Speaker 1: Welcome to it could happen here the podcast about stuff
Speaker 1: falling apart and perhaps how we can begin to put
Speaker 1: them back together. Today, I'm your host, Garrison Davis. We've
Speaker 1: had a lot of doom and gloom the past few
Speaker 1: weeks here on the pod, so this episode we more
Speaker 1: focused on the putting stuff back together side of the spectrum.
Speaker 1: We'll be talking with Elizabeth Blackburn of the First Collective,
Speaker 1: a group of volunteers, organizers, and activists in Columbus, Ohio
Speaker 1: focused on direct, grassroots action and mutual aid. But we'll
Speaker 1: be specifically talking about a volunteer run homeless encampment that's
Speaker 1: currently serving around people in the near East side of Columbus.
Speaker 1: Here's some of the history from Elizabeth. The project started
Speaker 1: as a warming station at the end of January UM
Speaker 1: and how is morphed into a autonomous encampment that's largely
Speaker 1: self governed and managed by a loose network of mutual
Speaker 1: aid organizations that came together during the uprisings. You know,
Speaker 1: this is this is as flat an organization as we
Speaker 1: can make it, and we're you know, we're trying to
Speaker 1: make it flatter, and I just think it's important that
Speaker 1: the people recognize. You know, going out with resources is great,
Speaker 1: but going out and finding out what resources people need
Speaker 1: is better. There are so many groups in our city
Speaker 1: that are supposed to be doing this work that are not,
Speaker 1: and they're being paid to do this work, and it's ineffective.
Speaker 1: And all I want is for for more people to
Speaker 1: try and do it their own way, to try and
Speaker 1: do what their community wants, you know, to the best
Speaker 1: of their abilities. We see that lots of projects grow
Speaker 1: out of the mutual a networks that were established. It's
Speaker 1: been interesting to see how people in the wake of
Speaker 1: the George Floyd uprising have built off things started two
Speaker 1: years ago, what's changed in their practice, and how it's
Speaker 1: evolved since then. This past winter in this area of Columbus, Ohio,
Speaker 1: there was community needs not being met, people having to
Speaker 1: be out in the cold and not having a place
Speaker 1: to stay. This problem was recognized by people, but unfortunately,
Speaker 1: far too many people just look at problems and just
Speaker 1: be like, oh, yes, here's the thing that sucks. Well,
Speaker 1: that's too bad. But today we'll be talking about how
Speaker 1: a collective of people didn't simply acknowledge a problem, but
Speaker 1: actually went past that point and decided that even with
Speaker 1: limited resources, they had the capacity to actually figure out
Speaker 1: how to solve this themselves and provide a solution for
Speaker 1: the community. I think the first time I really tried
Speaker 1: something like that was in December. A friend of mine
Speaker 1: had reached out about a camp on the south side
Speaker 1: of Columbus that was being swept by the city and
Speaker 1: they had needs. They needed new tents so they could
Speaker 1: set up elsewhere. They needed food and water like they
Speaker 1: always did, and they needed people to be there um
Speaker 1: to keep you know, to prevent violence from occurring as
Speaker 1: much as possible. UM. So hearing about that, I started
Speaker 1: a I set up on my street in a bougie
Speaker 1: part of Columbus UM with a little sign and collected
Speaker 1: goods whatever people dropped off, I collected money. UM. I
Speaker 1: raised about two thousand dollars and uh I think we
Speaker 1: ended up buying around twenty two tenths UM got other
Speaker 1: people there as well, and tried to make sure everybody
Speaker 1: had what they needed so they could get set up elsewhere.
