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Speaker 1: Previously on Wiian House. Have you seen the movie Swittness before?

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Speaker 2: I don't want to.

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Speaker 3: I've seen it about three times, and it is something

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Speaker 3: that really kind of gets the Delta right, this idea

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Speaker 3: of vampires. That's the way that a lot of people

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Speaker 3: thought about the ways that whites dealt with black people

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Speaker 3: in the Delta. They were just kind of sucking their blood.

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Speaker 4: January thirtieth, I was followed and seen by Ice federal agents.

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Speaker 4: They did call the police department and lie about me

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Speaker 4: following them.

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Speaker 2: I'd stopped.

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Speaker 4: They boxed me in and they broke my window. They

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Speaker 4: didn't ask me my name, they didn't ask me who

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Speaker 4: I was. They didn't tell me why they were stopping me.

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Speaker 4: They just pointed the gun at my window.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Weedian House. I'm your home, Theo Henderson. Before

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Speaker 1: we get into this week's episode, some exciting news. For

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Speaker 1: a second year in a row, Weedian House has been

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Speaker 1: nominated for Best Public Service and Activism Podcast at the

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Speaker 1: Webby Awards, and we need your help to get the win.

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Speaker 1: Go to the link in the description right now to

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Speaker 1: vote for the show. You can vote once a day

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Speaker 1: every day until April sixteenth. It only takes a minute

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Speaker 1: and is a great way to support the show. And

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Speaker 1: while you're at it, send median House and the voting

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Speaker 1: link to someone who is new to the show and

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Speaker 1: now un House news.

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Speaker 2: Some simple facts.

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Speaker 1: A twenty twenty five survey count of the unhoused finds

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Speaker 1: that there are forty four thousand, six twenty two who

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Speaker 1: are unhoused in Los Angeles County. This excludes Pasadena, Long

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Speaker 1: Beach and Glennal. The city of Los Angeles has twenty

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Speaker 1: eight thousand, seven hundred and seventy four unhoused people. A

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Speaker 1: not so fun fact is that five hundred and thirteen

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Speaker 1: million dollars to address the unhoused community.

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Speaker 2: Has been unspent.

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Speaker 1: City coomtroller Kenneth Mahea stated only thirty percent of two

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty two million dollars in grants from the

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Speaker 1: state Houseless Housing Assistance and prevented the program has been used.

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Speaker 1: Another not so fun fact is Trump's plan to convert

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Speaker 1: permanent housing to temporary transitional housing, which could force people

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Speaker 1: out of the facilities into houselessness. Another not so fun

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Speaker 1: fact is about a program being affected by the Trump regime.

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Speaker 1: Medicaid covers one in three children diagnosed by cancer. In

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Speaker 1: other news, California Proposition one, a six point four billion

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Speaker 1: dollar bond supported by Governor Gavin Newsom, is designed to

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Speaker 1: create thousands of mental health treatment bids.

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Speaker 2: Ten of the.

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Speaker 1: Projects under Proposition one intended to service there un housed

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Speaker 1: and other vulnerable communities, have.

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Speaker 2: Been delayed or canceled.

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Speaker 1: Governor Gavin Newsom has also threatened to take Prop one

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Speaker 1: funding from counties who he says are not doing enough.

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Speaker 1: Newsom called out ten counties that are underperforming when it

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Speaker 1: comes to care court. Let's say UCB living in the park.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Trump's new law of changing my permitted supportive

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Speaker 1: housing to timporary supportive housing. Once the timeline is expired,

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Speaker 1: I get kicked out of my housing and I don't

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Speaker 1: have the income to obtain housing. Now let's add to

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Speaker 1: that and say you are a nimby and you created

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Speaker 1: the idea of who I am, a drug addict mentally

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Speaker 1: ill person that you don't want to see in your

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Speaker 1: local park. With this new change, you can just call

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Speaker 1: the care court to have me involuntary detanged. In Newsom's view,

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Speaker 1: these counties are Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Santa Clara,

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Speaker 1: San Bernardino Kern Riverside, Yolo, Monterey and Fresno. Newsom is

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Speaker 1: quoted as saying, I am happy to redirect every damn

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Speaker 1: penny in these programs to the counties that are getting

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Speaker 1: things done. Unless they stop what they've done, don't make

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Speaker 1: any more excuses.

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Speaker 2: And that's a House news.

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Speaker 1: When we come back, we'll be speaking with some candidates

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Speaker 1: running for office in Los Angeles. Welcome back to Weedian House.

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Speaker 1: I'm Theo Henderson. A storm is coming. Some say it's arrived.

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Speaker 1: Many are worried how we will face the storm. One

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Speaker 1: way to meet the storm is to explore our political choices.

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Speaker 1: This episode, we would speak to Ida Ashuri and Reverend

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Speaker 1: Ray Waugh. Ida is a human rights activist and lawyer

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Speaker 1: running for the Los Angeles City's Attorney's office.

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Speaker 2: Here's our conversation.

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Speaker 1: Hello, my fellow listeners, my fellow voters, and my fellow citizens.

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Speaker 1: The election cycles are heating up, not only on the

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Speaker 1: federal and state level, but also locally. We have in

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Speaker 1: the studios with us a candidate that's running for city

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Speaker 1: attorney and I'm going to let them introduced themselves and

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Speaker 1: why they are running.

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Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having me. My name is

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Speaker 5: Ida Ashuri, and I'm running for Los Angeles City Attorney.

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Speaker 5: I've been a human rights activist for decades, working on

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Speaker 5: various issues like public transit, environmental issues as well as surveillance,

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Speaker 5: anti war, and I have been an attorney for more

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Speaker 5: than a decade. Actually I worked on immigration issues. I

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Speaker 5: actually worked as a debut city attorney in the City

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Speaker 5: Attorney's office, as well as as a housing rights lawyer

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Speaker 5: and just a regular old attorney in a law firm.

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Speaker 6: And when I was working at the.

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Speaker 5: City Attorney's offices, actually is what inspired me to run

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Speaker 5: is I saw this problematic pattern of focusing on convictions

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Speaker 5: overcare and the continued criminalization of poverty, and I felt

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Speaker 5: that it was one it was very punitive, you know,

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Speaker 5: punishing people who were disenfranchised, and at the same time,

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Speaker 5: it was a waste of res It consumed a lot

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Speaker 5: of our time in terms of being in court, in

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Speaker 5: terms of trying to resolve these cases, in terms of

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Speaker 5: seventy five people being pulled out of work to serve

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Speaker 5: on a jury for an issue that really shouldn't have

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Speaker 5: gone that far, and that complemented the policy on the

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Speaker 5: civil side or the litigation side of the city attorney

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Speaker 5: where they really didn't do a good job holding landlords

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Speaker 5: accountable for not doing repairs, for illegally raising rents, for

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Speaker 5: basically creating a situation that increased unhoused individuals. On top of,

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Speaker 5: you know, the increased criminalization of poverty. What I also

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Speaker 5: saw were survivors of violence, sexual violence and domestic violence

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Speaker 5: often be kind of overlooked, not given resources, or not prioritized,

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Speaker 5: and so that's also a leading cause of homelessness. And

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Speaker 5: I think seeing people running for this position who tend

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Speaker 5: to be people who are looking for a platform for

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Speaker 5: their political curve, or a stepping stone or another just

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Speaker 5: step in their political career, or oftentimes getting money from

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Speaker 5: the same people causing the harm, I realized we needed

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Speaker 5: somebody with experience and with dedication to the people and

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Speaker 5: not these special interests, not the same landlords that are

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Speaker 5: causing these problems, and that's why I decided to run.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned something a little earlier in the statement about

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Speaker 1: some of the city attorneys using this launch pad for

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Speaker 1: a political career, and I'm thinking of Mike Feher, who

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Speaker 1: was the one that was the architect of resurrecting forty

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Speaker 1: one to eighteen, and so my question to you is

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Speaker 1: a person that has lived on the streets and had

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Speaker 1: been impacted by forty one eighteen, sixty three, forty four,

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Speaker 1: fifty eight eleven, all of those ordinances against people trying

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Speaker 1: to survive in a very unfriendly and hostile environment economically,

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Speaker 1: if you are also as I was, disabled, what could

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Speaker 1: we expect with you revisiting forty one eighteen? Will you

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Speaker 1: revisit forty one eighteen to take the teeth out of

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Speaker 1: the abuse of nature that the city has taken against

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Speaker 1: forty one eighteen. Sometimes the councilor members are teped, like

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Speaker 1: Hugo Solo Martinez, he doesn't want to call out the

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Speaker 1: people that are going role in the police department targeting

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Speaker 1: on house people.

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Speaker 6: Thank you for that question.

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Speaker 5: And actually I worked under Mike Fear, so I know

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Speaker 5: his policy is pretty well and that's kind of why

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Speaker 5: it was inspired. Again, he was someone that didn't have

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Speaker 5: any criminal justice experience. He did work in the government

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Speaker 5: as well as the nonprofit world. But I think it's

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Speaker 5: problematic when people go for a position where thirty five

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Speaker 5: percent of the work is prosecuting misdemeanors and they haven't

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Speaker 5: stepped foot and know a criminal court room, haven't picked

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Speaker 5: a jury, haven't defended anybody in a court even how

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Speaker 5: are they going to even know the impacts of those policies.

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Speaker 5: And I also saw beyond that was a lot of

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Speaker 5: cases of racial profiling that the City Attorney's office filed,

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Speaker 5: and Mike Feer had a policy on certain crimes related

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Speaker 5: to guns, which were you know, gun possession, but just

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Speaker 5: storing them improperly. There was a pattern of black security

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Speaker 5: guards being pulled over on the basis of his policy

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Speaker 5: because they knew that these people were going to get

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Speaker 5: very stern sentences based on his sentencing. And so that

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Speaker 5: was an example of him being kind of disconnected from

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Speaker 5: the impacts of his policies. We weren't even allowed to

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Speaker 5: change or deviate from his policies, even though I would

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Speaker 5: see people who have no criminal history, just because they

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Speaker 5: didn't store their gun properly, they were now having to

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Speaker 5: plead to a misdemeanor because they didn't want to go

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Speaker 5: to court and risk you know the result. And I

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Speaker 5: think forty one to eighteen is a very punia measure. Ironically,

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Speaker 5: it's also used against protesters. Yes, I did Sae theilicobedience

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Speaker 5: during the Iraq War, and we were arrested and first

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Speaker 5: charged with misdemeanors, but then that got pled down to

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Speaker 5: forty one eighteen. So it's also a law that's rooted

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Speaker 5: in racism as well.

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Speaker 1: Is the Jim Correl two point zero and as the

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Speaker 1: Jim Crow of this California because initially it started in

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight. And in nineteen sixty eight, if anyone

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Speaker 1: understood that, he was the year of assassinations, and it

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Speaker 1: was a year of protests. Doctor King was assassinated, Bobby

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Speaker 1: Kennedy was assassinated, and other leaders and they were what

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Speaker 1: Reagan would call the moral majority. As why he was

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Speaker 1: a governor here was angry at these protests and he

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Speaker 1: sided with the white nationalists that we would call today,

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Speaker 1: and he passed that legislation to target and make it

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Speaker 1: very uncomfortable for protests to be done legally here exactly.

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Speaker 5: And now it's mandate has been expanded and it's been

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Speaker 5: being used to abuse, you know, poor people essentially. And

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Speaker 5: yet I think that we shouldn't as a city or

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Speaker 5: as a country, weaponize our government or policing to target poor,

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Speaker 5: criminalize the poor. I mean it's gone to the level

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Speaker 5: where even the United Nations Human Rights Council and you know,

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Speaker 5: international human rights bodies have condemned the United States for

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Speaker 5: its use of policing against the poor. And I think

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Speaker 5: it's a waste of resources. And I mean, people lose

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Speaker 5: their identification, they lose their medications, and the city's actually

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Speaker 5: embroiled in lawsuits due to this. And you know, ironically,

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Speaker 5: I was actually in the same nonprofit that's suing the

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Speaker 5: city right now, and I was there when they found

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Speaker 5: out that the city attorney was doctoring evidence to hide

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Speaker 5: that they were knowingly throwing away Oh yeah, was that

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Speaker 5: Judge Carter's ruling about they deliberately takeing those belongings and

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Speaker 5: not storing them properly, exactly deliberately throwing them away, and

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Speaker 5: they were trying to hide that fact. So and right

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Speaker 5: now the current city attorney's actually spending millions of taxpayer

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Speaker 5: dollars fighting this lawsuit instead of settling it. And it's

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Speaker 5: going to a you know, Gibson done with this law firm.

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Speaker 5: That's actually the reason why we have grants pass in

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Speaker 5: the first place. It's like a full circle where they're

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Speaker 5: the ones that sued on behalf of these this city

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Speaker 5: in order to make essentially homelessness illegal. And so, you know, ironically,

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Speaker 5: there's another candidate that was also working under Mike Fear

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Speaker 5: at the time, and their focuses on lawsuits and it's

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Speaker 5: the same thing that Mike Feer did. Mike Feer was

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Speaker 5: very much focused on lawsuits and did not understand the

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Speaker 5: impact of his policies on the poor or just racial

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Speaker 5: profiling and people of color. And I think that's why

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Speaker 5: it's so important that we elect people who have, you know,

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Speaker 5: this direct hands on experience that know the impact of

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Speaker 5: these these policies and they aren't just stuck in patronizing

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Speaker 5: their special interest funders, which is what we see with

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Speaker 5: the other, you know, people that you've mentioned, is they

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Speaker 5: might have been great as activists outside of city council,

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Speaker 5: but if you see their funders that are dominated by

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Speaker 5: special interests or even wealthy corporate executives corporate lawyers, which

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Speaker 5: this race has tremendous amounts of money from those corporate

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Speaker 5: executives and special interests and people even lawyers who are

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Speaker 5: defending giant landlords and private equity. How are we going

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Speaker 5: to expect them once they get elected to serve us right.

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Speaker 5: So I have the lowest average donations of any candidate

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Speaker 5: in this field, and I've actually been endorsed by many

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Speaker 5: civil rights activists and activists on the ground doing the work,

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Speaker 5: and because I actually think their opinion is much better

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Speaker 5: than a politician because they're actually doing the work on

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Speaker 5: the ground with the people. And so I think we

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Speaker 5: have to really scrutinize. And unfortunately we have a corporate

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Speaker 5: media that doesn't do a good job with scrutinizing our candidates.

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Speaker 5: But we really need to scrutinize these candidates, you know,

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Speaker 5: and their allegiances to you know, APAC funded politicians, to

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Speaker 5: you know, corporate funded politicians and organizations and law firms,

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Speaker 5: and make sure that these people have a track record

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Speaker 5: of actually being on the ground and doing the work.

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Speaker 5: And I definitely agree with you and all those points,

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Speaker 5: and I would go beyond that, even like looking at

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Speaker 5: not enforcing laws like trespassing or or related laws that

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Speaker 5: also penalize poverty. Larry Krasner, who's a discre attorney in Philadelphia,

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Speaker 5: has done exactly that and crime has actually fallen in Philadelphia.

