WEBVTT - Reclaiming Our Homes 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:04.000 This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:08.840 Kurturre Latino USC Latin Latino USA. I'm Maria in no Hossa. 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.560 We bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:14.720 to you, overlooked by the rest of the media, and 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:16.840 while the country is struggling to deal with these, we 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.960 listen to the stories of Black and Latino Studios United 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:24.920 Latino Front, a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:33.680 the movement. I'm Maria Ino Jossan, Nobayan, Hey, Latino USA, listener, Gomostas, 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:42.800 Here's a show de los Archivos from Futuro Media and PRX. 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:45.720 It's Latino USA. I'm Maria Ino Hossan. 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:46.479 Today. 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:49.600 What happens when you're moved out of your house for 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.280 a highway in Los Angeles and then your neighborhood becomes 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.760 a ghost town. We follow the families who are reclaiming 0:00:56.960 --> 0:01:04.160 these empty homes. In twenty twenty, as the state of 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:08.800 California was issuing a statewide mandate to shelter in place 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:14.080 during the COVID pandemic, about a dozen unhoused families began 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:19.200 to occupy vacant homes in Elsino. In Northeast Los Angeles. 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:24.600 Producer Huiarocha is going to pick up the story from there. 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:29.880 We found this house and we were so excited. We 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:37.119 were screaming and like just overjoyed. We had community over 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:41.480 that came and played music. We had some harocho, we 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:42.720 had trancheas. 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:47.000 That's MARTA's sculero. She's remembering the day she moved into 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:50.360 her new house. It's a two bedroom on Sheffield Avenue 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.480 and in Sereno, a residential neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles. 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.920 Martha's living room is filled with books and on one 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:01.160 of the walls is a banner that reads housing for All. 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:04.360 This is the first room we walked into, and when 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.520 we walked into obviously it was empty, and now it's 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:09.280 filled with furniture and. 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.399 And him on my art and my rocks. 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:16.600 That's Messi, Martha's eight year old daughter. Before Martha and 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.800 her two daughters got to this house, they'd been CouchSurfing 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:22.640 for a year and a half because of skyrocketing rents 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:23.240 in the city. 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.280 It was just really bad for us. I had to 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.120 live in places that were cramped, even though family and 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:32.040 friends tried their best to help us. 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.600 Martha struggled to find affordable housing for months, but when 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:40.440 the coronavirus pandemic began, finding her own place to live 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:45.920 became even more urgent. So on March fourteenth of twenty twenty, Martha, 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.919 with the help of community organizers, decided to occupy one 0:02:49.960 --> 0:02:52.399 of the many vacant homes in Elserno. 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:56.520 A few neighbors there were really unsupportive. They would call 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:58.040 us squatters. 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.560 But Martha doesn't consider herself a squad. She calls herself 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:05.600 a reclaimer because this house she's occupying actually belongs to 0:03:05.639 --> 0:03:09.200 the government. Today, the state owns about one hundred and 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.040 forty vacant properties in this area alone. 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.840 The state is literally hoarding these houses that are empty 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.240 while people are suffering on the streets. How is this 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:20.240 even possible? 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:21.280 To me? 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:25.359 That really became important to expose that and to let 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:27.840 other people know, like this is not right and we 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:29.080 shouldn't let this happen. 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.920 Martha moved into the house on Sheffield Avenue in twenty twenty, 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.480 but the story of these vacant homes goes back many decades. 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:42.920 In this century, America has become a nation on wils. 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.600 We ride on wheels to work, to shop, to play, 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.400 to go about any place we want to go. And 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.920 therein lies the challenge building highways and roads and streets 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:56.800 fast enough to keep up with a knee. 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.800 Back in nineteen fifty six, the United States undertook the 0:04:00.920 --> 0:04:05.200 largest infrastructure project of its time, building a forty one 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:09.360 thousand mile system of highways that would unite the entire nation. 