Speaker 1: But that was my first, like my first experience with
Speaker 1: that doing it hands on and seeing that that worked,
Speaker 1: that encouraged me to do more. Is that How has
Speaker 1: it grown and changed? Since then, there's still a need
Speaker 1: for people to stay. Um, it still gets pretty cold
Speaker 1: at night. Um, so how throughout throughout winter? How did
Speaker 1: the project kind of morphin change? How did you go
Speaker 1: about finding like places to actually like set up the
Speaker 1: physical spot right, Like, that's that's a whole it's a
Speaker 1: whole other problem. Um, it's all like the is all
Speaker 1: like the logistical side of things. Yeah, exactly. Um, well,
Speaker 1: we happened to have a space late last fall, I
Speaker 1: was invited to join a collective. At first collective that
Speaker 1: was operating out of a church that largely um falling
Speaker 1: into disrepair, but still operating as a church. And because
Speaker 1: we had that space, a couple of members of the
Speaker 1: collective encountered some folks in the neighborhood who needed a
Speaker 1: place to sleep. They were sleeping in a bus stop
Speaker 1: on a snowy night, and we just decided to start
Speaker 1: giving them a place to stay because we had a place.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a super popular decision, but um, we had
Speaker 1: community back in. Conflicts from some people in the neighborhood
Speaker 1: who were more nimby minded did obviously come up, along
Speaker 1: with the complaints from the church that the first collective
Speaker 1: was operating out of for the community's part. When we
Speaker 1: were at the church, we were in a part of
Speaker 1: the neighborhood that had largely been gentrified, and so there
Speaker 1: was some some resistance, some concern about the changing face
Speaker 1: of the community and about the safety of kids and
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. But we didn't have any
Speaker 1: real safety concerns, not not in our not inside beyond
Speaker 1: a couple encounters that we had to de escalate UM
Speaker 1: and a few people that we had to remove for
Speaker 1: based on their behavior, UM, but from inside the church,
Speaker 1: from the church organization. UM. The conflicts started pretty early on.
Speaker 1: They didn't really like how we oper aided and we
Speaker 1: got a reputation as a warming space with no rules,
Speaker 1: and so they felt like because couples could sleep next
Speaker 1: to each other, UM, because people could go outside for
Speaker 1: a cigarette at night, because they weren't locked in the building,
Speaker 1: that we were running a space that was out of control,
Speaker 1: well until until we were kicked out of the church
Speaker 1: on March twenty nine. I think it was the physical
Speaker 1: infrastructure was there. It was just a matter of getting
Speaker 1: caughts and blankets and making sure that people had food.
Speaker 1: Most of that was either through just one off donations
Speaker 1: to my cash app or I bought it with my
Speaker 1: own funds UM. Once we were forced to move outside,
Speaker 1: it got a lot more complicated UM because at that
Speaker 1: point we didn't have any tents UM. We had to
Speaker 1: go out that night and purchase. The day that we
Speaker 1: were removed, we had to go out and purchase I
Speaker 1: believed ten tents to start, and then had a couple
Speaker 1: dropped off UM. We now have around twenty tents UM.
Speaker 1: A lot of those were purchased by by me or
Speaker 1: by donations that we received UM, or have been dropped
Speaker 1: off by by friends or people in the neighborhood. UM
Speaker 1: that has been you know, the physical infrastructure is mostly
Speaker 1: tents and canopies, and most of them are being held
Speaker 1: up by pieces of old tents or large tree limbs
Speaker 1: or whatever we can to survive the wind because it's
Speaker 1: been nothing but windstorms for the past well since we
Speaker 1: got here. Our first camp site was set up on
Speaker 1: a lot that was connected to the farm four Seasons
Speaker 1: City Farm UM. Several of the members of the collective
Speaker 1: our former paid employees of the farm or multi year volunteers.
Speaker 1: It's a it's a large organization on this part. In
Speaker 1: this part of the town UM Old Town East UM
Speaker 1: with about fifteen I belief years of history and goodwill UM.