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Speaker 5: And he was challenged by a Democrat that had more

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Speaker 5: money and more endorsements than him, and he won. He's

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Speaker 5: won his third term now, I believe so second or

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Speaker 5: third term. So I think that we can still win

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Speaker 5: by having integrity, being right when it comes to these policies,

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Speaker 5: and having the actual boots on the ground work behind it.

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Speaker 1: You have a bar bones campaign, you don't have heavy

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Speaker 1: financial clause into you. I was having a conversation with

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Speaker 1: a friend of mine and they made a point and

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Speaker 1: I thought it was a good win in I think

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Speaker 1: it's good to ask too, is there are some candidates

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Speaker 1: that have ran previously that are now counsel people that

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Speaker 1: promised that they would do some of the similar things

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Speaker 1: that you administer Ray had promised to do, and once

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Speaker 1: they got into it, Like Hugo Soda Martinez, he just

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Speaker 1: basically won't speak out against in his community the cops

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Speaker 1: that are sweeping on the house people. He says it

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Speaker 1: is wrong to the protesters, but it's it felt like

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Speaker 1: lip service or not understanding that if you don't have

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Speaker 1: a police department or a police commander that is not

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Speaker 1: going to follow the law in protecting vulnerable communities like

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Speaker 1: the undocumented community that are targeting and attacking and helping

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Speaker 1: them that they should be held to account or should

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Speaker 1: be fired, or what do you say to the people

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Speaker 1: that have those questions that they are worried that they

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Speaker 1: get you get in the office. Let's say, if you

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Speaker 1: get elected and you turn around and nothing happens, you

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Speaker 1: just carry this status quote, What's what would you say

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Speaker 1: to them?

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Speaker 5: I think this is an important question, and I personally

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Speaker 5: am frustrated with people who don't, you know, respond to

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Speaker 5: those grievances, and also who aren't even held accountable by

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Speaker 5: the people who've endorse them. The big problem is quote

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Speaker 5: progressive organizations that fund and lift up these campaigns, they

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Speaker 5: cultivate goodwill in our community in terms of what they

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Speaker 5: do on the ground, but that they go ahead and

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Speaker 5: push the endorsement of candidates without any form of forums,

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Speaker 5: with any competition, and essentially they're kind of replicate, replicating

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Speaker 5: the same thing that Republicans do by pushing out grassroots

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Speaker 5: candidates like myself and pushing their own insider, democratic insider,

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Speaker 5: or whatever special interest insider candidates. So I think a

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Speaker 5: lot of folks might might make these promises, but really

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Speaker 5: we don't see the machinery behind them as well, which

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Speaker 5: are these folks that are supporting their campaign and also

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Speaker 5: pushing them towards Congress or other types of campaigns. So

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Speaker 5: they are thinking in their head when they get elected,

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Speaker 5: who can I satisfy so I can go to the

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Speaker 5: next step, like the political career move And I think

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Speaker 5: what we don't see elected is people who actually have

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Speaker 5: a track record of exactly the opposite, which is like

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Speaker 5: grassroots activism. I've been activist since I was seventeen years old.

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Speaker 5: I never had any real political aspirations, and I think

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Speaker 5: what's problematic is I've actually tried to hold those people accountable.

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Speaker 5: I've actually tried to call out a lot of these

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Speaker 5: folks that voted against affordable housing, voted against rezoning you

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Speaker 5: know that continue sweeps, and I've been shut down by

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Speaker 5: those saying groups that you know support these folks. That

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Speaker 5: is not a democracy. If we are silencing each other

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Speaker 5: and we are not able to hold each other accountable,

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Speaker 5: how are we going to create a better city. Then

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Speaker 5: we're going to replicate the same type of people that

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Speaker 5: you know we're we have agrievances with, And instead we

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Speaker 5: need to elect people who are actually willing to take

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Speaker 5: the political risk and have the political will to make

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Speaker 5: those strong.

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Speaker 4: You know decisions.

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Speaker 5: I mean, Larry Krasner is harassed on the street all

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Speaker 5: the time because of his decisions, and he has no

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Speaker 5: problem calling out Ice or Trump, and we barely have

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Speaker 5: that from our week willed representatives right now in city council.

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Speaker 5: And I think our city needs some better leadership because

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Speaker 5: of that. And that's the thing is, there was somebody

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Speaker 5: who made this post. Look at the people who have

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Speaker 5: a track record and who have taken risks. And I

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Speaker 5: have taken many risks in my own career, even passing

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Speaker 5: a ceasefire resolution on my neighborhood council, which was a

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Speaker 5: big risk at the time. We were only one of

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Speaker 5: five neighborhood councils out of ninety nine in the city,

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Speaker 5: and I received, you know, prejudicial comments about myself, my background,

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Speaker 5: you know, I'm Iranian, and someone inclined basically almost calling

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Speaker 5: me terrorists in a way for doing this. But I think,

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Speaker 5: you know, taking that risk is so important because that's

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Speaker 5: the bare minimum that we can do. And you know,

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Speaker 5: before that, I at seventeen, I helped organize a walkout

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Speaker 5: of fifteen hundred students against TOP twenty one, which was

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Speaker 5: a measure that Pete Wilson wrote that was basically codifying

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Speaker 5: racial profiling youth of color, and beyond that, you know,

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Speaker 5: working with different communities through like tutoring on the ground,

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Speaker 5: like I work with schools on wheels, working wardrobes and YWCA.

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Speaker 5: Because it's also just having direct services and mutual aid

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Speaker 5: with people and always challenging our city. I've tried to

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Speaker 5: held a lot of these I don't want to name nasby,

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Speaker 5: I try to hold a lot of these people accountable

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Speaker 5: just because I am actually also in CD four and

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Speaker 5: I want to see changes, and I think like our

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Speaker 5: city's kind of held hostage by the real estate lobby,

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Speaker 5: by people who have a very small but very vocal,

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Speaker 5: you know, minority of very powerful people. But the rest

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Speaker 5: of the city is suffering the fact that we have

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Speaker 5: not you know, rezoned, we have not pushed more housing,

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Speaker 5: We are still so behind on public transit. These are

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Speaker 5: things that actually makes our city more affordable. And the

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Speaker 5: fact that we are so behind that and still are

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Speaker 5: continuing to increase policing, increasing surveillance against our city constituents,

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Speaker 5: which is a huge deal considering how can we point

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Speaker 5: fingers at Trump if we're part of the same machine

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Speaker 5: that he is pushing. And that's also why I'm running

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Speaker 5: outside the two party system, because that's the other problem

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Speaker 5: is these folks are very much controlled by the DNC

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Speaker 5: and what it wants as well, because they want to

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Speaker 5: have good graces with these people who are going to

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Speaker 5: support their political career. And I think to have a

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Speaker 5: real independent city Attorney that it will hold these politicians accountable,

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Speaker 5: because that's the other thing is that office is supposed

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Speaker 5: to make sure people follow ethics laws and advises them

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Speaker 5: of the law. And we have to have someone who's independent,

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Speaker 5: who's not going to be in the pocket or the

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Speaker 5: alliance of our politicians, because we have seen a pattern

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Speaker 5: of even with the Currencity Attorney, of not investigating these

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Speaker 5: politicians because they donated or help their campaign. And I

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Speaker 5: don't see that from the other candidates who are very much,

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Speaker 5: you know, in bed with all of these politicians that

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Speaker 5: we've talked about grievance is about, and I think it's

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Speaker 5: so important that we have the political will and the

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Speaker 5: courage to elect someone that is outside of that, and

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Speaker 5: I think this is the moment to do that. Right now,

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Speaker 5: both of our political parties are at a fourteen percent

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Speaker 5: approval rating, and I think we need someone who's going

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Speaker 5: to change our city for the better and be able

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Speaker 5: to make those promises and keep them because they their

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Speaker 5: goal is the people and not the special interests and

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Speaker 5: not their political career.

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Speaker 1: Well one of the things as well, not only is

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Speaker 1: it powerful rich people, but there's another constituency that is

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Speaker 1: in la As someone that lived on the street can

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Speaker 1: tell you the nimbis why sometimes this issue is not

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Speaker 1: resolved as successfully as it can be. And it seems

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Speaker 1: like the council people and politicians are so afraid of

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Speaker 1: nimbis that they will do everything in their power to

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Speaker 1: erase the existence of it house people through criminality, caar

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Speaker 1: through kind of solutions because they won't take an account

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Speaker 1: the realities of poverty and voltability and that this is

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Speaker 1: a complex issue. And I they the creation of business

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Speaker 1: improvement district security officers that their job is to constantly

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Speaker 1: target unhouse people, to harass them to a point, to

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Speaker 1: to get them to commit a crime and then get

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Speaker 1: them arrested. Or I've been witnessed to not just myself.

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Speaker 1: There's so many tactics that they use to harass the

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Speaker 1: unhoused community, and too often to not city council persons

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Speaker 1: vote to renew it, or the city attorney works in tandem.

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Speaker 1: I knew in the place I was in Chinatown that

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Speaker 1: they were like buddy buddy, trying to target unhouse people.

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Speaker 2: So what would your position be on that.

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Speaker 5: I think this is kind of like a symptom of

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Speaker 5: a broader issue of the growing privatization of all of

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Speaker 5: our spaces. We have very few public spaces as it is,

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Speaker 5: and even those public spaces are constantly police you know,

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Speaker 5: or they have are hosts of architecture, and so the

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Speaker 5: places that are remaining, you know, again, people who are

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Speaker 5: on house aren't continuously policed. I would not agree with

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Speaker 5: policing people who are on house and that just for existing.

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Speaker 5: I think that we have to focus on having an

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Speaker 5: expansion of our third spaces and more public spaces and

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Speaker 5: not police people who were just existing outside. And I've

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Speaker 5: seen it myself as well, just people who are just

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Speaker 5: sitting behind bus stop and being harassed, and it's just like,

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Speaker 5: how is this helping anyone? And I think people make

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Speaker 5: fun of the fact that we have anti loitering laws,

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Speaker 5: which essentially is like anti existence laws, like you just

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Speaker 5: can't exist.

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Speaker 1: That came from the remnant of my ancestors, the enslave

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Speaker 1: after slavery, the anti loitering laws were used to put

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Speaker 1: newly freed African Americans in back into in servitude to

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Speaker 1: whites because they didn't want to do the jobs that

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Speaker 1: once they left for free.

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Speaker 2: They didn't want to do those jobs.

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Speaker 1: They didn't want to go back to that same reality

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Speaker 1: and they start to gain their financial independence, their moral independence,

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Speaker 1: and they just basically was like, we're cool.

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Speaker 2: On on working.

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Speaker 1: And also they targeted black women because black women did

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Speaker 1: not want to work back into the household being a

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Speaker 1: maid and a sex slave and all of those things

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Speaker 1: that went with the the.

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Speaker 2: Part when they say work. It was a lot of

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Speaker 2: things to it.

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Speaker 1: So that loitering laws, no trespassing laws that came and

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Speaker 1: it's still in existence today because of that.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, exactly. I mean almost all of our I think

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Speaker 5: pretty much all of our terrible policy comes from racism.

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Speaker 5: I mean our housing laws, redlining, exclusionary zoning, everything is

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Speaker 5: related to racism. And even the lack of our third spaces,

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Speaker 5: all of these things are bean renewal. All of this

438
00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:49,960
Speaker 5: is related to racism. And so I think we have

439
00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:55,560
Speaker 5: to counteract that by increasing access to resources and not

440
00:25:55,640 --> 00:26:00,359
Speaker 5: trying to criminalize just existence of people outside essentially, and

441
00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 5: so I think there has to be a cooperation with

442
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:07,680
Speaker 5: the city to think about how they can create more

443
00:26:07,720 --> 00:26:11,399
Speaker 5: third spaces for people that people can just exist outside.

444
00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:16,320
Speaker 5: Because this idea that we are pitting regular people against

445
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:21,159
Speaker 5: each other, that's what privatization does. Instead of expanding like

446
00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:24,439
Speaker 5: we shouldn't have to compete for resources for space, we

447
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:28,320
Speaker 5: should have a government that actually increases space, increases places

448
00:26:28,320 --> 00:26:32,439
Speaker 5: that we can be, and essentially makes this more of

449
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,680
Speaker 5: a livable city and not one where we're feeling like

450
00:26:36,080 --> 00:26:37,400
Speaker 5: we are battling each other.

451
00:26:37,960 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 1: What does police accountability look like for you, because again

452
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:46,400
Speaker 1: a lot of times they believe and this is why

453
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:49,320
Speaker 1: they use it as a fugil is to use the

454
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:52,440
Speaker 1: forty one to eighteen. How could you hold the police

455
00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:55,719
Speaker 1: accountable because a lot of times they have the line's

456
00:26:55,720 --> 00:27:00,000
Speaker 1: share of the budget. They are a very strong legalized

457
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:05,240
Speaker 1: gang we have that's utilizing their own privatization or their

458
00:27:05,280 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 1: own prejudicial type of visions on what they feels law

459
00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:09,360
Speaker 1: and order.

460
00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:12,440
Speaker 5: I think there's a there's a couple of things tools

461
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:15,080
Speaker 5: I would use from my own experience working at these

462
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:18,600
Speaker 5: at the City Attorney's office, and one there's a thing

463
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:21,680
Speaker 5: called prosecutual discretion, and that's a big power the city

464
00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:26,240
Speaker 5: attorney has, which basically means we don't have to file charges.

465
00:27:26,720 --> 00:27:29,159
Speaker 5: Just because the you know, the police brings us a

466
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,760
Speaker 5: case doesn't mean we have to file it. We have

467
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:34,680
Speaker 5: the right to refuse to file it. And having been

468
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:37,200
Speaker 5: in the office and seen cases where there was criminalization

469
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 5: of poverty or racial profiling, the city or the prosecutor

470
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:44,280
Speaker 5: is well within their rights, and even the district attorney,

471
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:47,280
Speaker 5: if they would follow their own policy, has it's written

472
00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,399
Speaker 5: out in their policy is when there is misconductor or

473
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:54,200
Speaker 5: some you know, form of conduct that you don't want filed,

474
00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 5: we have every right not to file those cases. And

475
00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:00,400
Speaker 5: I think that is something that's like what Larry Krass does,

476
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:02,840
Speaker 5: you know, in terms of not filing or criminalizing a

477
00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:06,919
Speaker 5: certain conduct. I would do the same exact thing, because

478
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:12,080
Speaker 5: we want one to have a high degree of integrity

479
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:14,520
Speaker 5: both in the LAPD and as well as city Attorney's

480
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:17,000
Speaker 5: office to make sure we're only filing cases that are

481
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:19,840
Speaker 5: properly investigated, where no one's rights are violated, where no

482
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,560
Speaker 5: one is just being harassed and that's a better use

483
00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:23,800
Speaker 5: of our resources as well.

484
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:25,479
Speaker 6: That would be the one front.

485
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 5: The other front I think is with the defending the

486
00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:32,719
Speaker 5: police misconduct cases is our current city attorney and pacity

487
00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:36,600
Speaker 5: attorneys have often cided with LAPD or even assist at LAPD.

