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Speaker 1: Previously on Whitian Housed.

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Speaker 2: Now it's time to get serious about tactics, about strategies,

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Speaker 2: and you've got to go to institutional knowledge on this.

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Speaker 2: You can't be learning on the fly when you're dealing

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Speaker 2: with people who are deep seated in hatred and will

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Speaker 2: do anything using our own federal resources against us. This

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Speaker 2: is no time to play. This is the time for

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Speaker 2: all hands on, Dick. That's why I said, it's great

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Speaker 2: that we're coming together in community, but there are people

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Speaker 2: we need.

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Speaker 3: To have some conversations.

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Speaker 2: There are too many people who are prejudiced against black

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Speaker 2: women in the first place and then want us to

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Speaker 2: jump into this game. So this is a complex situation,

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Speaker 2: but in the end, we're gonna have to figure out

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Speaker 2: a commonality.

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Speaker 3: Here.

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Speaker 4: Welcome to Wittian House. I'm your host, Theo Henderson. We

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Speaker 4: have an exciting episode today featuring the creators of a

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Speaker 4: new PBS documentary.

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Speaker 1: But first on House.

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Speaker 4: News, our first story starts in Los Angeles. Mayor Karen

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Speaker 4: Bass has lifted the state of emergency declaration on the

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Speaker 4: Young House. Mayor Bas has stated the city now has

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Speaker 4: tools in place to continue urgent action. City officials are

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Speaker 4: moving to make Mayor Baths Executive Directive one, an ordnance

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Speaker 4: which expedites the approval process for building shelters and one

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Speaker 4: hundred percent affordable housing. Our next story texts us to

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Speaker 4: Orange County, where supervisors approve more hostile responses to the

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Speaker 4: young housed, which includes fines and jail time. Orange County

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Speaker 4: can now arrest and find the young house for camping

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Speaker 4: along flood controlled channels in county parks and other county

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Speaker 4: owned land. The vote was approved forward to one. Grant's

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Speaker 4: past ruling was instrumental in realizing this band, which will

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Speaker 4: criminalize the unhoused for sleeping in public spaces if no

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Speaker 4: adequate shelter bed was available. Supervisive Vincente Sarmiento was the

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Speaker 4: sole opposing vote, voicing concerns that the unhoused were sometimes

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Speaker 4: released in the middle of the night with no access

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Speaker 4: to transportation. Our next story is disturbing and really bizarre,

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Speaker 4: but it's.

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Speaker 1: Important for us to cover.

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Speaker 4: Last week, Gavin Weisenberg and Tanner Thomas of Texas were

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Speaker 4: charged with intent to stage a violent overthrow of the

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Speaker 4: Haitian island of Ganavi and intended to recruit unhoused people

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Speaker 4: in Washington, DC in order to do so, I'm going

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Speaker 4: to quote the indictment that was filed in the US

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Speaker 4: District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The co

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Speaker 4: conspirators conducted research, reconnaissance, recruiting, planning, and start training to

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Speaker 4: effectuate their plan. It was the goal of the conspiracy

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Speaker 4: to take military control of the island of Ganavi by

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Speaker 4: murdering all the men on the island and capturing all

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Speaker 4: the women.

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Speaker 1: The story gets more bizarre from there.

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Speaker 4: The two young men organize their plan over social media,

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Speaker 4: and one even enlisting in the Air Force at a

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Speaker 4: base near DC in the hopes that it would improve

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Speaker 4: chances of convincing unhouse people to join them. They've now

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Speaker 4: both been charged with conspiracy to kill or kidnap people

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Speaker 4: in a foreign country and also face the child pornography charge.

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Speaker 4: As of this recording, their faith has not been decided.

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Speaker 4: This story is a lot as you heard. I've said often,

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Speaker 4: if you can dehumanize people, you can criminalize them.

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Speaker 1: But these men took.

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Speaker 4: It a whole step further by trying to evolve and

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Speaker 4: implicate the unhoused community in committing a terrible crime. Regardless

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Speaker 4: of housing status. Who on Earth is going to agree

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Speaker 4: to cross country lines to commit murder for someone they

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Speaker 4: don't know. Their assumption that unhoused people would agree to

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Speaker 4: this is extremely telling. It's a clear cut example of

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Speaker 4: how we're condition to view unhoused people as violent criminals.

