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Speaker 1: Widian Howes has created a YouTube video on widian How's investigation,

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Speaker 1: but unfortunately that a lot of the things that you

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Speaker 1: could see on the YouTube, you can't see it on

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Speaker 1: the auditory. So I'm going to narrate some of the

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Speaker 1: things so you can be able to pay close attention

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Speaker 1: to the essence of the interview. The second thing is,

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Speaker 1: if you want the fuller interview, please check in with

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Speaker 1: widian How's investigations on YouTube. You can see the current conversation.

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Speaker 1: Willian Howes received alarming information on the nonprofit AIDS Healthcare

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Speaker 1: Foundation and will investigate the batter thoroughly. Our first guess

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Speaker 1: is Carla her pronounce are she there? And she is

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Speaker 1: from I actually was born and raised in Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1: I've lived ten years in the East Side, ten years

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Speaker 1: in Echo Park before it was trendy, and around eight

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Speaker 1: years in the Sampananda Valley. What are your impressions of

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles. I loved growing up in LA I feel

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Speaker 1: like we're the trend setters here, and I'm not talking

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Speaker 1: about the famous actors and all of that. I'm talking

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Speaker 1: about the low income folks that really started the trend.

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Speaker 1: I also love how there's so many different cultures here

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Speaker 1: and it's just been able to open my mind up.

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Speaker 1: I've enjoyed it. I don't think I could ever leave

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Speaker 1: my city like I truly, truly love LA and want

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Speaker 1: to make a difference here. How did you become involved

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Speaker 1: in housing justice? I think since I was a kid,

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Speaker 1: I was in the Boys and Girls Club. Boys and

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Speaker 1: Girls Club helps you know people in the inner city,

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Speaker 1: and so I was always in different programs that really

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Speaker 1: helped uplift me and helped me throughout different times in

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Speaker 1: my life. So growing up, I wanted to be somebody

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Speaker 1: who helped folks, and I wanted to get into social services.

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Speaker 1: How did you become involved with the Age Healthcare Foundation.

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Speaker 1: I actually have a background of senior living. I worked

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Speaker 1: as a medical assistant for six years. I also worked

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Speaker 1: in the cannabis industry for two years. The cannabis industry

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Speaker 1: really opened up my eyes to social justice, just because

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Speaker 1: cannabis has become legal in Los Angeles, and when cannabis

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Speaker 1: became lego in LA, the majority of the stores that

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Speaker 1: were open and had the opportunity to have a week

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Speaker 1: shop for people who are white, and to me, it

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Speaker 1: just felt like I don't understand why you don't have

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Speaker 1: more people of color. So it started making me dig

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Speaker 1: into public policy. It started making me dig into what

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Speaker 1: the history was, and I started to realize, like, I think,

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Speaker 1: I want to go into something even bigger than this

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Speaker 1: and truly help the community. And that's where I decided

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Speaker 1: to do something in social services and specifically do something

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Speaker 1: in housing. What is your experience working with AGE Healthcare Foundation.

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Speaker 1: I first started as an outbreach worker, so I was

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Speaker 1: personal walk around and give people flyers to go get tested.

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Speaker 1: Then I started to get different positions and work my

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Speaker 1: way up. I think the hardest thing working in as

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Speaker 1: healthcare foundations is trying to make them understand how important

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Speaker 1: programs like support groups, your support advocates, case management, how

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Speaker 1: all that is important and plays a role in your health.

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Speaker 1: Why did you leave the Age Healthcare Foundation? It started

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Speaker 1: to change when I joined the housing division. I was

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Speaker 1: we didn't have that many employees in the back office

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Speaker 1: where I would say, I guess it's the admin staff.