488
00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 5: Like the journalist you know injunction where the current city

489
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 5: attorney intervened on behalf of LAPD to try to lift

490
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,360
Speaker 5: the injunction. And injunction is a court order for people.

491
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:50,960
Speaker 5: Basically it was a court order. The judge said LAPD

492
00:28:51,320 --> 00:28:54,400
Speaker 5: don't injure a journalist. It seems very basic level. But

493
00:28:54,960 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 5: before the Canoe King's day, Jim McDonald, I should say,

494
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:01,520
Speaker 5: asked for that to be lifted. And as city attorney,

495
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:04,520
Speaker 5: really we should be. Our city attorney should be looking

496
00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:07,720
Speaker 5: at what is best for the city and what's best

497
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:12,840
Speaker 5: for following the laws. And obviously just because LAPD asked

498
00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:14,720
Speaker 5: for something, just because the mayor asked for something, just

499
00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:17,360
Speaker 5: because city councils asked for something, doesn't mean it's right

500
00:29:17,440 --> 00:29:19,880
Speaker 5: or should they should get it. What the city attorney

501
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:22,520
Speaker 5: should do and has to do as an independent person,

502
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:25,600
Speaker 5: is say no, this is against the law, just like

503
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 5: attacking journalists. It's against the laws, against a first Amendment.

504
00:29:29,080 --> 00:29:32,120
Speaker 5: We should not be injuring journalists and shouldn't intervene.

505
00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:32,480
Speaker 2: On those cases.

506
00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 5: Instead, what we should be doing in our lawsuits is

507
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:40,719
Speaker 5: saying LAPD, you should be actually following this policy and

508
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:43,720
Speaker 5: making sure that when we're defending these lawsuits that we're

509
00:29:43,760 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 5: on the side of making sure that these rights are

510
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:51,720
Speaker 5: enforced and not trying to just defend these lawsuits and

511
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 5: you know, go to outside council and go with like

512
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 5: millions of dollars just because someone like the mayor says,

513
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,320
Speaker 5: so we need to do what's right, and that is

514
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:00,760
Speaker 5: what what.

515
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:03,360
Speaker 1: Is right for the people, So you'll go out to

516
00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:06,760
Speaker 1: the cops or basically make sure that you are the

517
00:30:06,840 --> 00:30:09,840
Speaker 1: stop gap as you're supposed to be basically.

518
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:11,160
Speaker 2: Doing the job that is not being done.

519
00:30:11,440 --> 00:30:14,920
Speaker 1: If you get into office, do you foresee some challenges

520
00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:18,160
Speaker 1: or you foresee that that's going to immediately see some change,

521
00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:19,880
Speaker 1: or what's your timeline on it.

522
00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,840
Speaker 5: I think the biggest issue will be whoever's mayor, definitely,

523
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,720
Speaker 5: because they often have to sign off on whatever the

524
00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:31,800
Speaker 5: city attorney does. However, just like I think any successful

525
00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 5: elected official, I'm not going in there alone, I'm going

526
00:30:34,880 --> 00:30:36,760
Speaker 5: to bring the people with me in a movement, and

527
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:39,960
Speaker 5: when I do something that might be considered controversial, I'm

528
00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 5: going to call out folks, you know, like come to

529
00:30:41,920 --> 00:30:45,000
Speaker 5: city council, come and express your support for this change

530
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 5: in this policy, because this is our city. It's not

531
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 5: just me or my policies. It's about bringing up everybody

532
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 5: and so that people are heard and seen as well,

533
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:57,080
Speaker 5: which I think, definitely in our city has not happened.

534
00:30:57,160 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 5: I definitely when I go to city council meetings, I

535
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,040
Speaker 5: don't feel her when I don't know of any really

536
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:05,600
Speaker 5: elected official that really resonates with my policies or who

537
00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 5: sees me and represents me. So I think we really

538
00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 5: need someone who has been with us in the streets

539
00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:14,400
Speaker 5: and will be with us in city Hall. And city

540
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:18,040
Speaker 5: council does have to approve any form of litigation as well,

541
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 5: and so I think making sure that people are aware

542
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:25,120
Speaker 5: with what's happening. I would continue to communicate through social

543
00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:28,720
Speaker 5: media as well as going to meetings, even holding town halls.

544
00:31:28,960 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 5: So I'm communicating the changes and making sure that people

545
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:35,200
Speaker 5: are on board and supporting them, so that I have

546
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 5: a collective mass also in support so it will just

547
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:41,440
Speaker 5: essentially look bad if city council or the mayor tries

548
00:31:41,520 --> 00:31:44,360
Speaker 5: to block or be an obstacle to these changes.

549
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:46,840
Speaker 1: Wow, it sounds like you're going to have a lot

550
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:51,080
Speaker 1: of big plate to feel, so a clear off, I

551
00:31:51,120 --> 00:31:53,520
Speaker 1: would say, I think I've asked all of the questions

552
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask.

553
00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:56,120
Speaker 2: Is there anything that you wanted to say?

554
00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:59,800
Speaker 5: Additionally, well, I really appreciate you having me here, and

555
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:01,960
Speaker 5: I want to just express you know, I've been an

556
00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:06,240
Speaker 5: activist for so long, and I worked with different organizations

557
00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,360
Speaker 5: like Bus Writers Union, Community for a Better Environment. I've

558
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:11,640
Speaker 5: been on a neighbor council for four years when I

559
00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:15,720
Speaker 5: helped pass different letters that support you know, housing reform

560
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:19,080
Speaker 5: and increase access to housing as well as services, and

561
00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:23,040
Speaker 5: also advocated against the criminalization of poverty and a house people.

562
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,440
Speaker 5: So I've had a long history of working on these

563
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:30,640
Speaker 5: issues and that's I feel like. What also makes me

564
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:33,440
Speaker 5: stand apart from folks is that I haven't just been

565
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:38,400
Speaker 5: in a nonprofit or a government position. I've actually advocated

566
00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:41,560
Speaker 5: a lot outside of that role. And I was elected

567
00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:43,680
Speaker 5: to the neighborhood council and I was actually appointed to

568
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 5: a to the group of Park Advisory Board too, where

569
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:49,200
Speaker 5: also there I tried to advocate for more access to

570
00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 5: parks for low income people, which it really is a

571
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:55,120
Speaker 5: big issue in our city as well. And because of

572
00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:58,240
Speaker 5: that experience, I feel like going into the city city

573
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:01,200
Speaker 5: Hall I will be much more responsible to the people

574
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,800
Speaker 5: of the city rare than to you know, more formal

575
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:09,040
Speaker 5: special interest or moneyed interests that I feel like we

576
00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:12,600
Speaker 5: have a pattern of in our city controlling our politics today.

577
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:15,880
Speaker 2: So for the listeners, again, what's your name Aida?

578
00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 4: Sure?

579
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:19,960
Speaker 2: Okay? The second thing is where can they find you at?

580
00:33:20,360 --> 00:33:23,280
Speaker 5: Ww dot IDA for La dot com? Okay, I d

581
00:33:23,480 --> 00:33:25,080
Speaker 5: A for la dot com.

582
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:26,080
Speaker 2: Where can they donate?

583
00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:28,920
Speaker 5: You can donate on that website or even go to

584
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:32,680
Speaker 5: bit dot l y at donate the number four Ida.

585
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 5: And one small thing, this could be the last election

586
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:37,800
Speaker 5: we ever have for city attorney because the Charter Reform

587
00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:40,040
Speaker 5: Commission is trying to make it so the mayor gets

588
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:44,320
Speaker 5: to a point this city attorney. So on my website,

589
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:46,959
Speaker 5: on my Instagram, I also have a link what's your

590
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 5: Instagram Ida for La Ai d a the number four

591
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:52,520
Speaker 5: La and in the bio I have a link you

592
00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:54,480
Speaker 5: can make a comment that you want to make sure

593
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:57,520
Speaker 5: that the city attorney continues to be an elected position

594
00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:00,760
Speaker 5: where the people pick it, not the mayor, because we

595
00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:04,360
Speaker 5: know these mayor all appointed positions are not going to

596
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:06,400
Speaker 5: benefit the people, and they're going to pick a lawyer

597
00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:08,720
Speaker 5: that's going to do what they want, not the people.

598
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,239
Speaker 2: Uh. Well, so you heard it here. Thank you for

599
00:34:12,320 --> 00:34:13,879
Speaker 2: your time, thank you for having me.

600
00:34:16,840 --> 00:34:20,000
Speaker 1: Thank you Ida for coming on the show. When we

601
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:24,200
Speaker 1: come back, we will interview Los Angeles Mary Oil candidate

602
00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 1: Reverend Ray Wall. Welcome back to Winnion House. We are

603
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:38,000
Speaker 1: joined today by Reverend Ray Waugh, who is a Presbyterian

604
00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 1: pastor and community organized. She wants to fundamentally reimagine how

605
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 1: the city serves its people. Here's our conversation. We have

606
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 1: an exciting guest here today. We've all been talking about

607
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:56,600
Speaker 1: the midterms and all of the election cycles that are

608
00:34:56,640 --> 00:35:01,800
Speaker 1: just starting to heat up, hopefully and the presidential hopefully

609
00:35:01,840 --> 00:35:06,440
Speaker 1: he exits soon. But on a more local level, we

610
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 1: have a candidate here, Minister Ray. Minister Ray is a

611
00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:17,279
Speaker 1: potential contender against the incumbent, Karen Bass, and I am

612
00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:20,240
Speaker 1: honored to have them in the studio. We're going to

613
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:23,799
Speaker 1: have a very lively and interesting conversation and you can

614
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:28,520
Speaker 1: make the determination on who would you choose. So without Ford,

615
00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:32,720
Speaker 1: let us welcome Minister Raight Hong right Wong.

616
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:32,920
Speaker 6: There we go.

617
00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:35,760
Speaker 7: You gott it. Yes, thank you so much for having

618
00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:37,960
Speaker 7: me today. It is such an honor and such a

619
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:39,840
Speaker 7: joy to be with you in this studio.

620
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:44,120
Speaker 1: So let's get the obvious question for our listeners. Who

621
00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,759
Speaker 1: is Reverend Ray Well, I.

622
00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:50,080
Speaker 7: Am a pastor, which is why I have a reverend

623
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:52,640
Speaker 7: in front of my name. I'm a Presbyterian pastor. I

624
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 7: am also a mother of two girls. I am a

625
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:58,719
Speaker 7: single parent in fact, and I am also a community organizer.

626
00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:01,640
Speaker 7: And I've been working as a community organizer here in

627
00:36:01,680 --> 00:36:03,919
Speaker 7: Los Angeles for over ten years. But I've been doing

628
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:08,360
Speaker 7: social justice work and into racism work in organizing for

629
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:09,640
Speaker 7: over twenty years.

630
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:11,960
Speaker 1: Now what got you into this work? You've been doing

631
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:15,120
Speaker 1: this for twenty years. Give us the tea, as they say.

632
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:18,880
Speaker 6: Yeah, Well, it started off in the church.

633
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:21,839
Speaker 7: As you can imagine, I grew up with a lot

634
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:26,840
Speaker 7: of values in theology around the idea that we needed

635
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:30,240
Speaker 7: to love your neighbor and serve the Lord, and serve

636
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:33,759
Speaker 7: the poor, and care for the widowed, and care for

637
00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:37,319
Speaker 7: the orphaned, and so I very much took that to heart.

638
00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:40,920
Speaker 7: At the same time, I also was very influenced by

639
00:36:41,040 --> 00:36:44,760
Speaker 7: Doctor King. He was a childhood hero and it always

640
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:47,960
Speaker 7: shaped the way that I imagined how you could change

641
00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:50,960
Speaker 7: the world. So I started off working in the church,

642
00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:54,000
Speaker 7: as one does, and because I'm a woman, it was

643
00:36:54,160 --> 00:36:57,359
Speaker 7: very difficult to serve the church because they prefer men

644
00:36:57,640 --> 00:36:58,959
Speaker 7: at the leadership of the church.

645
00:36:59,440 --> 00:37:00,520
Speaker 6: But I I did that.

646
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 7: And the church that I happened to be working at

647
00:37:03,239 --> 00:37:07,640
Speaker 7: in Boston at the time was a Presbyterian church that

648
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:10,680
Speaker 7: was very involved in community organizing work, and so I

649
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:13,280
Speaker 7: was working with the youth there and I was trying

650
00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:16,360
Speaker 7: to bring in the ideas I had from the churches

651
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:19,200
Speaker 7: I grew up to try and provide them with some

652
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:23,120
Speaker 7: guidance around surviving, you know, in this world as a

653
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 7: young youth or as a young adult. But what I

654
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:28,400
Speaker 7: quickly realized, these are kids who lived in the projects.

655
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:32,160
Speaker 7: These are kids who were disenfranchised, and they were black

656
00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:36,920
Speaker 7: and brown and Southeast Asian communities and white Irish working

657
00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:39,480
Speaker 7: class families, and they were struggling.

658
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:40,839
Speaker 6: And I tried to.

659
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,279
Speaker 7: Tell them about God and Jesus and ultimately at the

660
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:45,759
Speaker 7: end of the day, They're like, we just start trying

661
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:48,000
Speaker 7: to survive here. You don't understand what our lives are like.

662
00:37:48,480 --> 00:37:51,439
Speaker 7: And so they actually challenged me to look at life

663
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:54,960
Speaker 7: a lot differently. And so at that church, I was

664
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:58,360
Speaker 7: doing community organizing work. We were working on the Affordable

665
00:37:58,400 --> 00:38:02,279
Speaker 7: Healthcare Act in Massachusetts, and I was so shaped by

666
00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:06,239
Speaker 7: that campaign. We ended up winning, and I decided to

667
00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:09,719
Speaker 7: take those ideas into my work with my youth, and

668
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:12,560
Speaker 7: so we did, and we actually started to embrace youth

669
00:38:12,600 --> 00:38:16,880
Speaker 7: safety issues in the city. There was a lot of violence,

670
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:22,640
Speaker 7: unexpected violence. It was gang inspired, but not actually taken

671
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:23,400
Speaker 7: on by gangs.

672
00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:25,880
Speaker 6: And so what we were doing is the.