Speaker 1: So we set up next to their lot. But because
Speaker 1: they're on land bank land, we we didn't want to
Speaker 1: interfere with their lease with the city. So rather than
Speaker 1: risk the farm getting fined or UM having having their
Speaker 1: least broken, we we look next door to a lot
Speaker 1: on the other side of a chain length fence M
Speaker 1: two lots. Actually, one is owned by the city that's
Speaker 1: the one where most of our tents are, and then
Speaker 1: one is owned by a private owner who's a rather
Speaker 1: wealthy person in the neighborhood. UM. We've done our best
Speaker 1: to stay on the city lot and that has been
Speaker 1: good for us. But we're also maintaining both lots and
Speaker 1: doing our best to keep the trash to a minimum
Speaker 1: UM to make sure that we're not carrying up the
Speaker 1: ground as much as we can, though it's hard with
Speaker 1: all this rain UH, and and just do our best
Speaker 1: to be good neighbors UM. And I think that has
Speaker 1: helped us a lot. In recent years, lower class Columbus
Speaker 1: area residents lost twenty thousand units of housing due to
Speaker 1: unaffordable spiking rent prices. An annual Point in Time tally
Speaker 1: this year organized by the Community Shelter Board, found the
Speaker 1: number of homeless people in official Columbus and Franklin County
Speaker 1: emergency shelters increased by more than two hundred people since
Speaker 1: one and online data from the Shelter Board of a
Speaker 1: nonprofit organization that receives funding from the City of Columbus
Speaker 1: and other organizations indicates that as of March, there was
Speaker 1: a seven percent drop in the rate of people exiting
Speaker 1: their program and moving into stable housing as compared to
Speaker 1: last year. Going from to a lot of times more
Speaker 1: formalized shelters are not ideal for people to stay in.
Speaker 1: There's many issues with the formalized shelters regarding the specific
Speaker 1: rules of when you can get inside, how long you
Speaker 1: can be inside, whether you're locked inside the building, what
Speaker 1: stuff you can bring with you. At best, they are
Speaker 1: challenging to navigate. At worst, they're simply hostile to people
Speaker 1: looking for shelter. I asked Elizabeth what her take on
Speaker 1: the homeless shelter situation is like in Columbus and the
Speaker 1: ways their encampment is different from the more official shelters.
Speaker 1: We have limited beds and then the beds that are
Speaker 1: available are mostly under the governance of the shelter board,
Speaker 1: and the shelter board wasn't too fond of us either.
Speaker 1: Weren't following all their rules, and there are a lot
Speaker 1: of concerns about the way the shelters run. The people
Speaker 1: that stay with us, the people that come through, they
Speaker 1: feel safer here. Um, there's considerably less drug use. There's
Speaker 1: basically no distribution. We try to keep a handle on
Speaker 1: that because it, you know, would bring problems to the
Speaker 1: camp should it happen there. Um, we are a safe
Speaker 1: use space. We do have harm reduction materials and they
Speaker 1: know that, um, and we we do our best to
Speaker 1: you know, just make sure that people have the care
Speaker 1: and the safety that they need. And that is kind
Speaker 1: of a dirty word. While all of those are kind
Speaker 1: of dirty words, and the shelter organizing community, I guess, um,
Speaker 1: care and and you know, making people comfortable, it's just
Speaker 1: not really the goal. Next, I asked about what types
Speaker 1: of connections the encampment and First Collective have been making
Speaker 1: with various organizations for infrastructural support or daily needs, as
Speaker 1: well as enquiring about the relations the camp has with
Speaker 1: the city government. Here is Elizabeth's response. We reached out
Speaker 1: to the different you know, harm reduction groups, the different
Speaker 1: house listeners groups, the the emergency action groups that uh,
Speaker 1: different serve groups, and we just asked them to bring
Speaker 1: what they could or to send people if they could,
Speaker 1: just you know, whatever they could spare. And and it's worked. Um.
Speaker 1: People show up with whatever they have to offer. UM
Speaker 1: from all over the city and and just from around
Speaker 1: the corner, which has been wonderful. That the grassroots community
Speaker 1: support is just blowing my mind. I thought they were
Speaker 1: going to hate us, and here we are like making
Speaker 1: friends with everybody. Our first goal is to make sure
Speaker 1: that we've met people's needs as best we can. UM.
Speaker 1: You know that that involves right now, UM keeping propane
Speaker 1: on site so that they can some of the food
Speaker 1: that's brought. UM. We get a lot of prepared meals,
Speaker 1: but we also get a lot of ingredients, and there
Speaker 1: are quite a few people here that cook and have
Speaker 1: done pretty miraculous things with a couple of propane girls. UM.
Speaker 1: We try and have meals prepared every day, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't doesn't always work out, and sometimes we fill the
Speaker 1: gaps with Little Caesar's or or something else. UM. Whatever,
Speaker 1: whatever it can be scraunged up at the last minute.
