December 3, 2024 • 45 mins
This week Theo provides updates on the Jordan Neely murder trial before exploring how one Los Angeles mutual aid organization is working to educate their participants and volunteers on the Grants Pass decision, and how they plan to continue providing services during a second Trump administration. We speak with new volunteer Max, current volunteer site lead Raquel, operations manager/local advocate Maebe A. Girl, and frequent participant Yruz about their experiences with SELAH, and how they’re looking to the future.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Previously on Weedian House.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, like Grant's hasn't came out of downtown Los Angeles
like the lawyers did. They traveled from Los Angeles to
Oregon to go represent the city of Grant's past to
the Supreme Court. They were not from there. So it's
interesting that you know, it's okay for lawyers to go
to a city that's like, isn't you know their city?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Right?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
But like it's not okay for an unhouse person to
move from another state. You know, like people act like
if you weren't born in Los Angeles, then you shouldn't
be allowed to be homeless.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Here.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Welcome to Weedian House. I'm your host, Theo Henderson. Our
last episode necessitated a message on the importance of not
diminishing others in order to speak out on current in
your face injustice. This week, we're going to expand deeper
(01:13):
on the topics first by using the Jordan Neely trial,
where there's Nimby talking points and the currently indicted Mayor
of New York, Eric Adams, calling for an involuntary commitment
of mentally ill unhoused people. Jordan Neely, a young African American.
(01:34):
Michael Jackson impersonator was on the train in New York
performing and asking for funds because he was hungry. He
verbally expressed frustration, which prompted a white veteran named Daniel
Penny to physically choke Jordan Neely with the assistance of
other people to prevent Jordan from fighting for his life,
(01:58):
they killed him. The crime took place in the spring
of twenty twenty three, and now the trial surrounding this case,
which began last month, has finally exposed the true essence
of many house viewpoints of unhoused people. This didn't happen
(02:22):
and avoid hatred of the young housed is a facet
of New York City government. Mary Adams claimed frustration on
learning that Ramon rivera and unhoused man with mental health
challenges and a prior arrest, killed three people. Pay attention
to the arrest detail. We will return to this in
(02:44):
a moment. Adams claimed that the significant acts of violence
are from people with severe mental illnesses. He stopped short
from blatantly saved from unhoused mentally ill people. Another exile
that occurred in New York in twenty twenty two was
(03:04):
Simon Marshall, another unhoused man pushed Michelle Go in front
of an oncoming train. Fear mongering from incidents like this
often leads to and empowers a type of vigilanteism that
we saw when Daniel Penny murdered Short and Neely. Here
(03:25):
is a word association to conjure up how unhoused people
are seen. Unhoused, drug addict mentally ill, violent deserves violence, incarceration,
involuntary commitment if that fails, violence against the unhoused that
(03:51):
results in death. The way to get there had been
found in the New York Daily News articles stating that
one witness was scared of Jordan Neely's behavior. When Daniel
Penny killed him, she hung around to thank him for
keeping her safe. This echoes the racial tropes of earlier
(04:15):
times than Jim Crow. Another witness which hearkens and brings
the visual image of a young high school student witnessing
a lynching as a gala event. But this witness stated
that she did not hear people saying to let him go,
which is the struggle between Daniel Penny choking Jordan Neely
and Jordan struggling for his life to be released. It
(04:37):
doesn't take much for this narrative to be pushed upon
mainstream society, which is importantly the function of we in
house to break down these harmful stereotypes because they put
all on house people, whether they struggle with mental illness
and addictions or not in jeopardy. When unhous people are
attacked by house people such as Daniel Penny, there have
(04:59):
been and few media outlets, but no calls from the
mayor the cause this house veteran to be rounded up
and arrested for killing unhoused people. It's almost a one
and done type of reporting. The public returns to the
regular scheduled program of unhoused people are drug addicts, mentally ill,
(05:22):
violent and deserve violence, incarceration and involuntary commitment. With grants
Pass looming large on the horizon. Episodes like Almante shows
the easiness of targeting the unhoused community with barely a whimper.
Grandspass is a ruling that states it is not cruel
(05:45):
or unusual punishment to hunt down unhoused people susceptible to
living and existing on public property. If Mayor Eric Adams
is pushing for involuntary commitment for people who he deems
should be off there, what is to stop other city
leaders from following his leads on other facets of of
(06:05):
the unhoused community like struck wellness, fars, sex worker incarceration, compounds,
young aged out detention facilities for unhoused use in some
With this election as well as the grands Pass ruling,
we must keep our eyes, ears, hearts and spirits open
(06:28):
to stand up and speak out against these blatant dog whistles.
And when we come back, we're going to talk about
a crucial component to society and the unhoused local mutual
A welcome back to Weedian House. This week, we are
(06:54):
back in the field, milling about and getting the vibe
on what transpires at a Los Angeles UTU Aid operation SILA.
PILA has been around since twenty seventeen and is run
mainly by volunteers and a small staff. They run a
few programs a week, offering services that range from direct
outreach to host the hot lunches and dinners, providing clothing,
(07:19):
pet food, and connecting participants with services that can range
from medical care, pet care, assistance with IDs, transportation, jobs,
and caseworkers. I went to two different SEALA programs in Alastmath,
one on a Wednesday and one on a Saturday to
get a better feel for how participants and volunteers interact
(07:40):
with the program and their feelings on the Grand Pass legislation. First,
I spoke with first time volunteer named Max.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Well, my name is Max.
Speaker 6 (07:52):
I've lived in LA for eight years, and around two
years ago, I, you know, seeing that house population grow
and grow, I'm like, what am I personally doing to
make things better?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
You know?
Speaker 6 (08:04):
I feel that we all have a responsibility to get
out there and do something. So I started volunteering MacArthur
Park of occasionally helping just hand out lunches there and
that was really nice because everyone was so lovely and
it's really great to meet that house in person because
your perception the Sigma's kind of fade away. And now
recently with the election, which I want to get into, no,
(08:27):
I felt more than ever.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
I need to get back and do more things.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So why see, Look, why didn't you stay in Macroacta Park.
It must have been something compelled you to come here. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
I read this article on a publication that I'm free
in the name of about Hayes Davenport, who I believe
is part of CELA, and he spoke about the amazing
work that's being done here, and it inspired me to
get active and be involved.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
What is your feelings on the new president as well
as the Grant's pass ruling? Have you heard of what
Grant passes? No, I'm not familiar. Have you heard of
forty one eighteen is?
Speaker 6 (09:02):
No?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Okay, well, I'm going to give you a brief a
primer on it so you can understand why this is
Germane to unhoused people. Now in the shortened version, forty
one eighteen was the horrible stepchild of the Martin versus
Boise ruling. Martin versus Boise had handed down a ruling
(09:24):
saying this cruel and unusual punishment to penalize poor people
that have no place to go where that needed place
to sleep, mainly on house community members. To that end,
what forty one eighteen is here was an outcry and
outrage of that ruling. So the city usualized forty one eighteen,
which states it is against the law for anybody to sit, sleep,
(09:48):
or lie in public places and it was target unhoused people.
They created special enforcement zones to target unhoused people on
certain days with twenty four to forty eight hour notice
if they if that to come in or what they
call care or care plus, which care plus would be
a comprehensive sweep. We're dismantling all of the house people's
(10:09):
belongings and infrastructure and removing and cleaning and the auspices
of cleaning the area. But it was usually followed by
having police roation, hostile sanitation city employees in order to
dismantle and displace. Let's say, for example, that you have
at home or a car, and I told you that
(10:30):
you had five minutes to get all your most precious belongings.
Then I put a yellow tape on it. And if
you forgot your medication, let's take some eyeglasses, maybe children's
important medical documents and you will go back into it.
Now you are a subject to arrest because you went
over this line. But these are the things that you
(10:50):
paid for. These are your property. And the idea is
that you are now a criminal for wanting to go
get retrieved the things that are yours. Is the sticking
point that the city has done to many unhoused people
here in Los Angeles, California. Now, what Grant's pass have
done with forty eighteen was so different is that there
was some type of legal recourse, there was some type
(11:12):
of accountability, but the six Republican Supreme Court justices, when
Grant's Pass Oregon had brought their case to the Supreme Court,
have deemed it is perfectly acceptable to target unhoused people
to be able to arrest them without any offer of services,
without any kind of notification whatsoever. So if I see
(11:34):
you somewhere launching in any place, I don't need to
offer you housing. I don't need to offer you service.
You can't be there. If you resist, then I offer
you a way to go to jail. The second thing
is here is where people that are living in recreational vehicles.
The recreational vehicles there's now a ban here in Los
Angeles is if they feel the van is not operatable
(11:58):
or is I sore? And if you don't move when
they tell you to move, they can tell your van,
throw all your things away and put you in jail
because now that you don't have replace the gig with
grants passed. So these things are very germane to the
unhoused assistance. And it is so important for us to
(12:18):
educate and let people all house and unhoused people know
what is coming down the pike. And that's one of
the reasons why I ask the question on why, you know,
what would be your feelings on this on top of
the Trump presidency, So hopefully I succinctly yeah, brought into
your vista. So what's your insights on this?
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Uh?
Speaker 6 (12:38):
Well, I guess you know, so many questions come up,
Like first of all, what is an is an ice hore?
You know, like what wigg'gram to we give ourselves to
when we don't want to see something. You know, it's
obviously nobody wants to see anybody who's unhoused, but like,
you know, does that mean we're going to full on
complain about people's vans just being on our street?
Speaker 5 (12:56):
Like that's that? That gives so much room.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
To oh by the way, but yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
And then also like when unhoused aar you know, push
out of their space, where do they go? You know,
it's not like they have a place they can like a backup,
there's no you know, so we're just moving them around.
It feels like we're not really finding a place for them.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
But most importantly, they're still human beings subjected to the
same human civil rights like you and I have for
example creating forty one to eighteen. And I have witnessed
firsthand where unhouse people just come and just sit in
a bench by themselves, just mining their business, taking in
the air and not barbing anybody, and security will run
them off or threaten if they don't move, they'll call
(13:38):
the cops or the business improvement thing. It's this segregation
and kind of tactic is designed to target on house people.
You know, they can't go into a restaurant if they
look like they just shoveled on house and they don't
want them there, that's the justification for removing them. And
if you have a specially wharton to zone right outside
at the restaurant, then that's perfectly legal to do that.
Speaker 6 (14:01):
Yeah, And it kind of paints them as an enemy.
You know, it's you pick sides.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
We're not.
Speaker 6 (14:07):
We're all on the same team here, right, we all
want it's best for everybody, But why are we separating
ourselves like this?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, So that's the long and short of it. And
I wanted to bring you up to speed and get
your intake on why he wanted to join. Is there
anything that I missed that you want to elucidate on
You mentioned Trump.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
Is there anything that he specifically has talked about doing
or is that just.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Well, in the previous episodes, he's been talking about forcing
unhoused people into jail for treatment, even if they may
not have mental health or substant useless issues, So, you know,
we probably it's a pretty strong bad it's how his
antipathy against unhoused and people of color, the people of
different orientations, and people's medical issues or disability community. We
(14:54):
pretty much knows where he basically stands about that, So
it's not too far stretch that it's not He's not
going to give us a coc and a smile when
he's you know, and he's an office. So I just
wanted to see if you had any insight on him.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
Well, I mean I'm not the most educated person on
this stuff, but I'm grateful that you told me about
about everything because I wasn't aware of Grant's pastor like
anything like that at all was included in.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Well, I thank you for your honesty and to it
because it gives me more fortified to continue to do
this because, like I do believe that we have to
start to talk about it more because it's not talked
about it mainstream conversations in mainstream media, and it's necessary
with the show. So Max, thank you for your time.
I really appreciate it, and I'm obviously going to come
back and follow up on your perspective here and then
(15:41):
your insights on the situation with the unhouse community. Thanks
to Max for his time. Next up, I talked to
a long time volunteer who now works as an on
site lead for their Saturday program.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Hi.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
I'm Quel. I'm a volunteer lead on the site at TILA.
I've been volunteering with SILA for three years exactly. I
started right around Thanksgiving your twenty twenty one, and I
think I found out about SELA on social media when
they were having a fund raiser of some sort. And
I grew up in LA and lived away for a while,
(16:18):
and when I moved back, really just saw how much
had changed as far as the housing crisis, which was
already you know, around and affecting people when I grew
up here, but had really just gotten a lot worse
while I was away, and wanted to do something about
it and really like connect with people in my neighborhood
and my community, both housed and unhoused and try to
(16:38):
help out.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
You say you were away, where were you awake?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
I lived in New York for nine years.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Oh wow, that's a whole different. You know, I'm in Chicago,
and so we the Chicago and New York rivalry on
food and pizza, it's legendary. Though. I won't take you there,
but you know, because I know you will say Chicago's
fizza is better. But I just I digress. I digress.
So what is the exciting parts of being the volunteer
lead here?
Speaker 4 (17:03):
You know, I think that it's really getting to be
the person that connects with new volunteers. As a volunteer lead,
we give a little like orientation for new people and
really show them, you know, what it means to be
part of the community here at SELA, and also connecting
with our participants. You know, starting off as just a
regular volunteer, there's so much that you can do. But
(17:23):
I think as a volunteer lead you can also kind
of get a sense of what's going on at CELA
and also try to like help make things better and
make things run more smoothly, and so, you know, really
just like getting to learn both our volunteers really well
and our participants and making sure that the day flows
really well and calling out ways that we can like
improve the way that we set up or run the day. Like,
(17:46):
we realized that people were waiting in line for a
long time to get clothing, and so we started this
new clothing list where now people can actually sit down
for a while and eat their food and wait to
get clothing and not have to stand in line. And
so there's just little things like that that as a
lead you can kind of keep an eye out for
to make the experience better on both volunteers and participants.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
So your job is to coordinating, be the eye on
how to be more efficient pretty much.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yeah, I'm I'm sort of the person like day of
on our Saturday on site programs here at Silver Lake
Community Church and really like facilitating kind of when volunteers
show up and making sure that everyone knows what they're
supposed to do for the day, sometimes moving people around
so that people are able to take breaks and we
have someone else to be able to fill in and so, yeah,
(18:34):
just kind of helping run the day on site.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
What are the challenging parts of doing being a volunteerly?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
You know, I think it's trying to keep an eye
out for both like participants and volunteers who you know
might not be having a good day, or there might
be an incident that crops up, and I think that
you know, trying to make sure that like new purchasemants
who haven't been at CELA before also understand kind of
the lay of the land and what they can get
access to, but also what we can't help them with.
(19:03):
And then saying with volunteers, making sure that they feel
empowered to help participants and know the right ways to
do that. And you know, what kind of supplies we offer,
what kind of services we offer, and so making sure
that everyone really knows what they can and can't do
is like a good and sometimes challenging part of the day.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
And with all of this is going on a swirl
of activity, what is your insight on the current presidency
as well as.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Grants pass I feel nervous and anxious about the impact
of both of those on our community. I think that
even just in the three years that I've been volunteering
with SILA, I've seen a really big increase. We've more
than double the number of people who come through here,
and I think we've also seen you know, an increase
(19:53):
in on how people living on the streets in LA
and also people facing housing and security and food insecurity,
and so I think all of those things I am
worried are going to negatively affect the unhoused population in
LA and increase it. And I think that you know,
Grant's Pass especially is just like not effective and not
(20:16):
a great way to help people who are already living
on the streets. I think a lot more needs to
beat on to be put into more affordable housing in
LA and really getting people off the streets, but also
recognizing that the people on the streets don't have often
an alternative or a better option, and navigating the housing
system is already hard as it is, and so criminalizing
(20:37):
that is really bad and really going to affect people
negatively very good.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I totally agree. I would say, is there any ray
of sunshine do you feel that's going to be able
to be a bombing gilliad if you will, or be
a bomb in a way to help hope under these conditions?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
I think, you know, one thing was the build that
has to raise more money for housing programs, So I
think that that is one positive. I also think that
a lot more people are energized to participate in their community.
A lot of a lot more people are I think,
scared of what can happen under Trump's presidency and want
(21:16):
to connect more in their community. And so we've seen
in the last few weeks, just after the election and
increase in new volunteers. We tend to have one or
two new people. Today we have five. So I think that,
you know, I hope that it motivates more people to
really get involved in their community. And you know, we're
helping to alleviate some of the challenges that people face
(21:39):
who are living on the street or who are housing insecure.
So I think, if nothing else, it's going to help
bring more people together.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Well, thank you Riquil for your insight and your time.
I know you're going to be busy because of the holidays,
and I thank our listeners for listening in. And it
is my hope we again meet in the light of understanding.
Thanks so much to Requil. Can follow her work with
SELA over on their website www CILANHC dot org. Our
(22:07):
next guest is an unhoused participant who attends Sela's Wednesday program.
A young woman named the Ruse here's our talk. How
long have you been living on the streets?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Four months?
Speaker 1 (22:22):
How did you get to be in this position?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
At about like sixteen or seventeen years old?
Speaker 1 (22:33):
So when you became out here for four months? How
did you become out on the street? How did you
get out on the street?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Well, my family kicked me out when I was nineteen
years old, when I got brie.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I'm sorry to hear that was this here in Los
Angeles or greak here? So your family threw you out?
And how were you able to survive? What did you
what was your first night? Like, first I.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Stay in a storage with my boyfriend. But when they
kick them out, now I land in the streets.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Is it difficult to staying in the storage or staying
in the streets?
Speaker 3 (23:16):
In the storage not in the streets because it's dangerous.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, So what do you have? Does that plan? What
do you plan on doing to get off the streets?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Like, I wanna to get out of the streets. I
wanna get a job then to get money so I
could go in a place like in a housing.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Wow. Is there anything you like to do is creatively,
like for something for your own career or do you
have any interesting.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
I wanna when I grow up, I want to be
a teacher.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Cool, what do you like to teach?
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Math?
Speaker 3 (23:58):
English? Zide Yan's history.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
So general studies? Okay, wow, so no, thank you. So
that's that's awesome. I was going to say, is there
anything else would you like to say to people that
are experiencing the same things that you are?
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Like?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
What is that if it's having the same kind of
experiences or going through the same things that you're going through,
is there anything encouraging you want to say?
Speaker 3 (24:25):
No? Thanks it?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah, well, thank you, You're very very helpful and I
hope to come back and talk with you soon. Thank
you very much. Thanks again to Ruse for her time.
We're going to take a break and we will be
right back. Welcome back. This is THEO Henderson with Weedy
(24:54):
and Howe. Finally, I spoke with Maybe, a girl in
long time neighborhood advocate who recently began working as the
full time operations manager was Cela. We got to chat
in a recent Seala's Saturday program. Here's our talk.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
Thank you so much for having me THEO. Hey everybody,
my name is Maybe and I am the operations manager
for CELA. I actually just started working for CELA about
three months ago, so I'm still new to the position,
but I'm not new to CILA. I actually started volunteering
with CELA back in twenty nineteen. I'm a member of
the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, and in twenty nineteen we
(25:36):
partnered with CELA briefly. Celia used to do a program
called the Wednesday Night Suppers, and once a month, whenever
we would have our neighborhood Council meeting, a number of
our board members would come to SILA and help prepare
and serve the supper that evening, and then we would
go on to our meeting. And that went on until
about the onset of the pandemic, and so stopped doing
(26:00):
it at that time. But I was really touched by
Sela and just the great work that Sela does. I'm
really proud to work for this organization because it's an
incredible grassroots organization and it's all volunteer powered. It is
community coming together for community. I am a staff member
(26:20):
of SILA, but we only have three staff members. We
have about four hundred dedicated volunteers that actually make all
of our programming work. And it's just really inspiring to see.
For me, one of the things that I think is
the most beautiful about CELA is the community element to it.
And you know, we do provide food and hygiene supplies,
(26:40):
harm reduction supplies, various services, clothing, you know, a lot
of the essentials and you can get those at different places.
You can get assistance, you know with that through different
even governmental agencies, But what a governmental agency is never
going to give you is community.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I was going to say, what was the identifying thing
that's so different about SILA, and I think you kind
of already answer the question community and why do you
feel that that is so important? And that's differentiating attribute
that is with CILO.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
I think it's it's so important for everybody involved in CELIA.
I think it really humanizes our our neighbors. And you know,
something that I feel most Angelino's have noticed or experienced
is witnessing, particularly how'sed Angelino's ignoring folks who are living
(27:33):
on the streets.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
You know, you see.
Speaker 7 (27:35):
People walking over human beings and it's a really gross thing.
And so I think it's really awesome for our volunteers
to be able to connect with our unhoused neighbors. To
be able to, you know, just have a better sense
of understanding of what a lot of our neighbors are
going through. And I think it's also wonderful for our
(27:56):
unhoused neighbors, for our participants that are, you know, taking
part in these programs, because they get to develop relationships
not only with our volunteers, but also with each other.
I'm really inspired when I see, just like the conversations
that are happening here at Sela, between participants, between volunteers,
between volunteers and participants.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
I've been unhoused, and I have had experience in dealing
with the governmental apparatus, and I noticed the burnout or
the hostility sometimes these government positions do. And the difference
we're dealing with mutual aid groups is that again, when
you say community the humanity, and it's like, it's not
that the you need necessarily need to cuss out somebody
(28:36):
for them to act if they had wanted an extra
piece of bread or extra food or extra socks. And
I noticed that sometimes we could be so desensitized and
being abused and being abusive that that has become you know,
the lexicon of our own humanity psyche. If you will
so One of the things that I wanted to ask
of you is like, what motivates you out of all
(28:57):
of this to join SULA? Anyway was you doing prior
to tonight in nineteen It had to be a watershedable. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (29:04):
So well, for me, I've been involved in local politics
for about six years on the neighborhood council, and I
decided to run for much higher position. I ran for
Congress in twenty twenty, twenty twenty two and twenty twenty
four came pretty close. In twenty twenty two we made
it to the general election. It was came in second
place out of nine candidates. And one of the things
(29:25):
that I was hoping to do if I had been
elected to Congress, you know, housing is so important to me,
and you know, housing is a human right, and I
wish that everybody in Congress, in our state governments recognized that.
So for me, it's all about getting people housed and
you know, creating more permanent support of housing. And so
(29:48):
when I lost the election a third time, it really
gave me moments for pause to think about, well, how
do I how do I continue to fight for the
things that I want to fight for. How I've been
elected to Congress, and SELA really stood out to me
because it's it's such a local, grassroots, hugely impactful organization.
(30:11):
And I like to think big a lot, but when
it comes down to it, you're so much more able
to create a meaningful impact on a local level. And
so you know, they say all politics are local, and
it's true. And so you know, I said to myself,
I want to be able to start working towards these
goals that I was hoping to do in higher office.
(30:32):
What better way to do it than to work with,
you know, a really amazing, authentic, grassroots organization. And you know,
I think it really really speaks to me about this
organization is that it is primarily volunteer led. Nobody has
to be here. Everybody wants to be here, Everybody wants
to be part.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
Of the solution.
Speaker 7 (30:51):
And you know, again a big part of that is
is community and you know, helping people to have some hope,
and you know, I think that are really important things.
It's a really positive environment. And you know, I think
a lot of people, especially for somebody who maybe has
never been to a homeless shelter or like a soup kitchen,
they probably think of it as like a really depressing environment.
(31:13):
But actually here at CELA, you know, we really enjoy
our time with our participants, and these tend to be
very engaging and community building events. Like they're they're very
positive events, and we learn a lot from each other.
I mean, even for me, it's given me so much
more perspective into, you know, what's really important in life
(31:34):
and what you really need to, you know, to get by.
And I think especially I know a lot of people
are upset about the you know, presidential election results, and
I think a lot of people are fearful right now,
and I think it's been really inspiring to see the
community come together and to see just the number of
people who since the election have reached out to CELA
saying I want to get involved. I feel like I
(31:56):
need to do something, and I think that's a great thing.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
All on two different notes. When I have lived in
shelters as well, the reason you look maybe looks more
like these we're talking about. The Ebeneza Scrooge kind of
environment is usually because of the car through precepts and rules,
and conversely, this is a little bit different. It's like,
you know, you're not coming off like the heavy you're
not they can't do this and that or these kind
(32:21):
of conversational points makes it a lot much more inviting
and less like, you know, you're going to be beaten
down just to get a loaf of bread or get
something to eat, or just to stay out of the elements.
But also you mentioned about being hopeful. What is your
insight on the parallel presidency as well as the Grants
(32:41):
Pass ruling that's been going on, and what do you
what's your insight on grass Pass ruling? But what do
you foresee in the future.
Speaker 7 (32:48):
Yeah, so you know, when I say hopeful, you know,
I guess I'm hopeful because I see every single day
people that want to make a difference and people that
want to see the change changes that we needed to
make sure that every single neighbor is taken care of.
And you're so correct about the you know, oftencarcoral conditions
of a lot of shelter opportunities. And it really bothers
(33:10):
me when I hear people's complain about seeing unhoused people
and you know, saying, well, why don't they just go
to a shelter? You know, you know they have these
tiny homes over here. There's the bridge housing over here.
And you know, those options work for many people, and
they don't work for many people because, as with every
population of people, unhoused people are not a monolith. Everybody
has a different experience where they're coming from, different challenges
(33:33):
that they're facing. And you know, when I explain to
some folks who are unfamiliar with this idea that you know,
if you get into this temporary housing, oftentimes you can
only bring two bags of clothing, you can't have a pet,
you can't have loved ones with you, you have to
be in by a certain time, out by a certain time.
(33:53):
There's so many rules and regulations, and that's not for everybody.
So I think, you know, one of the big things
that we try to do at SILA is a lot
of trust building, which I would imagine that there's a
lot of mistrust amongst our house neighbors towards various organizations
and housed people and so yeah, and that's that's totally understandable.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
I also want to put the conversation into a larger focus.
We all are human and the human condition is complex.
Safe if you will or you're looking to find or
live in in a place you look in wig in
the cost. You look in the vicinity, you look into
your availability, you look at price, you look at you know,
if your children can be able to go to school,
(34:36):
you look at if you're fleeing for domestic abuse, obviously
you're not going to be living next to your ex
spouse or in the vicinity. All of these things play
a part in the choices and the suggestions that are
offered about just taking shelter. And just like a human,
if you are housed and able to afford rent and
you can be able to choose one apartment from another,
(34:58):
or on house people are stripped from that agency. They
don't get that same grace, they don't get that same understanding.
They get their service resistant or they don't want help.
And that is the unfair burden on house people have
to face.
Speaker 7 (35:13):
It's incredibly unfair, and I think that's something that a
lot of house people take for granted every single day,
is the choices that they have in how they conduct
their everyday lives. And so Sila, you know, to be clear,
we're not a housing provider, but some of the services
that we do are you know, we do a lot
of documentation preparedness so that you know when housing does
(35:35):
become available, we can try to help, you know, make
the transition into housing as smooth as possible and provide
additional support afterwards. But back to this idea of choices.
You know, even at Sela, a lot of house people
have this perspective of well, you know, they have nothing,
so they should just take whatever is offered to them.
And exactly, you know that they think about that when
(35:59):
it comes to house, but even when it comes to
you know, clothing donations and food donations, like people think, oh, well, here,
I've got a loaf of bread, you have to take this.
And if somebody doesn't want to loaf for bread, they
don't want to loaf for bread, you know. And that's
why we at least try to provide you know, different
choices whenever we have food, and to try to keep
(36:20):
it varied. And even clothing, when we have guidelines about
the sort of donations will take. The biggest guideline is
is this something that you would gift to somebody else
or is this something that you would wear yourself.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
Don't give us a.
Speaker 7 (36:32):
Shirt that's you know, filled with holes in it, unless
it's fashion it's and it's supposed to.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Look like that. Well food variety is such a revolutionary
concept to many other services providers. And I had to
point out as I've gotten younger in my younger years,
is that I have a health considerations. And when I
did an episode on Harbor City and on House, people
were like just completely exasperated. There was people bringing boxes
(36:58):
of bread and they were like, oh god, bread again,
just bribe bread and nothing else, and they just left
it there, just on and And the thing with this
is like, look, we understand they don't want to hurt
people's feelings, but like, look, we don't want any more bread.
The only thing is feeding is the rest because we
ain't need to know this bread out because you know
there's nothing else with it. And sometimes you know, the
health issues is like diabetes can't have all that bread
(37:19):
because all of you know different things or different other
health issue. Health consideration. It's not always you're trying to
be difficult or you're just trying to be a diva
or devote. You are trying to be a person that
makes informer choices, or you don't have health consequences, which
is a different, a different difficulty dealing out on the street.
(37:40):
And I don't think helps people can consider that because
they don't look at them as human beings.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
But I totally agree with that, and I think sort
of the irony in that is that I would imagine
that it's probably more likely that somebody who is experiencing
homelessness would have some particular dietary issues, you know, things
that they need, things that they don't need, you know.
So that's why we always try to provide, you know,
meat options, for vegetarian options. We try to vegan options,
(38:05):
We try to whenever we can, to gluten free options.
We try to be really accommodating to the to the
needs of our participants. You know, it's not just all right,
here's the tray of rice, go at it exactly.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Or you know what the big issue for me is
why am I? I'm a stress eater as well. But
also what balloon my weight is the lack of storage
of food because I couldn't store all of the food
because if I did, then it's spoiled and then then
who wants to suffer from food poisoning? So now I
got another dimensions, So you have to eat half half
the which spikes the sugar and make spikes all the
(38:37):
other issues that I don't think again. Like I said,
I just don't think as a human condition that we
don't understand the diversity of issues that go along when
unheused people wants to be treated at the humans. So yeah,
so I agree with you, like, and when we're looking
at these issues, that's going to only sharpens is focused
(38:57):
in illumination with the new presidency, the Grands Pass ruling
and too, like when I mentioned with a couple other
guests about the realities of climate change, because people are
not really thinking this through, like new disasters like the
brush fires and people losing homes from mutts, slides and
disasters North Carolina and in Florida, these things are going
(39:21):
to play a very big role in how on house
people are and displace people recently are going to deal
with climate as well as moral apathy or moral cruelty,
if you will.
Speaker 7 (39:34):
Yeah, absolutely, I think it's sort of a double whammy.
You know Grant's pass and you know the impending doom
coming with climate change. And I think especially with Grant's pass,
I mean, I think one of the things that's the
most terrific is that's something we can, we can and
should be able to control right away right now.
Speaker 5 (39:52):
But that we don't you.
Speaker 7 (39:54):
Cannot outlass poverty. I mean, people are going to be poor,
people are not going to have housing. We should be
helping them, not putting even more legal challenges on their plates.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
And mostly sharper to the point is that the fact
that as soon as Grant's passed undid all of that,
celebrations came out from Governor Newsom Mary London Breed and
all of them. And in Santa Monica they have now
a ban against unhouse people having a blanket and pillow.
And the idea is that they just went willy nilly
(40:28):
on trying to outdew each other on the cruelty on
unhoused people. You know, San Diego is basically just run
down on unhoused people. In fact, in Elmonte, here that
unhoused people were targeted and still were being targeted as
a result of the grants past, they accelerated their sweeping
schedule in order in excited anticipation after this ruling is
(40:51):
it's unleashed to be you know, forty one eighteen was
the leash with the Martin versus Boise, but that leash
has been taken off thanks to the six Republicans and
prove court justices that have allowed this travesty to be
unleashed on vulnerable people.
Speaker 7 (41:07):
And I think, you know, with that happening, I think, well,
first of all, I don't even know if most people
are aware that this has happened. And I'm sure if
it doesn't affect you, you probably don't know about it.
And that's just really unfortunate. I mean, I just I
don't know how you can teach people to care about
other people. And that's just to me, it feels like
(41:28):
such a basic human quality to want to help your neighbor,
to be engaged in community, and it's just really horrific
to me. And so I think that's why we're seeing
a lot of local activation to get our you know,
house neighbors, to help our on house neighbors. And again
it's I think we've got to step back and look
(41:49):
at the big picture of what are we doing here,
you know. And I've been really disheartened to see this
like sort of shift towards individualism and oh, I'm looking
out for myself and only myself, and you know, if
everybody did that, the world would fall apart.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Well said, I think we covered most of the conversational points.
Did we miss anything that you wanted to add?
Speaker 7 (42:10):
I just wanted to say I really, once again, I'm
really excited to be a part of CELA. I think
it's a wonderful organization. I also want to, you know,
express that we are constantly learning and evolving and you know,
looking to our participants for their needs. So it's not oh, here,
here's all the stuff we have.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Take it.
Speaker 7 (42:30):
This is what we think you need. You know, we
try to take cues from the participants that we work with.
You know, what do you need? Okay, we've got too
much bread, Let's start bringing in something else. You know,
we need more underwear. Let's start getting some more underwear.
And again these are small, just little temporary fixes. But
I feel, I truly feel if there was a Sela
(42:52):
in every community across the United States, I think it
would just, you know, we would start to see these
kinds of problems start to get fixed. And you know,
I just want to start to see our governments really
take care of people. And you know, I know a
lot of people are focused on the economy right now,
and the thing is every most every person you're going
(43:15):
to ever interact with, is going to be far closer
to experiencing homelessness than they ever will to be being
a billionaire. So why are we catering to you know,
these wealthy classes who have more than anything they could
ever need for lifetimes, and yet we are struggling to
get people into temporary shelter, let alone even permanent shelter.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Well said, and this is the old Henderson from William House.
We are exploring the mutual a group SILA, and I'm
hoping the audience is drinking in the conversation and getting
words to think on and ideas to create a better
world than we left it. Thanks to maybe for her
time because we had so many people to speak where.
(44:00):
We're going to keep the conversation going with the second
part of our series on Seiler in our next episode.
Before we log off, I want to physically invite you
to not only meet in a light of understanding, but
to attend one of my executive director's shows in the
studio today is the executive director who is going to
take it away, gonna tell them us what's going on
(44:22):
and what we can look forward to.
Speaker 8 (44:24):
Thank you so much, THEO, thanks for having me. Yeah,
I have my one person show which is called the
tiny man who is trying to kill me, which is
about basically what it sounds like.
Speaker 5 (44:36):
It's about.
Speaker 8 (44:37):
It's about doll the size of a nickel that is
relentlessly pursuing me. But it is also about making some
serious stuff funny, talking about sort of grief and loss
and a very tiny man.
Speaker 5 (44:51):
Who's trying to kill me.
Speaker 8 (44:53):
And so that's on December fourth in La at the
Lyric Hyperion. Tickets available when oh you can just find
them on the Lyric Hyperion's website. I think Lyricyperion dot.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Com great well, as you have heard it from the
source itself. Look forward to seeing you there and I
thank you all again for listening, and as always, please
like and subscribe, And if you'd like to share your
story on widian House, please reach out to me at
Whidianhouse on Instagram or email me at Wiedianhouse at gmail
dot com. Thank you all again for listening together. We
(45:28):
will meet again in the light of understanding. Whedian House
is a production of iHeartRadio. It is written, posted, and
created by me Theo Henderson, our producers Jbie Loftus Hailey Fager,
Katiefischal and Lyra Smith. Our editor is Adam Wand and
(45:49):
our local art is also by Katiefischal. Thanks for listening.
Previously on Weedian House.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, like Grant's hasn't came out of downtown Los Angeles
like the lawyers did. They traveled from Los Angeles to
Oregon to go represent the city of Grant's past to
the Supreme Court. They were not from there. So it's
interesting that you know, it's okay for lawyers to go
to a city that's like, isn't you know their city?
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Right?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
But like it's not okay for an unhouse person to
move from another state. You know, like people act like
if you weren't born in Los Angeles, then you shouldn't
be allowed to be homeless.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Here.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Welcome to Weedian House. I'm your host, Theo Henderson. Our
last episode necessitated a message on the importance of not
diminishing others in order to speak out on current in
your face injustice. This week, we're going to expand deeper
(01:13):
on the topics first by using the Jordan Neely trial,
where there's Nimby talking points and the currently indicted Mayor
of New York, Eric Adams, calling for an involuntary commitment
of mentally ill unhoused people. Jordan Neely, a young African American.
(01:34):
Michael Jackson impersonator was on the train in New York
performing and asking for funds because he was hungry. He
verbally expressed frustration, which prompted a white veteran named Daniel
Penny to physically choke Jordan Neely with the assistance of
other people to prevent Jordan from fighting for his life,
(01:58):
they killed him. The crime took place in the spring
of twenty twenty three, and now the trial surrounding this case,
which began last month, has finally exposed the true essence
of many house viewpoints of unhoused people. This didn't happen
(02:22):
and avoid hatred of the young housed is a facet
of New York City government. Mary Adams claimed frustration on
learning that Ramon rivera and unhoused man with mental health
challenges and a prior arrest, killed three people. Pay attention
to the arrest detail. We will return to this in
(02:44):
a moment. Adams claimed that the significant acts of violence
are from people with severe mental illnesses. He stopped short
from blatantly saved from unhoused mentally ill people. Another exile
that occurred in New York in twenty twenty two was
(03:04):
Simon Marshall, another unhoused man pushed Michelle Go in front
of an oncoming train. Fear mongering from incidents like this
often leads to and empowers a type of vigilanteism that
we saw when Daniel Penny murdered Short and Neely. Here
(03:25):
is a word association to conjure up how unhoused people
are seen. Unhoused, drug addict mentally ill, violent deserves violence, incarceration,
involuntary commitment if that fails, violence against the unhoused that
(03:51):
results in death. The way to get there had been
found in the New York Daily News articles stating that
one witness was scared of Jordan Neely's behavior. When Daniel
Penny killed him, she hung around to thank him for
keeping her safe. This echoes the racial tropes of earlier
(04:15):
times than Jim Crow. Another witness which hearkens and brings
the visual image of a young high school student witnessing
a lynching as a gala event. But this witness stated
that she did not hear people saying to let him go,
which is the struggle between Daniel Penny choking Jordan Neely
and Jordan struggling for his life to be released. It
(04:37):
doesn't take much for this narrative to be pushed upon
mainstream society, which is importantly the function of we in
house to break down these harmful stereotypes because they put
all on house people, whether they struggle with mental illness
and addictions or not in jeopardy. When unhous people are
attacked by house people such as Daniel Penny, there have
(04:59):
been and few media outlets, but no calls from the
mayor the cause this house veteran to be rounded up
and arrested for killing unhoused people. It's almost a one
and done type of reporting. The public returns to the
regular scheduled program of unhoused people are drug addicts, mentally ill,
(05:22):
violent and deserve violence, incarceration and involuntary commitment. With grants
Pass looming large on the horizon. Episodes like Almante shows
the easiness of targeting the unhoused community with barely a whimper.
Grandspass is a ruling that states it is not cruel
(05:45):
or unusual punishment to hunt down unhoused people susceptible to
living and existing on public property. If Mayor Eric Adams
is pushing for involuntary commitment for people who he deems
should be off there, what is to stop other city
leaders from following his leads on other facets of of
(06:05):
the unhoused community like struck wellness, fars, sex worker incarceration, compounds,
young aged out detention facilities for unhoused use in some
With this election as well as the grands Pass ruling,
we must keep our eyes, ears, hearts and spirits open
(06:28):
to stand up and speak out against these blatant dog whistles.
And when we come back, we're going to talk about
a crucial component to society and the unhoused local mutual
A welcome back to Weedian House. This week, we are
(06:54):
back in the field, milling about and getting the vibe
on what transpires at a Los Angeles UTU Aid operation SILA.
PILA has been around since twenty seventeen and is run
mainly by volunteers and a small staff. They run a
few programs a week, offering services that range from direct
outreach to host the hot lunches and dinners, providing clothing,
(07:19):
pet food, and connecting participants with services that can range
from medical care, pet care, assistance with IDs, transportation, jobs,
and caseworkers. I went to two different SEALA programs in Alastmath,
one on a Wednesday and one on a Saturday to
get a better feel for how participants and volunteers interact
(07:40):
with the program and their feelings on the Grand Pass legislation. First,
I spoke with first time volunteer named Max.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
Well, my name is Max.
Speaker 6 (07:52):
I've lived in LA for eight years, and around two
years ago, I, you know, seeing that house population grow
and grow, I'm like, what am I personally doing to
make things better?
Speaker 1 (08:03):
You know?
Speaker 6 (08:04):
I feel that we all have a responsibility to get
out there and do something. So I started volunteering MacArthur
Park of occasionally helping just hand out lunches there and
that was really nice because everyone was so lovely and
it's really great to meet that house in person because
your perception the Sigma's kind of fade away. And now
recently with the election, which I want to get into, no,
(08:27):
I felt more than ever.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
I need to get back and do more things.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
So why see, Look, why didn't you stay in Macroacta Park.
It must have been something compelled you to come here. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
I read this article on a publication that I'm free
in the name of about Hayes Davenport, who I believe
is part of CELA, and he spoke about the amazing
work that's being done here, and it inspired me to
get active and be involved.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
What is your feelings on the new president as well
as the Grant's pass ruling? Have you heard of what
Grant passes? No, I'm not familiar. Have you heard of
forty one eighteen is?
Speaker 6 (09:02):
No?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Okay, well, I'm going to give you a brief a
primer on it so you can understand why this is
Germane to unhoused people. Now in the shortened version, forty
one eighteen was the horrible stepchild of the Martin versus
Boise ruling. Martin versus Boise had handed down a ruling
(09:24):
saying this cruel and unusual punishment to penalize poor people
that have no place to go where that needed place
to sleep, mainly on house community members. To that end,
what forty one eighteen is here was an outcry and
outrage of that ruling. So the city usualized forty one eighteen,
which states it is against the law for anybody to sit, sleep,
(09:48):
or lie in public places and it was target unhoused people.
They created special enforcement zones to target unhoused people on
certain days with twenty four to forty eight hour notice
if they if that to come in or what they
call care or care plus, which care plus would be
a comprehensive sweep. We're dismantling all of the house people's
(10:09):
belongings and infrastructure and removing and cleaning and the auspices
of cleaning the area. But it was usually followed by
having police roation, hostile sanitation city employees in order to
dismantle and displace. Let's say, for example, that you have
at home or a car, and I told you that
(10:30):
you had five minutes to get all your most precious belongings.
Then I put a yellow tape on it. And if
you forgot your medication, let's take some eyeglasses, maybe children's
important medical documents and you will go back into it.
Now you are a subject to arrest because you went
over this line. But these are the things that you
(10:50):
paid for. These are your property. And the idea is
that you are now a criminal for wanting to go
get retrieved the things that are yours. Is the sticking
point that the city has done to many unhoused people
here in Los Angeles, California. Now, what Grant's pass have
done with forty eighteen was so different is that there
was some type of legal recourse, there was some type
(11:12):
of accountability, but the six Republican Supreme Court justices, when
Grant's Pass Oregon had brought their case to the Supreme Court,
have deemed it is perfectly acceptable to target unhoused people
to be able to arrest them without any offer of services,
without any kind of notification whatsoever. So if I see
(11:34):
you somewhere launching in any place, I don't need to
offer you housing. I don't need to offer you service.
You can't be there. If you resist, then I offer
you a way to go to jail. The second thing
is here is where people that are living in recreational vehicles.
The recreational vehicles there's now a ban here in Los
Angeles is if they feel the van is not operatable
(11:58):
or is I sore? And if you don't move when
they tell you to move, they can tell your van,
throw all your things away and put you in jail
because now that you don't have replace the gig with
grants passed. So these things are very germane to the
unhoused assistance. And it is so important for us to
(12:18):
educate and let people all house and unhoused people know
what is coming down the pike. And that's one of
the reasons why I ask the question on why, you know,
what would be your feelings on this on top of
the Trump presidency, So hopefully I succinctly yeah, brought into
your vista. So what's your insights on this?
Speaker 4 (12:38):
Uh?
Speaker 6 (12:38):
Well, I guess you know, so many questions come up,
Like first of all, what is an is an ice hore?
You know, like what wigg'gram to we give ourselves to
when we don't want to see something. You know, it's
obviously nobody wants to see anybody who's unhoused, but like,
you know, does that mean we're going to full on
complain about people's vans just being on our street?
Speaker 5 (12:56):
Like that's that? That gives so much room.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
To oh by the way, but yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
And then also like when unhoused aar you know, push
out of their space, where do they go? You know,
it's not like they have a place they can like a backup,
there's no you know, so we're just moving them around.
It feels like we're not really finding a place for them.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
But most importantly, they're still human beings subjected to the
same human civil rights like you and I have for
example creating forty one to eighteen. And I have witnessed
firsthand where unhouse people just come and just sit in
a bench by themselves, just mining their business, taking in
the air and not barbing anybody, and security will run
them off or threaten if they don't move, they'll call
(13:38):
the cops or the business improvement thing. It's this segregation
and kind of tactic is designed to target on house people.
You know, they can't go into a restaurant if they
look like they just shoveled on house and they don't
want them there, that's the justification for removing them. And
if you have a specially wharton to zone right outside
at the restaurant, then that's perfectly legal to do that.
Speaker 6 (14:01):
Yeah, And it kind of paints them as an enemy.
You know, it's you pick sides.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
We're not.
Speaker 6 (14:07):
We're all on the same team here, right, we all
want it's best for everybody, But why are we separating
ourselves like this?
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, So that's the long and short of it. And
I wanted to bring you up to speed and get
your intake on why he wanted to join. Is there
anything that I missed that you want to elucidate on
You mentioned Trump.
Speaker 5 (14:25):
Is there anything that he specifically has talked about doing
or is that just.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Well, in the previous episodes, he's been talking about forcing
unhoused people into jail for treatment, even if they may
not have mental health or substant useless issues, So, you know,
we probably it's a pretty strong bad it's how his
antipathy against unhoused and people of color, the people of
different orientations, and people's medical issues or disability community. We
(14:54):
pretty much knows where he basically stands about that, So
it's not too far stretch that it's not He's not
going to give us a coc and a smile when
he's you know, and he's an office. So I just
wanted to see if you had any insight on him.
Speaker 5 (15:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
Well, I mean I'm not the most educated person on
this stuff, but I'm grateful that you told me about
about everything because I wasn't aware of Grant's pastor like
anything like that at all was included in.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Well, I thank you for your honesty and to it
because it gives me more fortified to continue to do
this because, like I do believe that we have to
start to talk about it more because it's not talked
about it mainstream conversations in mainstream media, and it's necessary
with the show. So Max, thank you for your time.
I really appreciate it, and I'm obviously going to come
back and follow up on your perspective here and then
(15:41):
your insights on the situation with the unhouse community. Thanks
to Max for his time. Next up, I talked to
a long time volunteer who now works as an on
site lead for their Saturday program.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Hi.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
I'm Quel. I'm a volunteer lead on the site at TILA.
I've been volunteering with SILA for three years exactly. I
started right around Thanksgiving your twenty twenty one, and I
think I found out about SELA on social media when
they were having a fund raiser of some sort. And
I grew up in LA and lived away for a while,
(16:18):
and when I moved back, really just saw how much
had changed as far as the housing crisis, which was
already you know, around and affecting people when I grew
up here, but had really just gotten a lot worse
while I was away, and wanted to do something about
it and really like connect with people in my neighborhood
and my community, both housed and unhoused and try to
(16:38):
help out.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
You say you were away, where were you awake?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
I lived in New York for nine years.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Oh wow, that's a whole different. You know, I'm in Chicago,
and so we the Chicago and New York rivalry on
food and pizza, it's legendary. Though. I won't take you there,
but you know, because I know you will say Chicago's
fizza is better. But I just I digress. I digress.
So what is the exciting parts of being the volunteer
lead here?
Speaker 4 (17:03):
You know, I think that it's really getting to be
the person that connects with new volunteers. As a volunteer lead,
we give a little like orientation for new people and
really show them, you know, what it means to be
part of the community here at SELA, and also connecting
with our participants. You know, starting off as just a
regular volunteer, there's so much that you can do. But
(17:23):
I think as a volunteer lead you can also kind
of get a sense of what's going on at CELA
and also try to like help make things better and
make things run more smoothly, and so, you know, really
just like getting to learn both our volunteers really well
and our participants and making sure that the day flows
really well and calling out ways that we can like
improve the way that we set up or run the day. Like,
(17:46):
we realized that people were waiting in line for a
long time to get clothing, and so we started this
new clothing list where now people can actually sit down
for a while and eat their food and wait to
get clothing and not have to stand in line. And
so there's just little things like that that as a
lead you can kind of keep an eye out for
to make the experience better on both volunteers and participants.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
So your job is to coordinating, be the eye on
how to be more efficient pretty much.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
Yeah, I'm I'm sort of the person like day of
on our Saturday on site programs here at Silver Lake
Community Church and really like facilitating kind of when volunteers
show up and making sure that everyone knows what they're
supposed to do for the day, sometimes moving people around
so that people are able to take breaks and we
have someone else to be able to fill in and so, yeah,
(18:34):
just kind of helping run the day on site.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
What are the challenging parts of doing being a volunteerly?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
You know, I think it's trying to keep an eye
out for both like participants and volunteers who you know
might not be having a good day, or there might
be an incident that crops up, and I think that
you know, trying to make sure that like new purchasemants
who haven't been at CELA before also understand kind of
the lay of the land and what they can get
access to, but also what we can't help them with.
(19:03):
And then saying with volunteers, making sure that they feel
empowered to help participants and know the right ways to
do that. And you know, what kind of supplies we offer,
what kind of services we offer, and so making sure
that everyone really knows what they can and can't do
is like a good and sometimes challenging part of the day.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
And with all of this is going on a swirl
of activity, what is your insight on the current presidency
as well as.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Grants pass I feel nervous and anxious about the impact
of both of those on our community. I think that
even just in the three years that I've been volunteering
with SILA, I've seen a really big increase. We've more
than double the number of people who come through here,
and I think we've also seen you know, an increase
(19:53):
in on how people living on the streets in LA
and also people facing housing and security and food insecurity,
and so I think all of those things I am
worried are going to negatively affect the unhoused population in
LA and increase it. And I think that you know,
Grant's Pass especially is just like not effective and not
(20:16):
a great way to help people who are already living
on the streets. I think a lot more needs to
beat on to be put into more affordable housing in
LA and really getting people off the streets, but also
recognizing that the people on the streets don't have often
an alternative or a better option, and navigating the housing
system is already hard as it is, and so criminalizing
(20:37):
that is really bad and really going to affect people
negatively very good.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I totally agree. I would say, is there any ray
of sunshine do you feel that's going to be able
to be a bombing gilliad if you will, or be
a bomb in a way to help hope under these conditions?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
I think, you know, one thing was the build that
has to raise more money for housing programs, So I
think that that is one positive. I also think that
a lot more people are energized to participate in their community.
A lot of a lot more people are I think,
scared of what can happen under Trump's presidency and want
(21:16):
to connect more in their community. And so we've seen
in the last few weeks, just after the election and
increase in new volunteers. We tend to have one or
two new people. Today we have five. So I think that,
you know, I hope that it motivates more people to
really get involved in their community. And you know, we're
helping to alleviate some of the challenges that people face
(21:39):
who are living on the street or who are housing insecure.
So I think, if nothing else, it's going to help
bring more people together.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Well, thank you Riquil for your insight and your time.
I know you're going to be busy because of the holidays,
and I thank our listeners for listening in. And it
is my hope we again meet in the light of understanding.
Thanks so much to Requil. Can follow her work with
SELA over on their website www CILANHC dot org. Our
(22:07):
next guest is an unhoused participant who attends Sela's Wednesday program.
A young woman named the Ruse here's our talk. How
long have you been living on the streets?
Speaker 3 (22:20):
Four months?
Speaker 1 (22:22):
How did you get to be in this position?
Speaker 3 (22:27):
At about like sixteen or seventeen years old?
Speaker 1 (22:33):
So when you became out here for four months? How
did you become out on the street? How did you
get out on the street?
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Well, my family kicked me out when I was nineteen
years old, when I got brie.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
I'm sorry to hear that was this here in Los
Angeles or greak here? So your family threw you out?
And how were you able to survive? What did you
what was your first night? Like, first I.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
Stay in a storage with my boyfriend. But when they
kick them out, now I land in the streets.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
Is it difficult to staying in the storage or staying
in the streets?
Speaker 3 (23:16):
In the storage not in the streets because it's dangerous.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Yeah, So what do you have? Does that plan? What
do you plan on doing to get off the streets?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Like, I wanna to get out of the streets. I
wanna get a job then to get money so I
could go in a place like in a housing.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Wow. Is there anything you like to do is creatively,
like for something for your own career or do you
have any interesting.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
I wanna when I grow up, I want to be
a teacher.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Cool, what do you like to teach?
Speaker 6 (23:57):
Math?
Speaker 3 (23:58):
English? Zide Yan's history.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
So general studies? Okay, wow, so no, thank you. So
that's that's awesome. I was going to say, is there
anything else would you like to say to people that
are experiencing the same things that you are?
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Like?
Speaker 1 (24:17):
What is that if it's having the same kind of
experiences or going through the same things that you're going through,
is there anything encouraging you want to say?
Speaker 3 (24:25):
No? Thanks it?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Yeah, well, thank you, You're very very helpful and I
hope to come back and talk with you soon. Thank
you very much. Thanks again to Ruse for her time.
We're going to take a break and we will be
right back. Welcome back. This is THEO Henderson with Weedy
(24:54):
and Howe. Finally, I spoke with Maybe, a girl in
long time neighborhood advocate who recently began working as the
full time operations manager was Cela. We got to chat
in a recent Seala's Saturday program. Here's our talk.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
Thank you so much for having me THEO. Hey everybody,
my name is Maybe and I am the operations manager
for CELA. I actually just started working for CELA about
three months ago, so I'm still new to the position,
but I'm not new to CILA. I actually started volunteering
with CELA back in twenty nineteen. I'm a member of
the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, and in twenty nineteen we
(25:36):
partnered with CELA briefly. Celia used to do a program
called the Wednesday Night Suppers, and once a month, whenever
we would have our neighborhood Council meeting, a number of
our board members would come to SILA and help prepare
and serve the supper that evening, and then we would
go on to our meeting. And that went on until
about the onset of the pandemic, and so stopped doing
(26:00):
it at that time. But I was really touched by
Sela and just the great work that Sela does. I'm
really proud to work for this organization because it's an
incredible grassroots organization and it's all volunteer powered. It is
community coming together for community. I am a staff member
(26:20):
of SILA, but we only have three staff members. We
have about four hundred dedicated volunteers that actually make all
of our programming work. And it's just really inspiring to see.
For me, one of the things that I think is
the most beautiful about CELA is the community element to it.
And you know, we do provide food and hygiene supplies,
(26:40):
harm reduction supplies, various services, clothing, you know, a lot
of the essentials and you can get those at different places.
You can get assistance, you know with that through different
even governmental agencies, But what a governmental agency is never
going to give you is community.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
I was going to say, what was the identifying thing
that's so different about SILA, and I think you kind
of already answer the question community and why do you
feel that that is so important? And that's differentiating attribute
that is with CILO.
Speaker 7 (27:13):
I think it's it's so important for everybody involved in CELIA.
I think it really humanizes our our neighbors. And you know,
something that I feel most Angelino's have noticed or experienced
is witnessing, particularly how'sed Angelino's ignoring folks who are living
(27:33):
on the streets.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
You know, you see.
Speaker 7 (27:35):
People walking over human beings and it's a really gross thing.
And so I think it's really awesome for our volunteers
to be able to connect with our unhoused neighbors. To
be able to, you know, just have a better sense
of understanding of what a lot of our neighbors are
going through. And I think it's also wonderful for our
(27:56):
unhoused neighbors, for our participants that are, you know, taking
part in these programs, because they get to develop relationships
not only with our volunteers, but also with each other.
I'm really inspired when I see, just like the conversations
that are happening here at Sela, between participants, between volunteers,
between volunteers and participants.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
I've been unhoused, and I have had experience in dealing
with the governmental apparatus, and I noticed the burnout or
the hostility sometimes these government positions do. And the difference
we're dealing with mutual aid groups is that again, when
you say community the humanity, and it's like, it's not
that the you need necessarily need to cuss out somebody
(28:36):
for them to act if they had wanted an extra
piece of bread or extra food or extra socks. And
I noticed that sometimes we could be so desensitized and
being abused and being abusive that that has become you know,
the lexicon of our own humanity psyche. If you will
so One of the things that I wanted to ask
of you is like, what motivates you out of all
(28:57):
of this to join SULA? Anyway was you doing prior
to tonight in nineteen It had to be a watershedable. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (29:04):
So well, for me, I've been involved in local politics
for about six years on the neighborhood council, and I
decided to run for much higher position. I ran for
Congress in twenty twenty, twenty twenty two and twenty twenty
four came pretty close. In twenty twenty two we made
it to the general election. It was came in second
place out of nine candidates. And one of the things
(29:25):
that I was hoping to do if I had been
elected to Congress, you know, housing is so important to me,
and you know, housing is a human right, and I
wish that everybody in Congress, in our state governments recognized that.
So for me, it's all about getting people housed and
you know, creating more permanent support of housing. And so
(29:48):
when I lost the election a third time, it really
gave me moments for pause to think about, well, how
do I how do I continue to fight for the
things that I want to fight for. How I've been
elected to Congress, and SELA really stood out to me
because it's it's such a local, grassroots, hugely impactful organization.
(30:11):
And I like to think big a lot, but when
it comes down to it, you're so much more able
to create a meaningful impact on a local level. And
so you know, they say all politics are local, and
it's true. And so you know, I said to myself,
I want to be able to start working towards these
goals that I was hoping to do in higher office.
(30:32):
What better way to do it than to work with,
you know, a really amazing, authentic, grassroots organization. And you know,
I think it really really speaks to me about this
organization is that it is primarily volunteer led. Nobody has
to be here. Everybody wants to be here, Everybody wants
to be part.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
Of the solution.
Speaker 7 (30:51):
And you know, again a big part of that is
is community and you know, helping people to have some hope,
and you know, I think that are really important things.
It's a really positive environment. And you know, I think
a lot of people, especially for somebody who maybe has
never been to a homeless shelter or like a soup kitchen,
they probably think of it as like a really depressing environment.
(31:13):
But actually here at CELA, you know, we really enjoy
our time with our participants, and these tend to be
very engaging and community building events. Like they're they're very
positive events, and we learn a lot from each other.
I mean, even for me, it's given me so much
more perspective into, you know, what's really important in life
(31:34):
and what you really need to, you know, to get by.
And I think especially I know a lot of people
are upset about the you know, presidential election results, and
I think a lot of people are fearful right now,
and I think it's been really inspiring to see the
community come together and to see just the number of
people who since the election have reached out to CELA
saying I want to get involved. I feel like I
(31:56):
need to do something, and I think that's a great thing.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
All on two different notes. When I have lived in
shelters as well, the reason you look maybe looks more
like these we're talking about. The Ebeneza Scrooge kind of
environment is usually because of the car through precepts and rules,
and conversely, this is a little bit different. It's like,
you know, you're not coming off like the heavy you're
not they can't do this and that or these kind
(32:21):
of conversational points makes it a lot much more inviting
and less like, you know, you're going to be beaten
down just to get a loaf of bread or get
something to eat, or just to stay out of the elements.
But also you mentioned about being hopeful. What is your
insight on the parallel presidency as well as the Grants
(32:41):
Pass ruling that's been going on, and what do you
what's your insight on grass Pass ruling? But what do
you foresee in the future.
Speaker 7 (32:48):
Yeah, so you know, when I say hopeful, you know,
I guess I'm hopeful because I see every single day
people that want to make a difference and people that
want to see the change changes that we needed to
make sure that every single neighbor is taken care of.
And you're so correct about the you know, oftencarcoral conditions
of a lot of shelter opportunities. And it really bothers
(33:10):
me when I hear people's complain about seeing unhoused people
and you know, saying, well, why don't they just go
to a shelter? You know, you know they have these
tiny homes over here. There's the bridge housing over here.
And you know, those options work for many people, and
they don't work for many people because, as with every
population of people, unhoused people are not a monolith. Everybody
has a different experience where they're coming from, different challenges
(33:33):
that they're facing. And you know, when I explain to
some folks who are unfamiliar with this idea that you know,
if you get into this temporary housing, oftentimes you can
only bring two bags of clothing, you can't have a pet,
you can't have loved ones with you, you have to
be in by a certain time, out by a certain time.
(33:53):
There's so many rules and regulations, and that's not for everybody.
So I think, you know, one of the big things
that we try to do at SILA is a lot
of trust building, which I would imagine that there's a
lot of mistrust amongst our house neighbors towards various organizations
and housed people and so yeah, and that's that's totally understandable.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
I also want to put the conversation into a larger focus.
We all are human and the human condition is complex.
Safe if you will or you're looking to find or
live in in a place you look in wig in
the cost. You look in the vicinity, you look into
your availability, you look at price, you look at you know,
if your children can be able to go to school,
(34:36):
you look at if you're fleeing for domestic abuse, obviously
you're not going to be living next to your ex
spouse or in the vicinity. All of these things play
a part in the choices and the suggestions that are
offered about just taking shelter. And just like a human,
if you are housed and able to afford rent and
you can be able to choose one apartment from another,
(34:58):
or on house people are stripped from that agency. They
don't get that same grace, they don't get that same understanding.
They get their service resistant or they don't want help.
And that is the unfair burden on house people have
to face.
Speaker 7 (35:13):
It's incredibly unfair, and I think that's something that a
lot of house people take for granted every single day,
is the choices that they have in how they conduct
their everyday lives. And so Sila, you know, to be clear,
we're not a housing provider, but some of the services
that we do are you know, we do a lot
of documentation preparedness so that you know when housing does
(35:35):
become available, we can try to help, you know, make
the transition into housing as smooth as possible and provide
additional support afterwards. But back to this idea of choices.
You know, even at Sela, a lot of house people
have this perspective of well, you know, they have nothing,
so they should just take whatever is offered to them.
And exactly, you know that they think about that when
(35:59):
it comes to house, but even when it comes to
you know, clothing donations and food donations, like people think, oh, well, here,
I've got a loaf of bread, you have to take this.
And if somebody doesn't want to loaf for bread, they
don't want to loaf for bread, you know. And that's
why we at least try to provide you know, different
choices whenever we have food, and to try to keep
(36:20):
it varied. And even clothing, when we have guidelines about
the sort of donations will take. The biggest guideline is
is this something that you would gift to somebody else
or is this something that you would wear yourself.
Speaker 5 (36:32):
Don't give us a.
Speaker 7 (36:32):
Shirt that's you know, filled with holes in it, unless
it's fashion it's and it's supposed to.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Look like that. Well food variety is such a revolutionary
concept to many other services providers. And I had to
point out as I've gotten younger in my younger years,
is that I have a health considerations. And when I
did an episode on Harbor City and on House, people
were like just completely exasperated. There was people bringing boxes
(36:58):
of bread and they were like, oh god, bread again,
just bribe bread and nothing else, and they just left
it there, just on and And the thing with this
is like, look, we understand they don't want to hurt
people's feelings, but like, look, we don't want any more bread.
The only thing is feeding is the rest because we
ain't need to know this bread out because you know
there's nothing else with it. And sometimes you know, the
health issues is like diabetes can't have all that bread
(37:19):
because all of you know different things or different other
health issue. Health consideration. It's not always you're trying to
be difficult or you're just trying to be a diva
or devote. You are trying to be a person that
makes informer choices, or you don't have health consequences, which
is a different, a different difficulty dealing out on the street.
(37:40):
And I don't think helps people can consider that because
they don't look at them as human beings.
Speaker 7 (37:44):
But I totally agree with that, and I think sort
of the irony in that is that I would imagine
that it's probably more likely that somebody who is experiencing
homelessness would have some particular dietary issues, you know, things
that they need, things that they don't need, you know.
So that's why we always try to provide, you know,
meat options, for vegetarian options. We try to vegan options,
(38:05):
We try to whenever we can, to gluten free options.
We try to be really accommodating to the to the
needs of our participants. You know, it's not just all right,
here's the tray of rice, go at it exactly.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Or you know what the big issue for me is
why am I? I'm a stress eater as well. But
also what balloon my weight is the lack of storage
of food because I couldn't store all of the food
because if I did, then it's spoiled and then then
who wants to suffer from food poisoning? So now I
got another dimensions, So you have to eat half half
the which spikes the sugar and make spikes all the
(38:37):
other issues that I don't think again. Like I said,
I just don't think as a human condition that we
don't understand the diversity of issues that go along when
unheused people wants to be treated at the humans. So yeah,
so I agree with you, like, and when we're looking
at these issues, that's going to only sharpens is focused
(38:57):
in illumination with the new presidency, the Grands Pass ruling
and too, like when I mentioned with a couple other
guests about the realities of climate change, because people are
not really thinking this through, like new disasters like the
brush fires and people losing homes from mutts, slides and
disasters North Carolina and in Florida, these things are going
(39:21):
to play a very big role in how on house
people are and displace people recently are going to deal
with climate as well as moral apathy or moral cruelty,
if you will.
Speaker 7 (39:34):
Yeah, absolutely, I think it's sort of a double whammy.
You know Grant's pass and you know the impending doom
coming with climate change. And I think especially with Grant's pass,
I mean, I think one of the things that's the
most terrific is that's something we can, we can and
should be able to control right away right now.
Speaker 5 (39:52):
But that we don't you.
Speaker 7 (39:54):
Cannot outlass poverty. I mean, people are going to be poor,
people are not going to have housing. We should be
helping them, not putting even more legal challenges on their plates.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
And mostly sharper to the point is that the fact
that as soon as Grant's passed undid all of that,
celebrations came out from Governor Newsom Mary London Breed and
all of them. And in Santa Monica they have now
a ban against unhouse people having a blanket and pillow.
And the idea is that they just went willy nilly
(40:28):
on trying to outdew each other on the cruelty on
unhoused people. You know, San Diego is basically just run
down on unhoused people. In fact, in Elmonte, here that
unhoused people were targeted and still were being targeted as
a result of the grants past, they accelerated their sweeping
schedule in order in excited anticipation after this ruling is
(40:51):
it's unleashed to be you know, forty one eighteen was
the leash with the Martin versus Boise, but that leash
has been taken off thanks to the six Republicans and
prove court justices that have allowed this travesty to be
unleashed on vulnerable people.
Speaker 7 (41:07):
And I think, you know, with that happening, I think, well,
first of all, I don't even know if most people
are aware that this has happened. And I'm sure if
it doesn't affect you, you probably don't know about it.
And that's just really unfortunate. I mean, I just I
don't know how you can teach people to care about
other people. And that's just to me, it feels like
(41:28):
such a basic human quality to want to help your neighbor,
to be engaged in community, and it's just really horrific
to me. And so I think that's why we're seeing
a lot of local activation to get our you know,
house neighbors, to help our on house neighbors. And again
it's I think we've got to step back and look
(41:49):
at the big picture of what are we doing here,
you know. And I've been really disheartened to see this
like sort of shift towards individualism and oh, I'm looking
out for myself and only myself, and you know, if
everybody did that, the world would fall apart.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Well said, I think we covered most of the conversational points.
Did we miss anything that you wanted to add?
Speaker 7 (42:10):
I just wanted to say I really, once again, I'm
really excited to be a part of CELA. I think
it's a wonderful organization. I also want to, you know,
express that we are constantly learning and evolving and you know,
looking to our participants for their needs. So it's not oh, here,
here's all the stuff we have.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Take it.
Speaker 7 (42:30):
This is what we think you need. You know, we
try to take cues from the participants that we work with.
You know, what do you need? Okay, we've got too
much bread, Let's start bringing in something else. You know,
we need more underwear. Let's start getting some more underwear.
And again these are small, just little temporary fixes. But
I feel, I truly feel if there was a Sela
(42:52):
in every community across the United States, I think it
would just, you know, we would start to see these
kinds of problems start to get fixed. And you know,
I just want to start to see our governments really
take care of people. And you know, I know a
lot of people are focused on the economy right now,
and the thing is every most every person you're going
(43:15):
to ever interact with, is going to be far closer
to experiencing homelessness than they ever will to be being
a billionaire. So why are we catering to you know,
these wealthy classes who have more than anything they could
ever need for lifetimes, and yet we are struggling to
get people into temporary shelter, let alone even permanent shelter.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Well said, and this is the old Henderson from William House.
We are exploring the mutual a group SILA, and I'm
hoping the audience is drinking in the conversation and getting
words to think on and ideas to create a better
world than we left it. Thanks to maybe for her
time because we had so many people to speak where.
(44:00):
We're going to keep the conversation going with the second
part of our series on Seiler in our next episode.
Before we log off, I want to physically invite you
to not only meet in a light of understanding, but
to attend one of my executive director's shows in the
studio today is the executive director who is going to
take it away, gonna tell them us what's going on
(44:22):
and what we can look forward to.
Speaker 8 (44:24):
Thank you so much, THEO, thanks for having me. Yeah,
I have my one person show which is called the
tiny man who is trying to kill me, which is
about basically what it sounds like.
Speaker 5 (44:36):
It's about.
Speaker 8 (44:37):
It's about doll the size of a nickel that is
relentlessly pursuing me. But it is also about making some
serious stuff funny, talking about sort of grief and loss
and a very tiny man.
Speaker 5 (44:51):
Who's trying to kill me.
Speaker 8 (44:53):
And so that's on December fourth in La at the
Lyric Hyperion. Tickets available when oh you can just find
them on the Lyric Hyperion's website. I think Lyricyperion dot.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
Com great well, as you have heard it from the
source itself. Look forward to seeing you there and I
thank you all again for listening, and as always, please
like and subscribe, And if you'd like to share your
story on widian House, please reach out to me at
Whidianhouse on Instagram or email me at Wiedianhouse at gmail
dot com. Thank you all again for listening together. We
(45:28):
will meet again in the light of understanding. Whedian House
is a production of iHeartRadio. It is written, posted, and
created by me Theo Henderson, our producers Jbie Loftus Hailey Fager,
Katiefischal and Lyra Smith. Our editor is Adam Wand and
(45:49):
our local art is also by Katiefischal. Thanks for listening.
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