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.720 These new highways will have a far reaching economic impact 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.839 on the entire nation. They open up vast new areas 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:21.240 for suburban living, and they encourage industry to disperse out 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:22.160 of city congestion. 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:26.919 Historically, in Los Angeles and all over the country, freeway 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:35.000 construction has had a massive impact on housing. While this 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:39.000 web of freeways allowed the sprawling suburbs of Los Angeles 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:43.360 to grow, entire neighborhoods were demolished in order to construct 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.880 those roads, and it was usually black and brown communities 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:50.479 that paid the price. One of those communities was in 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:54.480 El Cerno in northeast Los Angeles. Back in the nineteen 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:58.640 fifties and sixties, the California Department of Transportation bought the 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.040 house that Marta lives in and hundreds of other homes 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:07.279 in order to construct the seven to ten freeway. This 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:10.760 is a story of a house in Elo and its 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:14.040 residents past and present who have fought to make it 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:20.120 their home. Back to producer Julia Rocha. 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.240 Driving on a freeway in Los Angeles will get you 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.760 from point A to point B, but if you take 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.400 the scenic route, you get to see the personality of 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.599 each neighborhood. The East Side of LA has been a 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:40.560 historically immigrant and LATINX area, intersected by almost every major 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.000 freeway in the county. If you drive north, you'll get 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:48.480 to Edo, which sits at a crossroads between two worlds, 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.159 nestled between the working class neighborhoods of the East Side 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:55.600 and the white picket fences of wealthier suburbs like Pasadena. 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:01.479 Edo's main street, Huntington Drive, is bustling with restaurants and 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.080 stores decked out in bright murals. According to the most 0:06:05.080 --> 0:06:08.960 recent census data, ed Serno is eighty one percent Latino 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:13.200 and mostly lower middle class. The neighborhood's residential streets are 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.360 lined with rows of modest, single family homes. 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:21.039 My first impressions were, this is what a neighborhood looks like. 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:21.520 On TV. 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.040 That's Michelle Chavis. She was thirteen years old in nineteen 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:27.640 eighty six when her family was looking to move into 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:30.599 a bigger home. Michelle's mom was a file clerk and 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.200 her dad was a construction worker. At the time, Michelle, 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.400 her parents, and her younger brother Jamie were all living 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.560 in a one bedroom apartment in rose Hill, a residential 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:43.560 area just a few miles northwest of Et Serno. 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.320 A pretty bad neighborhood and originally grew up in. You 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:49.400 stayed in your house and made sure your doors were 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.480 locked because it was not safe. 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.719 A single family home had never been an option until 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:59.080 Michelle's mom heard about an affordable rent program in the 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:03.080 neighborhood of Essida. It was run by the California Department 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:07.279 of Transportation, better known as Caltrans. Back in the sixties, 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.720 Caltrans purchased hundreds of homes in En Serno, Alhambra, and 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.320 Pasadena in order to demolish them and construct the seven 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:19.000 ten Freeway. The freeway began at the port of Long Beach, 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.760 one of the nation's busiest sites of international trade, and 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.800 connected it to the greater city of Los Angeles. By 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.320 nineteen sixty four, Caltrans built twenty three miles of the 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.960 twenty seven and a half mile freeway route, demolishing hundreds 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:36.840 of houses on the east side, But right before the 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:40.480 construction reached at Serno, the project was halted because of 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:45.000 community backlash from the neighboring suburbs. While the agency waited 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.760 for construction to be approved by the legislature, Caltrans began 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:52.160 renting the homes it had purchased. At the point that 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.920 Michelle's mom was looking to rent a home in inl Serno, 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.000 the construction had been in a legal limbo for over 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.840 a decade. She filled out an Apple location for the 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:04.280 Affordable Rent program, and when she found out she'd been accepted, 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:07.000 a Coltran's employee gave her a tour of the houses 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:11.920 in Asino. Michelle still remembers what it was like to 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:14.000 walk through the neighborhood for the first time. 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.280 No bars on the window. That's the first thing I 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.520 think my brother and I noticed, just walking through and 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:24.720 seeing grass. There were people sitting on their porches. Nobody 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:26.440 sat on their porches where I grew up. 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.360 After the tour, Michelle's parents picked out the house they 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.360 liked best, a two bedroom on Sheffield Avenue. 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.319 Moving to the Sheffield House was actually like an amazing 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.520 dream because I was getting my own room. We had 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:43.400 a living room, we had a separate dining room, and 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:46.240 then we had a fenced yard. It was like we 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:47.040 hit the jackpot. 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.839 Michelle remembers walking through the house with her brother the 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:52.800 day her family moved in. She recalls how a little 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:55.520 narrow area by the kitchen caught their attention. 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:58.520 We were like, oh my gosh, what is this for? 0:08:58.640 --> 0:08:58.840 You know? 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.760 My dad was like, it's for a washer and dryer, 0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:03.800 and we're like, oh my god, does that mean we 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:05.840 don't have to go to the laundromat anymore. I think 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:10.240 that was my brother and my dream. 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:13.920 But soon their honeymoon phase came to an end. 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.040 What we started noticing is when bigger things would break, 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:21.280 something with the electricity, something with the water. My parents 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:24.520 weren't getting the response you're supposed to get when you're 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:28.880 in a rental, and the sentiment was echoed through many houses. 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:32.760 They're like, Oh, don't even bother calling because they'll either 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:34.880 take a month to fix it, or they won't get 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:36.559 fixed at all, or they're going to tell you they 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:38.199 lost your report. 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.160 As the months went on, the family noticed there was 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.160 no ventilation in the kitchen. There was a leak in 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:49.439 the plumbing, the garage door didn't open, the phone jacks broke. 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:52.400 Michelle says, they tried to file a report. 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:54.960 Each time they're like, oh, well, you have to call 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:59.160 this number, call that number, leave a message, and that 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.319 would go on for like a couple of weeks. 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:05.040 Michelle was only a teenager back then, but it was 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.440 becoming clear that something was wrong. 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.480 I mean, bottom line, Caltrans they were slim lords. They 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:13.959 did not know how to be landlords. There were business 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:19.079 people working in a government office. 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:21.640 Then one day, when Michelle was in high school in 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:24.360 the early nineties, she went to debate club and the 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.800 topic was Caltrans versus the neighborhood in the battle to 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.760 build the seven to ten freeway. It was that day 0:10:30.880 --> 0:10:34.680 that she understood why her landlords were a transportation agency. 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:40.360 I started learning in school about the Caltrans' homes and 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:44.080 about the seven to ten extension freeway debate and the 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.640 fight between the neighborhood, and I'm like, wait, that's my neighborhood. 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:49.000 I didn't know that. 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:53.160 The two sides went something like this. Caltrans wanted to 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.120 finish the freeway because the residential areas along the seven 0:10:56.200 --> 0:11:00.560 ten were booming and traffic was worse than evers of 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.680 Etceerino South Pasadena and Pasadena didn't want a highway running 0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:08.440 through their neighborhood. For the debate, Michelle took the side 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.079 of those against the extension and argued that destroying people's 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.040 homes was too high a price for improving the flow 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:19.120 of traffic. What Michelle didn't realize until that day was 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.920 that this debate was not only happening in her classroom, 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.679 it was also happening in the state government, because Caltrans 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:29.200 was still fighting in court to continue building the Seven ten. 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.520 I brought that home to my mom, and she wasn't 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:36.760 familiar that we would be evicted maybe soon for this 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:37.920 freeway extension. 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:39.000 You know. 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.520 It was kind of eye opening to even some of 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.280 the neighbors are like no, like this isn't going to happen. 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.560 In her neighborhood of mostly low income Mexican American and 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.840 immigrant families, Michelle realized that many of her neighbors didn't 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:55.840 know that Caltrans was still planning to move forward with 0:11:55.880 --> 0:11:56.840 the freeway project. 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:02.559 Sadly, a lot of older people that lived in the neighborhood. 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:06.880 It was parents who were not highly educated and couldn't read, 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.559 so their kids were the ones reading things. 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.280 Because Michelle's mom couldn't read very well, she didn't know 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.920 that the housing contract she signed gave Caltrand's the legal 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:20.640 power to evict the family if the seven to ten 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:24.680 extension was approved. Michelle wondered if there was a way 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:26.719 to ensure that they would be able to stay in 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:27.200 their home. 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.160 So I wrote the assembly member at the time, and 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.439 he wrote me back and he informed me of some 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:38.160 marches and he thanked me too for volunteering my time 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:44.240 to fight against this freeway extension. The first rally we 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:48.440 went to it was in South Pasadena. We started marching 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.440 down the streets and people started joining with just signs 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:54.720 that had like the seven to ten and the line 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:56.679 across it. It was very empowering. 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.440 Looking around the rally, Michelle was surprised to see that 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.240 she and her friends were some of the only Latinos 0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:05.559 and also some of the only cal Trans tenants. 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:09.240 There was a lot of Caucasian people from the more 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:14.640 pricier houses up in South Pass because the homeowners around 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:16.839 there didn't want a freeway, you know, for them, it's 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:18.760 going to bring down their housing prices. 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.880 Michelle was beginning to understand One of the biggest reasons 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.240 as Sereno hadn't been bulldozed was because the residents in 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:30.400 South Pasadena and Pasadena knew that if construction went through 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:35.040 as Serino, their communities would be next. And even though 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:37.839 as Serno would be the most impacted by the extension, 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:41.679 it was the interests of wealthier homeowners that carried the 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:45.119 most weight and that really left a mark on Michelle. 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.800 I feel it helped me in really deciding what I 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:52.360 wanted to major in in college, because I wanted to 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:56.640 help people like my parents, like my neighbors. And I 0:13:56.720 --> 0:14:00.480 do believe that Caltrans know that the people that they 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.520 ran into in the eighties nineties, they were low income 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.280 families who were looking for a better life for their kids, 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:08.360 and they took advantage of that. 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:26.440 Coming up on Latino USA, El Serno's battle with Caltrans continued, 0:14:28.080 --> 0:15:25.040 stay with us, not hey, We're back, And before the break, 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.120 we were listening to the story of Michelle Chavez. Her 0:15:28.160 --> 0:15:31.960 family was renting a house from the California Department of Transportation. 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:36.240 Since she was a teenager, Michelle had been advocating for 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:40.400 her family, protesting the construction of a freeway that threatened 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:44.560 to demolish her entire street. But this was only the 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:47.800 beginning of her family's fight to stay in their home. 0:15:48.520 --> 0:15:50.720 Back now to producer Juja Rocha. 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.160 After seeing the disparities her community faced, Michelle left ear 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:58.080 said I Know in nineteen ninety one to study political science. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:00.880 She went on to work in local guy and in 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:03.720 two thousand and seven she moved to Washington State, where 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:07.280 she lives today. Although she no longer lived in Los Angeles, 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:10.080 Michelle never stopped helping her mom fill out the cal 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:15.560 Trans paperwork. Then, in twenty twelve, Michelle got a desperate call. 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:18.920 Her mom had received a notice that she needed to 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:23.560 reapply for the Affordable Rent program, otherwise her rent would 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:24.120 be raised. 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.840 She would send in the affordable rent application and then 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.840 they would say, we're missing some information. It was denied. 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:34.520 Your rent's going up. And then my mom would send 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.240 in again and then they're like, well, we never received 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:38.000 your paperwork. 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:42.400 Michelle's family wasn't alone in struggling with the bureaucracy of 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:47.480 the application. In twenty thirteen, a collective calling itself United 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:51.200 cal Trans Tenants came together to help residents navigate the 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:56.800 agency's dysfunctional housing program. One of the lead organizers Iroerto Flores. 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:00.640 He runs a community center in Esserno called East Cafe, 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.359 and despite its name, it's not a hip coffee shop, 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.720 it's actually a Sapatista inspired cultural center, an activist hub. 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:13.200 We set up the east Side Cafe maybe eighteen years ago. 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:17.560 Is a space that developed out of the inspiration from 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:23.199 the Sapatistas to create sustainable structures so that the communities 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:27.280 can be much more involved in constructing their own future. 0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:32.120 Roberto himself was a Caltrans tenant who had been forced 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:36.040 out by the rent increases. He and other organizers were 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:38.919 holding workshops at the east Side Cafe to help their 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:43.399 neighbors with the affordable rent applications. Roberto told me that 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.880 just a few months before Michelle's mom started receiving these notices, 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:51.720 Caltrans was being audited for possible mismanagement of public money 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.160 after a tenant noticed an invoice for a roof repair 0:17:55.520 --> 0:18:00.600 that cost one hundred and three thousand dollars. The audit 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:04.200 found that Caltrans was mismanaging the money spent on repairs. 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:08.399 They were spending almost ten million more dollars in maintaining 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:11.200 the homes than they were actually collecting in rent. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:16.680 There was obvious corruption going on in the Caltrans' maintenance structure. 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.159 On top of that, they hadn't verified the income of 0:18:20.200 --> 0:18:24.320 the tenants on the affordable rent program in years, but 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.399 Caltrans put the burden of the lost revenue on the 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:32.560 tenants by making residents continually reapply for the affordable rent program. 0:18:33.040 --> 0:18:37.560 If their application was denied, Caltrans would increase their rent. 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:42.639 They made things so complicated that their own agents didn't 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:45.200 know how to fill out these forums or help people out, 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.280 and so there were years of delays where people were 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:53.320 forced to pay market rents when they should be paying 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.400 affordable and market rents that were going up at ten 0:18:56.440 --> 0:19:00.280 percent every six months. All these things piled up and 0:19:00.400 --> 0:19:04.280 led to people leaving an evictions. 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.679 It was clear to Roberto that Caltrans was trying to 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:12.040 force people out, but the question was what incentive did 0:19:12.040 --> 0:19:15.760 Caltrans have to vacate the properties. When I asked him, 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:18.600 he told me that Caltrans never wanted to be landlords, 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.200 and their end goal was to demolish the houses. 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:26.800 They were going to prepare the corridor for a freeway, 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:32.639 so they preferred to deal with empty houses than with 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:39.960 tenants that were increasingly demanding rights. 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:45.320 Years passed and more and more Caltrans tenants began to 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:48.840 leave their homes because of the rent hikes. At this point, 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:52.720 Caltrans was still fighting to build the extension. Then, in 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:56.520 November of twenty eighteen, after a sixty year legal battle, 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:01.120 the state of California finally ruled the car couldn't build 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:01.680 the freeway. 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.760 It was a major milestone today in the now defunct 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:10.199 plan to extend the seven to ten freeway. Cowtrans just 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.320 sold the first of hundreds of homes that were purchased 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.680 decades ago in preparation for the project, which is now 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:18.280 never going to see the light of day. 0:20:18.640 --> 0:20:21.439 Now the Coltrans wasn't going to build the freeway, the 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:23.720 agency said they would begin to sell the homes. 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:28.480 They still made empty promises. They started making it seem like, 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:31.080 in the next two years, all these houses will be 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:34.280 sol and you residents who've been living in them for 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:36.960 more than two years, you get first DIBs. 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:40.760 The promise that Michelle's family and many others in INCIDENTA 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.600 were given was actually more than a promise. Back in 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:48.639 nineteen seventy nine, the California legislature passed a bill known 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:52.439 as the ROBERTI Law. It found that highway construction contributed 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:55.440 to a shortage of affordable housing, so when a state 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:58.679 agency like Caltrans no longer planned to use the homes 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:02.280 for construction, it legally had to offer the property to 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:06.919 low and moderate income tenants at an affordable price. In theory, 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:10.240 this meant that Michelle's mom could actually purchase the home 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:11.880 that she'd lived in for decades. 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:14.719 My mom's like, Wow, I'm a little nervous, you know, 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:18.040 I hoping I'll be able to purchase this house because 0:21:18.040 --> 0:21:19.200 we've never been a homeowner. 0:21:19.480 --> 0:21:21.960 The problem was that in order to one day buy 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:25.040 your house, you had to stay in your house. But 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:29.679 residents were being forced out by rent hikes and complicated applications, 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:35.000 and even tenants who could pay their rent weren't receiving 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:36.520 sale offers from the agency. 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:40.400 There are one hundred and three vacant homes in Elserino, 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:44.600 Pasadena and South Pasadena, as the need for affordable housing 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:49.280 in La is on the rise, ACCOUNTRANS representative said homes 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:52.639 have remained vacant partly because the cost to maintain and 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:56.399 rent them would have cost more than the revenue collected. 0:21:56.680 --> 0:22:00.000 When tenants moved out or passed away. The houses were 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:04.480 boarded up. Today, there are dozens of homes on Sheffield 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:10.680 Avenue with signs that read warning state property trespassing, loitering 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:12.000 forbidden by law. 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:15.680 When I would go home every year, I mean, you 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:19.320 could go down my mom's block and maybe ten properties 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:22.960 on her block alone are vacant. This is just one 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:25.840 piece of Sheffield. 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:30.240 Michelle's childhood neighborhood was becoming a ghost town. 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.399 I didn't realize what my parents went through until I 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:41.439 started fighting for them. Until my dad was just getting 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:44.760 too sick, and he's like I'm done, you know, I 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:48.160 just I can't, and my mom was busy taking care 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:48.600 of him. 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:52.560 Michelle's dad had been having health complications for years, and 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:57.280 then in twenty eighteen, he passed away. At a moment 0:22:57.359 --> 0:22:59.960 when Michelle's mom was grieving the loss of her husband, 0:23:00.480 --> 0:23:03.520 she also started receiving notices that she had to once 0:23:03.560 --> 0:23:07.479 again reapply for the Affordable rent program. Michelle's mom went 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:09.879 to one of the United Caltrans Tendants workshops at the 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:12.160 east Side Cafe, where she met Roberto. 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:16.640 I remember miss Montoya coming in after her husband had 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:19.240 passed and asking us for help. 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:23.439 Proerto helped Michelle's mom properly fill out the application, but 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:25.160 the same scenario played out. 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:28.400 He sent it in and they said they didn't get it, 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:33.840 sent it in again, said they never received it. Months later, 0:23:34.240 --> 0:23:37.119 they said that my mom's rent was being raised again 0:23:37.440 --> 0:23:41.359 and if she wanted to try and get affordable rent, 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:42.920 that she had to fill out an application. 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:47.520 After decades of fighting to stay in their home, Michelle 0:23:47.560 --> 0:23:50.120 started to convince her mom to move out and live 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:51.240 with her brother Jamie. 0:23:51.520 --> 0:23:54.240 We started telling her, I don't think it's safe for 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:57.919 you to stay in this house the way they're treating you, 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:01.119 the way they're always losing the paperwork for the affordable rent, 0:24:01.560 --> 0:24:04.520 and my mom it was very difficult for her because 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:11.160 she feels my dad's spirit in that home. She started 0:24:11.359 --> 0:24:13.639 crying because she's like, you know, he's not going to 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:16.200 leave this house, and we're like, mom, he's going to 0:24:16.240 --> 0:24:17.840 be wherever you are. 0:24:19.680 --> 0:24:23.080 Finally, Michelle's mom agreed, and Michelle went back to her 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:25.480 childhood home to help her mother move out. 0:24:26.840 --> 0:24:31.159 So my mom sat in the empty living room and 0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:34.840 she started crying, and then we all started crying, you know. 0:24:35.160 --> 0:24:40.520 And my brother he's a jokester, and he's like, look mom, 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:44.399 and he opened a fresh apple pie, and my dad 0:24:44.440 --> 0:24:48.520 loved fresh apple pie, and he's like, okay, Fred, in 0:24:48.640 --> 0:24:50.480 order for you to have a piece of this apple pie, 0:24:50.520 --> 0:24:51.760 you got to come with us. 0:24:52.240 --> 0:25:03.679 You know. We were just all cried and hugged her. 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:09.120