Speaker 1: Some of our biggest allies so far have been UM
Speaker 1: the local food not bombs UH. They have been wonderful,
Speaker 1: as well as some different church groups that that run
Speaker 1: nonprofits like Community Kitchen. We get our meals provided six
Speaker 1: days a week by church that's basically down the street
Speaker 1: and around the corner. But as far as the city goes.
Speaker 1: For the first couple of days, there were a lot
Speaker 1: of roll by's, UM, a lot of city officials taking
Speaker 1: pick sure's, no one really talking to us, but there
Speaker 1: was clearly concern. It wasn't until a man who works
Speaker 1: for the city and outreach under the Safety and Security Department,
Speaker 1: Sean Stevenson, came out and talked to us UH that
Speaker 1: we really started to see the possibilities of working with
Speaker 1: the city and and so much as they let us.
Speaker 1: He brought a city attorney, Steve Dunbar, and a gentleman
Speaker 1: from the Mayor's office UM, Jason Jenkins by to talk
Speaker 1: to our folks and they listened. They listened to the
Speaker 1: people at the camp who explained to them why they
Speaker 1: were here, explained to them why the resources that are
Speaker 1: available didn't work for them. You know, it was a
Speaker 1: it was a tearful conversation and since then they've largely
Speaker 1: left us alone. UM. We wish that they would provide
Speaker 1: some of the resources that they talked about, like a
Speaker 1: couple of porta potties and a dumpster. But you know,
Speaker 1: we we do our best with their composting toilet and
Speaker 1: the good grace of some very kind neighbors. Police raids
Speaker 1: and sweeps are always an existential fear for those living
Speaker 1: in di y encampments. Here's what Elizabeth had to say
Speaker 1: about sweeps and police interactions. What we've been told is
Speaker 1: that they are They've been told to leave us alone.
Speaker 1: We've heard this from the cops themselves. We've heard this
Speaker 1: from people who have talked to them. Um. But the
Speaker 1: precinct that is in this area has been told not
Speaker 1: to mess with us unless there is a violent conflict.
Speaker 1: The thing to do cops stuff at. There are a
Speaker 1: lot of sweeps that have been threatened around the city
Speaker 1: of different camps. Um. They've received notice or notice of notice,
Speaker 1: so they don't know exactly when, but it's supposed to
Speaker 1: happen sometime. UM. But as far as we're concerned, we
Speaker 1: haven't really had that problem. UM. Cops have come through.
Speaker 1: There are a couple of times when they've been called
Speaker 1: by by people disgruntled residents or um by neighbors, but
Speaker 1: for the most part, Kay talked to us and then
Speaker 1: they leave. We we do our best as volunteers to
Speaker 1: get between the police and other other groups that come out, UM,
Speaker 1: even even the outreach groups that we know are are
Speaker 1: here to help, just because those interactions can can quickly
Speaker 1: get volatile, if you know, if people aren't sure about
Speaker 1: other people's intentions. So I would say that one of
Speaker 1: the best interactions I've had with the cops is they
Speaker 1: did come through here once and talk to a few folks,
Speaker 1: and a sergeant from the police department said, UM roughly
Speaker 1: that they couldn't make us leave because this was city
Speaker 1: land end and they didn't have anywhere else to send us.
Speaker 1: So okay, I'll take it. I've got the dr assaultation.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth does hope that one day the relations between the
Speaker 1: church that first collective was previously operating out of could
Speaker 1: be mended and once again work to utilize the space
Speaker 1: to serve the wider community. She also discussed the possibility
Speaker 1: of moving into vacant buildings and hoping to restore them
Speaker 1: while also having a place to provide more stable housing.
Speaker 1: So where the church is concerned, UM, I haven't given
Speaker 1: a prope we we aren't in the building now. I
Speaker 1: don't have a key, but I got a church every Sunday. Um.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm not a Christian. I don't believe in God,
Speaker 1: but I do like the messages that I get there,
Speaker 1: and I I want to continue to use this really
Speaker 1: wonderful building as a part of the community. You know.
Speaker 1: It's there are a lot of goals that that we
Speaker 1: as a camp have and some of them include the
Speaker 1: church and we we'd love to get back into that
Speaker 1: space and fix the two bathrooms in the basement that
Speaker 1: are just sitting there, build some showers, laundry facilities, a
Speaker 1: free store, kitchen. Uh, There's there's so much that we
Speaker 1: could do if we could utilize that building in addition
Speaker 1: to the the infrastructure that we have here. Um. But
Speaker 1: when it comes to to building something more, we're currently
Speaker 1: working on a proposal for the city for some of
Speaker 1: the relief funds that have been received but not dispersed
Speaker 1: with the goals of ideally building little cabins on platforms
Speaker 1: on the lot that we're on now, just to start
Speaker 1: to get people out of tents, to start meeting some
Speaker 1: of the code requirements to improve the sanitary and living conditions,
Speaker 1: and then from there we'll ask them to give us
Speaker 1: a building to restore. There's a lot of really skilled
Speaker 1: people out here and they want to work, and they
Speaker 1: want to work on all of these old buildings that
Speaker 1: have been allowed to fall apart all over the city.
Speaker 1: There are so many rooms available, there's so many units
Speaker 1: that they could work on that they could live in,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what they want to do, So
Speaker 1: that's what we're going to try and help them do.
Speaker 1: The camp functions under a sort of direct democracy with
Speaker 1: residents and first collective volunteers, some of whom are also residents,
Speaker 1: hold regular community meetings where camp occupants vote to make
Speaker 1: decisions about camp guidelines. There has been a couple instances
Speaker 1: of violence, UM, a couple particularly scary moments that we
Speaker 1: had to try and de escalate, And there's sometimes that
Speaker 1: we didn't handle things as best we could UM, but
Speaker 1: we we try and we tried to talk through the
Speaker 1: way that the way that it goes down with the
Speaker 1: residents among the volunteers. UM. We try to be transparent
Speaker 1: about you know, why why we make some of the
Speaker 1: decisions that we do, and for the most part, we
Speaker 1: leave it to the community. UM. There have been some
Speaker 1: really great community meetings go so long. UM, but they
Speaker 1: talk about everything they talk about, you know, shared concerns
Speaker 1: about safety, concerns about how they want to live together
Speaker 1: and what would make them feel safer, and established guidelines
Speaker 1: and occasionally vote to remove people. Though UM we've managed
Speaker 1: to resolve some of those conflicts before they went that far.
Speaker 1: I initially talked with Elizabeth in May two, but I
Speaker 1: was able to catch up with her a few weeks
Speaker 1: ago to hear about what's been going on the past month. UM.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to kind of fill you in on
Speaker 1: what we've been up to over the past month or so.
Speaker 1: It's it's been busy. UM. We've been to a lot
Speaker 1: of area Commission meetings for the different areas of the
Speaker 1: city to try and make some allies and talk to
Speaker 1: people about what we think is a solution to a
Speaker 1: problem they don't know how to solve. I to get
Speaker 1: some unwanted attention, a local station Tom TB came through
Speaker 1: with a bit of an agenda right now. The City
Speaker 1: of Columbus has a problem, and it has to do
Speaker 1: with homelessness. A camp set up on city property along
Speaker 1: East Mound Street in the middle of the Near East
Speaker 1: Side neighborhood, is raising questions tonight about whether the twenty
Speaker 1: people who live there should be allowed to, say, are
Speaker 1: forced to go to Kevin Landers has been working the
Speaker 1: story all day. Today he went to the camp and
Speaker 1: spoke to those who lived there and got answers from
Speaker 1: city leaders about addressing concerns from neighbors who say that
Speaker 1: camp it's got to go. This on housing community is
Speaker 1: located on East Mound Street. The people who live here,
Speaker 1: the city says, are technically trespassing. The city says they're
Speaker 1: going to let them stay here until they can find housing,
Speaker 1: but not everybody wants them here. They wanted to talk
Speaker 1: specifically about our sanitation situation and nothing else. Um. I
Speaker 1: told them we've been waiting on the city since abol
Speaker 1: fifteen for the dumpster the port of John's if they
Speaker 1: had offered, but um they were still looking into it.
Speaker 1: So we took it into our own hands. All that attention,
Speaker 1: we needed to do something, So we contracted a port
Speaker 1: of john Company who is currently donating to Port of
Speaker 1: John's and servicing it once a week. UM, which is great. Uh.
Speaker 1: We had a compost toilet before and this is so
Speaker 1: much better. Um. And we went out of pocket to
Speaker 1: pay the trash service, so we're getting our own trash service.
Speaker 1: Trash service now once a week. UM. It's not quite enough,
Speaker 1: but it certainly helps. You see code enforcement go by
Speaker 1: all the time. UM, they've been driving by. I've seen
Speaker 1: them at least five or six times today. People are
Speaker 1: waiting for something that they can latch onto. But so far,
Speaker 1: so good. With Columbus facing one hundred degree heat waves,
Speaker 1: what started as a warming station in winter now serves
Speaker 1: as a cooling station this summer for its few dozen
Speaker 1: residents as gears shift and new seasonal materials are required.
Speaker 1: The camp has been exploring alternative methods of funding to
Speaker 1: sustain the level of resources and services they've been able
Speaker 1: to provide the past few months. We did launch a
Speaker 1: go fund me and we've had pretty good looks so far.
Speaker 1: We've raised seven thousand, five UM. This is just for
Speaker 1: operating funds. UM. There's a lot that we would like
Speaker 1: to do here, a lot we'd like to do with
Speaker 1: the land, but for now we just need We're just
Speaker 1: fundraising to keep going. The camp still serves around twenty
Speaker 1: five people, so resources end up getting distributed across a
Speaker 1: large collection of individuals. All the donations received have been
Speaker 1: used to provide necessities to survive, including but not limited to,
Speaker 1: shelters like tents, food, water, medical supplies, bedding, clothes, bus passes,
Speaker 1: medical services and prescriptions, hard production supplies, funds for individuals
Speaker 1: immediate needs, and assistance to pay with residents phone bills.
Speaker 1: Sometimes funds are also used to compensate residents for extra
Speaker 1: labor put towards maintaining the camp, like cleaning up the campsite,
Speaker 1: cutting up firewood, and providing extra services like haircuts. The
Speaker 1: response has been really good. I think people understand what
Speaker 1: we're trying to do and are are being really receptive
Speaker 1: to do it. Um I can't say the same about
Speaker 1: the city though. Uh. We met with Councilwoman shale A
Speaker 1: Favor from the city on Monday and presented a proposal.
Speaker 1: We asked for eighty five dollars over the next six
Speaker 1: months to continue operation, to pay a small salary to
Speaker 1: the three volunteers that are here all the time. Um
Speaker 1: for healthcare for a small stipend to give to each
Speaker 1: resident of the camp every every week, UM additional operating funds.
Speaker 1: Just we came to them with this ask and they
Speaker 1: didn't really seem to get it UM, so we're gonna
Speaker 1: keep trying. They UM, they felt like they can't really
Speaker 1: support a tent city in their minds, like they couldn't
Speaker 1: give money to support people who were residing in tense
Speaker 1: because chance are inadequate shelter. But I mean, I can
Speaker 1: test that not having a tent is also an adequate shelter.
Speaker 1: The city of Columbus relies almost completely on the Community
Speaker 1: Shelter Board to manage its problem with homelessness. Community Shelter
Speaker 1: Board has a revenue of around forty four million dollars
Speaker 1: a year. They pay their director half a million dollars
Speaker 1: just under UM and a few other executives received ample compensation.
Speaker 1: But their success rate for the entire county is labeled
Speaker 1: at you go through their data, they have managed to
Speaker 1: get percent of the people who come through their shelter
Speaker 1: into some sort of housing. For the zip code that
Speaker 1: we're serving at seven, which equates to eight people over
Speaker 1: the past year. So what they're doing is not working
Speaker 1: at all, and they know where, but they don't know
Speaker 1: what else to do. Whenever we talk to the city,
Speaker 1: someone tells us to talk to this one in particular person.
Speaker 1: Her name has Emerald her nand as Para. She is
Speaker 1: the assistant director of Special Projects for the Department of Development.
Speaker 1: If you have a problem with a homeless camp in
Speaker 1: the city, she is the person that the city wants
Speaker 1: you to talk to, no matter what, um if, if
Speaker 1: you're homeless, that's who that's who they want you to
Speaker 1: talk to. She's under the Department of Development. Her her
Speaker 1: main focus is economic development. She's just special projects, which
Speaker 1: means she helps clear the way by getting camps out
Speaker 1: of the way for development projects. That's that's her role
Speaker 1: and and she is the city's liaison. No matter who
Speaker 1: we talk to, she's the one that we keep coming
Speaker 1: back to. So I I think it's pretty um cynical
Speaker 1: and upsetting that this isn't under the pur view of
Speaker 1: the Department of Health, you know, and any any other
Speaker 1: department would be a little bit better than the Department
Speaker 1: of Development to show so much we care. We're planning
Speaker 1: to go back to the city. Uh, regardless of what
Speaker 1: they say about this initial proposal, because there's a lot
Speaker 1: to what we'd like to build here and and we
Speaker 1: think they'd be amenable if they understood. We're drafting a
Speaker 1: second round proposal taking inspiration from Dignity Village in Portland.
Speaker 1: It's an autonomous village of fun housed people that's existed
Speaker 1: since two thousand and I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: career that we can learn from them for modeling this
Speaker 1: in a way that the city might better understand. We
Speaker 1: believe that what we're doing here is transitional housing, and
Speaker 1: the people who are here want to be involved in
Speaker 1: building that transitional housing for themselves and then for the
Speaker 1: people to come out here. So that's that's what we're
Speaker 1: hoping to get the city to sign off on. When
Speaker 1: we met with we met with the councilwoman. One of
Speaker 1: the things that she said was they at the city
Speaker 1: they don't have a model for serving the population that
Speaker 1: we're serving. Um, they don't They don't know how to
Speaker 1: handle people who don't want to move inside, who don't
Speaker 1: want to move into the shelter system for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: and so all they can really do is move them around. Um,
Speaker 1: we're trying to tell them that we do have a
Speaker 1: model and we think we think that we can help
Speaker 1: the city as long as they stay pretty hands off
Speaker 1: and give us money for it. So fingers crossed, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to hold my breath by fingers crossed. The
Speaker 1: city of Columbus has been much more openly hostile to
Speaker 1: some other encampments providing cooling and alter in parts of
Speaker 1: the city. We're not the only on house encampment in Columbus. UM.
Speaker 1: There there are a lot more, and there's one that
Speaker 1: is at it's called here Park on the south side.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of friends there. UM. Our organization
Speaker 1: works with their organization. UH. They were served a fourteen
Speaker 1: day eviction notice UM on the first and they haven't
Speaker 1: ntild to move out. UM. So we're doing whatever we
Speaker 1: can to support them. But UM, it very much feels
Speaker 1: like we're being treated like the good camp and they're
Speaker 1: the bad camp right now. So we're trying our best
Speaker 1: to make sure that the city knows that we're with them.
Speaker 1: You know, I I'm whatever they think about us. We
Speaker 1: we support those people no matter what, and we'll see
Speaker 1: whatever we can to help. UM. We're trying to give
Speaker 1: them advice about the things that have worked for us
Speaker 1: to keep the city a way, and hopefully if they
Speaker 1: do have to move on the fourteen, they'll be able
Speaker 1: to set up somewhere where the city or give them
Speaker 1: a break. Here is some audio of a press conference
Speaker 1: given at the Here Park Camp just last week. The
Speaker 1: city is not out here giving out water. The city
Speaker 1: is not out here making sure that uh people don't
Speaker 1: get heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Right, They're nowhere to
Speaker 1: be found, So we are here to remind them. They
Speaker 1: have a hundred and thirty five million dollars in American
Speaker 1: Rescue Plan funds. Where is this money going? Why do
Speaker 1: we not have housing? This weather is just a little
Speaker 1: taste for many of us of the conditions that our
Speaker 1: unhoused neighbors out here can look forward to enduring for
Speaker 1: the entire summer. The city of Columbus was planning on
Speaker 1: evicting our people today June fourteenth. They delayed that eviction.
Speaker 1: It is a human right, so we are here to
Speaker 1: assert our human rights to housing. They're hoping that we're
Speaker 1: going to get hot and tired and we're out. Are
Speaker 1: we going to let up? The Here Park Camp eviction
Speaker 1: was pushed back to June one due to a massive
Speaker 1: heat wave, and by June one, the temperature was still
Speaker 1: in the upper nineties, but the city followed through on
Speaker 1: their threat and swept the camp. At least twenty Columbus
Speaker 1: police cruisers, city attorneys, people from the Department of Development,
Speaker 1: and other city employees were on site for the eviction.
Speaker 1: Bulldozers and massive machinery crushed people's tents and personal belongings.
Speaker 1: Some folks, forcibly displaced, have lived in the Here Park
Speaker 1: for nearly a decade. For wrapping up this episode, I
Speaker 1: had just one more question for Elizabeth, for people who
Speaker 1: would be interested in trying to create similar projects or
Speaker 1: hopeful similar similar projects in their area, how will it
Speaker 1: would be some advice to give to people who who
Speaker 1: are want to try something similar. What's the kind of
Speaker 1: stuff that you've learned the past few months that you
Speaker 1: were kind of surprised by UM, and and you know,
Speaker 1: if if you could do anything different, what's what's like
Speaker 1: what's the kind of stuff that you would uh that
Speaker 1: you would approach UM to make the processes like smoother
Speaker 1: or slightly more improved. Well, I would have looked for
Speaker 1: more funders first. UM. The one of the most painful
Speaker 1: parts for me, has like just personally has been holding
Speaker 1: the purse um, being the person that everyone knows to
Speaker 1: ask for for cash if they needed for something. UM
Speaker 1: it it is a it is a real strain on
Speaker 1: on compassion sometimes, you know, on compassion fatigue is real,
Speaker 1: and it can be really hard day and day out
Speaker 1: having to field requests from people who you know, I
Speaker 1: need these resources, but you can't always give everything. It's
Speaker 1: it's hard to say no. Learning to say no has
Speaker 1: um has helped, but ah, diversifying our funding sources is
Speaker 1: also helping a lot. Um. I've learned that I can't
Speaker 1: do it all and that I need to take breaks
Speaker 1: and that being here is is what I want to do.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't mean I need to always always do it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you've got to step away. Um. I I wish
Speaker 1: that I had spent a little more time with my
Speaker 1: family um rather than you know, throwing myself completely into
Speaker 1: this U. But two months ago my fiance, my ex fiance,
Speaker 1: asked me to leave. So I have been living at
Speaker 1: the camp too. UM so I It's it's been a
Speaker 1: pretty stark jump to go from having a big house
Speaker 1: and some retirement funds to living in a tent and
Speaker 1: having none. But I mean I wouldn't. I wouldn't change it,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to keep doing it. It's because I can,
Speaker 1: because I could, And that's that's really what I want
Speaker 1: people to see is that if they can do something,
Speaker 1: they should. Um, it's the best job I've ever had. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, nothing is more rewarding than going to work
Speaker 1: and hanging out with your friends all day, like helping
Speaker 1: them get jobs and find apartments and meet friends. Like,
Speaker 1: there's so many wonderful people here, and like me and
Speaker 1: the other volunteers, we love all of them and want
Speaker 1: nothing more than to see them succeed. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: just I just advised people to do what they can
Speaker 1: to for what they need and try and provide it.
Speaker 1: Anyone who wants to know more about the First Collective
Speaker 1: and what they're doing, you can go to First hyphen
Speaker 1: Collective dot org. You can find links on Elizabeth's Twitter
Speaker 1: account at Innate Optimist. And even if you disagree with
Speaker 1: some of the organizational or structural choices, I hope you
Speaker 1: at least learned something or got something productive out of
Speaker 1: this example of people putting in effort to fill in
Speaker 1: the gaps in their local community that isn't for us today,
Speaker 1: See you on the other side. It could Happen Here
Speaker 1: is a production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media
Speaker 1: dot com, or check us out on the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: You can find sources for It could Happen Here, updated
Speaker 1: monthly at cool zone media dot com slash sources. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening.