July 1, 2025 • 37 mins
As the heat picks up and Los Angeles continues to resist ICE, Theo speaks with Tanner Swanson of A New Leaf in Arizona to speak about the unique issues the state’s unhoused people face in increasingly lethal temperatures. While the year mark of the Grants Pass decision approaches and climate change’s consequences continues to spread, they speak on how the unhoused are being failed, and what needs to change.
Learn about A New Leaf:
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Previously on Weedi and House.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I see problems with housed people imposing what makes them
comfortable inside of their world, in their mind and their heart,
their places in the spaces that are not theirs, where
these things may not work. But they talk about things
like trust and stuff. And I'm like, I've worked with
people I don't trust out at camps. I've worship people
(00:26):
I hate their guns, I don't like them.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
We have to work together.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
If there's no one else out here, we got to do.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It, you know.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Welcome to Weedy and Howse. I'm your host, Theo Henderson.
Before we get to Unhoused News this week, some food
for thoughts. Ask yourself if you were given two choices
on where to be in house, where would you go
California or Arizona?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Why or why not? And why you think about fat.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Here's Unhoused News, recorded as of Tuesday, June twenty fourth.
Our first story starts off with eighty one year old
former mayoral candidate Michael O'Callaghan, who was killed by a
light rail train in southeast Portland, Oregon. O'Callaghan was unhoused,
(01:30):
a sixth generation Oregonian and self taught lawyer. He ran
for mayor in twenty twenty and twenty four, with the
campaign focused on improving Portland's houselessness, safety, and housing issues.
Our next story lands us in Portland, Oregon again with
(01:52):
nimbi's voicing opposition to a houseless shelter in Portland, Oregon.
Opponent to housing shelter, Todd Zahmit, believes's addiction is the
route to Portland's houseless crisis. Mayor Keith Wilson's aim is
to have the shelter reach his goal of adding fifteen
hundred new overnight shelter beds by December twenty twenty five.
(02:14):
The Portland Solutions Manager Rob Blank said the shelter would
be low barrier, meaning residents can be ineviated or altered,
but not allowed to bring weapons or substances into the shelter.
Our last story ends in Maricopa, Arizona. Heat related deaths
(02:36):
affect the unhoused population disproportionately. Nearly half of heat related
deaths in the area in twenty twenty four were houseless people.
In twenty twenty three, three quarters of heat related deaths
were among men, and seventy percent were over fifty. Many
reasons were attributed to this high rate of deaths, such as.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
The inability to get to cooling centers.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
In addition to this, that were broken down communications systems,
vast distances to get to places where people could cool down,
or centers that had very limited hours. Additional factors that
put people at risk for heat related depths are external
medical issues or using substances.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And that's Unhoused News.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
When we come back, we'll hear from our guest tanner
who will provide insight on being unhoused in Arizona. Welcome
back to Weedian Owls. I'm Theo Henderson. Earlier, I presented
you with two choices, to be unhoused in California or
(03:49):
to be unhoused in Arizona. Based on our last Unhoused
News story about the consequences of heat in Arizona, I
only thought it was appropriate to speak with someone was
dealing with being in house in that state. This week,
I'm speaking with Tanna Swanson, who is a worker at
New Leaf Shelter. Let's hear their story and let's then
(04:09):
check back in.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
I've worked for a New Leaf for almost ten years now,
and we're one of the largest service providers for homelessness
and domestic violence services in the Phoenix area, which a
lot of the times people think of Phoenix as just,
you know, a city within the United States, but it's
the fifth largest city in the country. I mean is
it is a very significant mentro area, and it is
(04:36):
one of the most hostile to people experiencing hostile to us.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
All Right.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
You know, if you have to live on the streets,
if you've got to live in your car, you know,
the heat is deadly, and not only that, but it's
not easy to get around or public transportation isn't very good.
And so it's a very unique situation here in Phoenix
that we deal with all the time, and so we
do our best at a new Leaf to help people
(05:00):
experiencing any type of houselessness, whatever the reason is that they're.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Dealing with it.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
We want to be a low barrier to entry support
to help people get on a path back towards stability,
whatever that looks like for them.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
I was going to ask me that quick question because
I had driven through been through Arizona when I first
started doing this podcast, and I learned that other in
house people from other areas was listening to the show
and wished that they had something in the area. So
it gave me the brainchild to start going under other
houseless areas. And I noticed that the transportation issue because
(05:33):
for me, I don't have a car, or I didn't drive,
and I relied on public transportation one to cool myself
down during the heat waves of California or the cold
snaps that will pop up during the colder months or
in other places. And I noticed that, and I wanted
to say, how does the house navigate there? Is there
(05:53):
cooling centers or are there places where they can be
able to congregate and move in light of now that
we have grants pass past, you know, things could be
a little bit difficult.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
You know, Phoenix continues to deal with you know, we
look at heat deaths. I mean they're in the hundreds
typically in our city.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Oh wow.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
The New York Times covered it last year extensively because
we have one of the first chief Heat officers for
the City of Phoenix, which manages this issue. And the
unhoused population is one of the most affected by it.
And you're right, you know, it is so crucial that
that even just access to like ac or water or
any of those basic deeds. I mean, if you're out
(06:34):
one hundred and seventeen degree attempt, which is are high today.
You can only be out in that so long, you know,
especially if you've got a health condition or something else.
You know, there's always something else going on that makes
it harder. And so a new Leaf participates in the
Heat Relief Network and that's like valley wide throughout Maricopa
County and there are sites all across. I always encourage
(06:56):
people like look at the Heat Relief Network website because
you can find places near you. You know, it's still
that challenge of we are such a spread out city
that it can be hard to get to those locations,
but a lot of them at least you know, you
can get some water, get a place you can sit,
stay for a couple hours. And it's great because they
provide the resources to tell you how long can I
(07:17):
sit there? Can I stay there?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
You know?
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Do they have other resources? So it's really a good
resource and we do that at our shelter sites. You know,
we've got shelters across the valley from Apatche Junction all
the way out to Surprise Phoenix Mays at tenp We've
got locations that offer those resources and it can be
really life saving for people. So the resources are there,
(07:40):
but they're not always the easiest to access, and people
don't always know about them.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
And that's the thing too what I noticed with doing
this show too.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Sometimes because the difficulties sometimes on house people have the
phones don't work, or they burn now they don't have
them charging, and or like I say, which I do
every year, when I take to tag the mayor of
the city here asking where are the cooling centers? Because
they believe that they said once one time, and it's
just everyone instantaneously gets it. It has to be a
(08:09):
kind of a repeated, repetitive cycle, a repetitive way for
them to get to it, and also to give them
a heads up. For example, here in Los Angeles we
have so many dragconing and policies against unhouse people that
if they show up and they have maybe more than
two bags or certain size of bag, they're going to
get turned away or they're going to have the police
called on them. Or now with the I don't know
(08:32):
if you heard recently, the ice immigration is rushing and
running up on unhoused people in shelters and snatching them
and kidnapping him or going to sweeps and targeting them.
So this new dimension also provides, you know, a necessity,
a necessary type of breakdown to protect also the in
housed going to these places because you know, they're in
(08:54):
the dire straits and they don't last thing. Anybody wants
to be kidnapped or arrested or or turned away because
they didn't need some standard.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, I mean, I mean you're spot on.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
I mean, if there's if there's one thing that unfortunately
community leaders love, it's an easy target, and un housed
is that target.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
We're not far behind that.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
There are so many laws and city ordinances that are
criminalizing homelessness and just making it that much harder just
to get by. It's really disappointing to see, you know,
the most vulnerable in our community just get told, oh
well actually now you need to pay fees and we
might put you in prison, and also you have no
right to exist.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
You know.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
It is it is just such it's mind boggling to
think that, not to mention how expensive it is to
police those people in that way anyway, right, I mean.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
It is it is.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
We know here in Mesa, and I'll give a city
at mesa credit, They've done a good job in the past.
They know it's cheaper to just put these people up
in housing when they need it for a short term
than it is to try to police them like crazy.
And instead, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna
mace them, We're gonna tell them you can't stay here.
We're gonna tear down you know, where they're staying. And
(10:07):
that's that's just that's just really wrong.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
To get quickly back to New Leaf, you've been here
for ten years. What prompted you to work into this field,
because this is not one of those fields that you
hear often in high school college. You know, it's got
to be something that sparked that kind of interest to
get into this.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
Yeah, I mean a New Leaf has been around over
fifty years in the valley. And so I grew up
in Mesa and I'm local here, and you know, I
love local nonprofits. You know, no no hate at the
national ones and big ones, but your local ones get
the issues, they get the people they serve. And so
I saw it growing up. And then when I finished college,
(10:46):
I said, you know, I really feel like people always
just run to the federal government or DC or somewhere
else to try to go and fix big problems. And
I'm like, you leave such a gap in leadership at
the local level to make a difference, and so I
wanted to join a new leaf and see if I
could help them out.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
I love what they were.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Domestic violence is a really strong issue in my heart,
and that's the leading cause of homelessness for women and
children in Arizona, and so I knew that that's kind
of where I wanted to be, and I just stuck
with it.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
I've loved it since I've been here.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Now, I'm glad you brought up the domestican violence angle
because you know we have excu as.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
You know we have that here too.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Add it on to what the undocumented issues is going
on if people are looking for because I had a
guest on most recently that worth a domestic violence a survivor.
What things did you offer for people to get respite
or help for those situations?
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Yeah, I mean I always tell people like number one
is called the Domestic Violence Hotline. There's always going to
be local versions of it, but the national one is
eight zero zero seven nine nine seven two three three.
So I always tell people call that hotline and reach
out for help even if you don't know. You know,
so many people in the domestic violence situation, they don't
(12:03):
even know if what they are experiencing is they've been
gas lit. They don't know what's going you know, it's distressing,
so they need someone to talk to them and bring
clarity to their situation. So I always tell people just
start there, talk to someone safely, right, make sure that
you can do that safely without you know, getting any
attention from your abuser in the situation. But figure out
(12:24):
what to do and then know that housing is available,
you know, like like a new leaf. What I love
about this place too, is they really focused on making
sure that nobody is turned away. So like we operate
a program here that you know, we got shelters all
across valley. Sometimes those fill up, you know, it's not
that uncommon, especially during like holiday season or times when
(12:46):
tensions are high in families. And a couple of years back,
there were some really just heartbreaking deaths with abusers in
the entire family dying because they were turned away from shelter.
So we said, you know, we never want that to
happen again. If there's a proven history of violence in
(13:06):
the household. We'll get them out of there and put
them in a temporary location, hotel somewhere. And we've run
that in America the county for I think, I think
almost ten years now, and it has saved a lot
of lives, you know, and you only wish that that
type of resource was put towards homelessness and other things.
But it's at least a blessing that it's there to
(13:27):
help survivors of domestic violence, because you know, I think
community leaders at least get that, you know, when it
comes to life and death, and some of them don't,
but you know, some of most of them do at
least understand that when it comes to abuse and violence
and crime, you know, that's something that people need help with.
It's just unfortunate they don't understand that applies to a
lot of other circumstances too.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
True.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I was going to say, I remember many years ago,
when I've worked in social services that there was a program.
It was modeled after the underground railroad where if the
abuse was so extreme, they would provide underground type of
services to get you whisk you out of the state
into other underground not on the map or not very
(14:11):
well guarded places where they can protect your identity, your
children and your safety and things like that. I was
remembering that. I was like, hopefully, you know that program
still exists. But I was just thinking, that's just one
way of really looking after people that are going through it.
I knew recently talking with the challenges that people that
(14:31):
are facing abuse, they have stated that there is at
least seven times they'll try to leave before they really
takes root. And that issue is such a complex issue.
Do you have anythink new insight onto that. No, it
definitely is.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I mean they still run those programs, so you get
people from out of state all the time. You know,
the chance that they go back is unfortunately pretty high.
I mean, housing costs come on. Like here in Phoenix,
our housing costs are almost as high as Californi now,
and that happened in like three or four years. Like
my rent almost doubled in five years. And I'm lucky
(15:07):
enough to afford it. But I'm not a single mom
with three kids, right, So it's just really tough to
ask someone to leave a provider for the family. Not
to mention that abusers often won't let their partner work
where they create obstacles for them to find employment or independence.
And so yeah, they're going to go back because they're
going to go I'm gonna have to go live in
my car. Oh and by the way, they're going to
(15:29):
arrest me and take my kids away if I don't
have a home for them. And you know, so it's
just again it's criminalizing that entire situation instead of saying,
you're in a terrible situation, can we help you. It's
going to be better for us, better for you. But
it's just disappointing that again that that you know, the
community doesn't respond in that way and say, hey, these
(15:50):
are people who are down on their luck and instead
of punishing them, we should say.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
What do you need?
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Right, So pretty unfortunate, but they run those programs still,
and it saves a lot of lives, changing geography, getting
out of the city, going somewhere different. That can help
a lot.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I was gonna say, I also going back to mount
my Memory Lane, and I remember a coworker, she herself
had fled from the situation, which is why I knew
about the program. And when she passed away, her other
side of the family because she just disappeared, they.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Didn't know, you know, where she was gone, and.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Her children had to tell her why that they left
and the whole thing, which was very eye opening to
the family and myself because I didn't know, like you
never know who's going through those China challenges.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
But also the resources.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
That are there in a way, how can we make
sure it's getting out there? What is it benefits? What
are the good things about New Leaf that you'd.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Like more than anything? I think we just stand We
stand by the clients that we work with. You know,
it's tough as a nonprofit. You know, you mentioned the
ice raids and some of that stuff that's going on.
Nonprofits really should take a strong stance on that stuff.
But you know, I'll be the first to say it's
a scary thing to do for some organizations. You know,
(17:09):
a lot of us, a lot of us across the
value across the country work with cities and the state
and the federal government, and we accept grants and we
need those to serve people experiencing houselessness or domestic violence.
And you know, if you speak up, I mean now
more than ever, people are swatting you down and it
can be dangerous. But I think that the most important
(17:31):
thing is is to keep your eyes on your clients,
try to protect them as much as you can within
the boundaries of the law and what you're allowed to
do as an organization, you know, because we got to
do both. We got to watch out for them and
make sure that we stay here and we can still
continue to serve the communities that need us.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And so it's a.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Tricky line, but I feel like a New Leaf has
done a good job with that, and that's that's honestly,
I think one of the kind of nice parts about
working here and again part of the local aspect of
really understanding your community and who you're serving.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Yeah, you raise a very good point about I think two,
we're in a precipice point of time where things could
go anyway, and what we've been seeing, particularly in Los Angeles,
I don't know if you've been following the news, the
outright kidnapping of people kids going there, going to daycares,
trying to statue kids, and going to hospitals and going
(18:23):
to shelters. Now, and first, you know, it didn't start
off that way. Obviously they were had a list and
you know, all of that, but then it became to
such an egregious point that you know, the nonprofits or
some of the places that are in a tentative or
tiptoe stance type of approach didn't know how to help
(18:44):
the people there, and it was so important to try
to figure out what safeguards to do to protect the
un housed undocumented. Particularly in Oxen, California, we have a
lot of unhoused undocumented immigrants that are in the produced markets,
are in the farms that are picking the fruit and
vegetables for the whole country. It affects everybody. And when
(19:05):
you do that and there's no one coming in to
pick the fruit and vegetables and things like that, that
does a downward spiral because now you can't get the
year of produce to the grocery marks the prices when
the once you do can get is going to be
ridiculously expensive, and then you can't help pass it all
over the country because no one like for example, here
(19:26):
in cauliflun no one wants to go to the businesses
downtown or don't want to go to restaurants anymore because
they are literally going out there snatching people. And it
doesn't matter if you're a documented or not. Here despite
what they're saying, they're not going out to criminals. They're
going after any random person who are examples of Marines
(19:47):
and the law enforcement. We're renting out hotels downtown in
Los Angeles. As soon as they signed in, they started
targeting the staff, trying to get you know, find out
who's documented. And so it's created such a atmosphere of
fear and caution that it creates more stress for people
that are displaced and unhealthed. You don't have to be
(20:08):
undocumented having to feel a stress because now we're also
on a curfew and police has been videos where police
have been attacking unhouse people, been attacking other protesters and
things like that. So the whole atmosphere here is very tense.
So you know, you know, and it gives you put
you in the quandary on what to do or what
if you should do something.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yeah, it's a tough situation. And you know, I don't
think Phoenix is that far off. You know, we're just
lucky that we haven't done the lightning rod that they've
just arbitrarily chosen to target. Right, and we see the
same thing here, right, I mean that fear. I know,
it's palpable there, but that carries out through the entire country.
Right now, I'm like in Phoenix, Like I can tell
(20:49):
you right now that I guarantee you fewer people are
reaching out for help to cross the board.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
We're talking domestic violence, homelessness.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
People you're trying to pay their bills, go to work,
even you know, drop their kids off at daycare. They're
not reaching out for help because they don't know someone's
going to pick them up and never be seen again.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, and you're right, you.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Know, it doesn't it doesn't even be you know, it
doesn't even matter if you're an actual citizen or not.
If you get wrapped up in that stuff. Man, you know,
all you need is just any number of situations that
can just go wrong for you, even if you do
everything right.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
And it's pretty unfortunate. And you see it happen across
the board, not to mention that, Like, you know, let's
say you didn't do anything wrong and you get detained
for a day or two. And I know so many
people who would lose a job if there were no call,
no show on them one day.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
But here's the thing too, where this matching up people
in playing clothes. They're running up on people, literally picking
them up off the street, and it's causing that kind
of fear because you don't know who's who. They're being
very surreptitious about it. They're being face masked, So that
also is another a fear thing because average person, someone
(21:57):
runs up on them and trying to kit nap them,
have them, they're going to fight back. But then now
you have this element onto it on top of the
fact that they are going to places and they know
the ripple effect of the fear because people are recording it.
Like most recently, there was this a young teenage boy
that was working standing outside trying to stop ice from
(22:18):
taking someone else. They just reached over and just grabbed him,
and he says, he's just you know, he's yelling, he's
a citizen, he's going is working, it doesn't matter. It's
just like here, it's like they have just allowed themselves
to do the President's bidding, just to just target willing
Neely and to create an atmosphere a fear for house
(22:39):
and unhoused people or a document or documented people. You
can be taken to a detention center indefinitely. It's not
like a couple of days like you're going to jail.
They have you can make a phone call, you can
call a lawyer, you can call your parents, or you
can call whoever you need to to get some kind
of help. They've stated that, you know, don't expect that
you're going to You can be indefinitely detanged that they
(23:00):
are not known to the populace. You know, family wouldn't
know where you're aware about, so something would happen to you.
They don't know because you know, those sites are not
available or accessible for people to figure out how to
get them out. We'll be back with more from Tanner
after the break. Welcome back. This is theo Henderson with
(23:22):
Leedi and Howse. Here's the rest of my interview with Tanner.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
I just got to say too, I mean, this is
just this like the most quintessential example of any political
group trying to distract from bigger issues, right, Like everybody's
having a harder time paying bills, getting by, taking care
of their kids, you know, and for some reason we're
here arguing about our neighbors who are nice. I mean,
(23:48):
when you hear about some of the deportations of the
ones we like, I put that in quotes, right, of
how upsecept people get because it's someone they know. I
can say, living in Phoenix, which is a very diverse
city with a large population of undocumented folks, that's not
the top of line issue we should even begin to
(24:10):
care about right now. You know, these people, they pay taxes,
they take their kids to school, they're working, you know,
I mean, we're shooting ourselves in the foot when the
only people that end up suffering is people who are
just struggling to get by.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And that just kills me inside.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
And it's hard because you've got to speak up against it,
but then you reinforce the narrative that this is the
most important issue, right and it's such a catch twenty
two of God, can we talk about some of the
other issues facing this country? But also yeah, no, you
can't go and snatch people off the side of the street.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
And ah man.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
And it's frustrating too because they don't want to bring
it in sharp relief. But you cannot not say anything
because it's deliberately because they know that it's so egregious,
and particularly here is so egregious and so audacious that
you cannot act like you didn't see. You know, they
left kids or running in snatching their parents and the
(25:04):
kids are screaming and text snatching the kid off from
the hand and throwing them and they don't know where
they are. One of these senators was rough manhandled by
you know, law enforcement here, Maxine Waters herself was denied
entry into a place where the order the sites to
try to investigate and see what was going on. You know,
it's like, it is our duty to speak out on
(25:26):
these things. We can also speak out on others. We
can chew bubble gum and walk too, but we cannot
just pretend it's not going on. And I think this
is one of the things about my show. It's like
I tried to do the intersection of the issues but
also soundly alarmed. I'm think I cannot ignore it is
humanity's fight. It's just not just one a slice of
(25:46):
populations fight. It's humanities fight. We must speak out against
these kind of things because it look if we don't,
we're going to go back in time where when people
ask what happened when Nazism and fascism was the voice
of the day, who was speaking out against that, or
who was doing things to stop that or to mitigate
the damage or whatever.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
So yeah, you know, and I'll second that of like,
I don't know, our communities are just a lot weaker
than they used to be, right, Like, we don't have churches,
we don't have a lot of civic groups, we don't
have a lot of ways that tie us together. And
it's a weird thing where nonprofits, like a New Leaf
and so many others, they've kind of taken that space,
(26:29):
right of, like these community spaces that used to just
be people working together. And if we're going to take
up that space, we better have something to say when
things happen, right, and we do have a responsibility to
do that and to try to help whoever is unfortunately
being targeted at that time, because it's our responsibility. You know,
(26:52):
our mission here in a New Leaf is like helping
families changing lives. I'd say that applies to a lot
of the things that we just discuss, and and you know,
we would be remiss if we weren't trying to do
something to help those folks as best as we can.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Also too, because they also have designed it in such
a way where nonprofits will lose funding if they do
speak out if there is great injustice, you know, and
that's the thing too, where you're in the quandary of
trying to speak out against injustice and then, like you've
mentioned before, and then you're also trying to keep funding
to help people that are in dire straits too, And
(27:29):
it's not it's not an accident. They'd have that set
up for that that very reason, which brings up a
good question, what things do you see that could be
improved in the situation here?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
I think overall, I think we got to I don't
I don't want to get straight into like national politics,
but like we got to get our head on straight
and make some better choices as the country. I think
it's so disappointing to see the lack of compassion in
our public power. And I think that's kind of Number
(28:03):
one is, you know, the winner take all mentality is
so damaging and it doesn't help anybody.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It just doesn't.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
It feels good for a second and then you deal
with all the consequences of it, it's not so good anymore.
But number two is just I mean, the flip flopping
is just the insanity of that is untenable. Like, I
don't know what the fix is for that, You know,
I'm focused here on my local community, but they should
(28:31):
do a better job of tying the hands of administrations
to make sure that they can't just flip the light
switch and decide, yeah, actually we're gonna throw you know,
millions of people out of this country. And you know,
we're not going to fund domestic violence and homelessness resources anymore.
And you know, there's so much authority that can just
flip flop on things. And I'll be honest, communities need predictability, nonprofits, businesses,
(28:57):
people need predictability. Uh And when you throw that out
out the window, it gets a lot harder to even
advocate for it. And I'd say those are probably my
two things is let's let's figure out who we are
and take a hard look at ourselves, and then let's
let's see how we can actually governed by consensus instead
(29:18):
of just you know, whoever happens to be in power
at the time just gets to auto whim and choose
whatever they're going to do.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
It just doesn't work.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Which brings an interesting point too, is with all of
these cuts that's going on, Like, for example, we're going
to see with Medicaid and the cuts cutbacks with EBT
or cal Fresh or the boostamp program, and not to
mention other cuts to other nonprofit Do you sense that
(29:46):
they're going to be deleterious effects about this or you're
going to see more We're going to be seeing more
in house or we're to see more you know, domestic
violence victims?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
What what do you pretend?
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (29:58):
I mean we we saw so during COVID, right, they
poured money into cities to try to solve these problems,
and we saw it get fixed better than it ever
had been a Here in Phoenix, our number of people
without shelter was the smallest it had been in I
think since they had started counting. And then last year
that funding ran out from the American Rescue Plan. Right,
(30:20):
And I know this is happening across the country and
all the cities, the county is the state. I'm sure
some of them would want to continue these progress, but
they're not willing to put money into it, so they
canceled all this. So here in Americopa County, we saw
homelessness for unsheltered folks rise over twenty eight percent in
a single year. That's like, I think, the sharpest increase
(30:41):
in a single year. These are all people who were
in a bed and are on the street period full stop.
And that's before these federal cuts that are like much
more serious are coming. And so we're already seeing huge
effects here at a New Leaf, we operate one of
the only failamily homeless shelters in the East vallag The
(31:02):
city of Masa is one of the largest cities in
the country too. Just by itself, it's huge. We have
one family shelter really to serve that area. We shut
it down a month ago because we know that we
can't sustain it.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
It's just not possible. We want to.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
We did everything we could and we're not going to
be able to keep that shelter open for family as
a need. That's the impact, that's the results, that's the
stamp on it of We are starting to see those
things come through, and you can that shit that it's
going to continue to get a lot worse. I mean,
we're going to see homelessness, evictions, domestic violence, all of
(31:39):
those things are going to jump and then people are
going to ask themselves why is this happening? And man,
we better be here to give them just a very
gentle reminder of where that came from. Because it's easy
to forget, you know. I mean, it's so easy to
forget you You talked about these cuts and no one
feels them yet. And then five years later, a year, two, three, four,
(32:02):
five years later, then people start to really see the
results and they're like, oh my god, how could this happen? No,
you've got to go into an eyes open and know
that this is the road that we're choosing to go down.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
I was going to say, you know what this uptick
that you stated, where will people be able to go?
Is there any kind of backup plan once the funds
run out, or do they have other alternative resources or solutions.
I'm saying this because I already know the answer to it,
but I want it to resonate to the listeners to
see where So when they make when you hear ignorant
(32:33):
statements about their like being out here, they don't want
to be helped, or things like that, you can understand
why it's much more difficult to ask for help or
want to get off the streets or different things like
that because of these kind of real issues that deliberately
gets overlooked.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Yeah, I mean, full stop, there's going to be people
who just have nowhere to go, period, And those people
are they're going to die on the streets, they're going
to be trapped in their car, they're going to have
nowhere to go with their kids, just period.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
And we're still going to be here. We're going to
do the best we can.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
We still have a couple other shelters all across the
valley that we operate, and some of those work, and
we're going to keep those running as best as we
can for as long as we can, for as many
people as possible. And I personally think we are in
a better position than a lot of other nonprofits that
are really struggling to even keep their doors open right now.
(33:26):
And yeah, people aren't going to have places to go.
That's what it's going to be. And when you see
them on the street, that's not a choice. That's that's
what the hand that they've been dealt, and we've chosen
to let them keep it.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Yeah, that's very well put succinct metaphor. Is there anything
that you want to bring up and that I'm missing
because I I tend to comment date a conversation, So no.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
I think just you know, you made a lot of
good points here just about how much the need is
how much fear is out there. But when you're thinking
about the community that you want, that the city that
you want, the neighborhood you want, don't let that stop you.
Don't let that stuff get in the way. The day
to day work is what's important. So I always tell
people get involved, volunteer, If you make enough money to donate, donate,
(34:14):
right there are so many things that you can do
to get involved. A New Leaf is just a small
organization working in the valley in Phoenix, but there's hundreds
of others. I guarantee you even just a mile down
the street from your home, probably there's a church that
serves meals, there's a homeless shelter, there's something, and if
you can do anything, I think right now you have
(34:35):
an obligation to step up and try to do something.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
To help excellently point it out. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
You know, you cannot sit on sidelines anymore because you
know there's this statement. You know, when they came for
these group of people, I didn't say nothing.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
When they came for me. There was nobody to speak up.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
So it's this is the time where humanity is on
a precipice of people caring or they just not. You know,
we cannot just sit it on the sidelines. We have
to do things. Even speaking up, you know, even having
the show has provided me a large or broader platform
to make people aware of what's.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Going on here. You know, this is one of the
reasons I like.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
You know, it's affecting everywhere in the country, but here's different,
individualized examples of how this could affect your place in
Arizona or other places that you are, and this is
the way they are doing it.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Yes, So I want to thank you for your time,
and is there any way that you have any information
how people can donate or research new leaf or volunteer
any of that information.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Yeah, if you want to donate, volunteer, get involved in
the Phoenix area, go to turn anew leef dot org
and check us out. You can put in a contact form,
you can make a donation on the website. You can
do whatever you want, but get involved and you can help.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Us help some people.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Excellent. I want to thank Tanner for this time.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Of course, and thank you for the time. We appreciate.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Thank you so much to Tanner for his time. You
can learn more about him at the links in the description,
I hope this episode opens your eyes about the many
realities and difficulty that unhoused people have to overcome in
each place across the country. In Arizona, for example, the
transportation system is not as efficient or accessible to residents
(36:32):
who are unhoused or displaced, thus making their challenges all
the more trying. In Unhoused News, I pointed out that
that more of a half of the heat related depths
in Arizona unhoused people. Taking this information into account, I
hope there will be more effective communication with the city
and state to create transportation opportunities to get unhoused people
(36:55):
to cooling centers with low barriers and expanded hours of service.
If you have a story you'd like to share, please
reach out to me at Whedianhouse at gmail dot com
or Whedianhouse on Instagram. Thank you again for joining us
and listening. May we again meet in the light of understanding.
(37:20):
Whedian House is a production of iHeartRadio. It is written, hosted,
and created by me Theo Henderson. Our producers Jamie Loftus,
Kailey Fager, Katie Fischer.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
And Lyra Smith.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Our editor is Adam Wand our engineer is Joel Jerome
and our Local Art is also by Katie Fischer. Thank
you for listening.
Previously on Weedi and House.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I see problems with housed people imposing what makes them
comfortable inside of their world, in their mind and their heart,
their places in the spaces that are not theirs, where
these things may not work. But they talk about things
like trust and stuff. And I'm like, I've worked with
people I don't trust out at camps. I've worship people
(00:26):
I hate their guns, I don't like them.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
We have to work together.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
If there's no one else out here, we got to do.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
It, you know.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
Welcome to Weedy and Howse. I'm your host, Theo Henderson.
Before we get to Unhoused News this week, some food
for thoughts. Ask yourself if you were given two choices
on where to be in house, where would you go
California or Arizona?
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Why or why not? And why you think about fat.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Here's Unhoused News, recorded as of Tuesday, June twenty fourth.
Our first story starts off with eighty one year old
former mayoral candidate Michael O'Callaghan, who was killed by a
light rail train in southeast Portland, Oregon. O'Callaghan was unhoused,
(01:30):
a sixth generation Oregonian and self taught lawyer. He ran
for mayor in twenty twenty and twenty four, with the
campaign focused on improving Portland's houselessness, safety, and housing issues.
Our next story lands us in Portland, Oregon again with
(01:52):
nimbi's voicing opposition to a houseless shelter in Portland, Oregon.
Opponent to housing shelter, Todd Zahmit, believes's addiction is the
route to Portland's houseless crisis. Mayor Keith Wilson's aim is
to have the shelter reach his goal of adding fifteen
hundred new overnight shelter beds by December twenty twenty five.
(02:14):
The Portland Solutions Manager Rob Blank said the shelter would
be low barrier, meaning residents can be ineviated or altered,
but not allowed to bring weapons or substances into the shelter.
Our last story ends in Maricopa, Arizona. Heat related deaths
(02:36):
affect the unhoused population disproportionately. Nearly half of heat related
deaths in the area in twenty twenty four were houseless people.
In twenty twenty three, three quarters of heat related deaths
were among men, and seventy percent were over fifty. Many
reasons were attributed to this high rate of deaths, such as.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
The inability to get to cooling centers.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
In addition to this, that were broken down communications systems,
vast distances to get to places where people could cool down,
or centers that had very limited hours. Additional factors that
put people at risk for heat related depths are external
medical issues or using substances.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And that's Unhoused News.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
When we come back, we'll hear from our guest tanner
who will provide insight on being unhoused in Arizona. Welcome
back to Weedian Owls. I'm Theo Henderson. Earlier, I presented
you with two choices, to be unhoused in California or
(03:49):
to be unhoused in Arizona. Based on our last Unhoused
News story about the consequences of heat in Arizona, I
only thought it was appropriate to speak with someone was
dealing with being in house in that state. This week,
I'm speaking with Tanna Swanson, who is a worker at
New Leaf Shelter. Let's hear their story and let's then
(04:09):
check back in.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
I've worked for a New Leaf for almost ten years now,
and we're one of the largest service providers for homelessness
and domestic violence services in the Phoenix area, which a
lot of the times people think of Phoenix as just,
you know, a city within the United States, but it's
the fifth largest city in the country. I mean is
it is a very significant mentro area, and it is
(04:36):
one of the most hostile to people experiencing hostile to us.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
All Right.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
You know, if you have to live on the streets,
if you've got to live in your car, you know,
the heat is deadly, and not only that, but it's
not easy to get around or public transportation isn't very good.
And so it's a very unique situation here in Phoenix
that we deal with all the time, and so we
do our best at a new Leaf to help people
(05:00):
experiencing any type of houselessness, whatever the reason is that they're.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Dealing with it.
Speaker 5 (05:03):
We want to be a low barrier to entry support
to help people get on a path back towards stability,
whatever that looks like for them.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
I was going to ask me that quick question because
I had driven through been through Arizona when I first
started doing this podcast, and I learned that other in
house people from other areas was listening to the show
and wished that they had something in the area. So
it gave me the brainchild to start going under other
houseless areas. And I noticed that the transportation issue because
(05:33):
for me, I don't have a car, or I didn't drive,
and I relied on public transportation one to cool myself
down during the heat waves of California or the cold
snaps that will pop up during the colder months or
in other places. And I noticed that, and I wanted
to say, how does the house navigate there? Is there
(05:53):
cooling centers or are there places where they can be
able to congregate and move in light of now that
we have grants pass past, you know, things could be
a little bit difficult.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
You know, Phoenix continues to deal with you know, we
look at heat deaths. I mean they're in the hundreds
typically in our city.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Oh wow.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
The New York Times covered it last year extensively because
we have one of the first chief Heat officers for
the City of Phoenix, which manages this issue. And the
unhoused population is one of the most affected by it.
And you're right, you know, it is so crucial that
that even just access to like ac or water or
any of those basic deeds. I mean, if you're out
(06:34):
one hundred and seventeen degree attempt, which is are high today.
You can only be out in that so long, you know,
especially if you've got a health condition or something else.
You know, there's always something else going on that makes
it harder. And so a new Leaf participates in the
Heat Relief Network and that's like valley wide throughout Maricopa
County and there are sites all across. I always encourage
(06:56):
people like look at the Heat Relief Network website because
you can find places near you. You know, it's still
that challenge of we are such a spread out city
that it can be hard to get to those locations,
but a lot of them at least you know, you
can get some water, get a place you can sit,
stay for a couple hours. And it's great because they
provide the resources to tell you how long can I
(07:17):
sit there? Can I stay there?
Speaker 3 (07:19):
You know?
Speaker 5 (07:19):
Do they have other resources? So it's really a good
resource and we do that at our shelter sites. You know,
we've got shelters across the valley from Apatche Junction all
the way out to Surprise Phoenix Mays at tenp We've
got locations that offer those resources and it can be
really life saving for people. So the resources are there,
(07:40):
but they're not always the easiest to access, and people
don't always know about them.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
And that's the thing too what I noticed with doing
this show too.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
Sometimes because the difficulties sometimes on house people have the
phones don't work, or they burn now they don't have
them charging, and or like I say, which I do
every year, when I take to tag the mayor of
the city here asking where are the cooling centers? Because
they believe that they said once one time, and it's
just everyone instantaneously gets it. It has to be a
(08:09):
kind of a repeated, repetitive cycle, a repetitive way for
them to get to it, and also to give them
a heads up. For example, here in Los Angeles we
have so many dragconing and policies against unhouse people that
if they show up and they have maybe more than
two bags or certain size of bag, they're going to
get turned away or they're going to have the police
called on them. Or now with the I don't know
(08:32):
if you heard recently, the ice immigration is rushing and
running up on unhoused people in shelters and snatching them
and kidnapping him or going to sweeps and targeting them.
So this new dimension also provides, you know, a necessity,
a necessary type of breakdown to protect also the in
housed going to these places because you know, they're in
(08:54):
the dire straits and they don't last thing. Anybody wants
to be kidnapped or arrested or or turned away because
they didn't need some standard.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Yeah, I mean, I mean you're spot on.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
I mean, if there's if there's one thing that unfortunately
community leaders love, it's an easy target, and un housed
is that target.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
We're not far behind that.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
There are so many laws and city ordinances that are
criminalizing homelessness and just making it that much harder just
to get by. It's really disappointing to see, you know,
the most vulnerable in our community just get told, oh
well actually now you need to pay fees and we
might put you in prison, and also you have no
right to exist.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
You know.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
It is it is just such it's mind boggling to
think that, not to mention how expensive it is to
police those people in that way anyway, right, I mean.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
It is it is.
Speaker 5 (09:44):
We know here in Mesa, and I'll give a city
at mesa credit, They've done a good job in the past.
They know it's cheaper to just put these people up
in housing when they need it for a short term
than it is to try to police them like crazy.
And instead, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna
mace them, We're gonna tell them you can't stay here.
We're gonna tear down you know, where they're staying. And
(10:07):
that's that's just that's just really wrong.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
To get quickly back to New Leaf, you've been here
for ten years. What prompted you to work into this field,
because this is not one of those fields that you
hear often in high school college. You know, it's got
to be something that sparked that kind of interest to
get into this.
Speaker 5 (10:25):
Yeah, I mean a New Leaf has been around over
fifty years in the valley. And so I grew up
in Mesa and I'm local here, and you know, I
love local nonprofits. You know, no no hate at the
national ones and big ones, but your local ones get
the issues, they get the people they serve. And so
I saw it growing up. And then when I finished college,
(10:46):
I said, you know, I really feel like people always
just run to the federal government or DC or somewhere
else to try to go and fix big problems. And
I'm like, you leave such a gap in leadership at
the local level to make a difference, and so I
wanted to join a new leaf and see if I
could help them out.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
I love what they were.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
Domestic violence is a really strong issue in my heart,
and that's the leading cause of homelessness for women and
children in Arizona, and so I knew that that's kind
of where I wanted to be, and I just stuck
with it.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
I've loved it since I've been here.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Now, I'm glad you brought up the domestican violence angle
because you know we have excu as.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
You know we have that here too.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Add it on to what the undocumented issues is going
on if people are looking for because I had a
guest on most recently that worth a domestic violence a survivor.
What things did you offer for people to get respite
or help for those situations?
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Yeah, I mean I always tell people like number one
is called the Domestic Violence Hotline. There's always going to
be local versions of it, but the national one is
eight zero zero seven nine nine seven two three three.
So I always tell people call that hotline and reach
out for help even if you don't know. You know,
so many people in the domestic violence situation, they don't
(12:03):
even know if what they are experiencing is they've been
gas lit. They don't know what's going you know, it's distressing,
so they need someone to talk to them and bring
clarity to their situation. So I always tell people just
start there, talk to someone safely, right, make sure that
you can do that safely without you know, getting any
attention from your abuser in the situation. But figure out
(12:24):
what to do and then know that housing is available,
you know, like like a new leaf. What I love
about this place too, is they really focused on making
sure that nobody is turned away. So like we operate
a program here that you know, we got shelters all
across valley. Sometimes those fill up, you know, it's not
that uncommon, especially during like holiday season or times when
(12:46):
tensions are high in families. And a couple of years back,
there were some really just heartbreaking deaths with abusers in
the entire family dying because they were turned away from shelter.
So we said, you know, we never want that to
happen again. If there's a proven history of violence in
(13:06):
the household. We'll get them out of there and put
them in a temporary location, hotel somewhere. And we've run
that in America the county for I think, I think
almost ten years now, and it has saved a lot
of lives, you know, and you only wish that that
type of resource was put towards homelessness and other things.
But it's at least a blessing that it's there to
(13:27):
help survivors of domestic violence, because you know, I think
community leaders at least get that, you know, when it
comes to life and death, and some of them don't,
but you know, some of most of them do at
least understand that when it comes to abuse and violence
and crime, you know, that's something that people need help with.
It's just unfortunate they don't understand that applies to a
lot of other circumstances too.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
True.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I was going to say, I remember many years ago,
when I've worked in social services that there was a program.
It was modeled after the underground railroad where if the
abuse was so extreme, they would provide underground type of
services to get you whisk you out of the state
into other underground not on the map or not very
(14:11):
well guarded places where they can protect your identity, your
children and your safety and things like that. I was
remembering that. I was like, hopefully, you know that program
still exists. But I was just thinking, that's just one
way of really looking after people that are going through it.
I knew recently talking with the challenges that people that
(14:31):
are facing abuse, they have stated that there is at
least seven times they'll try to leave before they really
takes root. And that issue is such a complex issue.
Do you have anythink new insight onto that. No, it
definitely is.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I mean they still run those programs, so you get
people from out of state all the time. You know,
the chance that they go back is unfortunately pretty high.
I mean, housing costs come on. Like here in Phoenix,
our housing costs are almost as high as Californi now,
and that happened in like three or four years. Like
my rent almost doubled in five years. And I'm lucky
(15:07):
enough to afford it. But I'm not a single mom
with three kids, right, So it's just really tough to
ask someone to leave a provider for the family. Not
to mention that abusers often won't let their partner work
where they create obstacles for them to find employment or independence.
And so yeah, they're going to go back because they're
going to go I'm gonna have to go live in
my car. Oh and by the way, they're going to
(15:29):
arrest me and take my kids away if I don't
have a home for them. And you know, so it's
just again it's criminalizing that entire situation instead of saying,
you're in a terrible situation, can we help you. It's
going to be better for us, better for you. But
it's just disappointing that again that that you know, the
community doesn't respond in that way and say, hey, these
(15:50):
are people who are down on their luck and instead
of punishing them, we should say.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
What do you need?
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Right, So pretty unfortunate, but they run those programs still,
and it saves a lot of lives, changing geography, getting
out of the city, going somewhere different. That can help
a lot.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
I was gonna say, I also going back to mount
my Memory Lane, and I remember a coworker, she herself
had fled from the situation, which is why I knew
about the program. And when she passed away, her other
side of the family because she just disappeared, they.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Didn't know, you know, where she was gone, and.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Her children had to tell her why that they left
and the whole thing, which was very eye opening to
the family and myself because I didn't know, like you
never know who's going through those China challenges.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
But also the resources.
Speaker 4 (16:38):
That are there in a way, how can we make
sure it's getting out there? What is it benefits? What
are the good things about New Leaf that you'd.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Like more than anything? I think we just stand We
stand by the clients that we work with. You know,
it's tough as a nonprofit. You know, you mentioned the
ice raids and some of that stuff that's going on.
Nonprofits really should take a strong stance on that stuff.
But you know, I'll be the first to say it's
a scary thing to do for some organizations. You know,
(17:09):
a lot of us, a lot of us across the
value across the country work with cities and the state
and the federal government, and we accept grants and we
need those to serve people experiencing houselessness or domestic violence.
And you know, if you speak up, I mean now
more than ever, people are swatting you down and it
can be dangerous. But I think that the most important
(17:31):
thing is is to keep your eyes on your clients,
try to protect them as much as you can within
the boundaries of the law and what you're allowed to
do as an organization, you know, because we got to
do both. We got to watch out for them and
make sure that we stay here and we can still
continue to serve the communities that need us.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And so it's a.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
Tricky line, but I feel like a New Leaf has
done a good job with that, and that's that's honestly,
I think one of the kind of nice parts about
working here and again part of the local aspect of
really understanding your community and who you're serving.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Yeah, you raise a very good point about I think two,
we're in a precipice point of time where things could
go anyway, and what we've been seeing, particularly in Los Angeles,
I don't know if you've been following the news, the
outright kidnapping of people kids going there, going to daycares,
trying to statue kids, and going to hospitals and going
(18:23):
to shelters. Now, and first, you know, it didn't start
off that way. Obviously they were had a list and
you know, all of that, but then it became to
such an egregious point that you know, the nonprofits or
some of the places that are in a tentative or
tiptoe stance type of approach didn't know how to help
(18:44):
the people there, and it was so important to try
to figure out what safeguards to do to protect the
un housed undocumented. Particularly in Oxen, California, we have a
lot of unhoused undocumented immigrants that are in the produced markets,
are in the farms that are picking the fruit and
vegetables for the whole country. It affects everybody. And when
(19:05):
you do that and there's no one coming in to
pick the fruit and vegetables and things like that, that
does a downward spiral because now you can't get the
year of produce to the grocery marks the prices when
the once you do can get is going to be
ridiculously expensive, and then you can't help pass it all
over the country because no one like for example, here
(19:26):
in cauliflun no one wants to go to the businesses
downtown or don't want to go to restaurants anymore because
they are literally going out there snatching people. And it
doesn't matter if you're a documented or not. Here despite
what they're saying, they're not going out to criminals. They're
going after any random person who are examples of Marines
(19:47):
and the law enforcement. We're renting out hotels downtown in
Los Angeles. As soon as they signed in, they started
targeting the staff, trying to get you know, find out
who's documented. And so it's created such a atmosphere of
fear and caution that it creates more stress for people
that are displaced and unhealthed. You don't have to be
(20:08):
undocumented having to feel a stress because now we're also
on a curfew and police has been videos where police
have been attacking unhouse people, been attacking other protesters and
things like that. So the whole atmosphere here is very tense.
So you know, you know, and it gives you put
you in the quandary on what to do or what
if you should do something.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
Yeah, it's a tough situation. And you know, I don't
think Phoenix is that far off. You know, we're just
lucky that we haven't done the lightning rod that they've
just arbitrarily chosen to target. Right, and we see the
same thing here, right, I mean that fear. I know,
it's palpable there, but that carries out through the entire country.
Right now, I'm like in Phoenix, Like I can tell
(20:49):
you right now that I guarantee you fewer people are
reaching out for help to cross the board.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
We're talking domestic violence, homelessness.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
People you're trying to pay their bills, go to work,
even you know, drop their kids off at daycare. They're
not reaching out for help because they don't know someone's
going to pick them up and never be seen again.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Yeah, and you're right, you.
Speaker 5 (21:09):
Know, it doesn't it doesn't even be you know, it
doesn't even matter if you're an actual citizen or not.
If you get wrapped up in that stuff. Man, you know,
all you need is just any number of situations that
can just go wrong for you, even if you do
everything right.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (21:22):
And it's pretty unfortunate. And you see it happen across
the board, not to mention that, Like, you know, let's
say you didn't do anything wrong and you get detained
for a day or two. And I know so many
people who would lose a job if there were no call,
no show on them one day.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
But here's the thing too, where this matching up people
in playing clothes. They're running up on people, literally picking
them up off the street, and it's causing that kind
of fear because you don't know who's who. They're being
very surreptitious about it. They're being face masked, So that
also is another a fear thing because average person, someone
(21:57):
runs up on them and trying to kit nap them,
have them, they're going to fight back. But then now
you have this element onto it on top of the
fact that they are going to places and they know
the ripple effect of the fear because people are recording it.
Like most recently, there was this a young teenage boy
that was working standing outside trying to stop ice from
(22:18):
taking someone else. They just reached over and just grabbed him,
and he says, he's just you know, he's yelling, he's
a citizen, he's going is working, it doesn't matter. It's
just like here, it's like they have just allowed themselves
to do the President's bidding, just to just target willing
Neely and to create an atmosphere a fear for house
(22:39):
and unhoused people or a document or documented people. You
can be taken to a detention center indefinitely. It's not
like a couple of days like you're going to jail.
They have you can make a phone call, you can
call a lawyer, you can call your parents, or you
can call whoever you need to to get some kind
of help. They've stated that, you know, don't expect that
you're going to You can be indefinitely detanged that they
(23:00):
are not known to the populace. You know, family wouldn't
know where you're aware about, so something would happen to you.
They don't know because you know, those sites are not
available or accessible for people to figure out how to
get them out. We'll be back with more from Tanner
after the break. Welcome back. This is theo Henderson with
(23:22):
Leedi and Howse. Here's the rest of my interview with Tanner.
Speaker 5 (23:27):
I just got to say too, I mean, this is
just this like the most quintessential example of any political
group trying to distract from bigger issues, right, Like everybody's
having a harder time paying bills, getting by, taking care
of their kids, you know, and for some reason we're
here arguing about our neighbors who are nice. I mean,
(23:48):
when you hear about some of the deportations of the
ones we like, I put that in quotes, right, of
how upsecept people get because it's someone they know. I
can say, living in Phoenix, which is a very diverse
city with a large population of undocumented folks, that's not
the top of line issue we should even begin to
(24:10):
care about right now. You know, these people, they pay taxes,
they take their kids to school, they're working, you know,
I mean, we're shooting ourselves in the foot when the
only people that end up suffering is people who are
just struggling to get by.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And that just kills me inside.
Speaker 5 (24:27):
And it's hard because you've got to speak up against it,
but then you reinforce the narrative that this is the
most important issue, right and it's such a catch twenty
two of God, can we talk about some of the
other issues facing this country? But also yeah, no, you
can't go and snatch people off the side of the street.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
And ah man.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
And it's frustrating too because they don't want to bring
it in sharp relief. But you cannot not say anything
because it's deliberately because they know that it's so egregious,
and particularly here is so egregious and so audacious that
you cannot act like you didn't see. You know, they
left kids or running in snatching their parents and the
(25:04):
kids are screaming and text snatching the kid off from
the hand and throwing them and they don't know where
they are. One of these senators was rough manhandled by
you know, law enforcement here, Maxine Waters herself was denied
entry into a place where the order the sites to
try to investigate and see what was going on. You know,
it's like, it is our duty to speak out on
(25:26):
these things. We can also speak out on others. We
can chew bubble gum and walk too, but we cannot
just pretend it's not going on. And I think this
is one of the things about my show. It's like
I tried to do the intersection of the issues but
also soundly alarmed. I'm think I cannot ignore it is
humanity's fight. It's just not just one a slice of
(25:46):
populations fight. It's humanities fight. We must speak out against
these kind of things because it look if we don't,
we're going to go back in time where when people
ask what happened when Nazism and fascism was the voice
of the day, who was speaking out against that, or
who was doing things to stop that or to mitigate
the damage or whatever.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
So yeah, you know, and I'll second that of like,
I don't know, our communities are just a lot weaker
than they used to be, right, Like, we don't have churches,
we don't have a lot of civic groups, we don't
have a lot of ways that tie us together. And
it's a weird thing where nonprofits, like a New Leaf
and so many others, they've kind of taken that space,
(26:29):
right of, like these community spaces that used to just
be people working together. And if we're going to take
up that space, we better have something to say when
things happen, right, and we do have a responsibility to
do that and to try to help whoever is unfortunately
being targeted at that time, because it's our responsibility. You know,
(26:52):
our mission here in a New Leaf is like helping
families changing lives. I'd say that applies to a lot
of the things that we just discuss, and and you know,
we would be remiss if we weren't trying to do
something to help those folks as best as we can.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Also too, because they also have designed it in such
a way where nonprofits will lose funding if they do
speak out if there is great injustice, you know, and
that's the thing too, where you're in the quandary of
trying to speak out against injustice and then, like you've
mentioned before, and then you're also trying to keep funding
to help people that are in dire straits too, And
(27:29):
it's not it's not an accident. They'd have that set
up for that that very reason, which brings up a
good question, what things do you see that could be
improved in the situation here?
Speaker 3 (27:40):
Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
I think overall, I think we got to I don't
I don't want to get straight into like national politics,
but like we got to get our head on straight
and make some better choices as the country. I think
it's so disappointing to see the lack of compassion in
our public power. And I think that's kind of Number
(28:03):
one is, you know, the winner take all mentality is
so damaging and it doesn't help anybody.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
It just doesn't.
Speaker 5 (28:11):
It feels good for a second and then you deal
with all the consequences of it, it's not so good anymore.
But number two is just I mean, the flip flopping
is just the insanity of that is untenable. Like, I
don't know what the fix is for that, You know,
I'm focused here on my local community, but they should
(28:31):
do a better job of tying the hands of administrations
to make sure that they can't just flip the light
switch and decide, yeah, actually we're gonna throw you know,
millions of people out of this country. And you know,
we're not going to fund domestic violence and homelessness resources anymore.
And you know, there's so much authority that can just
flip flop on things. And I'll be honest, communities need predictability, nonprofits, businesses,
(28:57):
people need predictability. Uh And when you throw that out
out the window, it gets a lot harder to even
advocate for it. And I'd say those are probably my
two things is let's let's figure out who we are
and take a hard look at ourselves, and then let's
let's see how we can actually governed by consensus instead
(29:18):
of just you know, whoever happens to be in power
at the time just gets to auto whim and choose
whatever they're going to do.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
It just doesn't work.
Speaker 4 (29:25):
Which brings an interesting point too, is with all of
these cuts that's going on, Like, for example, we're going
to see with Medicaid and the cuts cutbacks with EBT
or cal Fresh or the boostamp program, and not to
mention other cuts to other nonprofit Do you sense that
(29:46):
they're going to be deleterious effects about this or you're
going to see more We're going to be seeing more
in house or we're to see more you know, domestic
violence victims?
Speaker 1 (29:57):
What what do you pretend?
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (29:58):
I mean we we saw so during COVID, right, they
poured money into cities to try to solve these problems,
and we saw it get fixed better than it ever
had been a Here in Phoenix, our number of people
without shelter was the smallest it had been in I
think since they had started counting. And then last year
that funding ran out from the American Rescue Plan. Right,
(30:20):
And I know this is happening across the country and
all the cities, the county is the state. I'm sure
some of them would want to continue these progress, but
they're not willing to put money into it, so they
canceled all this. So here in Americopa County, we saw
homelessness for unsheltered folks rise over twenty eight percent in
a single year. That's like, I think, the sharpest increase
(30:41):
in a single year. These are all people who were
in a bed and are on the street period full stop.
And that's before these federal cuts that are like much
more serious are coming. And so we're already seeing huge
effects here at a New Leaf, we operate one of
the only failamily homeless shelters in the East vallag The
(31:02):
city of Masa is one of the largest cities in
the country too. Just by itself, it's huge. We have
one family shelter really to serve that area. We shut
it down a month ago because we know that we
can't sustain it.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
It's just not possible. We want to.
Speaker 5 (31:17):
We did everything we could and we're not going to
be able to keep that shelter open for family as
a need. That's the impact, that's the results, that's the
stamp on it of We are starting to see those
things come through, and you can that shit that it's
going to continue to get a lot worse. I mean,
we're going to see homelessness, evictions, domestic violence, all of
(31:39):
those things are going to jump and then people are
going to ask themselves why is this happening? And man,
we better be here to give them just a very
gentle reminder of where that came from. Because it's easy
to forget, you know. I mean, it's so easy to
forget you You talked about these cuts and no one
feels them yet. And then five years later, a year, two, three, four,
(32:02):
five years later, then people start to really see the
results and they're like, oh my god, how could this happen? No,
you've got to go into an eyes open and know
that this is the road that we're choosing to go down.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
I was going to say, you know what this uptick
that you stated, where will people be able to go?
Is there any kind of backup plan once the funds
run out, or do they have other alternative resources or solutions.
I'm saying this because I already know the answer to it,
but I want it to resonate to the listeners to
see where So when they make when you hear ignorant
(32:33):
statements about their like being out here, they don't want
to be helped, or things like that, you can understand
why it's much more difficult to ask for help or
want to get off the streets or different things like
that because of these kind of real issues that deliberately
gets overlooked.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Yeah, I mean, full stop, there's going to be people
who just have nowhere to go, period, And those people
are they're going to die on the streets, they're going
to be trapped in their car, they're going to have
nowhere to go with their kids, just period.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
And we're still going to be here. We're going to
do the best we can.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
We still have a couple other shelters all across the
valley that we operate, and some of those work, and
we're going to keep those running as best as we
can for as long as we can, for as many
people as possible. And I personally think we are in
a better position than a lot of other nonprofits that
are really struggling to even keep their doors open right now.
(33:26):
And yeah, people aren't going to have places to go.
That's what it's going to be. And when you see
them on the street, that's not a choice. That's that's
what the hand that they've been dealt, and we've chosen
to let them keep it.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Yeah, that's very well put succinct metaphor. Is there anything
that you want to bring up and that I'm missing
because I I tend to comment date a conversation, So no.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
I think just you know, you made a lot of
good points here just about how much the need is
how much fear is out there. But when you're thinking
about the community that you want, that the city that
you want, the neighborhood you want, don't let that stop you.
Don't let that stuff get in the way. The day
to day work is what's important. So I always tell
people get involved, volunteer, If you make enough money to donate, donate,
(34:14):
right there are so many things that you can do
to get involved. A New Leaf is just a small
organization working in the valley in Phoenix, but there's hundreds
of others. I guarantee you even just a mile down
the street from your home, probably there's a church that
serves meals, there's a homeless shelter, there's something, and if
you can do anything, I think right now you have
(34:35):
an obligation to step up and try to do something.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
To help excellently point it out. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
You know, you cannot sit on sidelines anymore because you
know there's this statement. You know, when they came for
these group of people, I didn't say nothing.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
When they came for me. There was nobody to speak up.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
So it's this is the time where humanity is on
a precipice of people caring or they just not. You know,
we cannot just sit it on the sidelines. We have
to do things. Even speaking up, you know, even having
the show has provided me a large or broader platform
to make people aware of what's.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Going on here. You know, this is one of the
reasons I like.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
You know, it's affecting everywhere in the country, but here's different,
individualized examples of how this could affect your place in
Arizona or other places that you are, and this is
the way they are doing it.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Yes, So I want to thank you for your time,
and is there any way that you have any information
how people can donate or research new leaf or volunteer
any of that information.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Yeah, if you want to donate, volunteer, get involved in
the Phoenix area, go to turn anew leef dot org
and check us out. You can put in a contact form,
you can make a donation on the website. You can
do whatever you want, but get involved and you can help.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
Us help some people.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Excellent. I want to thank Tanner for this time.
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Of course, and thank you for the time. We appreciate.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
Thank you so much to Tanner for his time. You
can learn more about him at the links in the description,
I hope this episode opens your eyes about the many
realities and difficulty that unhoused people have to overcome in
each place across the country. In Arizona, for example, the
transportation system is not as efficient or accessible to residents
(36:32):
who are unhoused or displaced, thus making their challenges all
the more trying. In Unhoused News, I pointed out that
that more of a half of the heat related depths
in Arizona unhoused people. Taking this information into account, I
hope there will be more effective communication with the city
and state to create transportation opportunities to get unhoused people
(36:55):
to cooling centers with low barriers and expanded hours of service.
If you have a story you'd like to share, please
reach out to me at Whedianhouse at gmail dot com
or Whedianhouse on Instagram. Thank you again for joining us
and listening. May we again meet in the light of understanding.
(37:20):
Whedian House is a production of iHeartRadio. It is written, hosted,
and created by me Theo Henderson. Our producers Jamie Loftus,
Kailey Fager, Katie Fischer.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
And Lyra Smith.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
Our editor is Adam Wand our engineer is Joel Jerome
and our Local Art is also by Katie Fischer. Thank
you for listening.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com