673
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:29,480
Speaker 7: Youth and I would come up with strategies and ideas

674
00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:32,480
Speaker 7: and solutions to keep them safe in their communities. So

675
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:36,120
Speaker 7: that was the beginning of my community organizing work and

676
00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,080
Speaker 7: that has shaped me over the last twenty years. I

677
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,520
Speaker 7: could go into a lot more details, but I'm just

678
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:44,600
Speaker 7: going to skip to the end here. I'm now in

679
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:49,120
Speaker 7: Los Angeles. I've been a community organizer here working on

680
00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:53,239
Speaker 7: housing and homelessness for the last seven years. I have

681
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:57,919
Speaker 7: been working as well on economic justice, working alongside labor

682
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:00,719
Speaker 7: unions and workers, fighting for a fair contract, as well

683
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:04,960
Speaker 7: as fighting for safety and for protections for immigrants, and

684
00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:08,840
Speaker 7: lastly working very closely alongside Black Lives Matter LA around

685
00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:12,120
Speaker 7: public safety. And so that is what has led me

686
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:17,160
Speaker 7: to my particular moment where after all these all this

687
00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:20,760
Speaker 7: work that we've been doing for years, we now need

688
00:39:20,800 --> 00:39:25,040
Speaker 7: to challenge and change the status quo to actually ensure

689
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:29,000
Speaker 7: that we have protections, real protections, real safety for our

690
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:34,920
Speaker 7: community members. And what that looks like is housing for everybody,

691
00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:38,880
Speaker 7: no matter what income you have, that looks like food

692
00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:43,200
Speaker 7: on the table, that looks like a good job, that

693
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:47,719
Speaker 7: looks like enough resources for everybody. And that's what I'm

694
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:50,440
Speaker 7: advocating for as I'm running for mayor of Los Angeles.

695
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:53,319
Speaker 1: Well before we dig deeper into that, I was going

696
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:55,759
Speaker 1: to ask what made you decide to run for mayor

697
00:39:55,760 --> 00:39:59,080
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles? What was the Aha moment or Damascus

698
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:00,560
Speaker 1: moment that you had to do this.

699
00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:04,520
Speaker 7: I had felt this nudge for a while, but I

700
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:10,640
Speaker 7: had been trying to ignore it. And finally, when Mayor

701
00:40:10,760 --> 00:40:13,560
Speaker 7: Bass tried to weaken Measure ULA.

702
00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:16,719
Speaker 2: What's measure Youla For us that do not know.

703
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:21,560
Speaker 7: Yeah, Measure ULA was a measure that voters passed, and

704
00:40:21,680 --> 00:40:24,680
Speaker 7: by the way, voters voted more for this measure than

705
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:26,640
Speaker 7: they even did for Karen Bass at the time in

706
00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 7: twenty twenty two. And it is a transfer tax, so

707
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:34,160
Speaker 7: when you sell we call it the mansion tax colloquially,

708
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:36,879
Speaker 7: when you sell a property that is five million dollars

709
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:39,920
Speaker 7: or more, you pay a one time transfer tax, and

710
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:45,959
Speaker 7: that tax goes towards paying for affordable housing development. Specifically,

711
00:40:46,160 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 7: some pieces of it goes to social housing, which we

712
00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:50,880
Speaker 7: can talk about in a little bit. It goes towards

713
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:56,439
Speaker 7: emergency funding for seniors for experiencing houselessness, and it also

714
00:40:56,600 --> 00:41:00,279
Speaker 7: goes towards right to council to prevent homelessness by showing

715
00:41:00,320 --> 00:41:03,799
Speaker 7: that tenants are protected and have support so that way

716
00:41:03,840 --> 00:41:07,399
Speaker 7: they are not evicted and they don't have to then

717
00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 7: struggle with the instability of housing.

718
00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:14,880
Speaker 1: On that same note too, because Mayor Bass policies about

719
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:19,120
Speaker 1: dealing with houselessness, her solution has been inside Safe, which

720
00:41:19,560 --> 00:41:22,240
Speaker 1: if people have listened to my show and had people

721
00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:25,799
Speaker 1: that work in inside Safe or inside Starving as they say,

722
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:30,000
Speaker 1: has had some very dismal reviews about that. Would you

723
00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:34,279
Speaker 1: continue Mayor Bass's Inside Safe or if you would, would

724
00:41:34,320 --> 00:41:36,400
Speaker 1: you make any adjustments.

725
00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:39,799
Speaker 7: I will not be continuing her inside Safe program. What

726
00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:43,279
Speaker 7: I will be doing is changing it into an if

727
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:47,640
Speaker 7: you will inside Forever program. The problem that we have

728
00:41:47,719 --> 00:41:50,600
Speaker 7: with inside Safe is that it is so costly and

729
00:41:50,640 --> 00:41:55,120
Speaker 7: it is not actually getting people into permanent housing, which

730
00:41:55,320 --> 00:41:59,040
Speaker 7: was what she had promised when she first introduced this

731
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:03,720
Speaker 7: idea of inside Safe. And so meanwhile the inside Safe

732
00:42:03,719 --> 00:42:08,280
Speaker 7: program is putting people in hotels and motels, which.

733
00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:08,880
Speaker 6: Is initially a good idea.

734
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:12,439
Speaker 7: But the problem is we know, and I can say

735
00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:14,400
Speaker 7: this because I've spoken to a number of people who

736
00:42:14,760 --> 00:42:18,200
Speaker 7: are inside the program of inside Safe, that it.

737
00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:20,360
Speaker 6: Is not working as it's supposed to.

738
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:23,600
Speaker 7: For example, one person I just spoke to last week

739
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:27,720
Speaker 7: said that she has been in the inside Safe program

740
00:42:27,719 --> 00:42:31,720
Speaker 7: and been moved three times to three different interim housing,

741
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:34,799
Speaker 7: been promised that she would get permanent housing, and yet

742
00:42:34,840 --> 00:42:37,719
Speaker 7: she's been there for now well over a year. And

743
00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:40,880
Speaker 7: also while she's inside the program, she's not been receiving

744
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:45,080
Speaker 7: basic social services, she's not been receiving healthy food, she's

745
00:42:45,160 --> 00:42:48,960
Speaker 7: not receiving the basic support that she needs. And I

746
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:52,000
Speaker 7: know that you talk regularly on this podcast about the

747
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:55,160
Speaker 7: experiences of those for inn house. But what is extremely

748
00:42:55,200 --> 00:42:58,759
Speaker 7: important when one is entering into.

749
00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:00,440
Speaker 6: Stability is the ability.

750
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 7: It's exactly that it's being able to be offered, not

751
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:08,919
Speaker 7: having to be moved multiple times, having the support, having

752
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:11,840
Speaker 7: holistic support for all you need to be able to

753
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:14,839
Speaker 7: thrive so that you can really begin to get your

754
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:18,400
Speaker 7: life together again. And that is not what is happening

755
00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:23,799
Speaker 7: in the Inside Safe program. It is an unstable, instable program.

756
00:43:24,120 --> 00:43:26,520
Speaker 7: We've also found cases of fraud as well with a program,

757
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:29,880
Speaker 7: and so it's now a moment where I believe what

758
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:35,080
Speaker 7: we need to solve our homelessness crisis is three things.

759
00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:39,040
Speaker 7: The first is to ensure that we are actually creating

760
00:43:39,040 --> 00:43:43,920
Speaker 7: a program to get people inside permanently, inside forever.

761
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:44,720
Speaker 6: Right is what I said earlier.

762
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:48,759
Speaker 7: So we need to expand our permanent supportive housing as

763
00:43:48,840 --> 00:43:49,440
Speaker 7: much as we can.

764
00:43:49,480 --> 00:43:50,839
Speaker 6: We need to get programs.

765
00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:55,280
Speaker 7: We need to identify public land and develop that into

766
00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:59,839
Speaker 7: long term permanent supportive housing. And that is a form

767
00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:02,920
Speaker 7: of public housing, and that is a form of social housing.

768
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:06,680
Speaker 7: Social housing is permanent affordable housing that is permanently off

769
00:44:06,680 --> 00:44:10,279
Speaker 7: the speculative market and owned either by the community or

770
00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:11,000
Speaker 7: by the public.

771
00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:13,800
Speaker 6: And that is resident governed.

772
00:44:13,880 --> 00:44:17,040
Speaker 7: This is a huge piece is allowing the residents to

773
00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:19,880
Speaker 7: be able to determine how they want to live so

774
00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:23,239
Speaker 7: that they can live and determine the rights that they have,

775
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:27,480
Speaker 7: determine what would benefit them to be able to thrive.

776
00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:31,920
Speaker 7: The other piece is not only being able to identify

777
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:37,160
Speaker 7: land and turn it into long term permanent affordability, but

778
00:44:37,239 --> 00:44:40,800
Speaker 7: the second is to actually have holistic services for people

779
00:44:41,080 --> 00:44:45,000
Speaker 7: so that way they can have the services they need,

780
00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:47,879
Speaker 7: the resources they need, the relationships they need, the.

781
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:48,920
Speaker 6: Community they need.

782
00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:51,600
Speaker 7: This is one thing we often don't talk about is

783
00:44:51,640 --> 00:44:55,480
Speaker 7: the fact that human beings are human beings everywhere, whether

784
00:44:55,520 --> 00:44:58,160
Speaker 7: you live in a home or you live in a shelter,

785
00:44:58,280 --> 00:44:59,879
Speaker 7: or whether you live on the streets, or you.

786
00:44:59,800 --> 00:45:01,839
Speaker 6: Live in your car or you live in your van.

787
00:45:02,400 --> 00:45:06,440
Speaker 7: Everybody needs community and that is an essential part for

788
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:08,920
Speaker 7: people to be able to thrive. And so we need

789
00:45:08,960 --> 00:45:12,959
Speaker 7: to support the holistic side of human beings as they're

790
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:18,200
Speaker 7: entering and supporting folks to identify how they can enter

791
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:22,000
Speaker 7: into stability in whatever way that looks like right, and

792
00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:24,520
Speaker 7: so that is we need to be putting our funding

793
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:28,200
Speaker 7: into services and services. By the way, this is one

794
00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:30,839
Speaker 7: thing we also have not been doing well. There's been

795
00:45:30,840 --> 00:45:34,360
Speaker 7: no accountability of the insight safe program. Not all providers

796
00:45:34,400 --> 00:45:36,920
Speaker 7: are the same. I am grateful for the people who

797
00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:41,880
Speaker 7: have committed their time and their career to service. However,

798
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:45,560
Speaker 7: there needs to be accountability to ensure that the providers

799
00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:48,160
Speaker 7: who are providing their service are able to provide it

800
00:45:48,160 --> 00:45:48,800
Speaker 7: with dignity.

801
00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:49,560
Speaker 6: A lot of.

802
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:54,480
Speaker 7: Times it's a very stressful job and not everybody is

803
00:45:54,520 --> 00:45:57,040
Speaker 7: able to maintain that stress. And so how are we

804
00:45:57,080 --> 00:46:00,560
Speaker 7: both supporting the service providers, but also how are we

805
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:03,920
Speaker 7: holding them accountable to ensure that they are providing good

806
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:06,640
Speaker 7: services to the people who are really struggling.

807
00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:09,640
Speaker 1: I was going to point out some of the highlights

808
00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:11,600
Speaker 1: Stitch what you said, because one of the things that

809
00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:15,840
Speaker 1: I've investigated with inside Safe is the fact that again,

810
00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:20,160
Speaker 1: dignified housing is ever an elusive kind of goal for

811
00:46:20,680 --> 00:46:23,640
Speaker 1: many people that are in but also the other side

812
00:46:23,680 --> 00:46:26,680
Speaker 1: of the coin, where when people are resistant of getting

813
00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:30,000
Speaker 1: the assistance, they are told that they are service resistant,

814
00:46:30,239 --> 00:46:33,040
Speaker 1: and I want our listeners to pay attention to understanding

815
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:36,759
Speaker 1: the reason why they're service resistant is because of some

816
00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:39,800
Speaker 1: of these reasons. The second reason that they are service

817
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:44,160
Speaker 1: resistant is the car through rules of certain contractors or

818
00:46:44,320 --> 00:46:48,160
Speaker 1: certain people that are matting the helm of these things.

819
00:46:48,360 --> 00:46:51,520
Speaker 1: The third thing is once you choose to go into

820
00:46:51,560 --> 00:46:54,440
Speaker 1: this area and you find it overlay car through and

821
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:57,760
Speaker 1: you decide to leave, Mayor Baths has got the skill

822
00:46:57,920 --> 00:47:01,400
Speaker 1: of putting fences at hostile archic texture to prevent you

823
00:47:01,440 --> 00:47:05,600
Speaker 1: from coming back, because she's placating the nimbies. And I

824
00:47:05,640 --> 00:47:09,920
Speaker 1: saw a disturbing article of her making as saying that.

825
00:47:10,080 --> 00:47:13,000
Speaker 2: Houselessness has decreased. The decreased that you say.

826
00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:14,960
Speaker 1: And the fact of the matter is many of the

827
00:47:14,960 --> 00:47:17,440
Speaker 1: young house that I've communicated with, and particularly in the

828
00:47:17,480 --> 00:47:20,480
Speaker 1: neighborhood that I live in, they disappear during the day

829
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:22,680
Speaker 1: so they don't get you know, they don't get harassed,

830
00:47:22,719 --> 00:47:25,160
Speaker 1: they don't get swept, and then they come back and

831
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:27,759
Speaker 1: like it's growing in, many of the in houses in

832
00:47:27,760 --> 00:47:31,359
Speaker 1: the neighborhood have grown where they're sleeping in because they

833
00:47:31,440 --> 00:47:36,400
Speaker 1: know there's either you know, comply or die. And that's

834
00:47:36,520 --> 00:47:41,120
Speaker 1: the unfortunate reality that many of them are living into

835
00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:42,200
Speaker 1: that type of situation.

836
00:47:42,600 --> 00:47:43,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.

837
00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:48,319
Speaker 7: Yeah, only five percent of Inside Safe participants actually have

838
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:52,040
Speaker 7: received permanent housing. This is not the program that we

839
00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:55,120
Speaker 7: were told that we would have here, and it's not dignified.

840
00:47:55,440 --> 00:47:58,000
Speaker 6: There's not a single person who's.

841
00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:02,480
Speaker 7: Able to live well, be able to have their emotional

842
00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:06,000
Speaker 7: and mental health. When you feel like you're living in

843
00:48:06,040 --> 00:48:09,200
Speaker 7: a place where somebody doesn't want you there and isn't

844
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:11,399
Speaker 7: allowing you to be fully who you are.

845
00:48:12,120 --> 00:48:14,439
Speaker 6: I don't like it when I have to have too

846
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:15,200
Speaker 6: many rules.

847
00:48:15,239 --> 00:48:17,640
Speaker 7: I want to be able to determine how I want

848
00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:20,439
Speaker 7: to live so it can support me to be able

849
00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:23,239
Speaker 7: to thrive. We're all different, and we don't recognize the

850
00:48:23,840 --> 00:48:26,480
Speaker 7: dignity of people in those programs. I did want to

851
00:48:26,920 --> 00:48:30,120
Speaker 7: name the third thing because I've talked about talked about services,

852
00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:33,040
Speaker 7: I talked about permanent housing. The third is we have

853
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:35,759
Speaker 7: to prevent homelessness through strong tenant protections.

854
00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:37,840
Speaker 6: And we have some strong tenant protections.

855
00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:40,799
Speaker 7: I want them stronger, but we need to enforce them,

856
00:48:41,239 --> 00:48:44,160
Speaker 7: and so we need to prevent evictions. We need to

857
00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:47,480
Speaker 7: fund further our Right to Counsel program, which I know

858
00:48:47,600 --> 00:48:49,680
Speaker 7: is being started with ULA. We need to expand that

859
00:48:50,400 --> 00:48:53,120
Speaker 7: and also I will be working I'm excited about this.

860
00:48:53,280 --> 00:48:54,680
Speaker 6: Actually, we need.

861
00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:57,839
Speaker 7: To overturn state laws which is preventing us from being

862
00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:00,919
Speaker 7: able to have strength and rent control here across the state,

863
00:49:00,960 --> 00:49:03,080
Speaker 7: but also here in Los Angeles. So we need to

864
00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:08,040
Speaker 7: repeal Costa Howkins. And also we need to reform the

865
00:49:08,200 --> 00:49:11,840
Speaker 7: ls Act. And those are two state laws, just to clarify.

866
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:12,759
Speaker 6: Ls Act is.

867
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:15,480
Speaker 7: A law that allows landlords to be able to leave

868
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:17,840
Speaker 7: the rental market, but a lot of times there's a loophole.

869
00:49:18,320 --> 00:49:20,440
Speaker 7: They say that they're leaving the rental market, but what

870
00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:23,480
Speaker 7: they're doing is they kick out the rent controlled tenants

871
00:49:23,520 --> 00:49:26,360
Speaker 7: so they can flip the unit, make it more expensive,

872
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:28,680
Speaker 7: and rent it back out to higher paying tenants. And

873
00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:31,239
Speaker 7: then we lose those affordable units that we can no

874
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:34,279
Speaker 7: longer have back and then Costa Hokins. The other state

875
00:49:34,360 --> 00:49:37,239
Speaker 7: law does not allow us to be able to have

876
00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:39,560
Speaker 7: rent control in the state. It has just blocked our

877
00:49:39,560 --> 00:49:41,920
Speaker 7: ability to have that. So we only have rent control

878
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:45,400
Speaker 7: up to a certain date. And so we need to

879
00:49:45,440 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 7: be able to expand that so that way we can

880
00:49:47,719 --> 00:49:50,240
Speaker 7: actually protect people make sure that they can be stably housed.

881
00:49:50,320 --> 00:49:53,560
Speaker 1: Well that's a good thing because the SRO that I

882
00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:57,280
Speaker 1: stay at has just did another three percent rent increase.

883
00:49:57,360 --> 00:49:59,959
Speaker 1: They did one last year, they did one this year,

884
00:50:00,040 --> 00:50:02,239
Speaker 1: and then they used the well, we didn't do one

885
00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:05,919
Speaker 1: during the pandemic, which which is wonderful, but that has

886
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:09,480
Speaker 1: not helped the situation where how miracle the market is

887
00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:12,799
Speaker 1: and the difficulties that's going on with the community. It

888
00:50:12,840 --> 00:50:15,680
Speaker 1: seems so tone deaf. It's just like, the hell with

889
00:50:15,719 --> 00:50:17,399
Speaker 1: your problems. We don't if you don't, if you can't

890
00:50:17,440 --> 00:50:19,080
Speaker 1: pay the rent, get the hell out. And it's just

891
00:50:19,200 --> 00:50:22,759
Speaker 1: it's going even not only to luxurious apartments and those

892
00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:26,680
Speaker 1: are places, but places like the SR that I stay at.

893
00:50:26,840 --> 00:50:28,720
Speaker 1: But one of the things that I want to also

894
00:50:28,800 --> 00:50:31,520
Speaker 1: ask you about, I noticed that on your page that

895
00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:35,719
Speaker 1: you were thinking of terminating the chief police Mitchell was

896
00:50:35,840 --> 00:50:40,080
Speaker 1: Mitchell McDonald, Ian McConnell. He should be fired to but

897
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:43,680
Speaker 1: that but did our local area McDonald.

898
00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:45,359
Speaker 6: That's right, I do.

899
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:49,240
Speaker 1: Yeah, why do you believe that he should be terminated?

900
00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:53,520
Speaker 7: Well, I mean, we have seen so many incidents now

901
00:50:53,640 --> 00:50:59,520
Speaker 7: where he is collaborating with Ice and where are our

902
00:50:59,560 --> 00:51:03,640
Speaker 7: community are under attack and the goal of the police

903
00:51:04,080 --> 00:51:07,640
Speaker 7: is to serve and protect the people of Los Angeles,

904
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:10,280
Speaker 7: and that is not protecting the people of Los Angeles

905
00:51:10,320 --> 00:51:14,439
Speaker 7: when you are actively supporting the kidnapping of our own people.

906
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:16,160
Speaker 6: When we are a sanctuary city.

907
00:51:16,719 --> 00:51:20,520
Speaker 7: Right, there's a state law that bans masks being worn

908
00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:25,080
Speaker 7: by federal agents, and Chief MacDonald has already said, I'm.

909
00:51:24,960 --> 00:51:26,839
Speaker 6: Not planning on carrying out that law.

910
00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:30,080
Speaker 7: The other thing is, we've seen and this is really

911
00:51:30,120 --> 00:51:32,680
Speaker 7: personal for me. I have a niece who's a high

912
00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:36,000
Speaker 7: school student who decided to join the walkout with other

913
00:51:36,080 --> 00:51:41,399
Speaker 7: high schoolers to protest ice. What a powerful act by

914
00:51:41,440 --> 00:51:46,200
Speaker 7: our teenagers who are standing up and saying and marching

915
00:51:46,239 --> 00:51:49,319
Speaker 7: and speaking with a belief. What an opportunity for us

916
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:53,280
Speaker 7: to support this freedom of speech, our young people standing

917
00:51:53,360 --> 00:51:58,360
Speaker 7: up to encourage them to participate in full democracy. And

918
00:51:58,440 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 7: yet when that happened, we know, oh that high school

919
00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:02,560
Speaker 7: students were under attack.

920
00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:04,000
Speaker 6: Here in Los Angeles.

921
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:08,080
Speaker 7: There's been so many incidents now where we have seen

922
00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:13,560
Speaker 7: the police continue to see us as the perpetrators when

923
00:52:13,600 --> 00:52:16,759
Speaker 7: we are just trying to survive. And of course we

924
00:52:16,920 --> 00:52:18,920
Speaker 7: have to because we are talking about the endhouse here.

925
00:52:19,719 --> 00:52:23,680
Speaker 7: We have to talk about the number of unhoused residents

926
00:52:23,960 --> 00:52:27,160
Speaker 7: who have died at the hands of police, who continually

927
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:28,960
Speaker 7: are assaulted for being poor.

928
00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:32,040
Speaker 6: We should be fighting poverty, not the poor.

929
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:36,120
Speaker 7: People are just trying to survive, and so we need

930
00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:40,320
Speaker 7: to be able to have a chief who actually sees

931
00:52:40,520 --> 00:52:46,120
Speaker 7: Angelinos has the beautiful residence that we have here, right

932
00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:49,920
Speaker 7: to protect them, to support them, to understand that every

933
00:52:49,960 --> 00:52:53,319
Speaker 7: single one of us are filled with dignity and trying

934
00:52:53,360 --> 00:52:55,160
Speaker 7: to survive and do our best. And in this moment

935
00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:58,239
Speaker 7: when we are failing Angelinos, this is when we need

936
00:52:58,239 --> 00:53:01,359
Speaker 7: the lean and harder and have at least she understands

937
00:53:01,600 --> 00:53:04,880
Speaker 7: that their job is to serve, Their job is to protect.

938
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:08,440
Speaker 7: Their job is to be able to participate in a

939
00:53:08,480 --> 00:53:11,239
Speaker 7: greater beloved community, and that means helping us rise up,

940
00:53:11,400 --> 00:53:12,440
Speaker 7: not the opposite.

941
00:53:12,680 --> 00:53:16,360
Speaker 1: So am I correct and thinking that your views on

942
00:53:17,000 --> 00:53:21,160
Speaker 1: the house being swept would not take place? Or what

943
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:23,920
Speaker 1: would you do to try to convince the city council

944
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:26,680
Speaker 1: members that have this obsession with forty one eighteen and

945
00:53:26,760 --> 00:53:30,320
Speaker 1: sweeping on the house people, because as it currently stands,

946
00:53:30,960 --> 00:53:35,760
Speaker 1: Mayer Bass has played that she's putting people inside safe

947
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:38,399
Speaker 1: and she's putting fences up and all of these other

948
00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:44,040
Speaker 1: hostile architecture moves to prevent unhouse people from returning. Knowing

949
00:53:44,280 --> 00:53:47,279
Speaker 1: that this is a band aaid on a broken leg

950
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:50,160
Speaker 1: strategy is not going to be conducive.

951
00:53:50,400 --> 00:53:52,080
Speaker 2: They just kicking the can down the road.

952
00:53:52,200 --> 00:53:54,800
Speaker 7: So, oh my gosh. Yeah, don't get me started on fences.

953
00:53:54,840 --> 00:53:57,640
Speaker 7: I am so sick of seeing fences around the city.

954
00:53:58,480 --> 00:54:00,719
Speaker 7: I mean, why do we have a city when there's

955
00:54:00,719 --> 00:54:03,560
Speaker 7: so many fences and we the public can't even enjoy

956
00:54:03,680 --> 00:54:05,680
Speaker 7: the city we live in. What is the purpose? What

957
00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:07,720
Speaker 7: is the point just to look at it from anyway?

958
00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:12,000
Speaker 7: I'll stop my rant. I absolutely will end sweeps in

959
00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:14,760
Speaker 7: LA and I will be working.

960
00:54:14,600 --> 00:54:16,640
Speaker 6: To be able to end that with city council.

961
00:54:17,200 --> 00:54:21,920
Speaker 7: Why because it is not just the humane thing to do,

962
00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:24,480
Speaker 7: it is also the smart thing to do.

963
00:54:25,200 --> 00:54:27,480
Speaker 6: I'm sorry, but when you remove.

964
00:54:27,160 --> 00:54:30,759
Speaker 7: Somebody from one side of this street to another, you

965
00:54:30,800 --> 00:54:33,920
Speaker 7: don't get rid of homelessness. You're just basically taking all

966
00:54:33,920 --> 00:54:40,040
Speaker 7: of their belongings, destabilizing them, oftentimes stealing very important documents

967
00:54:40,080 --> 00:54:42,759
Speaker 7: that they need, like their ID where that's what they

968
00:54:42,840 --> 00:54:46,560
Speaker 7: need actually to receive resources and support and help them

969
00:54:46,960 --> 00:54:49,200
Speaker 7: get into housing, help them be.

970
00:54:49,239 --> 00:54:51,400
Speaker 6: Able to have access to health.

971
00:54:51,960 --> 00:54:54,759
Speaker 7: The other side of it is when you dislay everybody,

972
00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:56,320
Speaker 7: when we are destabilized.

973
00:54:56,760 --> 00:54:58,680
Speaker 6: I'm sure you've moved before.

974
00:54:58,520 --> 00:55:00,279
Speaker 2: Well, Mini tad.

975
00:55:01,680 --> 00:55:04,919
Speaker 7: Every single time you move right, you have to then

976
00:55:05,160 --> 00:55:07,880
Speaker 7: find where's the place you're going to go take a shower,

977
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:12,000
Speaker 7: Where's the place that you're going to get water, where

978
00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:14,120
Speaker 7: is the place that you're going to get a hot food?

979
00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:18,120
Speaker 7: Where's where are your friends? Right like, where's your community?

980
00:55:18,680 --> 00:55:21,640
Speaker 7: And it destabilizes people to have to be moved. And

981
00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:25,360
Speaker 7: if you also steal other things and destroy it, things

982
00:55:25,360 --> 00:55:27,960
Speaker 7: that maybe people not may not even realize how important

983
00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:31,080
Speaker 7: it is to you. A picture of your family, right

984
00:55:31,440 --> 00:55:35,720
Speaker 7: perhaps a letter from a friend. These things are important

985
00:55:35,760 --> 00:55:38,000
Speaker 7: to They make us who we are. And every single

986
00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:41,160
Speaker 7: time you steal that dignity from somebody, they have to

987
00:55:41,200 --> 00:55:45,400
Speaker 7: start all over again. So if you want to stabilize people,

988
00:55:45,760 --> 00:55:48,560
Speaker 7: then we need to support what that looks like with

989
00:55:48,640 --> 00:55:52,840
Speaker 7: each individual. We are all beautiful, unique snowflakes. We're not

990
00:55:52,960 --> 00:55:56,439
Speaker 7: all the same, and so that means one to one,

991
00:55:56,800 --> 00:55:59,560
Speaker 7: and how powerful and beautiful to be building these relationships

992
00:55:59,600 --> 00:56:02,560
Speaker 7: one to one. So if we sweep people, and we

993
00:56:02,600 --> 00:56:06,840
Speaker 7: sweep these communities that are unhoused residents have worked so

994
00:56:06,920 --> 00:56:10,640
Speaker 7: hard to create, to support one another, to build community

995
00:56:10,680 --> 00:56:14,439
Speaker 7: with one another, to keep each other safe, then we're

996
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:17,040
Speaker 7: making them start all over again, and we get further

997
00:56:17,160 --> 00:56:20,680
Speaker 7: and further and further away from the stability that people

998
00:56:20,719 --> 00:56:23,920
Speaker 7: need away from the health that folks are needing and

999
00:56:23,960 --> 00:56:27,160
Speaker 7: looking for a way from the housing supports that they need. Right,

1000
00:56:27,200 --> 00:56:32,800
Speaker 7: and so sweeps are violent, sweeps are inhumane, and sweeps

1001
00:56:32,960 --> 00:56:37,920
Speaker 7: don't work. We know through research housing first models work.

1002
00:56:38,360 --> 00:56:40,080
Speaker 7: That is what we should be doing. And I'm not

1003
00:56:40,160 --> 00:56:45,080
Speaker 7: talking about shelters. I'm not talking about a motel. I mean,

1004
00:56:45,080 --> 00:56:47,920
Speaker 7: a motel is something, but it needs to be an

1005
00:56:48,040 --> 00:56:50,799
Speaker 7: entry way into a permanent situation. We've not seen that.

1006
00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:54,960
Speaker 7: I'm talking about permanent stability where you aren't moved again

1007
00:56:55,440 --> 00:56:58,719
Speaker 7: and in that site that you're staying in you can

1008
00:56:58,800 --> 00:56:59,960
Speaker 7: have the resources you need.

1009
00:57:00,400 --> 00:57:02,520
Speaker 1: And to add on too, one of the things about

1010
00:57:02,600 --> 00:57:05,279
Speaker 1: being on housed as well as being swept as many

1011
00:57:05,320 --> 00:57:09,400
Speaker 1: times is the essential documents that you need in heightened

1012
00:57:09,960 --> 00:57:14,960
Speaker 1: save act hair steria and ideas is becoming increasingly more

1013
00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:19,840
Speaker 1: important because many times, many undocumented, unhoused people are going

1014
00:57:19,880 --> 00:57:23,680
Speaker 1: to be untargeted, particularly with the hostility of this administration,

1015
00:57:24,240 --> 00:57:26,640
Speaker 1: so we have to bear that in mind. So these

1016
00:57:26,720 --> 00:57:30,560
Speaker 1: things has a cascade event of negativity and a negative

1017
00:57:30,600 --> 00:57:34,919
Speaker 1: impact or outcomes on unhoused people's lives, and we must

1018
00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:39,120
Speaker 1: meet the moment we'll finish this conversation after the.

1019
00:57:39,120 --> 00:57:45,600
Speaker 2: Break and we're back.

1020
00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:50,680
Speaker 1: So what would be your message to the unhoused community,

1021
00:57:50,920 --> 00:57:52,640
Speaker 1: What would be the first thing you would attack?

1022
00:57:53,360 --> 00:57:58,040
Speaker 7: My message is that you are also beloved Angelino.

1023
00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:01,880
Speaker 6: We are all Angelino. You are wanted, and.

1024
00:58:01,800 --> 00:58:04,960
Speaker 7: You should be a proud Angelina, and you are welcome

1025
00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:08,640
Speaker 7: here just like every other person. And our city has

1026
00:58:08,640 --> 00:58:12,240
Speaker 7: done a bad job. Our society, honestly has done a

1027
00:58:12,240 --> 00:58:15,320
Speaker 7: bad job of being able to treat each other as

1028
00:58:15,400 --> 00:58:19,560
Speaker 7: human beings. That is what I am aiming to change.

1029
00:58:19,720 --> 00:58:23,640
Speaker 7: I'm running for mayor not to reform a bad system.

1030
00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:28,720
Speaker 7: I'm running for mayor to finally create the system. We

1031
00:58:28,840 --> 00:58:33,120
Speaker 7: need a system where human beings are treated with full dignity,

1032
00:58:33,760 --> 00:58:37,720
Speaker 7: where human beings have full rights, where we have rights

1033
00:58:37,920 --> 00:58:42,480
Speaker 7: to housing, where we have rights to healthy food, to

1034
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:44,720
Speaker 7: clean water, to healthy air.

1035
00:58:45,680 --> 00:58:48,280
Speaker 6: These are things that we all need. Actually, I'll add

1036
00:58:48,280 --> 00:58:48,919
Speaker 6: a couple more.

1037
00:58:49,680 --> 00:58:55,200
Speaker 7: We have rights to a clean bathroom because we don't

1038
00:58:55,280 --> 00:58:58,400
Speaker 7: have enough public bathrooms here in this city. You have

1039
00:58:58,440 --> 00:59:01,600
Speaker 7: no idea how many times I of And this is

1040
00:59:01,640 --> 00:59:03,480
Speaker 7: embarrassing because I'm going to say this on the podcast,

1041
00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:05,680
Speaker 7: but you know what, I'm sure I'm not the only

1042
00:59:05,680 --> 00:59:07,720
Speaker 7: person who's says I have peede in my bands before

1043
00:59:07,840 --> 00:59:11,240
Speaker 7: because I've been looking for a bathroom in that way.

1044
00:59:12,080 --> 00:59:14,680
Speaker 1: And that's a good point, because it seems like this

1045
00:59:14,840 --> 00:59:18,360
Speaker 1: city has an obsession of turning down bathrooms unless you're

1046
00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:21,040
Speaker 1: a customer. We need some kind of ordinance to stop that,

1047
00:59:21,080 --> 00:59:22,760
Speaker 1: because this is this is so ridiculous.

1048
00:59:23,080 --> 00:59:24,240
Speaker 2: Restrooms are a human rights.

1049
00:59:24,240 --> 00:59:27,200
Speaker 1: That's that I've had many accidents myself because of this

1050
00:59:27,400 --> 00:59:30,600
Speaker 1: and being having health issues as well. This is not

1051
00:59:31,280 --> 00:59:33,440
Speaker 1: this is not the solution, you know, trying to be

1052
00:59:33,480 --> 00:59:37,360
Speaker 1: as mean as mean spirited as you possibly can locking bathrooms,

1053
00:59:37,400 --> 00:59:38,920
Speaker 1: and you know, it's it's ridiculous.

1054
00:59:39,000 --> 00:59:40,200
Speaker 6: It's it's so ridiculous.

1055
00:59:40,280 --> 00:59:42,760
Speaker 7: I mean, do you remember during the pandemic they shut

1056
00:59:42,800 --> 00:59:43,840
Speaker 7: down the National Parks.

1057
00:59:43,960 --> 00:59:47,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I was literally living in the park down

1058
00:59:48,000 --> 00:59:52,040
Speaker 1: in Chinatown and I had broken my leg and I

1059
00:59:52,120 --> 00:59:55,080
Speaker 1: was on a walker and I went to the restroom

1060
00:59:55,160 --> 00:59:57,880
Speaker 1: the Parks and Recks was closed. It took me over

1061
00:59:58,040 --> 01:00:01,160
Speaker 1: my hour to try to find a bathroom. By the time,

1062
01:00:01,240 --> 01:00:02,600
Speaker 1: you know, like I say, I had to go to

1063
01:00:02,680 --> 01:00:06,160
Speaker 1: the store Starbucks. Starbucks didn't want me going in there

1064
01:00:06,160 --> 01:00:08,360
Speaker 1: because they claimed I was going to be taking a

1065
01:00:08,440 --> 01:00:11,440
Speaker 1: bath in there, and it was it was horrible.

1066
01:00:11,480 --> 01:00:15,160
Speaker 7: It's dehumanizing. And the thing is, we're human. You're going

1067
01:00:15,360 --> 01:00:17,160
Speaker 7: to pee or poop, whether.

1068
01:00:18,800 --> 01:00:20,680
Speaker 8: And whether your house or not, whether you're a house

1069
01:00:20,800 --> 01:00:23,480
Speaker 8: or not, right and so, and you're gonna need to

1070
01:00:23,520 --> 01:00:27,480
Speaker 8: throw away trash somewhere, and so if you don't offer

1071
01:00:28,000 --> 01:00:29,680
Speaker 8: the place to do it, guess where.

1072
01:00:29,520 --> 01:00:32,520
Speaker 6: It's gonna go. It's gonna go on the streets, right

1073
01:00:32,600 --> 01:00:35,760
Speaker 6: and we and that's unlawful to do that.

1074
01:00:35,880 --> 01:00:42,240
Speaker 7: So why don't we stop criminalizing human beings, stop criminalizing

1075
01:00:42,320 --> 01:00:46,720
Speaker 7: being human and actually create the resources we need in

1076
01:00:46,760 --> 01:00:51,040
Speaker 7: our city for us to just simply be human. And

1077
01:00:51,120 --> 01:00:54,200
Speaker 7: when we do that, when we provide enough resources for

1078
01:00:54,360 --> 01:00:57,720
Speaker 7: people to go to the bathroom, to get a drink

1079
01:00:57,760 --> 01:01:00,000
Speaker 7: of water, we don't have water fountains. If we provide

1080
01:01:00,200 --> 01:01:03,720
Speaker 7: these things, then we will not have the kind of

1081
01:01:03,760 --> 01:01:06,560
Speaker 7: trash that we have everywhere. It is not because of

1082
01:01:06,600 --> 01:01:10,120
Speaker 7: houselessness that we have trash. It's because we have bad sanitation,

1083
01:01:10,400 --> 01:01:13,960
Speaker 7: have been we have been defunding our services, our most

1084
01:01:14,120 --> 01:01:20,080
Speaker 7: essential services, street repair, sanitation, all these things to fund

1085
01:01:20,120 --> 01:01:24,919
Speaker 7: the police. And it's time we refund being human again.

1086
01:01:25,600 --> 01:01:27,280
Speaker 1: I was going to say and That's a good point

1087
01:01:27,320 --> 01:01:30,200
Speaker 1: as well, because they always blame on houses the house

1088
01:01:30,200 --> 01:01:33,720
Speaker 1: community for the trash, because there's house people that come

1089
01:01:33,760 --> 01:01:37,040
Speaker 1: in and dump illegal stuff on it, or they haven't

1090
01:01:37,080 --> 01:01:40,080
Speaker 1: removed because they have too much dumping on it, or

1091
01:01:40,120 --> 01:01:44,600
Speaker 1: they're defunding these services, and most importantly, what they're defunding

1092
01:01:45,280 --> 01:01:48,200
Speaker 1: is one thing we all have shared in common house

1093
01:01:48,240 --> 01:01:52,240
Speaker 1: and unhoused. We get hungry, we get tired, we need

1094
01:01:52,280 --> 01:01:54,520
Speaker 1: to sleep, and we all have to go to the restroom.

1095
01:01:54,920 --> 01:01:58,040
Speaker 1: And we have right now on our horizon is food

1096
01:01:58,040 --> 01:01:58,680
Speaker 1: and security.

1097
01:01:59,360 --> 01:02:00,640
Speaker 6: That's right, right, that's right.

1098
01:02:00,800 --> 01:02:02,840
Speaker 1: I want to know is you know, as a merit

1099
01:02:02,840 --> 01:02:05,439
Speaker 1: what would your insights be and how can we meet

1100
01:02:05,440 --> 01:02:09,160
Speaker 1: the moment because we're funding is always shranking. What kind

1101
01:02:09,160 --> 01:02:13,280
Speaker 1: of suggestions or options that you think could be beneficial

1102
01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:14,200
Speaker 1: to the community.

1103
01:02:14,400 --> 01:02:16,160
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, I want to say one thing.

1104
01:02:16,200 --> 01:02:19,800
Speaker 7: I have this friend who is an amazing organizer and

1105
01:02:19,880 --> 01:02:23,240
Speaker 7: works on housing and as a tenant organizer, and.

1106
01:02:23,720 --> 01:02:27,840
Speaker 6: She says that food is how you control people.

1107
01:02:28,560 --> 01:02:30,440
Speaker 7: And what I mean what she means by that is

1108
01:02:30,920 --> 01:02:33,560
Speaker 7: people need to eat, and so if you don't provide

1109
01:02:33,600 --> 01:02:36,640
Speaker 7: food or whoever provides the food, that's who's going to

1110
01:02:36,680 --> 01:02:37,160
Speaker 7: control you.

1111
01:02:37,760 --> 01:02:38,480
Speaker 6: Do you know what I mean?

1112
01:02:38,920 --> 01:02:40,640
Speaker 7: And so I just wanted to throw that out there

1113
01:02:40,720 --> 01:02:43,200
Speaker 7: is just like a political point in that we need

1114
01:02:43,240 --> 01:02:45,920
Speaker 7: to feed our people. We need to make sure that

1115
01:02:46,000 --> 01:02:49,120
Speaker 7: our people are fed. And so what that looks like

1116
01:02:49,280 --> 01:02:51,800
Speaker 7: is we do need to be ensuring that our resources

1117
01:02:51,840 --> 01:02:55,520
Speaker 7: are going to the most immediate needs of being a

1118
01:02:55,560 --> 01:02:57,760
Speaker 7: human being. Right, And we talked about bathroom, we talked

1119
01:02:57,760 --> 01:03:00,880
Speaker 7: about water. Food is also the same. And I'm not

1120
01:03:00,920 --> 01:03:04,960
Speaker 7: just talking about any food. I'm talking about healthy food

1121
01:03:05,480 --> 01:03:07,760
Speaker 7: because I'm sorry, but you just can't survive in ramen.

1122
01:03:08,000 --> 01:03:09,960
Speaker 7: It'll work for maybe a couple of weeks, maybe even

1123
01:03:09,960 --> 01:03:12,400
Speaker 7: in a couple of months. Eventually you're going to probably

1124
01:03:12,400 --> 01:03:13,360
Speaker 7: have a heart attack.

1125
01:03:13,320 --> 01:03:15,320
Speaker 2: Or not only that, you can't survive on peanut butter

1126
01:03:15,360 --> 01:03:15,760
Speaker 2: and angelic.

1127
01:03:15,840 --> 01:03:19,200
Speaker 1: And particularly I was mentioning this in a meeting where

1128
01:03:19,240 --> 01:03:23,480
Speaker 1: people who are out there giving food and to change

1129
01:03:24,480 --> 01:03:28,400
Speaker 1: their horizon their thought processes about feeding unhoused people or

1130
01:03:28,960 --> 01:03:31,680
Speaker 1: food insecure diversity of food.

1131
01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:34,360
Speaker 2: You can't keep serving them peanut butter and jelly every time.

1132
01:03:34,440 --> 01:03:39,640
Speaker 1: And then two, we live in California, Please please do

1133
01:03:39,760 --> 01:03:43,040
Speaker 1: not give a warm bottled water, dry granola or peanut

1134
01:03:43,080 --> 01:03:45,640
Speaker 1: butter to unhouse people and the heat wave.

1135
01:03:46,080 --> 01:03:49,720
Speaker 2: That is not the move. You have to think about it.

1136
01:03:49,800 --> 01:03:51,520
Speaker 1: You know, if they want a warm water, they can

1137
01:03:51,560 --> 01:03:54,800
Speaker 1: go to get a warm water themselves, freeze the bottles

1138
01:03:54,880 --> 01:03:58,240
Speaker 1: or chill the bottles. Like I learned something new when

1139
01:03:58,280 --> 01:04:01,320
Speaker 1: I was out in New Mexico talking to the young

1140
01:04:01,360 --> 01:04:04,840
Speaker 1: house out there. I immediately when we were at the

1141
01:04:04,880 --> 01:04:08,400
Speaker 1: water chilled, they didn't drink it. They were using it

1142
01:04:08,520 --> 01:04:10,320
Speaker 1: to use as a cold compress.

1143
01:04:10,560 --> 01:04:11,080
Speaker 2: It was hot.

1144
01:04:11,080 --> 01:04:13,919
Speaker 1: It was very hot there, and so they have these

1145
01:04:14,320 --> 01:04:17,040
Speaker 1: explosive temperatures, and I want you to think they are

1146
01:04:17,040 --> 01:04:20,960
Speaker 1: will be using these options in many ways, not just

1147
01:04:21,040 --> 01:04:23,520
Speaker 1: drinking it. They may need, you know, to be able

1148
01:04:23,560 --> 01:04:27,000
Speaker 1: to use cold compress. You know, chilled fruit is be great,

1149
01:04:27,800 --> 01:04:30,520
Speaker 1: those fruit cups. Like I said, those are suggestions that

1150
01:04:30,600 --> 01:04:33,439
Speaker 1: I have been really trying to push on my show.

1151
01:04:33,560 --> 01:04:36,440
Speaker 1: But also I also get tech the task with the bear.

1152
01:04:36,680 --> 01:04:39,960
Speaker 1: But this is not a one undone thing. Cooling stations.

1153
01:04:40,040 --> 01:04:42,600
Speaker 1: It should not be. I should not have to keep

1154
01:04:42,600 --> 01:04:46,800
Speaker 1: haranguing their baths about telling about cooling centers. The La

1155
01:04:46,920 --> 01:04:50,160
Speaker 1: public press is starting to do it, but it should

1156
01:04:50,160 --> 01:04:52,560
Speaker 1: be an automatic thing. You know, it's a damn heat wave.

1157
01:04:52,840 --> 01:04:56,880
Speaker 1: Stop waiting and stop saying. The libraries that are cooling centers,

1158
01:04:56,920 --> 01:05:00,080
Speaker 1: they close it eight there are other aces, or if

1159
01:05:00,200 --> 01:05:03,560
Speaker 1: you see people out here, provide them a place where

1160
01:05:03,560 --> 01:05:06,360
Speaker 1: they could be in the evening hours, where they could stay. So,

1161
01:05:06,520 --> 01:05:09,640
Speaker 1: you know, these are the things instead of nudging, winking

1162
01:05:09,640 --> 01:05:12,560
Speaker 1: at the cops, or we're creating fences and using money

1163
01:05:12,600 --> 01:05:14,360
Speaker 1: for that, you could be using it in a more

1164
01:05:14,400 --> 01:05:16,760
Speaker 1: creative way. So those are the things that I've noticed.

1165
01:05:16,920 --> 01:05:19,320
Speaker 1: Those are the things that are central to unhoused people.

1166
01:05:19,480 --> 01:05:22,560
Speaker 1: When you treat them as a human being, you will see,

1167
01:05:22,600 --> 01:05:26,080
Speaker 1: you know, they will respond like minded.

1168
01:05:26,200 --> 01:05:27,200
Speaker 6: So yeah, and.

1169
01:05:27,160 --> 01:05:31,000
Speaker 7: I think that so many Angelinas don't realize how close

1170
01:05:31,040 --> 01:05:33,720
Speaker 7: all of us are to homelessness, that we are to

1171
01:05:33,800 --> 01:05:35,200
Speaker 7: being a millionaire.

1172
01:05:35,280 --> 01:05:35,520
Speaker 2: Right.

1173
01:05:36,360 --> 01:05:41,240
Speaker 7: I remember when I had had gotten a divorce and

1174
01:05:41,280 --> 01:05:44,760
Speaker 7: it was unexpected, and I became a single mom, and

1175
01:05:44,960 --> 01:05:48,600
Speaker 7: I was terrified, and I was working, but I was

1176
01:05:48,680 --> 01:05:52,160
Speaker 7: not making enough money to pay for my mortgage. It

1177
01:05:52,200 --> 01:05:56,480
Speaker 7: was not enough money, and I was struggling to figure

1178
01:05:56,520 --> 01:05:58,760
Speaker 7: out what I was going to do around my housing,

1179
01:05:59,360 --> 01:06:04,520
Speaker 7: and I started looking into mobile home parks and then

1180
01:06:04,760 --> 01:06:05,120
Speaker 7: you know.

1181
01:06:05,080 --> 01:06:07,200
Speaker 6: It's a scary place to be.

1182
01:06:08,000 --> 01:06:13,320
Speaker 7: And I have two master's degrees and an undergrad degree.

1183
01:06:14,200 --> 01:06:16,320
Speaker 6: I've done well in my life.

1184
01:06:16,480 --> 01:06:19,720
Speaker 7: We are sold this lie that if you work hard enough,

1185
01:06:20,280 --> 01:06:22,200
Speaker 7: that you're going to be able to get what you

1186
01:06:22,200 --> 01:06:24,800
Speaker 7: you know, the things that you need. That is not

1187
01:06:24,920 --> 01:06:27,240
Speaker 7: the reality anymore. I don't know that that's ever been

1188
01:06:27,280 --> 01:06:31,160
Speaker 7: the reality, to be honest. Sometimes we just get handed

1189
01:06:31,320 --> 01:06:34,880
Speaker 7: a hard life. And so what is the goal of

1190
01:06:34,920 --> 01:06:37,920
Speaker 7: the government. The government is there to be able to

1191
01:06:38,000 --> 01:06:41,720
Speaker 7: create a safety net and security so that way we

1192
01:06:42,360 --> 01:06:45,360
Speaker 7: have enough stability to be able to then get to

1193
01:06:45,400 --> 01:06:48,960
Speaker 7: the next step to thrive. We need our basic needs

1194
01:06:49,000 --> 01:06:52,960
Speaker 7: met and so you know, this is this is why

1195
01:06:53,920 --> 01:06:56,280
Speaker 7: this particular issue is so important to me. Why housing

1196
01:06:56,320 --> 01:06:58,080
Speaker 7: has been a priority for me over the last number

1197
01:06:58,120 --> 01:07:01,480
Speaker 7: of years I've been working as an organizer, and it

1198
01:07:01,520 --> 01:07:04,560
Speaker 7: will continue to be a priority for me until every

1199
01:07:04,640 --> 01:07:09,360
Speaker 7: single unhoused person is housed and we prevent homelessness to

1200
01:07:09,440 --> 01:07:12,520
Speaker 7: continue and we actually have enough housing for everybody.

1201
01:07:13,560 --> 01:07:15,720
Speaker 1: Also to add too, is not only is that the

1202
01:07:16,400 --> 01:07:21,080
Speaker 1: dignified housing I emphasized because there's these controversial tiny sheds

1203
01:07:21,080 --> 01:07:25,720
Speaker 1: that just prove of now I have to make a caveat.

1204
01:07:26,120 --> 01:07:30,040
Speaker 1: I have seen some exceptions and not here because I

1205
01:07:30,160 --> 01:07:33,600
Speaker 1: noticed once I met some of the builders who were

1206
01:07:33,640 --> 01:07:37,400
Speaker 1: telling us that when the people were coming up with

1207
01:07:37,880 --> 01:07:42,680
Speaker 1: these dignified tiny homes, city leaders like LA leaders and others,

1208
01:07:43,120 --> 01:07:46,120
Speaker 1: did not want to provide the dignified housing. They just

1209
01:07:46,200 --> 01:07:49,600
Speaker 1: wanted something more like a dog shed. And then to

1210
01:07:50,040 --> 01:07:53,000
Speaker 1: solve the problem instead of just you know, it's easier

1211
01:07:53,280 --> 01:07:55,280
Speaker 1: they can put out some paint and then they can

1212
01:07:55,400 --> 01:07:58,800
Speaker 1: use the savior complex kind of narrative that they've got

1213
01:07:58,800 --> 01:08:01,400
Speaker 1: them off the street and then stop. On top of

1214
01:08:01,440 --> 01:08:05,160
Speaker 1: that the carsel rules and they have think they've done

1215
01:08:05,200 --> 01:08:08,520
Speaker 1: the one and done, like I said, whereas like the

1216
01:08:08,560 --> 01:08:11,280
Speaker 1: ones that I've seen, like in Washington nor Maryland actually

1217
01:08:11,560 --> 01:08:15,560
Speaker 1: be precise. It truly is a dignified housing. It really

1218
01:08:16,080 --> 01:08:18,880
Speaker 1: has the things there for the un house community is

1219
01:08:18,920 --> 01:08:22,280
Speaker 1: there for the community to tap into. So I have

1220
01:08:22,439 --> 01:08:25,080
Speaker 1: seen exceptions, you know, but it's not a tiny shad

1221
01:08:25,479 --> 01:08:28,800
Speaker 1: and it's more space as well. But what is being

1222
01:08:28,960 --> 01:08:33,160
Speaker 1: pushed is tiny shads here is pushed in other places

1223
01:08:33,479 --> 01:08:36,639
Speaker 1: that I need to point out that they deliberately make it.

1224
01:08:36,560 --> 01:08:38,719
Speaker 2: As arduous as difficult as possible.

1225
01:08:38,760 --> 01:08:43,080
Speaker 1: My recent guest veteran George Fleshman, the Gentleman is a

1226
01:08:43,080 --> 01:08:48,200
Speaker 1: paraplegic and he was denied housing in several instances, and

1227
01:08:48,280 --> 01:08:51,600
Speaker 1: he has other challenges, and he was explaining that and

1228
01:08:52,160 --> 01:08:55,719
Speaker 1: this is the reality. When you put these people in

1229
01:08:55,760 --> 01:09:00,439
Speaker 1: these kind of undignified housing, it doesn't solve the It

1230
01:09:00,479 --> 01:09:04,880
Speaker 1: only creates more resentment, more disillusionment, and people don't want

1231
01:09:04,880 --> 01:09:06,519
Speaker 1: to get the help that the city is offering.

1232
01:09:06,920 --> 01:09:09,080
Speaker 2: That's why you get service resistant people.

1233
01:09:09,479 --> 01:09:13,080
Speaker 1: That's why you get people that look on, you know, cynical,

1234
01:09:13,600 --> 01:09:15,800
Speaker 1: because if they're there for a couple of months and

1235
01:09:15,840 --> 01:09:18,200
Speaker 1: then they get kicked out, now they got to go back,

1236
01:09:18,200 --> 01:09:19,840
Speaker 1: and then you got a fence up where they used

1237
01:09:19,880 --> 01:09:20,040
Speaker 1: to be.

1238
01:09:20,320 --> 01:09:23,760
Speaker 6: So yeah, no, that's right. No, I completely agree with you.

1239
01:09:24,240 --> 01:09:29,360
Speaker 7: We don't need these modular little doghouses.

1240
01:09:28,720 --> 01:09:30,000
Speaker 6: Which is essentially what they are.

1241
01:09:30,080 --> 01:09:32,920
Speaker 7: Yeah, people are looking for real housing, and it's a

1242
01:09:32,920 --> 01:09:36,479
Speaker 7: waste of our money and our resources to create something

1243
01:09:36,560 --> 01:09:39,880
Speaker 7: that is so short term and short sighted. They are

1244
01:09:40,000 --> 01:09:43,240
Speaker 7: temporary shelters, and at the end of the day, it's

1245
01:09:43,280 --> 01:09:45,680
Speaker 7: a waste of our tax dollars because they're going to

1246
01:09:45,760 --> 01:09:47,519
Speaker 7: just fall apart in a few years and then we

1247
01:09:47,560 --> 01:09:49,960
Speaker 7: have to rebuild them again. What we need is a

1248
01:09:50,040 --> 01:09:54,439
Speaker 7: long term solution. We need permanent housing that's structured well

1249
01:09:55,080 --> 01:09:59,320
Speaker 7: and that is sturdy, and that has that you can

1250
01:10:00,200 --> 01:10:03,919
Speaker 7: create the needs of the people. Something I learned recently

1251
01:10:04,479 --> 01:10:09,840
Speaker 7: from an architect here in Los Angeles is that affordable

1252
01:10:09,880 --> 01:10:13,479
Speaker 7: housing is actually more expensive to build than market rate

1253
01:10:13,520 --> 01:10:18,560
Speaker 7: housing than luxury housing. Why because when affordable housing developers

1254
01:10:18,840 --> 01:10:22,280
Speaker 7: are building those buildings, they want it to last because

1255
01:10:22,280 --> 01:10:24,360
Speaker 7: they need it to last forever. It's going to be

1256
01:10:24,400 --> 01:10:27,960
Speaker 7: long term, So they use quality materials and they have

1257
01:10:28,120 --> 01:10:31,080
Speaker 7: architects who design them to ensure that it's going to

1258
01:10:31,120 --> 01:10:33,519
Speaker 7: meet the needs of the families for the long haul,

1259
01:10:33,960 --> 01:10:36,160
Speaker 7: and that if a new family moves in, they can

1260
01:10:36,240 --> 01:10:39,439
Speaker 7: change it around. And everybody knows this as your family grows.

1261
01:10:39,479 --> 01:10:43,000
Speaker 7: I have two young girls. They're eleven and thirteen. When

1262
01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:45,639
Speaker 7: there were four and six, they had a different need

1263
01:10:45,640 --> 01:10:47,479
Speaker 7: in the house than they do now at eleven thirteen.

1264
01:10:47,479 --> 01:10:49,639
Speaker 7: They'll have a different need when they're fifteen and seventeen.

1265
01:10:49,920 --> 01:10:53,040
Speaker 7: So we need to have good architecture that can be

1266
01:10:53,200 --> 01:10:55,720
Speaker 7: to make that space malleable to meet the needs of

1267
01:10:55,760 --> 01:11:00,760
Speaker 7: a changing family, whereas luxury housing because people move in

1268
01:11:00,800 --> 01:11:04,360
Speaker 7: there and oftentimes they stay there for a few years

1269
01:11:04,400 --> 01:11:06,120
Speaker 7: and then they want to move or they just want

1270
01:11:06,160 --> 01:11:08,040
Speaker 7: to tear down that bathroom and build a new one.

1271
01:11:08,520 --> 01:11:11,120
Speaker 7: They don't use high quality materials. That's why it's actually

1272
01:11:11,160 --> 01:11:14,400
Speaker 7: faster or cheaper oftentimes to build even though it has

1273
01:11:14,680 --> 01:11:17,320
Speaker 7: you know, these sort of even though it looks a

1274
01:11:17,320 --> 01:11:20,040
Speaker 7: lot nicer, right, And so I just want.

1275
01:11:19,840 --> 01:11:22,320
Speaker 6: To name that that we're talking about.

1276
01:11:22,439 --> 01:11:24,400
Speaker 7: If we want to invest in housing, we do have

1277
01:11:24,439 --> 01:11:26,160
Speaker 7: to put the money up front, but it will save

1278
01:11:26,280 --> 01:11:28,400
Speaker 7: us money in the long term. It will save us

1279
01:11:28,439 --> 01:11:31,960
Speaker 7: not only money in the long term of building more housing,

1280
01:11:32,160 --> 01:11:34,559
Speaker 7: it will also save us more money because people are

1281
01:11:34,600 --> 01:11:38,160
Speaker 7: now stably housed, and it costs more money to be

1282
01:11:38,200 --> 01:11:41,360
Speaker 7: putting people in jail than it is providing with housing.

1283
01:11:41,560 --> 01:11:44,320
Speaker 6: It costs more money to put them into.

1284
01:11:44,080 --> 01:11:46,920
Speaker 7: A hotel for a whole year than it is deprived

1285
01:11:46,960 --> 01:11:50,519
Speaker 7: by them with affordable housing. So we can be smart

1286
01:11:50,560 --> 01:11:53,080
Speaker 7: about this, and what that means is that we do

1287
01:11:53,360 --> 01:11:57,920
Speaker 7: have to invest in housing. There's a statistic that I

1288
01:11:58,000 --> 01:12:00,360
Speaker 7: have to share with you, which is that in this state,

1289
01:12:00,880 --> 01:12:03,559
Speaker 7: less than two percent of our state budget has been

1290
01:12:03,600 --> 01:12:07,680
Speaker 7: going to housing and homelessness since twenty eighteen, less than

1291
01:12:07,720 --> 01:12:10,639
Speaker 7: two percent of our state budget, and yet our state

1292
01:12:10,720 --> 01:12:14,760
Speaker 7: leaders have been saying for years that housing is our

1293
01:12:14,760 --> 01:12:18,360
Speaker 7: biggest priority in the state, that houselessness, homelessness is the

1294
01:12:18,400 --> 01:12:21,360
Speaker 7: biggest crisis that we need to be changing and working

1295
01:12:21,400 --> 01:12:23,600
Speaker 7: on here in the state of California. Well, they have

1296
01:12:23,720 --> 01:12:26,439
Speaker 7: not been putting the money where their mouth is, and

1297
01:12:26,479 --> 01:12:29,000
Speaker 7: it's time that our state leaders do that. We in

1298
01:12:29,040 --> 01:12:32,280
Speaker 7: our city, I'm very proud to say community leaders, not

1299
01:12:32,640 --> 01:12:37,280
Speaker 7: city hall leaders. Let me be very clear, community leaders,

1300
01:12:37,720 --> 01:12:41,840
Speaker 7: people on the ground, housing advocates, including many of our

1301
01:12:42,439 --> 01:12:49,439
Speaker 7: unhoused organizations, have been working together to solve our revenue problem,

1302
01:12:49,920 --> 01:12:54,200
Speaker 7: to create housing for people, affordable housing, and to create

1303
01:12:54,360 --> 01:12:57,320
Speaker 7: the services we need for our unhoused and to protect

1304
01:12:57,320 --> 01:13:01,920
Speaker 7: our tenants. That's Measure A and it's Measure right. And

1305
01:13:02,280 --> 01:13:06,600
Speaker 7: those measures have brought in so much funding now for

1306
01:13:06,720 --> 01:13:10,840
Speaker 7: us to finally be able to begin building the affordable

1307
01:13:10,880 --> 01:13:14,519
Speaker 7: housing we need. I'm excited to be an office to

1308
01:13:14,720 --> 01:13:19,160
Speaker 7: use that revenue to support that progress to actually build,

1309
01:13:19,439 --> 01:13:23,080
Speaker 7: identify land, and build the housing we need. This was

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01:13:23,160 --> 01:13:26,920
Speaker 7: community led, not by city hall. So now it's time

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01:13:27,040 --> 01:13:29,519
Speaker 7: to be able to ensure that we get somebody in

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01:13:29,600 --> 01:13:33,920
Speaker 7: office who's actually going to take forward our community's interests.

1313
01:13:34,520 --> 01:13:37,600
Speaker 1: One last question and now turn it to you. We

1314
01:13:37,760 --> 01:13:42,800
Speaker 1: have such a similar vision on things to address. I

1315
01:13:42,840 --> 01:13:45,959
Speaker 1: was wondering because it's just not all of our society

1316
01:13:46,000 --> 01:13:50,960
Speaker 1: of Angelino's that look at the unhoused community favorably. And

1317
01:13:51,320 --> 01:13:55,400
Speaker 1: the difficulty that I see is many politicians try to

1318
01:13:55,640 --> 01:13:59,639
Speaker 1: juggle both try to placate some of the unhoused community,

1319
01:14:00,040 --> 01:14:03,400
Speaker 1: but they play a more like the nimbi's. For example,

1320
01:14:03,479 --> 01:14:08,400
Speaker 1: Karen Bass, she does these sweeps, bring the gates, and

1321
01:14:08,439 --> 01:14:11,960
Speaker 1: you know, to seem like she's really, you know, doing

1322
01:14:12,040 --> 01:14:15,640
Speaker 1: an excellent job. But for example, recently, many of the

1323
01:14:15,720 --> 01:14:18,960
Speaker 1: in house that was taken at Venice Beach have returned,

1324
01:14:19,280 --> 01:14:22,360
Speaker 1: you know, from inside safe. So it's not it's going

1325
01:14:22,400 --> 01:14:25,280
Speaker 1: as well as she's purporting. So how would you deal

1326
01:14:25,360 --> 01:14:27,720
Speaker 1: with the nimby element of this community.

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01:14:27,880 --> 01:14:29,840
Speaker 6: That's a great question. Let me think about that for

1328
01:14:29,880 --> 01:14:30,439
Speaker 6: a minute.

1329
01:14:31,880 --> 01:14:35,320
Speaker 7: I think that at the end of the day, I

1330
01:14:35,360 --> 01:14:39,960
Speaker 7: am somebody who's so centered on values and human dignity.

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01:14:40,040 --> 01:14:43,000
Speaker 6: We just simply have to do the right thing. Change

1332
01:14:43,080 --> 01:14:47,040
Speaker 6: is really hard for people, right. We are, for example,

1333
01:14:47,120 --> 01:14:49,519
Speaker 6: such a car centric city. It's one of the things

1334
01:14:49,560 --> 01:14:53,320
Speaker 6: I'm actually trying to change. Cars are killing us, honestly,

1335
01:14:53,840 --> 01:14:57,600
Speaker 6: traffic collisions is the biggest killer of our children. We

1336
01:14:57,680 --> 01:14:59,160
Speaker 6: need to get out of our cars. We need to

1337
01:14:59,200 --> 01:15:02,080
Speaker 6: start using publicae transit. We need to make sure that

1338
01:15:02,120 --> 01:15:03,160
Speaker 6: our traffic.

1339
01:15:02,760 --> 01:15:05,960
Speaker 7: Goes down because no one likes sitting in these long

1340
01:15:05,960 --> 01:15:06,839
Speaker 7: commutes anymore.

1341
01:15:06,920 --> 01:15:10,400
Speaker 6: Right, that's just one issue. But people are resistant.

1342
01:15:10,840 --> 01:15:13,280
Speaker 7: People are resistant to the idea of no longer using

1343
01:15:13,280 --> 01:15:16,360
Speaker 7: their car to get from place to place. But you

1344
01:15:16,360 --> 01:15:19,200
Speaker 7: know what, we're going to have to challenge them in that.

1345
01:15:20,160 --> 01:15:22,920
Speaker 7: Here's the same thing. We're going to have to challenge

1346
01:15:22,920 --> 01:15:26,280
Speaker 7: people to finally have to look at each other and

1347
01:15:26,320 --> 01:15:31,080
Speaker 7: see each other with dignity. And so we are going

1348
01:15:31,160 --> 01:15:34,200
Speaker 7: to be uncomfortable. But you know what, we're way uncomfortable

1349
01:15:34,280 --> 01:15:38,080
Speaker 7: right now. So if we begin actually putting our money

1350
01:15:38,080 --> 01:15:41,920
Speaker 7: where our mouth is, doing the work, one by one,

1351
01:15:42,760 --> 01:15:46,599
Speaker 7: community by community, we will get there. I am hopeful.

1352
01:15:46,640 --> 01:15:50,000
Speaker 7: People think I'm too much of any idealist. Well, you

1353
01:15:50,040 --> 01:15:52,400
Speaker 7: know what, what we've been doing has not been working.

1354
01:15:53,160 --> 01:15:56,280
Speaker 7: I would say instead that we have a vision. And

1355
01:15:56,360 --> 01:15:59,040
Speaker 7: I say we because I'm not alone in this. We

1356
01:15:59,120 --> 01:16:03,320
Speaker 7: have a vision to actually get rid of homelessness here

1357
01:16:03,360 --> 01:16:05,800
Speaker 7: in our city, and we need to work on it.

1358
01:16:06,240 --> 01:16:09,200
Speaker 7: And that means that people might be uncomfortable, but it's

1359
01:16:09,240 --> 01:16:10,760
Speaker 7: not going to be any worse than it is now.

1360
01:16:11,400 --> 01:16:14,040
Speaker 7: And when we build those homes and we get people inside,

1361
01:16:14,560 --> 01:16:17,080
Speaker 7: we are going to be able to feel differently. The

1362
01:16:17,240 --> 01:16:20,679
Speaker 7: other thing is that we do have to create spaces

1363
01:16:20,720 --> 01:16:23,800
Speaker 7: for us to see each other as human beings. One

1364
01:16:23,800 --> 01:16:26,599
Speaker 7: of the things I want to bring into the city

1365
01:16:26,920 --> 01:16:30,719
Speaker 7: is more third spaces, third spaces where people can meet

1366
01:16:30,760 --> 01:16:33,479
Speaker 7: and see each other. One of those spaces is actually transit.

1367
01:16:34,160 --> 01:16:36,719
Speaker 7: I am actually planning on making buses fast and free.

1368
01:16:36,920 --> 01:16:39,840
Speaker 7: I'm going to make dashes Dash bus free. That will

1369
01:16:39,840 --> 01:16:42,960
Speaker 7: actually help a lot of our unhoused community members because

1370
01:16:42,960 --> 01:16:45,720
Speaker 7: now they can get to the resources they need. If

1371
01:16:45,760 --> 01:16:48,240
Speaker 7: buses are free, folks can use it and get to

1372
01:16:48,240 --> 01:16:50,800
Speaker 7: the resources they need, go get the healthcare they need,

1373
01:16:50,880 --> 01:16:53,240
Speaker 7: go for a walk in the park as they want

1374
01:16:53,720 --> 01:16:57,360
Speaker 7: to meet with their friends, live a dignified life. But

1375
01:16:57,400 --> 01:17:01,879
Speaker 7: also when you're making buses free thirty more ridership will increase,

1376
01:17:02,479 --> 01:17:06,200
Speaker 7: which means more people will be using the bus, interacting

1377
01:17:06,240 --> 01:17:09,080
Speaker 7: with one another. And when you see the same person

1378
01:17:09,520 --> 01:17:11,120
Speaker 7: over and over again, all of a sudden, it gets

1379
01:17:11,120 --> 01:17:13,479
Speaker 7: a little bit less scary. All of a sudden, maybe

1380
01:17:13,479 --> 01:17:15,639
Speaker 7: you'll get to know their name. All of a sudden,

1381
01:17:15,640 --> 01:17:18,920
Speaker 7: you might wave a hand, you might offer a cup

1382
01:17:18,960 --> 01:17:22,880
Speaker 7: of coffee. And it's when those relationships are built that

1383
01:17:22,920 --> 01:17:24,760
Speaker 7: we then get to begin to see each other as

1384
01:17:24,840 --> 01:17:29,639
Speaker 7: human beings, as neighbors, and maybe as a one Angelino. Right,

1385
01:17:29,680 --> 01:17:33,679
Speaker 7: And so I know that feels far fetched. I don't

1386
01:17:33,720 --> 01:17:37,160
Speaker 7: think so I have that much hope. Maybe that's why

1387
01:17:37,160 --> 01:17:38,639
Speaker 7: I'm running because I do believe.

1388
01:17:39,360 --> 01:17:39,719
Speaker 2: Wow.

1389
01:17:40,640 --> 01:17:42,960
Speaker 1: On that note, is there anything else you'd like to

1390
01:17:43,120 --> 01:17:45,240
Speaker 1: add before we close it in on out?

1391
01:17:45,840 --> 01:17:50,919
Speaker 7: Yeah, I want to let our folks know who are listening,

1392
01:17:51,560 --> 01:17:55,479
Speaker 7: especially if they're unhoused, that their vote matters. I know

1393
01:17:55,560 --> 01:17:59,000
Speaker 7: that it's so difficult to make sure that you get

1394
01:17:59,000 --> 01:18:02,920
Speaker 7: a vote because you don't have an address, but it

1395
01:18:02,960 --> 01:18:06,519
Speaker 7: is important that you have a voice in this election.

1396
01:18:06,720 --> 01:18:10,639
Speaker 7: In every single election, I have actually canvassed in skid

1397
01:18:10,720 --> 01:18:14,120
Speaker 7: Row to make sure that people were registered to vote

1398
01:18:14,479 --> 01:18:16,559
Speaker 7: and that they knew where they could drop off their ballot.

1399
01:18:17,160 --> 01:18:19,519
Speaker 7: I want to make sure that everybody here in Los

1400
01:18:19,560 --> 01:18:23,799
Speaker 7: Angeles has a voice in city Hall. And so please,

1401
01:18:24,560 --> 01:18:27,120
Speaker 7: if you are somebody who is not registered to vote,

1402
01:18:27,479 --> 01:18:30,160
Speaker 7: or you don't know how to vote, please reach out

1403
01:18:30,160 --> 01:18:33,439
Speaker 7: to all of these amazing local organizations, to these rapid

1404
01:18:33,479 --> 01:18:36,599
Speaker 7: response groups, to any of your neighbors and say hey,

1405
01:18:36,600 --> 01:18:39,000
Speaker 7: can you help me out and make sure you register

1406
01:18:39,160 --> 01:18:42,280
Speaker 7: to vote and make sure you vote. The primaries for

1407
01:18:42,360 --> 01:18:46,120
Speaker 7: the midterm election are happening June second. It is an

1408
01:18:46,160 --> 01:18:47,960
Speaker 7: opportunity to vote. Of course, I'm going to invite you

1409
01:18:48,040 --> 01:18:49,960
Speaker 7: to vote for me. My name again is Rey Huang.

1410
01:18:50,680 --> 01:18:52,840
Speaker 7: But it doesn't matter whether or not you vote for me.

1411
01:18:52,920 --> 01:18:56,120
Speaker 7: I want you to vote because your voice matters, because

1412
01:18:56,160 --> 01:18:58,880
Speaker 7: you matter, and because you are a part of Los Angeles,

1413
01:18:59,080 --> 01:19:01,320
Speaker 7: and because you have some thing to offer the Los angeless,

1414
01:19:01,640 --> 01:19:03,519
Speaker 7: and that is important to me and that is important

1415
01:19:03,520 --> 01:19:04,360
Speaker 7: to our city.

1416
01:19:04,680 --> 01:19:07,000
Speaker 1: Well, I will leave it there. Thank you again for

1417
01:19:07,080 --> 01:19:09,760
Speaker 1: showing up. Minister Ray, thank you so much. Then, thank you.

1418
01:19:14,040 --> 01:19:17,200
Speaker 1: Thank you to Reverend Ray Wong and Ida Assuri for

1419
01:19:17,320 --> 01:19:20,360
Speaker 1: coming on to the show today. You can learn more

1420
01:19:20,360 --> 01:19:23,599
Speaker 1: about their campaigns at the links in our episode notes

1421
01:19:24,920 --> 01:19:28,800
Speaker 1: and the words of Frederick Douglass, power concedes nothing without

1422
01:19:28,800 --> 01:19:33,920
Speaker 1: a demand. Let us demand equality, dignified housing, and feeding

1423
01:19:33,960 --> 01:19:34,559
Speaker 1: the vulnerable.

1424
01:19:35,080 --> 01:19:36,400
Speaker 2: Thank you again for listening in.

1425
01:19:36,960 --> 01:19:39,320
Speaker 1: If you have a story you'd like to share, please

1426
01:19:39,360 --> 01:19:43,240
Speaker 1: reach out to me at willianhousat gmail dot com or

1427
01:19:43,800 --> 01:19:48,599
Speaker 1: Weeden House on Instagram. Until then, may we again meet

1428
01:19:48,800 --> 01:19:54,320
Speaker 1: in the light of understand. Wiedian House is a production

1429
01:19:54,400 --> 01:19:57,800
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. It is written, hosted, and created by me

1430
01:19:58,040 --> 01:20:04,519
Speaker 1: Theo Henderson, producers Jamie Loftus, Kaylie Fager, Katie Fischer, and

1431
01:20:04,640 --> 01:20:09,519
Speaker 1: Lyra Smith. Our editor is Adam Wand, our engineer is

1432
01:20:09,600 --> 01:20:14,160
Speaker 1: Joel Jerome, and our local art is also by Katie Fischer.

1433
01:20:15,080 --> 01:20:16,439
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening.