shows a
violent response to an unhoused person. Security officer Sean Trasvant
slapped anused woman in Los Angeles at the downtown location

(02:28):
of Taco Bell. It should be noted protesters are calling
for security officer tra Von sys firing. Our third story
takes us to Freebot, California, where the volunteers are implicated
of being violent criminals. City leaders are voting to pass
an ordinance where aiding and abetting the unhoused community is

(02:52):
a crime. In plainer terms, it is now against the
law for volunteers to give the young house water, aid, blankets, money,
or anything else. Our last story takes us to Aurora, Colorado.
The city leaders have voted to remove warning times before

(03:14):
the unhoused community is swept. This ordinance was inspired by
the Grants Past ruling, and Aurora's mayor said in his
own words that this was his version of tough love.
The mayor has also created a court for unhoused people
that deals with low level offenses and this is unhouses.

(03:38):
When we come back, we will take a moment to
remember the two unhoused children who passed away and to
be more away to the escalation of the elimination of
out house people. Welcome back to Weedian House. I'm Theo Henderson.

(03:59):
To leave this place before your children is not in
any parent's wish or dream. Having your children leave before
you while houseless is a double blow. By now, many
have heard the story of the deaths of Miss Tatiana Williams,
two children's ages nine and two, as we discuss this
in Unhunted news as well. Close to us in Los Angeles,

(04:20):
read recently encountered another form of violence to an unhoused
woman in downtown Taco bell In other parts of California,
Life Freemont it is now a criminal act aiding and
abetting unhoused people. That means handing out water, food, or
money to unhouse people. I wish I could say that

(04:41):
these incidents are in isolation and are not connected. If
you can demonize a person, you can criminalize a person.
Right now, our country is criminalized in poverty and it
should be spoken out at every opportunity. Our last point
before I start our first intervi you unhoused people in Aurora,

(05:02):
Colorado are being targeted again by cutting down warning time
for unhoused people to get aid except shelter or going
to jail. In other words, how did we get here?
And how far downhill will we go?

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Right now?

Speaker 4 (05:17):
Over four years of wee in house, from audio to
videos to comics, I have been trying to reach one
and teach one about the messy reality of houselessness. As
you listen to this episode, dramatic climatic events are increasing, landslides, fires,
strong winds will be the culprit in displacing more people.

(05:38):
These laws will impact them most certainly as they impact
the currently displaced. As you listen to our first interview
today with Alex, a survivor of the Alter Data fire
earlier this year, please take note of his experience of
being unhoused before and now his second time through no
fault of his own.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Here's Alex's story.

Speaker 5 (06:01):
My name's Alex Valentine. I'm from Altadena, California, born in Pasadena,
you know, pretty much lived there my whole life, minus
when I was in foster care. I was in foster
care for about ten years, mancipated out of the system
at twenty two, you know, homeless at eighteen, and here
I find myself, you know, homeless again. So it's definitely
it's a big, you know, kind of full circle moment

(06:24):
for me.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
I was going to say, you know that many times,
many people that have experienced, like myself, houselessness, we have
maybe breaks into you know, some stabilitied in emergency or
something like unforeseen circumstances. And I'm going to ask a
very stupid question, so I apologize in advance. Could you
foresee what happened in Altadena to cause me to be

(06:45):
out in the street.

Speaker 5 (06:46):
Again, not at all. And you know, I say homeless
because the home is gone. But thankfully this time around,
I've been able to land on my feet, staying with family.
Right now. I'm very lucky and very fortunate. There's a
lot of people still in hotels, still trying to scrape
together dollars just to you know, make it buy and
start planning their next step. So I'm very fortunate.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
Here's the thing that also I found that too recently
it was come to my attention that someone's house did
not burn down in the altitude area, but that his
neighbors and other areas that have been burned down, and
it makes it very difficult for them to live in
the area because people forget, our air quality is still
not where it should be, and into ingesting all of

(07:31):
the talks. Even though your house has not burned, doesn't
mean that you can return back to the home.

Speaker 5 (07:35):
Oh one hundred percent. You know, Altadena is such a
rich community. In our house, for example, one hundred years old.
A lot of those older, older houses were built with asbestos,
so you know, imagine I think something like sixty five
seventy percent of Altadena has gone homes burned asbestos everywhere.
There's no way those people can return. I mean, I

(07:56):
have a friend whose house didn't even burn down, but
she and her family are staying in an airbnb because
they just cannot they cannot return, which is it's it's
really sad, and it makes the waters very murky, like
we can't tell you know what the timeline is going
to be like in terms of being even yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Or even taking a bath of shower. You may not
have to drink the water.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
I have heard about the water where I know people
are aware of Flint, Michigan, which still is still having
what the issues. But here's the other reality too, we
now have those same issues here. One of the things
I wanted to use us to take back is like
where were you when the fires happened and how did
it How were you able to land on your feet
differently than when you first became on house the first time.

Speaker 5 (08:38):
So I was living up in Altadena with my aunt uncle,
going to school at PCC full time. Really it was
a blessing, you know, the fire started that there was normal.
I went to school, went to work, came home. The
power was out for the Santa Ana Wins. You know,
Edison didn't want any of the lines to break and
start a fire, which is funny, now know, you know,

(09:00):
looking back. But yeah, so I just thought I was
gonna be without power for a few days, you know,
and especially I went through the station fire back in
two thousand and nine, and so you know, it wasn't
our first time seeing fires, seeing flames up close. Never
in a million years did we think it would travel
to us. So the fire starts around like six thirty,
all the way in the east side of Altadena and

(09:20):
Eaton and you know, we're on the west side, closer
to JPL, so we weren't too worried. But then all
of a sudden, for whatever reason, the fire starts going
up the mountain and it starts coming west. We're like, okay,
that's weird. You know, normally it just goes up the
mountain and you know, the yeah, exactly. So, yeah, you know,
we thought it was kind of weird the path that

(09:42):
was taking. And you know, about ten eleven rolls around
and I take a drive to see if I can
figure out where it is, and I noticed the fire
is getting close to Lake Street, which is one of
the main north south streets of Daltadina area. So I
see it's close to lake and I'm like, you know,
it's not too far from us. You know, we're right
off of fair Oaks, which is the other main street,

(10:03):
and so you know, I got to tell my aunt uncle.
We get our dogs in cages. You know, we get
everything like ready, just in case you have to go.
My uncle didn't want to leave at all because he's
scared of looters. But time passes, time passes, you know,
they didn't want to leave. My aunt has multiple sclerosis,
my uncle's recovering from a broken head. They have severe

(10:24):
mobility issues. So they didn't want to leave unless it
was like mandatory, right because they have to really uproot.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
But also, if I may point out too, is that
because we have the normal course of how these fires
usually go, you know, best to be as prepared as possible.
But this fire was an anomaly. It wasn't like the
usual track of the fires before. So you know, if
you left and it didn't even go to you and
blocked and you wasted time and he you know, wasted
all of that energy. And I think that's what was

(10:52):
missed with a lot of people didn't understand this was
the first fire.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
There was other fires.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
It was now at the same time, it wasn't just
like an individual fire and it is petered out and
you know, and resources are becoming a bit different. Yeah,
that's I think that's the distinction where people miss misunderstand
you know, people just could magically just leave and and
things like that.

Speaker 5 (11:11):
So exactly, and you know, my family's been in the
pasting now to the area since the sixties. Like my
grandmother went to PCC, my aunt went to PCC. I'm
going to PCC, you know. So it's like they've lived
through so many fires up there and never did they
think it would.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
Come down and love. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (11:27):
Yeah, So basically my one uncle didn't wan to leave
unless we had the mandatory evacuation. And so I'm refreshing, refreshing, midnight,
rolls around nothing, but I can see the flames. They
jump Lake Street, you know, and now they're instead of
having to look all the way to my right, they're
right behind the houses and across the street in the
mountains though, And I'm refreshing, I'm like, you know, why

(11:49):
am I not getting anything?

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Why is it saying?

Speaker 5 (11:51):
Updated three hours ago three am rolls around, still nothing,
but now the fire is so close that you can
feel it. Well, not only that, but you actually can't
even see flames because the smoke is so close it
blocks out all the light in the sky. So you
couldn't even see the fire, but you could you could
feel the smoke, you know. Three twenty ish rolls around,

(12:13):
smoke starting to fill the house, my room, and I'm
still sitting here frantically like why are we not getting
an evacuation notice? And then luckily, I think right around
three point thirty, we finally get the evacuation notice and I,
you know, get up, get the wheelchair, get my aunt
in the wheelchair. She gets stressed as fast she can,
get her out to the car. We get the pets
out to the car. My uncle just did not want
to leave it all. He was scared of looters. There

(12:34):
are ports of looters.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Those are also missing from it. I need to point
that out too.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
Misinformation for that because there were people's family members helping
trying to preserve it, and Fox News made it sound
like these people were looting and it were not, and
it's been debunked. But of course they're not going to
acknowledge it now, but the damage has been done.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
So yeah, well I will say my friend her house
did get looted. So there are cases, I don't think.
And again, this is what I'm saying from the knowledge
that I know, I don't think it's as bad as
it was reported.

Speaker 4 (13:03):
They pointed out these black family members that were coming
to help a family member that couldn't move it with
mobility and pair.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Oh I think I saw that.

Speaker 5 (13:11):
Wasn't there like a whole video, Yeah, yeah, that's I
saw that exactly.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
Yeah, and then and it wasn't. In fact, I wasn't
a mistake that they made. It Always when these kind
of things happened, the colored the skin of black people, I.

Speaker 5 (13:25):
Knew, Yeah, I knew exactly what video you're talking about.
I saw going all over Twitter, x whatever, and people
were just like running with it like it was truth.
And then later it got debunked. There was a family
trying to get there, you know, their belongings out, which
is just so sad, you know.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
And but as a result of that, they sent in
the fire what was it, the National Guard and the
cops that may really terrorizing people that have nothing and
now making it sound like it's just overrun with looters,
which you know, that's it. I won't that there's not
any looting, but I come on, you know.

Speaker 5 (13:59):
Yeah, but okay, So my uncle was scared. You know
my uncle his whole life, he was like a contractor,
worked on million dollar homes. All of his tools were
at the house, you know. So he was like, you know,
I can't, I can't lose all that stuff. And you
kind of like you said earlier, you know, they had
been here for so long. Never in a million years
did they think that the fire was gonna come down.

(14:20):
So I just he was kind of giving me a
hard time about leaving, and I said, you know what, like, look,
I have to get my on out. I have to
get the pets out. I have to get out, so
you know, you can stay whatever. Just what I did.
He has this old car. We hadn't started it in months.
So I actually parked my car in the driveway. I
gave him my keys because I was a car that
he could for sure use.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
To get out.

Speaker 5 (14:39):
We knew it was reliable. I drove my aunt down.
We went to the Macy's on Lake Street. We parked
in the parking structure for a couple hours and uh yeah,
I just I was letting her get sleep. I was
on the phone with friends who were checking in on me.
It's around six fifty am.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Now.

Speaker 5 (14:53):
I walked back to the parking lot and I see
my uncle in the car in my car, and I
go up and I talked to him, and in my
head even I was just like, Oh, he's gonna tell us,
you know, oh, all good, come on back, you know,
it's all the fire's out. But he just looks at
me and he says, everything's gone, you know. And the
longer I look at him, the more stuff I'm noticing.

(15:15):
He is. He's older, he's seventy six, white beard, white hair.
I'm noticing he has burned spots in his hair from
where his hair singed. And then I start looking at
my car and I see, like my side mirror, the
paint on it melted off. He is so lucky to
have gotten out. He went back to sleep after we left,

(15:36):
and he got a call from our neighbor across the
street saying, Hey, I see the car in the driveway.
You know you guys evacuated. He said, evacuated for what?
And the guy goes, well, your house is on fire,
and so my uncle's like, as he's getting out, he said,
my room minding. My room is right next to his.
It's connected by a door. He said, as he's getting out,

(15:56):
the glass on my room is popping. My room was
in flames. As he's getting out of the house, he
had two go backs with him, like emergency bags, right
just with essential stuff. Both of them caught fire as
he was running out the front door, so he had
to just drop it and keep going, you know, he said,
for a second, he didn't think he was gonna, you know,
make it out.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
So he's very lucky. But it's so funny.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
You know.

Speaker 5 (16:19):
I was talking to him. I sat in a car
with him for a little bit, you know, when we
were in the parking lot, and I told him, you know,
next time just listening, you just come with us. And
he said, uh, he said, no, I'd do it again.
You know, I'd protect my stuff again. And I kind
of understand, you know that your life's work.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
Here's the thing too, is being both of us being
on housed. And we could relate to this because what
is always missed with people that don't know about houselessness.
You basically it's your stability, it's your your security, blanket,
your belong to you. It's just every human being compiles
or have some things that they consider valuable, important, and
vital to their existence. You know, could have disability, and

(17:00):
you have all of the other accoutrements of life. But
the thing of it is that when it's threatened, like
when a natural disaster or someone's imposing safe For example,
during these fires, the city was still conducting sweeps against
unhoused people that were living on the street. Now imagine
people were panicking about losing their things, But imagine now
that you are currently un housed and that you're losing

(17:23):
your things from the.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
City, not from a fire.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
And they're saying that if you go past this tape,
then you can be arrested or you're going to be criminalized.
And these are the contentions that are not verbalized by
the city and where the mayor and these city officials
will play it off like this is a crew verir
of choice, and you know they can bamboozoo people into that,

(17:46):
but the fact of the matter is, you know, this
is a clear example that emergencies can happen to anyone.
You can lose everything in the drop of a dime
and there's no fault. You can't say someone was on drugs,
they were mentally ill, and all of those things that
people love to justify the cruelties that go with the
end house population. But we all are falling under which

(18:08):
I wanted to ask of. Fortunately that you don't have
to deal with this on a physical level anymore, but
the rebuilding efforts, are you going to rebuild?

Speaker 5 (18:17):
Well, so I think our plan right now is to rebuild.
Like I was saying earlier, there's no clear timeline on
the rebuild process. The issue with you know, a historical
city like Altadena is all of the homes are old,
like our house was one hundred and one. So the
big issue is like a lot of those older houses
are built with asbestos. And now you know, when you
have sixty five percent seventy percent of the community burned down,

(18:40):
all those homes with all these toxic chemicals floating in
the air, it's just not it's not clear when it's
going to be safe to go back. But I believe
the process or what we're trying to do right now
is rebuild. I did want to mention something you said earlier.
You were talking about you know, losing all of your stuff,
and I think, I mean, it's it sucks. That day,

(19:03):
I was like, really sad I lost all my stuff.
But you know, at the same time, I kind of
felt I was kind of like in my element. You know,
this had happened so many times before in foster care,
where it's like, Okay, you know what, here's your bag.
Here's like a black trash bag of all your stuff.
You know, get going or you're going to a new placement, whatever,

(19:25):
you know, whatever the situation is. And then, especially like
when I was eighteen and I was homeless this summer
after high school or the fall after high school.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
How did you become on house on eighteen when you're eighteen?

Speaker 5 (19:36):
Do you prefer on house?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Yeah, well, no, it's not. It is my personal thing.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
You can stay homeless, and I mean, it's not a
it's a personal thing for me because I believe it
dehumanizes people.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
But it's few.

Speaker 5 (19:47):
I don't I get what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
No, I don't force that on it. Okay.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
So I guess my relationship with my legal guardians at
the time was kind of rocky. I don't get too
much into it, but they basically just said, you had
a week to move out. This is right after I
toured the country. I toured the country with a professional
drum Corps Sacramento Mandarins, played tuba a ton of fun.
So I traveled across the country by bus, came back

(20:14):
and then yeah, they said I had a week to
move out. And then that same day they said, there's
no need for you to come into the house. We
packed all your stuff up in the garage. Come get it.
So I think I had like eight black trash bags
filled with all my stuff that I had from high school. Yeah,
my friend Sammy, I was sleeping on his floor for
a little bit. I was CouchSurfing. At one point, I
was working for jobs, which was, you know, insane, but

(20:38):
you know, you when you're in that position, you just
do what you have to do. And I'm very thankful.
I had so many friends. You know, hey, you can
spend the night, Hey you can spend the week. You know,
you could stay with us until you know whatever, which
like was great. It helped me get on my feet.
But I also learned to separate myself from my belongings.
You know, I had a custom computer that I built.

(21:00):
As much as I love it, it's replaceable. You know,
what really gets to me is my grandmother who adopted
me when I was young, and she got sick and
then I went back into care. But you know, it's
just a brief backstory. She passed away in twenty twenty one,
I want to say, and I had all of her books,

(21:20):
I had her polaroids, family pictures. We only have a
few pictures together, and I had the only copy of it.
I think all that stuff's gone, you know, And that's
the stuff that like, you don't think about it right away,
you know, you kind of think, oh, my fun stuff,
that's all gone, boohoo. But like as time goes on,
you realize, like, hey, I lost this, Hey, and these

(21:43):
are things that I can replace. A computer, I can replace,
a bed, I can replace clothes. I can't replace pictures
or you know, things from my grandmother.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
That's one of the things that my biggest regrets is
I had a picture of my one of the very
few pictures of my mother when she was a younger woman,
and I lost it. Being on house, they threw all
my stuff away and I didn't get back in time.
And that's one of the few pictures I've I've had
her because like my mother was not always the photage
most photage in it. And I zeink about that when

(22:15):
you mentioned that, Like, you know, that's one of my
biggest regrets, never losing that that that part. It may
not have been important to the sanitation or the city,
but it meant the world to me, and I put
it in a place to cherish it. So something happens
to me that I didn't get, you know, lose it
in my pocket and things like that, but it ended
up losing my belongings. So that's I totally understand what

(22:37):
you mean by that.

Speaker 5 (22:38):
But again, like in foster care, I learned to again
separate myself from my belongings. I think it's also like
a Buddhist teaching right to not want or to not desire.
And I'm not I'm not there, I'm not i have
nowhere close to the Buddha. I'm not enlightened, I'm none
of that. But I think it is it helps you

(23:00):
cope a lot when you're able to detach yourself from
the things that you want.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
It's also in in a way to not to be fraudian,
but also like the disassociative kind of thing to protect
like for you know, there are certain elements of like
the sweeps, or certain elements that I find myself putting
up to protect my psyche or protect me from not
having a full meltdown or having a breakdown, to protect myself.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
Like you know example.

Speaker 4 (23:25):
You know, even when we rebuild, you rebuild by having things.
If I can be okay losing you know, like Okay,
I lose these pair of pants. They ain't They're not
expensive that you know, I can get very you know,
these shoes they ain't.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
You know, They're not Nikes, air Force Jordan's or anything
like that.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
These are just it's just from two to four, Okay,
I lost that a serious paperwork I had. You know,
Fortunately I had some friends to to hold that or
help the whole things that I was gonna consider that
I didn't want to keep out on and where I was,
uh that could be stolen or thrown away.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
So I was like, okay, I can I can live
with that.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
But that there was that kind of the desulsitive pattern
I noticed, like you know, if I came tomorrow and
all my stuff was gone, it's it's not going to
break me down, like you know, unless you know, like
my bed roll I had or.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Things like that.

Speaker 4 (24:14):
I found always tried to find a way to you know,
be able to recoup in a different way that it
wasn't going to cause a beltout.

Speaker 5 (24:20):
So yeah, I think another thing that helped me is
I got super into philosophy when I was just like
in Foster Care, on a much shallower level than I
am now. Now I feel like I've looked into it
much deeper. And you know philosopher or well, I guess
Roman emperor, you know, Marcus Aurelius. Part of his whole

(24:41):
thing is if you can't change it, don't worry about it.
You know, in Layman's terms, if you can do something,
do it. If you can't, just let it go. And
I've tried to adopt that. And you know, I went
to AA a lot with my grandmother. She would take

(25:01):
me to meetings. I'd be like a little five year
old kids sitting at the AA table and I'd listened
to all their stories. And you know, the one thing
that stuck with me was the serenity prayer, you know,
where you asked God to give you the strength to
change what you can and the strength to accept the
things you can't change. And I've tried to always implement
that in some way, right So if I can't, my

(25:23):
house has gone in a fire. I can't change that. Mourn,
but let it go, you know, because life is just
much harder when you sit and you dwell on the
tough stuff. And I think, and I don't know your
story one hundred percent, you don't know mine one hundred percent.
But from my experience, if I were to sit and
dwell on every bad thing that's happened to me, I

(25:45):
wouldn't be here right now. I wouldn't be sitting here
talking to you. I would still be unhoused. I would
still be homeless. You know, I would maybe on drugs,
maybe not on drugs, but I would I would not
be here if I just, you know, sat and just
focused all the negativity.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
And that's not necessarily have to be in house. But
this is a thing too. I think a society has
eisier two extremes. Is I don't want to say that
Okuna Matata kind of thing. They got that one, like
you know, they break out in the song like you know,
the Sun's gonna come out tomorrow, or they just have
an apathetic like the whole like Chicken Little the world's
sky is fault and there's you know, it's like the

(26:24):
difficulty is to find that sweet spot or that balance, like, okay,
you know this happens.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
I can't pretend it didn't happen. This happens. This sucks.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
I morn, cry, whatever I need to do, but I
have to. I got to keep going because life is
not stopping to wait to me to do this. But
that's not Likee's job. My job is to cope as
the best as I can, and if I need help,
I need to be okay enough to let go. Some
of the shame by society is at blaming shaming society,
if I must say, And it's very difficult sometimes even

(26:58):
for myself to the shed that because of how people look,
or people will say some diet remark that or some
flippant remark without taking any introspection on their own circumstances.
You know, make things from the transitional or I won't
say enlightened period, but to phase into those new kind

(27:18):
of jewels that you disputed, it becomes interesting and it
becomes a bit diverse, and it becomes I won't say transcended,
but I do think it takes some work to be
able to get to that, and I can see that
it's an ongoing process with you. One of the things
that I wanted to ask is what do you say
to people that have lost things over to alter Dina.

(27:39):
What kind of support groups are there anything to get
people to want to lean in to help or to
be educated into the situation.

Speaker 5 (27:49):
Well, I know PCC is Passing City College is kind
of like a community hub right now. I know they're
offering lots of services. I think World's Kitchen as well.
They're handing out meals all across Pasadena. I think I
believe the Pasadena Convention Center is still open for people displaced.
I would recommend looking into all of that. You know,
it's kind of like a it's a hard time for everybody.

(28:12):
I mean, I'll be in line at Starbucks getting a coffee,
you know, I'll be sitting there talking to front and
the person next with me we'll hear about my house
running down and they'll say, I lost my house too,
you know, And it's just like everyday people and people
are moving on with their lives and it's great. But
it's the amount of support and community that Altadena has

(28:33):
and the amount of support Pasadena you know, has given
to Altadena has just been It's been amazing.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
I was going to ask in this question too, because
I've been focusing on while the fire, what's going on
the un house community currently we're being swept here in
Los Angeles and other parts. Have you noticed that there
has been more of an empathetic stance a posture to
the currently the young house before they were dealing with
the fires into homes or do you see maybe just

(29:04):
there's this idea that there were acceptable at house people
or worthy unhoused people, and then they were unworthy unhoused people,
and there's a line of demarcation that's going on there.
Or do you see overall just good will to everyone?

Speaker 5 (29:21):
You know, in my situation and from what I've seen,
I've seen a lot of goodwill. I will say there's
a few homeless people that stay at past PCC. They're
not shoveled off campus. They're not hey you can't be here,
Hey you got to get up. We even have like
the Lancer Pantry, which hands out food and snacks and

(29:43):
whatnot for free to students. And sometimes I'll see, you
want one of the homeless people going, and they'll hand
them stuff so PCC is just like a stand up
school all around. And right now I'm not in the area,
you know, I'm a bit north, so i haven't been
able to see every day what it's been like, but
to see the support and the good faith and people

(30:06):
are just looking at for each other, you know, during
this time, and it's amazing to see.

Speaker 4 (30:12):
If you know, one of you the things that I
point out to. Recently, there has been a ruling about
grants Pass. Have you heard of the grands Pass ruling?

Speaker 6 (30:20):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (30:20):
No, Grand's Pass is a ruling that make it possible
for city officials and law enforcement to cite, criminalize and
arrest on house people before they had a stop gap.
It was the Martin versus boise from the appellate Court
stating it was cruel and unusual punishment to criminalize a

(30:41):
human being for being a house.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
The human body has to get rest.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
No human being runs twenty four hours without sitting down, resting, sleeping.
It's just it's an impossibility unless you're taking some kind
of superhuman drugs and something like that. But even then
you're going to crash out. The point of it is
is that that would a way to stop cities from
just willy nilly, a targeting on house people. And one

(31:06):
of the things I am noticing is particularly Altadenius predominantly
majority of people of color, black and brown in particular,
and the responses.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
That they would get if they were.

Speaker 4 (31:18):
Now displaced, because there's always the high percentages of targeting
in them. And Grant's pass is the ruling. That's the
Supreme Court ruling. Six Supreme Court justices three dissented on
upholding that a police officer does not have to offer
you services, or city officials don't they want you to leave,
You can leave, or you can go to jail, all

(31:39):
of those kinds of things. Now, with the Alted doing
this situation, there's going to be people that may not
be as fortunate. Was you able to have a transitional
place to stay or work with each other? How do
you think that the newly displaced are going to fare
in under this ruling?

Speaker 5 (31:55):
I mean, obviously I hope for the best, prepare for
the Yeah, yeah, exactly. I would have to see it
in action a few times before I would, you know,
be able to really put judgment out there. But I again,
maybe it's because I'm young, I might be naive, I
might be whatever but I I hope that the people

(32:20):
who are displaced are taken care of properly. You know,
being houseless, homeless, whatever, it's it's terrible. It's like a
it's a terrible feeling. You feel like every like, everywhere
you stay, you're a guest. It's just an awful feeling.
You're like permanently a guest, no matter where you are.
I hope that with the resources that we have, everybody

(32:42):
displaced is able to you know, stay on their feet.
I know it's not realistic. I know people will fall
through the cracks, and I just I hope people utilize
things like the pastinga convention center. As far as I know,
you can stay there until you figure out your next steps.
I know there's resources like two on one. They've partnered
with Airbnb, and I think Hilton, if I'm remembering correctly,

(33:06):
to give free rooms and free stays. And I just
I encourage people who you know aren't in a fortunate
enough situation, don't be a shame to ask for help,
especially in a time like this. Nobody could have controlled this.
I got home and I was like, oh, we're gonna
be without power for three days, you know, and then
twelve hours later, my house is burned down. Nobody could

(33:27):
have predicted this. Don't be a shamed to ask for help.

Speaker 4 (33:30):
I also want to ask the larger moral to the
story is that creating these kind of unitative kind of
decisions on the current vulnerable population could have unintended consequences
for us as well. Because climate change is here, it's
been here, and this is going to be one of
yet many type of kind of hazards, a bio hazards

(33:51):
that we're going to deal with. And when we have
things on the books like Grant's past ruling, it makes
it difficult to we through the humanity. And one thing
our city officials love to do, and they do it
very well, is they have it down the criminalize the
criminalization pack. They know how to criminalize poor people. They'll
find every finding known to man to find a way

(34:15):
to criminalize you for trying to exist. But when you
ask them to make some decisions about helping with empathy
and other people at that they ought to put the
criminal or the car stittal rules in. But the car
stortal thing that they got that locked. But in the
empathy they're shorter supply.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
You know, I think a big part of that and
not not controversial. But this may be, you know, an
unpopular opinion. I think there's a reason for that. I
think it's because their donors are from the top, right.
So if if you know, let's say I'm mayor of
Los Angeles, let's say I'm assembly member for whatever district.

(34:51):
If my donors are saying that they need me to
focus on these problems or whatever problem, that's the problem
I'm going to focus on to stay in office, to
keep my pockets lining, to stay you know, in power.
They don't care about the people. It's sad this, you know,
I don't agree with it. I want to say that now,
but but it's it's the truth. They're not the homeless

(35:14):
person on the corner, is not the one putting money
in their pockets so that they can run for office again.
And that's why we're looked over. That's why people who
are poor are looked over, because they're not the ones
putting money in politicians pockets.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
You know, food for thought, I believe. I thank you
Alex for taking the time to come out and tell
us your story. Is it okay? We invite you back again?
This updates or about the situation I would love to
thank you for having me excellent. Thank you so much
to Alex. You can learn more about him at the

(35:50):
links in our description. And when we come back, I'll
be speaking with returning guests Rachel Satoff, the volunteer organizer
at Enhause Coalition SILA in Los Angeles, about fair efforts
to help the unhouse with fire relief. Welcome back to
to cel Henderson with Weedy and Howse. Our next guest.

(36:12):
Rachel is a returning guest who has insightsive observations on
how CELA springs into action to be there for the
unhoused community in new novel ways.

Speaker 1 (36:22):
Here's our talk.

Speaker 6 (36:24):
Thank you so much for having me back. I'm so honored.
I'm Rachel.

Speaker 7 (36:27):
I'm the volunteer Engagement manager at SILA, and I started
there as a volunteer and then as the organization grew,
I ended up stepping into this role last year. And
what I do is my focus is on supporting our volunteers,
because our volunteers are supporting our participants. This is a
volunteer lot organization. It was here long before there was

(36:48):
a staff. I am a support system for that, and
so what that looks like is developing trainings, being a
welcome point, a point of contact for our volunteers, so
that when volunteers see that there's things that are needed
at a program based on participant needs or new roles
that need to exist within a program to support I
help facilitate that process. So it's a mixture of a

(37:10):
lot of communications, a lot of training, developing trainings, and
a lot of being sort of the person on the
ground who is kind of a connector between our large
volunteer group.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Wow, that's a mouthful. That's what makes your program and unique.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
Volunteers are sometimes people of the community that are unhoused,
and conversely, in some of them that are housed, it's
impopery of people that are making the machine of Sealave work.
I was going to ask this question because this is
a large arching conversation. We mentioned recently about Grant's past
in our previous episodes, so I don't want to beat

(37:49):
that horse to the ground, but there is something in
the ether about this conversation which I'm leading to is
about the LA fires and how that is the unintended
consequence that it's on the books, but we are not
really discussing it, or we are deliberately omitting and tiptoeing

(38:10):
around it, and that in the consequences. Do you think
that we're going to see grants pass looming larger as
the aftermath of the l fires simmers down and these public
empathy wanes.

Speaker 7 (38:22):
I absolutely do, and I'm devastated that That's how I feel.
But I'm a realistic person, and we see what's happening
all around, and I think what to connect it to
the fires and what we're talking about here.

Speaker 6 (38:34):
I just think the fact that and How's.

Speaker 7 (38:36):
People were completely neglected in the emergency response.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
It was swept as well.

Speaker 7 (38:43):
Exactly, they were not just neglected, swept, So they were
like much very important correction there, and we were already
seeing the effects of it, and we're already seeing that
even in an emergency, none of that changed, So we're
just preparing for that to be an issue.

Speaker 4 (39:01):
What message do you think that they were sending to
the currently in house that were not impacted by the fires,
Because I couldn't find a logical reason that you would
think that you would expend more resources to do that
when resources were limited, when the water was waiting, you know,
staff were under I mean, what message what they're trying

(39:22):
to send that's the only thing I could come up with.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
They have to be signed to send some kind of message.

Speaker 7 (39:27):
I mean, it's it's just the fact that there's no
place you can be in Los Angeles.

Speaker 6 (39:32):
And we know it's not just Los Angeles. That's just
where we are right now.

Speaker 7 (39:34):
There's no place you can be where like our capital,
our property. That's what makes you worthy in the eyes
of these systems, and so.

Speaker 6 (39:44):
Just making that clear in the most heinous of ways.

Speaker 4 (39:47):
I have had a recent interview with a young person
that was affected by the Altadena fire. The place he
was staying with his uncle and aunt's house from to
the ground and he's fortunately living with others family members,
but the rebuilding efforts is going to take some time
due to the pollution and the abastos that these buildings

(40:08):
were old and not always up to code.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
And even if you didn't.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
Have your house unpackeded by the fire, you're still impacted
by the pollution of nearby burned houses and the mobility
or the feasibility to move back into those damage impacted houses.
It's just not really sensible at this moment. And so
I bring this observational point to the attention to my
audiences that what I definitely maybe want to bring into

(40:34):
sharper relief is how the society has made themselves or
bent themselves over backwards of trying to offer support. But
the honeymoon phase of that kind of consequence is going
to rapidly evaporate. And I was wondering, am I remiss
in mentioning that or a miss and even mentioning that,
or do you sense that that's going to be, you know,

(40:57):
a common thing, just like what happened with the comtrenter flooding.

Speaker 7 (41:00):
You mean, in terms of there being this temporary like
suggestion of support.

Speaker 4 (41:04):
Infusion of resources and things like that. Do you what
is your astick?

Speaker 7 (41:09):
I feel that to be realistic, I unfortunately have to
agree that we're not going to see that continuously.

Speaker 6 (41:16):
And it was so precient.

Speaker 7 (41:19):
We literally discussed this when we had our first conversation THEO.
We have unhoused folks who are completely on the front
lines with zero protections, So that's one group, But then
we also have renters who similarly don't have protections when
they're housing it's damaged, So we already have such huge
groups that aren't protected already, So there just isn't that

(41:41):
system of support that has existed before a crisis, And
so it's hard for me to imagine that infrastructure existing
during a crisis. And we see it at CELA, the
fact that Celia is actively filling gaps that are constantly
widening when there is technically not a crisis, even though
we know homelessness is obviously a crisis. But if we're

(42:03):
talking about this environmental catastrophe, we're already saying that there's
gaps that just keep widening and widening in terms of
providing support. So I want to believe that somehow we'll
have a society that provides these kinds of resources. But
just in the work we do, we know so well
that communities and neighborhoods are who comes together to provide

(42:23):
this kind of support. And that's amazing and I'm very
grateful to know so many people who are part of
that and feel it and beyond.

Speaker 6 (42:31):
But we know that we need.

Speaker 7 (42:33):
More support than that, and so it's just hard to
imagine that suddenly we would have that.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
The city is halfway beating the moment, not meeting the moment,
or meeting is a moment.

Speaker 7 (42:43):
I mean, I think if you're not providing long term support,
then it's really not meeting the moment, you know, like
kind of figuring out like what we're talking about here,
It's like we need long term support. And we see
that communities act faster than it can.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
Because SILA was before the fires, was in direct wiring
and of helping unhouse people. When La fire has burst,
what since then has Sela gone to meet this moment?
Meet this crisis?

Speaker 6 (43:13):
Absolutely, So I'm very grateful we were able to adjust
our programming very quickly.

Speaker 7 (43:19):
And that is because again, as you said, we recognize
that there are many crises happening and things are compounding,
but every day is already a crisis. If there are
people dying on the streets. We know the statistics. We
know that people I believe is six the most recent
reporting that six on house people die day in Los Angeles.
We know that more on house people in Los Angeles

(43:41):
die from hypothermia then in cities where you might expect
it more where we typically think of as colder. That's
a crisis.

Speaker 6 (43:47):
And so we.

Speaker 7 (43:49):
While this is a completely new crisis that is going
to have many long term effects for our current participants
in future participants, we were still built to go, and
so how we responded immediately was at first just making
sure that every program that we already had was prepared
to continue. So what that meant was checking in on

(44:11):
our volunteers to see if they had to evacuate, and
once we knew we had enough volunteers who were safe
and able to still go, then it was figuring out
how to move our program indoors, to protect our participants
from howzardous air quality, how to make sure we had
enough mass. We're very grateful that so many people in
the community donated mass to us. We see the work
that Mass block LA has been doing within their organizing.

(44:31):
So changing what we were able to provide in terms
of spaces where we held things, and resources and.

Speaker 6 (44:37):
Supplies that we had to give.

Speaker 7 (44:39):
So the immediate was making sure that everything we already
do was set to go. Then what happened that was
very much an immediate response was we became, like so
many different organizations, we became a temporary distribution hub. So
what that meant is typically we might be as staff
or a few volunteers, we would be at Silver Li

(45:00):
Comunity Church, where many of our programs are held. We
would be there to do different kinds of work, but
we wouldn't necessarily have some large event or action taking place.

Speaker 6 (45:08):
And that change.

Speaker 7 (45:09):
Where we spent our Thursday and Fridays as a temporary
distribution hub, and that was putting calls out on social media,
letting people know that we were here, whether it was
they themselves needed supplies or if they had supplies to provide.

Speaker 6 (45:22):
So we became kind of a.

Speaker 7 (45:23):
Holding space where we could send out supplies to groups
who were immediately responding to fire relief. So that was
just collecting food, collecting clothing, collecting supplies, we were talking
about masks, just getting as much as we can and
figuring out where to send things. So we send it
out to groups that were supporting unhoused folks in area
that were closer to the fires directly. It was sending

(45:43):
it out to groups that had activated to help the
people whose houses had been lost or who had to evacuate.
So it was just kind of immediately changing what CELA
usually is, which is a program for unhealthed people in
these specific neighborhoods to we will collect any supple you
can bring if we are a location where it.

Speaker 6 (46:02):
Is easier to bring them and we're going to figure
out where to send them.

Speaker 7 (46:04):
We're going to send people out to drive, We're going
to be moderating replies on monitoring replies on our Instagram
and in our email, letting us know where things need
to go. And one of the things we learned that
was incredibly helpful and responding to these fires because we
know that, unfortunately this is not going to be the
first time we have a new emergency on top of
what we already deal with, was we had to we

(46:25):
created kind of an open door culture in terms of
how we were going about this temporary distribution hub we
had going on. And so as an organization that is
built to respond to crisis, that means that there are processes.
So there is a sign up process, there are specific roles,
there are certain numbers of people we want in those roles.

(46:45):
We might send someone to a different program if they're
needing more support over there. There's like a very organized process.
And that was not going to be how to respond
to what was happening in those first days after the fires.

Speaker 4 (46:57):
And because why, Because it was a unique situation, and
I've been trying to make it very clear even in
my other interview, was explaining California is no stranger to
brush fire, and we knew basically we do have some
kind of fledgling type of system, but this emergency was
so unique in a way. It caught people by surprise

(47:20):
by the high winds, the motility of the fires. One minute,
it was going in one direction, then you get evacuation
notices from that, but then it moves into another one.
Then you can't go there, and it causes a conundrum
or a quandary for currently unhoused people. Because I had
on my previous show one of the house residents that
had the fire right across the street from where she lived,

(47:42):
and she had mobility issues herself to be able to
try to navigate that kind of reality. And then two
with limited feedback from the phone because not everyone has
a charge phone and being unhoused, it created such a
very It was a buzz of certainty, It was a
buzz of confusion, and it was a buzz of panic

(48:04):
in many respects because people that had cars, they had
to leave their cars behind and just just hoof it.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
I point this out because of these issues.

Speaker 4 (48:14):
That usually are not accounted for in the conversation or
advanced in any kind of conversation that we extend our
hearts to, we have a more of a sympathetic ear.
But if we put the conversation where unhoused people on
a daily basis having to navigate transportation or mobility issues,
or that're disabled and they can't move right away when

(48:36):
the neighborhood wants them gone, we don't have that empathy.
And it leads into that were which the city seems
to be leading the banner and they're going to help
only that were impacted by fires, but not you know,
currently unhoused people. We're going to give you a sweeping criminalization.
And it lends the conversation between newly displaced people, a

(48:56):
current displaced people, and people that are invested in their
owner price and not understanding how these situations are interlock.
And then you know, you could be doing everything perfectly
and you lost your entire house and now you're the
mercies of the city and the climate because there's you
might not have any resources.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
You lost your house, you know exactly.

Speaker 7 (49:18):
And I think that's such an important point to bring
up because something that many of us noticed in those
immediate days was, of course, especially when we were at
distribution Hub, we let everybody know when they were donating
things that if this was intended for a fire relief,
we are going to make sure this gets to people
working directly in firelaf because we know how many organizations

(49:41):
were already focused on doing that or switched to focus
on that, and we do not want to hoard supplies
that are meant for groups that need them more in
this moment. But then, as I'm sure we all saw
a lot of groups became overwhelmed with supplies because people
that was their way of supporting was just kind of
dropping off supplies. But we know that that's a lot
of people don't have storage space. People nobody wants to

(50:02):
hoard these items. So then when we switched Gears because
we were no longer needed to support in that way,
it was like, Okay, we're gonna let people know, well,
we're we also need these supplies for ourselves, and we're
going to make that clear if people come with donations
what they're going to be used for. And of course
that was an incredible education opportunity. We had a lot

(50:23):
of experiences of letting people know who we were. They
may have learned about us from our response to the fire,
but actually we work with our unhoused neighbors in these neighborhoods,
and we're here every week, and it was wonderful to
see people engage in with that way and have now since.

Speaker 6 (50:36):
Volunteered or I became like donors.

Speaker 7 (50:40):
But then what we also had with some people who
were like, oh, this isn't going to the fire victims,
because it was like, I feel good supporting somebody who
recently became unhoused, which is horrible, and those people need support,
but that's different from somebody who's been unhoused because of

(51:00):
this other crisis that is long lasting in the city,
and that was very disheartening to have moments like that. Obviously,
I'm trying to look at all of the interactions I've
had where this became somebody's.

Speaker 6 (51:16):
Entry point into this work.

Speaker 7 (51:18):
But we know that that also means interacting with people
and more difficultly.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
So you know, I've been trying to grapple with that
and try to do it and creatively as I possibly
can to show that, and I show how because of
the usual stereotypes that they use about house people, they're
mentally ill, they have substance abuse problems, they like being
out there and all of the other ridiculous things that
they say. And now here is a catastrophic event that

(51:45):
happened on people that were living their lives living. You know,
they weren't known substance in while they were in a house.
You can't blame that. You know, they like being out there.
This is it really something that pretends this is going
to happen much more on a reoccurring basis. Now it's
bridging the uncomfortable conversations of the unintended consequences like Grant's pass,

(52:07):
like forty one eighteen, like having these hard conversations about
what does harm reduction look like, what does trying to
have treatment and places or hubs that care be able
to meet the moment in order to address climate change
issues as well as human frailties and human realities that
people are impacted by with houselessness. And there's I need

(52:30):
to say this because I had heard the most ridiculous
comment someone mentioned that they stated at a gathering saying
that it's a classing, it's not a racing. And I
want to push back on that because of the fact
that Altadena resources were very targeted, very limited, where when
we talked about the matches and Palisades and the other

(52:52):
palatial areas. The response was like night and day. And
I don't know if you have any insight on that,
but what do you think on this?

Speaker 7 (53:03):
I mean, I just think that you can't ignore racism
and systemic racism in this city. I just think that's
too ingrained to think that something is only a class
a class issue. Of course, class is huge, but I
just don't think that that can be separated. I think,
you know, I think it's very important for us to

(53:24):
see the solidarity that exists as people experiencing the same
kinds of class issues. But it's just it's and avoidable
to see how people in the city are treated, what
resources are available to them, and redlining. That's how Altadena
became the flourishing cunity that it is is because of
red lighting. So I just don't see how any of

(53:47):
that can be ignored when you look at the if
we're talking about Altadena specifically, if we look at the
generations that lived within these beautiful homes that have been
within these families for generations that are now gone, and
what the response has been, I just it's unavoidable, and
it's just the fact that it's also doing as specifically like.

Speaker 4 (54:07):
And point lake blank that where they have National Guard,
they got police, police people. And the thing with is
these movement leaders that state these things do a disservice
and it's infuriating because they spout this in a nonsense
without understanding. My show is always has been about intersections,
and intersections are important. What affects one group will ultimately

(54:30):
affect all of us. We are seeing this right now
play out with the immigration conversation or actually or the
criminalization immigration that's being enacted against black and brown people,
and conversely, the other people that are immigrants from New
northern northern places, all of these other European countries are.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Not being targeted now.

Speaker 4 (54:49):
Conversely, DEI has been translated as a woke thing as
it's been targeted as people colored, you know, unqualified black
and brown people.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
But there are.

Speaker 4 (54:59):
Many other community that are targeted with the eradication, for example,
the disability community, the veterans, all of these things that
because you are trying to snuff out the light from
other communities in order for you to get a brighter light,
doesn't make that okay. I say, you don't have to
diminish any other community in order to get your story

(55:19):
or get your voice heard. And as I said, you know,
if you have a heart, use your heart to love somebody,
but if your heart is big enough, use it to
love everybody.

Speaker 7 (55:29):
I think that is beautiful and I think the way
you describe that very succinctly gets the issue.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Thank you. We'll finish this conversation after the break and
we're back.

Speaker 4 (55:43):
Like I said, you know, CEILA has been doing important
work and it's continuing. What residual effects are you seeing
from the fires?

Speaker 7 (55:51):
Yes, so I would say, especially because of what my
role is and where I have the most insight is
the growth of ourvolunteer base and the interest in volunteering
with SILA has been astronomical. And if my colleague, maybe
our operations manager, maybe Pudlow also known as Maybe a Girl,
was here, they would also be able to talk about

(56:12):
that also translates to an influx of resources, and so
I'll talk about that as well. But first I would
love to talk about on the volunteer side of things.
What's been incredible is that I know we touched on
the kind of open door culture we created within those
first few days where it's like we don't care who
you are don't worry about this sign up process, don't

(56:33):
worry about going on our website.

Speaker 6 (56:34):
Did you see us on Instagram?

Speaker 7 (56:35):
Here's the address, come over like that was amazing that
people showed up, But what was so heartening was that
we also had some people sign up to now constantly
get our communications and constantly get our information about future programs.
So I pull this information about a week ago where
I want to see how many people had signed up

(56:57):
as on our volunteer mailing list since the fires broke out.
So that was between I believe the evening of the
seventh through the twenty first, I think was the day
I did it.

Speaker 6 (57:08):
And so from the seventh to the twenty.

Speaker 7 (57:09):
First, we had over two hundred and forty new people
signing up on that mailing list.

Speaker 6 (57:14):
And on an average month.

Speaker 7 (57:15):
We have maybe fifty to seventy new folks signing up,
which is thrilling because that's fifty to seventy people, but
compared to two hundred and forty within not even a
complete month, was amazing. And so where our responsibility comes
in in this moment is like, if we now have
that many more people who are going to get an
email from us, will they open it we don't know,

(57:38):
but we've got their email now, so we're going to try.
It became how do we create as much of an
opportunity for folks to actually engage and be on site
and meet their neighbors and see the big picture of
what is happening in Hycila it exists, And so it's
been a lot of convening with our people who volunteers,

(57:59):
who lead our program.

Speaker 6 (58:00):
We have volunteer program directors.

Speaker 7 (58:02):
So we recently did this huge meeting among about seventeen
or eighteen of us figuring out, Okay, if we have
these many more people who have signed up, we need
to make sure there's the opportunity for them to actually
engage and not ever actually make it to a program.
So figuring out what is the most accessible way for
people to plug into this long term and not just

(58:24):
I want to do something because of this fire emergency,
which we need you there, but we need you for
a lot longer. And so it's been a lot of
figuring out how to create an accessible programming so that
we can offer more services because we have more people
with resources.

Speaker 6 (58:39):
And another big thing that is part.

Speaker 7 (58:42):
Of that is we need to now create education so
that all of these folks who are engaging with this
for the first time, because for a lot of people,
this might have been the first time where they saw, Oh,
leaders I look to in a traditional sense did not
provide immediate to but this mutual aid group I saw

(59:02):
on Instagram is or Celia is or whoever it might
have been, Like, I just think what mass Block is
doing is amazing, just like what all these groups are doing.

Speaker 6 (59:11):
We have to use that.

Speaker 7 (59:13):
Energy they have for them to see how long this
has been going on and why it's happening and why
they feel so betrayed or disillusioned right now for maybe
what might be the first time for them, or maybe
they've been.

Speaker 6 (59:25):
Thinking about it but didn't know. And so our goal
is that even.

Speaker 7 (59:28):
Before this specific crisis occurred. We decided last year after
we did our first volunteer summit, which you and I
talked about THEO, which was just a day of a
lot of training that about one hundred volunteers came to.
It was very exciting, it was okay, we tried it,
we saw that it worked, we saw what didn't. Now
we need to do this every month, and it can
be on a smaller scale. So it's easier to do,

(59:50):
it's easier to organize quickly, and so it was like, cool,
that's something we're going to plan and we're going to
start in January.

Speaker 6 (59:57):
We'll have something happening every month. And then this happened
and it just.

Speaker 7 (01:00:00):
Became more obvious than it already was that this has
to be a huge goal. So there's been a lot
of figuring out what these trainings are going to look like.
There's has to be a lot of kind of one
oh one level conversations that have to happen for some folks,
and also more intensive conversations that need to happen at
these trainings. So it'll be history information, know your rights

(01:00:25):
type of information. We're going to have people speaking about
the climate crisis, so that folks understand how these prices
become so exacerbated and what is the impetus of that happening.
And it's just figuring out how to make this surge
of interest become long term.

Speaker 6 (01:00:47):
Very organized power.

Speaker 7 (01:00:49):
And so that's on the people side of things, and
then in terms of resources, we are for the first
time in a long time, we're able to see through
maybe he's organizing and maybe he's inventory tracking. We can
kind of look ahead and see, oh, we have enough
supplies for our participants for a few months, and that's
a really big deal. And of course we know participant

(01:01:11):
numbers are always growing. Even if this crisis hadn't happened,
participant numbers are growing. But now we have more people
we're going to experience housing insecurity for the first time,
if they're not already experiencing homelessness for the first time
because of it, and just using what came out of
these few weeks to power us through what is going
to be a very long haul. And one of the

(01:01:32):
things we also did that is now able to be
part of our programming long term was we launched our
laundry program, which had been a short term program in service.
We were able to offer because we had funding for
it at the time through a laundromat that is near
one of our programs, and we were able to afford
to pay for our certain number of participants laundry every week.

(01:01:56):
And then it quickly became something we realized we couldn't sustain,
and it was not it is. It's very important to
us that if we offer something new, it has to
be something we can promise because we don't want to
create the same culture of not having any consistency for
folks in crisis. If we're offering something, it has to
be because we can promise it. So when we realized
that wasn't the case, it was like, Okay, we have

(01:02:17):
to rethink how to make this work, and our goal
is that at some point in twenty twenty five we'll
be able to make that happen. And then in response
to what happened in the fires, it became this huge
opportunity for us to educate people on social media and
through our newsletter communications. This is why we had a
laundry program. We had a laundry program after the torrential

(01:02:38):
rains in February twenty twenty four, when we had so
many participants whose clothing was completely damped, it became mildewed
because it had to dry on its own, and that's
when laundry became very clear that it was now in need.
And so once again we had a weather emergency showing
us that laundry is a crucial need in terms of hygiene,
in terms of safety, in terms of health, in terms

(01:02:59):
of dignity. And then it was like, okay, maybe this
is a time where we can relaunch this program and
make it sustainable. And so we opened a fundraising drive
where we explained the purpose of a laundry program and
we are thrilled that we exceeded the bowl and that
means we'll be able to offer laundry for hopefully beyond
twenty twenty five were covered, but definitely for this year.
We are good and we'll be able to build on that.

(01:03:21):
And so just expanding our programming with the resources we've
been now very generously provided, and using the increased volunteer
numbers here to educate people and welcome people so that
they'll want to do this work long term. Because we
talked about the very limited support that some folks have gotten.

(01:03:41):
We know that that's going to dry up for house people,
and we know it's already been dried up for unhoused people.

Speaker 4 (01:03:47):
So absolutely well said, and I like the I had
the idea of how one of the runoffs from climate
is this issue with the laundry, because I definitely grappled
with that and into Mozon house people when you see
them taking bird baths in places and things like that,
they're trying to mitigate their appearance and their body olders
and laundry is one of the telltale signs.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
If you don't get that taken care.

Speaker 4 (01:04:11):
Of right away, people will look or don't want to
be around you. You're going to have to worry about
being the pariah, and then your services are going to
be reduced or basically ignored it and dismissed because there's
places that have now older contracts, or you can be
refused service because you have an older or you are
not that consider their hygienic or sanitary. The last thing

(01:04:32):
I wanted to ask of you is this now, picture
this picture of Rachel coming to you, and now you
have all of this doubts. I know you didn't have
all of this knowledge when you first came on. How
would you get her to come back or get involved?

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
What would you do to convince Rachel?

Speaker 7 (01:04:51):
That is such a good question that I think about
all so I first try to connect with the fact
that somebody is here because they were seeking community and
they knew we existed, and that if you're here, you
are now part of that community. The goal that when
you feel like you're part of somewhere, the hope that

(01:05:11):
you will then feel a responsibility to do that work.
Something that makes me very happy is sometimes when someone
volunteers for the first time and I ask them what
brought them here, and they'll tell me, oh, you know,
there's a couple of unhoused people I always see on
my street and I talk to them and I say hi,
but I it just made me realize how many more
people I don't know that are dealing with this, and

(01:05:33):
something pushes them to do this work. And then when
it's the end of the shift and I say, it
was so lovely meeting you, I hope we'll see you again,
They'll be like, everybody's so nice, I'll be back next week.
And so what kept them is that they saw something
that maybe they don't see somewhere else, which is kindness
in community and understanding that we all depend on each other.

Speaker 6 (01:05:56):
So my first goal is.

Speaker 7 (01:05:57):
Connecting with someone in that way, and then once someone
shows that they feel that responsibility, the goal is making
sure that our programs always have an opportunity to reference
something bigger picture.

Speaker 6 (01:06:10):
So we start all of our programs with something that
we colloquially.

Speaker 7 (01:06:14):
Refer to as the huddle, and that's just before we
open our doors to let folks in to come get
their services.

Speaker 6 (01:06:20):
We just all talk.

Speaker 7 (01:06:21):
We all introduce ourselves, and we talk about some bigger
picture things where it might be an event we have
going on or specific emergency we're responding to, referencing the
fact that there's all these other programs happening during the
week to show the big picture nature of everything and
that this is not this is not some one off opportunity,
This is an entire movement within different neighborhoods.

Speaker 6 (01:06:43):
And then through that.

Speaker 7 (01:06:45):
In person communication, just helping people see how much is
happening all the time, so that whatever specific way they
choose to regularly engage with.

Speaker 6 (01:06:54):
CELA, they know that it exists.

Speaker 7 (01:06:56):
So if that's maybe everyone has is working mustiple jobs
to survive, maybe it's hard for you to always vlunteer
a program, but you know that from hearing us talk
about it a program. You know that we have these
trainings that we're starting, and you'll attend that and you'll
learn about that and be able to talk to people
about something you might have learned about the difficulty of
navigating housing resources in the city, or maybe you're a

(01:07:16):
graphic designer and you'll hear that we're trying to up
our game on social media and you'll want to provide
those skills, and so just showing people that this is
so much more than just a program that they go
to sign up once a week, which is incredibly crucial
and the entire reason we're here and necessary, but that
this is a much larger picture in terms of building

(01:07:37):
a community in a city and a country that would
like to keep us separated and would like to keep
us overwhelmed and feel powerless. Hello, we see what's happening
with all these disparage of executive orders, so that we
feel like there's nothing we can do and we don't
know where to start, when actually you can start on
your street. And just letting people know that this is
a space where they are welcome, so that when they

(01:07:59):
might hear information that might be overwhelming because it's history
they're not familiar with, or shows the purposeful dysfunction within
systems that they might have had faith in, that they'll
know that it's a supportive place and they'll feel comfortable
hearing that because we know that people are in different
parts of their journey based on what they may have
ben conditioned or what their own experiences are. So I

(01:08:20):
know that was a very long answer, but you can
say I'm thinking about.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
It all the time.

Speaker 4 (01:08:23):
Oh very good, so in some connection, also finding your
place and purpose in it, and also educating yourself and
others like reach one, teach one.

Speaker 6 (01:08:34):
Love it.

Speaker 4 (01:08:34):
I feel that that succinctly sums up what I was
trying to do. But I also I'm very grateful for it.
Is there any topic that I missed that you want
to throw out there to tie in or wrap up?

Speaker 7 (01:08:48):
I think that I would just love to invite anybody
listening to this to volunteer with us again. Wherever you
are in this journeys, this is your first time realizing
that there's a problem where we live, we would love
to have you. If you are someone who already has

(01:09:08):
so much knowledge and so much experience, I hope that
we get to meet you so that you can help
our programs grow. And just letting folks know that when
they join us, there will be training that they get
on their first day in addition to this long term
training that we're in the process of developing. Please follow
us on social media Instagram, especially which is se Lah

(01:09:31):
NHC Cila Nhcno. It's a lot of letters, but we
provide all of the information there so that you know
what events we have coming up, what our weekly programs are,
where to sign up, and also when we have specific
actions taking place. And just that I hope people know
that we are actively responding to what's happening regarding the

(01:09:55):
fires and more we have some know your rights trainings
coming up. Just that I hope that people can and
see us as not just a resource, but as we
just talked about, as a community where they are welcome
and where they can find the connection and the support
that might not exist elsewhere.

Speaker 1 (01:10:10):
Well, thank you very much, Rachel.

Speaker 4 (01:10:12):
This is the place where I think we could conclude
our exciting and informative interview.

Speaker 6 (01:10:18):
Thank you so much, THEO.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
Thank you again to Rachel.

Speaker 4 (01:10:24):
You can learn how to get involved with Cela and
more about their relief efforts at the links in the description.
And this once again is the end of another important,
interesting episode. I will leave you with a quote from
Desmond to to do your little bit of good where
you are. It's those little bits of good that overwhelm

(01:10:45):
the world. If you have a story to tell, please
reach out to me at will House at gmail dot
com or Wedian House on Instagram. Once again, thank you
for listening, and maybe again meet in a lot of understanding.
Whedian Howes is the production of iHeartRadio. It is written, posted,

(01:11:07):
and created by me Theo Henderson, our producers Jbie Loftus,
Kailey Fager, Katie Fischal and Lyra Smith. Our editor is
Adam Wand and our loco art is also by Katie Fischal.

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
Thanks for listening.