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Speaker 1: And we started seeing different things happening, like overdoses, people

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Speaker 1: attempting suicide, Seniors who were declining in their health and

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Speaker 1: they started having signs of dementia and a lot of

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Speaker 1: these folks didn't have family, so I started calling like

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Speaker 1: different social services to try to see if we can

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Speaker 1: get resources. But the reality what needed to happen is

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Speaker 1: even if they were gonna get resources, somebody needed to

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Speaker 1: lead them like hand holding. That's what needed to happen.

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Speaker 1: And the reality is a chef didn't want to do

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Speaker 1: anything case management. They just said they wanted to be

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Speaker 1: a landlord. So when we would bring up these problems

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Speaker 1: to them, they would say, you know, well, we're just

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Speaker 1: a landlord. Can you give us. An example of this

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Speaker 1: problem would be a client that I had. He was

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Speaker 1: a senior and he was starting to experience side of dementia.

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Speaker 1: He was also using heroin, but he started losing his

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Speaker 1: stuff so much so frequently, and I was trying to

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Speaker 1: get him in the process of services, but I was

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Speaker 1: not supported by age, so sometimes I would have to

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Speaker 1: buy him food. I would ask the janitor team to

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Speaker 1: help me clean his room, and the janitor team was awesome,

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Speaker 1: like they would do it because they cared about people too.

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Speaker 1: But the reality is I needed a team to really

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Speaker 1: help stabilize people and get them into services. So he

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Speaker 1: eventually died a slow, painful death. And that just really

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Speaker 1: bothered me because I worked in senior living for six

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Speaker 1: years and I worked with rich Jewish people, right, And

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Speaker 1: the only difference between him and the other senior just

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Speaker 1: that he didn't have money and he didn't have support.

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Speaker 1: What was the freid o straw that made you leave

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Speaker 1: AIDS Healthcare Foundation? The thing that set me over the

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Speaker 1: edge was when a property manager shared with me a video.

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Speaker 1: That video was a tenant sitting in front of the

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Speaker 1: Madison that's one of their buildings. He's sitting in the

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Speaker 1: chair and he approaches this guy and I guess that

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Speaker 1: guy owed him something or I'm not too sure what happened,

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Speaker 1: But then three guys start attacking him and beating him up,

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Speaker 1: punching him and stomping on his head. Like you literally

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Speaker 1: see the guys just stomping on his head. He falls

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Speaker 1: off the sidewalk and a car runs over his arm.

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Speaker 1: And when this video was ending, because there was a

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Speaker 1: security camera where it was being filmed from the security

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Speaker 1: guards of a healthcare foundation was laughing at the whole

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Speaker 1: entire thing, and security had been passing this video for

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Speaker 1: months to each other. Because it happened in March. I

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Speaker 1: didn't see this video until the end of May, so

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Speaker 1: I was really pissed off, like we're already having problems,

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Speaker 1: there's already issues with security. They think it's funny, and

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Speaker 1: it just bothered me so much because same type of

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Speaker 1: police behavior. Right, they're a security guard, but it just

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Speaker 1: reminded me of like a cop behavior and I couldn't

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Speaker 1: do it anymore. This next interview is one of the

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Speaker 1: residents at the king Edwood Hotel. His name is ed

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Speaker 1: Ernest E. Cornish, and here's his story. Ernesty Cornish, where

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Speaker 1: are you originally from? I grew up in Binghamton, New York,

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Speaker 1: which is upstate New York. What brought you to Los

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Speaker 1: Angeles film industry? Well, this year I've been on eighteen

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Speaker 1: different projects, Wow, TV movies, specials. I've been on Top

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Speaker 1: Chef Kids Said The Darnest Thing Season two with Tiffany Hattish.

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Speaker 1: I'd been on Ala cart was my last series that

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Speaker 1: I just finished for the All Black Channel that's gonna

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Speaker 1: premiere in January, which I'm very excited for it. And

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Speaker 1: I was on All Mankind and several other several other movies,

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Speaker 1: you know, different low budget stuff. Usually what got you

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Speaker 1: into filmmaker? I worked ed Disney, and I wanted to

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Speaker 1: get into camera work, and I went back to school

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Speaker 1: for photography actually, and while I was in school at

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Speaker 1: the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, I found myself hating photography.

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Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't like the classes, I didn't like

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Speaker 1: the school, and I ended up leaving a eleven year

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Speaker 1: job at Disney to go back to college. And when

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Speaker 1: I went back to college, I decided I was going

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Speaker 1: to go into in the film industry because full Sell

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Speaker 1: University was in my backyard and it was an incredible school,

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Speaker 1: great school. I loved everything about it. So twenty months

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Speaker 1: of hell, but it was good. What has been the

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Speaker 1: most rewarding thing about working in field? The most rewarding

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Speaker 1: thing is meeting all the people that I meet. I

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Speaker 1: love meeting people. Even at Disney, I met a lot

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Speaker 1: of stars. But since I've been out here, I've got

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Speaker 1: to work with some great names and great people and

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Speaker 1: they are They're just amazing actresses and actors that are

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Speaker 1: just you know, top notch, and they have great personalities

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Speaker 1: on an off screen, and it's just wonderful to work

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Speaker 1: with them. What is your experience of being in house

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Speaker 1: during school? I actually left my apartment and lived in

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Speaker 1: my car for twenty months because I afford school and

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Speaker 1: an apartment, so I had to move to my car.

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Speaker 1: And then when I moved out here, I didn't have

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Speaker 1: a car and I had a friend that was going

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Speaker 1: to meet me at the airport picked me up, and

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Speaker 1: she never showed For a year, I never heard from her,

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Speaker 1: so I ended up three weeks. It was almost four

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Speaker 1: weeks on the streets and I would sleep on the

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Speaker 1: train to Santa Monica. I figured that was the safest

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Speaker 1: one and I would go to sleep during the day

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Speaker 1: and I would stay up all night with you know,

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Speaker 1: homeless people that showed me the ropes. I thought it

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Speaker 1: was amazing the community here because they literally protect their

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Speaker 1: own and I was literally shown how to stay safe,

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Speaker 1: how to take a shower, how to get meals, and

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Speaker 1: they literally took me by the hand and showed me

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Speaker 1: how to do this on a day to day base.

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Speaker 1: And during the day, I would spend most of my

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Speaker 1: time doing resumes because I needed a job. That was

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Speaker 1: my biggest thing. What was your first night like being

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Speaker 1: on house? Well, my first night here, I ended up

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Speaker 1: staying at the La Mission and that was the worst

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Speaker 1: experience of my life. Why, I well, you had to

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Speaker 1: be there by four o'clock. I had all of my

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Speaker 1: luggage with me, so I didn't have just one bag.

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Speaker 1: I had a huge suitcase. I had a double bag,

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Speaker 1: I had my overnight bag, I had my camer equipment,

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Speaker 1: so I had a lot of stuff with me. Well,

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Speaker 1: they yelled and streamed at me for hours that they

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Speaker 1: couldn't check all this stuff in, and I said, look,

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Speaker 1: I just got off an airplane and I need a

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Speaker 1: room for the night. So they finally compromised let me stay.

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Speaker 1: And then it was so structured that it was almost

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Speaker 1: like military being in there. It was like you had

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Speaker 1: to go to church, you had to go to a meal,

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Speaker 1: then you had to go to bed, and then at

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Speaker 1: four am they woke up and it was like now

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Speaker 1: you're dressed and go eat your stuff, get out, you know,

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Speaker 1: and it's like okay, It's like and I never went back.

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Speaker 1: That was my one and only night there, but I

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Speaker 1: had one hundred and fifty dollars in my pocket. So

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Speaker 1: I ended up going to a hostlit up in Hollywood,

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Speaker 1: and I was able to stay there for a few

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Speaker 1: days because I had my boarding pass. I didn't have

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Speaker 1: a boarding pass going back, so they wouldn't let me

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Speaker 1: stay the entire time. My money right now, So I

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Speaker 1: ended up back on the street again, But at least

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Speaker 1: I knew people at that point and I knew where

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Speaker 1: to stay safe. How did you end up at the

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Speaker 1: king Atwood Hotel? I was at the Rest Hotel. I

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Speaker 1: spent ninety days in a hopera program for HIV and eights,

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Speaker 1: and I did my ninety days, and at the end

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Speaker 1: of my ninety days, they're supposed to help me get

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Speaker 1: what I needed to go on to Section eight or

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Speaker 1: whatever and move out. Well, they didn't help me very much.

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Speaker 1: And I didn't have my license yet and I still

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Speaker 1: needed myirth certificate and all that kind of stuff in

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Speaker 1: New York, and it was a big process after a process,

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Speaker 1: so I ended up back on the street. It was

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Speaker 1: about another month before I moved here, and then my

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Speaker 1: case manager at a HF, because I'm a patient of THEIRS,

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Speaker 1: actually told me that HF was taking over the building

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Speaker 1: and that they had room here. While I was at

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Speaker 1: the Madison that's where I was gonna go, which is

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Speaker 1: over on Seventh Street, and they told me they had

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Speaker 1: a room there for me to head there. Well, I

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Speaker 1: went on my way there, they called me and said

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Speaker 1: that room was taken, so I was like, okay, well

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Speaker 1: now what you know? So then they called me back

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Speaker 1: a few hours later and said they had the room

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Speaker 1: here available. So I ended up moving in into the

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Speaker 1: room here in one O three, where I spent the

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Speaker 1: last three years before I upgraded to this one. How

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Speaker 1: did you deal with day to day with your illness?

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Speaker 1: I was diagnosed on my birthday in twenty thirteen. It

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Speaker 1: was definitely a birthday president but it was a relief

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Speaker 1: in a way because I was sick for two years prior.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow. I went to eleven different GI doctors and

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Speaker 1: seventeen other doctors specialists that could not find out what

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Speaker 1: was going on with me. And then once I went

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Speaker 1: back to my primary, that's when I found out. You know,

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Speaker 1: we ran the blood work and we found out I

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Speaker 1: had HIV. Well, I had full blongs to AIDS at

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Speaker 1: that point because my CD four count was eight, and

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Speaker 1: they were confused why I was still around, you know,

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Speaker 1: she said, is like, you know, I could have caught

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Speaker 1: anything and it would have killed me. So my and

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Speaker 1: then of course they started me on meds immediately, and

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Speaker 1: then I lost the rest of my family members at

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Speaker 1: that point. I lost a lot of family members when

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Speaker 1: I came out in ninety three as a gay man,

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Speaker 1: and then I lost the rest of them when I

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Speaker 1: was positive, when I tested positive, because they didn't want

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Speaker 1: to deal with me, and they didn't want to, you know,

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Speaker 1: they don't want my nieces and nephews around me and

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Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. So they're afraid that I

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Speaker 1: pass it on to them. They mean at the King

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Speaker 1: Edward Hotel is an absolute nightmare. We have so many issues.

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Speaker 1: And it began with electric. Because the electric I would

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Speaker 1: to be able to cook a hot dog and take

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Speaker 1: me an hour to cook a hot dog in the

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Speaker 1: micwave because every twenty seconds you had to go up

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Speaker 1: to the fifth floor and hit the breaker and turn

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Speaker 1: it back on, come back down, hit the you know,

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Speaker 1: turn the microwave back on, and then do all that

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Speaker 1: over again about sixteen times before your hot dog is done.

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Speaker 1: They stopped pest control, so most people had tons of

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Speaker 1: which is everywhere. We had rats roam in the hallways.

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Speaker 1: I mean big rats. They weren't, I mean the size

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Speaker 1: of my cat. You know, I'm like, they're huge. And

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Speaker 1: then and now and they brought pest control back, but

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Speaker 1: it's only on as need basis. But now we have

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Speaker 1: bedbug infestations that they're not treating properly. Recently, I found

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Speaker 1: out one of my friends upstairs, Erica, has a huge

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Speaker 1: mold infestation. I mean it is sad, really sad, the

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Speaker 1: mold that she has to live with. Her whole entire

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Speaker 1: bathroom ceiling is completely covered with mole and then her

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Speaker 1: living room is now starting to I call them the

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Speaker 1: living room, but it's starting to move into that area

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Speaker 1: and it's just really really bad. But they don't they

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Speaker 1: don't want to, they don't care. It's like when you

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Speaker 1: when you complain, it does nothing, It does no good.

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Speaker 1: I means, I've filled out so many complaint firms since

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen that I never hear if they're a result

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Speaker 1: or that result, because they never they never let you know,

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Speaker 1: other than my hot water. I go weeks without hot

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Speaker 1: water and then they tell me, oh, you have hot water,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, come up and feel it. You know,

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Speaker 1: you don't believe me, come up and feel my hot water.

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Speaker 1: But they, you know, they want to counter addict me.

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Speaker 1: But then you know again that's what they do. So

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Speaker 1: so has obviously management has metric and residence concerns. Have

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Speaker 1: you faced any retaliation, Yeah, so in twenty nineteen, I

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Speaker 1: started protesting. In twenty twenty, I majorly protested because I

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Speaker 1: had the time. The film industry was closed down and

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Speaker 1: I had nothing to do other them protest, and I

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Speaker 1: was on Sunset Boulevard at their headquarters across the street,

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Speaker 1: and I protested most of the year. In most of

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Speaker 1: this year as well, and then any chance that I got,

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Speaker 1: I would move to out of the closet, I would

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Speaker 1: move to the Healthy Housing headquarters, just to let them know, Gay,

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Speaker 1: I'm still here and I'm still going to make your

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Speaker 1: life miserable until you do something, because the law states

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Speaker 1: you have to provide these amenities, and they don't think

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Speaker 1: that they're you know, they don't have to answer to

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Speaker 1: the law. On the six, at the end of the

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Speaker 1: business day on the six I received a civil harassment

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Speaker 1: restraining order from mister Mark Dyer. Mark Dyer is the

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Speaker 1: supervisor of management. They oversee all the management here. He

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Speaker 1: does and his link was that he didn't give me

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Speaker 1: his phone number and that I wasn't allowed to contact him.

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Speaker 1: And my feeling was I've been in management for thirty

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Speaker 1: four years, and if you didn't get your level of response,

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Speaker 1: you kept going up a letter until you did. Well,

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Speaker 1: he's the top of the food chain. Sorry, you don't

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Speaker 1: like to answer your phone, they don't answer your phone.

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Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, you're still the

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Speaker 1: supervisor managers. That case was dismissed. Right that same week,

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Speaker 1: I was given a letter by Age of telling me

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Speaker 1: to remove all my social media posts regarding Dominic Geeseman,

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Speaker 1: who is the regional manager, Mark Dyer again the supervisor management,

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Speaker 1: and Lillianna Zodai, who is HR. Apartment February fifth, my

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Speaker 1: best friend passed away in this building and I didn't

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Speaker 1: know how he died. I thought their neglect had definitely

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Speaker 1: killed him, because he had put in complaint for him

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Speaker 1: after complaint for him for over a year on his

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Speaker 1: on a resident that lived above him that was making

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Speaker 1: so much noise during the day and night that he

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Speaker 1: couldn't sleep, and he was in a lot of pain.

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Speaker 1: He was in a lot of agony. The last weekend

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Speaker 1: that I saw him alive, he was in so much

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Speaker 1: pain and so much distress. Hilary, It's okay. He just

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Speaker 1: literally it was like at his out ofbserble. So when

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Speaker 1: they found him Friday morning. The week after that, I

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Speaker 1: saw him because again they estimated he passed away Wednesday.

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Speaker 1: They found him on Friday, and when they found him,

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Speaker 1: I felt that they were neglect. It was totally their neglect.

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Speaker 1: If they had done something to resolve the issues where

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Speaker 1: he could sleep or where he could get some kind

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Speaker 1: of relief, he would still be here today. And he

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Speaker 1: ended up turning to street drugs and fed and all

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Speaker 1: killed him. But he didn't have to turn to street drugs.

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Speaker 1: They could have done the right thing. They could have

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Speaker 1: they could have solved the situation. Instead, they just neglectedly

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Speaker 1: didn't do their job. So I went to social media.

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Speaker 1: I called them a killer, I called them murders. And

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Speaker 1: again at the time, I didn't see anything wrong with

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Speaker 1: it because at the time that's exactly what they were

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Speaker 1: in my eyes, each and every one of them that

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Speaker 1: neglected his request, neglected his complaints. Then they're liable. They're

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Speaker 1: one liable. Well, they wanted me to remove them. I

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Speaker 1: was working fourteen hour days. They wanted me to go

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Speaker 1: through two years word of the posts to remove them.

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Speaker 1: While I was working fourteen hour days, and they gave

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Speaker 1: me less than twenty four hours to do it. I

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Speaker 1: didn't meet their goal, and on the twelfth they served

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Speaker 1: me at noon with deformation paperwork. And all of this

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Speaker 1: to me is nothing but retaliation. And now I've been

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Speaker 1: served with another restraining order with their security guard because

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Speaker 1: again they don't want to do their job. And when

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Speaker 1: I complain about it, I'm the bad person, you know,

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Speaker 1: And then they use words against me. You know, I

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Speaker 1: made a general comment. I just finished a marathon of

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Speaker 1: John Wick. I love the movies. I think they're full.

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Speaker 1: But anyways, I had just finished a marathon and I

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Speaker 1: was down in the lobby and I was telling them

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Speaker 1: that I needed them to do something. And then I

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Speaker 1: turned and got in the elevator and I said, you know,

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Speaker 1: to get anything done around here, you need to hire

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Speaker 1: a hand man. And the door shot and I didn't

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Speaker 1: think nothing of it. Well, now they're using that against me,

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Speaker 1: and they're saying I threatened him. I didn't threaten him.

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Speaker 1: I made a general statement that they took and turned

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Speaker 1: to whatever they wanted, because again they want me out.

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Speaker 1: They tried to settle, They tried to settle with me

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Speaker 1: to get me out, and they offered me twelve thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars in less than thirty days to move out during COVID.

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Speaker 1: It's like I can't. I haven't been able to find

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Speaker 1: anywhere to live. Yeah, but as soon as I do,

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Speaker 1: that's where I'll be heading, is to a new place.

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Speaker 1: But the thing is, until I do, it will be

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Speaker 1: on my terms. You know, I am not going to

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Speaker 1: have settled for not having a voice. And the fact

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Speaker 1: that you know they want me on the street, It's like, sorry,

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to the street just because you want

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Speaker 1: me on the street. You know, I want you to

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Speaker 1: be held accountable for your actions and I want you

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Speaker 1: to be held accountable on the law. And then the

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Speaker 1: law Civil Code nineteen I think it's nineteen forty three

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Speaker 1: or nineteen forty one point three states that a tenant

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Speaker 1: has the right to hot water on the tenant's own control.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't say intermittent because Michael Yuri, property manager would

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Speaker 1: tell you that it's an old billion and you'll have

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Speaker 1: hot water intermittently, And it's like, no, that's not what

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Speaker 1: the law says. The last states that you have hot

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Speaker 1: water under your control. But you know, again they don't

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Speaker 1: want to do the right thing. They don't want to

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Speaker 1: put the money in these buildings. They don't want to

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Speaker 1: fix them the way they need to be fixed. Live

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Speaker 1: ad