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Speaker 4: So it's not too bizarre that if the narrative is

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Speaker 4: pushed that unhoused people are criminals, people like Weisenberg and

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Speaker 4: Tanner would try to recruit people in aulnerable state.

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Speaker 1: Consider this.

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Speaker 4: Both the President of the United States and California Governor

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Speaker 4: Gavin Newsom have issued anti unhoused executive orders in the

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Speaker 4: last few months.

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Speaker 1: Lancaster Mayor r.

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Speaker 4: Rex Paris publicly stated that he wanted to give unhoused

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Speaker 4: people free fentannel to exterminate them. On national television, Fox

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Speaker 4: News hosts Brian Kilmeade called on the US to give

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Speaker 4: involuntary leadthal injections to unhoused people experiencing mental health issues.

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Speaker 4: If these are the dominant narratives and policies towards the

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Speaker 4: inn house, I guess recruiting them as soldiers to murder

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Speaker 4: innocent people and force women and children into sex slavery

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Speaker 4: isn't a bridge too far in the eyes of many.

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Speaker 4: Where will our society end up next if this continues

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Speaker 4: to be normalized and that's unhousted. When we come back,

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Speaker 4: I speak with the team behind a new documentary, out

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Speaker 4: Cash Nation, lgbt Q I A plus Homeless Unseen in

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Speaker 4: New York City.

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to Willian House. I'm THEO Henderson.

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Speaker 4: Today we have the pleasure of hearing from the team

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Speaker 4: behind a new documentary, Outcast Nation, lgb U T I

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Speaker 4: A plus Homeless Unseen in.

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Speaker 1: New York City.

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Speaker 4: Before we get into our conversation, let's listen to a

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Speaker 4: trailer of the film.

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Speaker 5: If there's nothing else taken it away from this film,

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Speaker 5: the most important message is that these are not just numbers.

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Speaker 3: These are people.

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Speaker 5: These young people are young people first and on house

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Speaker 5: people second.

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Speaker 6: And then the other thing are young people often die

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Speaker 6: of is medical causes that if you have access, should

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Speaker 6: not kill you. You know, you know, and it's just

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Speaker 6: a situation that's going to get worse if the current

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Speaker 6: administration gets its way because they're trying to take away

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Speaker 6: the little bit of access that people do have.

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Speaker 7: Sometimes you do things for a bit, but when you're

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Speaker 7: sixteen seventeen and don't have a nice shower, and you smile.

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Speaker 3: Are they because you're roam in the streets? Sometimes sleeping

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Speaker 3: with somebody gets you a nice warmat first.

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Speaker 8: Of all, where does the trauma take place?

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Speaker 2: Is a trauma at the original home that causes somebody

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Speaker 2: to become homeless?

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Speaker 3: Is it the trauma subsequent to becoming homeless?

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Speaker 9: See, most people become homeless or around drugs because homeless

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Speaker 9: people do.

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Speaker 8: It's it's a cycle from a long ago. You know

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Speaker 8: what I'm saying.

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Speaker 3: Homeless people are it's.

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Speaker 1: The poor man for Mandy Dress.

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Speaker 8: I've never met anyone living outside who said when I

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Speaker 8: was little, I dreamed of growing up to become homeless.

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Speaker 8: Nobody wants to live outside.

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Speaker 3: There's just nowhere else for people to go.

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Speaker 1: The city doesn't have a lot of empathy.

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Speaker 4: And when it lacks empathy, we don't put in place laws,

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Speaker 4: initiatives and resources to address the crisis in a way

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Speaker 4: that really looks to help the most vulnerable instead of

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Speaker 4: trying to warehouse and hide the problems that we have

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Speaker 4: in our city. Longtime guest Kaylin Kran produced the film,

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Speaker 4: which traces the lives of lgbt t I, a plus

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Speaker 4: youth navigating survival on the streets of New York. We're

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Speaker 4: also joined by project partners Maddox Gorilla, Jen Lacouri, and

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Speaker 4: the film's director Charlie Spickler. And now onto our conversation.

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Speaker 10: Hey guys, Hello, are you all doing good game?

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Speaker 3: Hey Haitln, how are you?

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Speaker 1: And everyone else?

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Speaker 5: Thank you so much for both of you being able

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Speaker 5: to join us.

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Speaker 1: Thank you guys.

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Speaker 4: Now that you movie stars, people are going to be

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Speaker 4: asking questions about what it's like, you know what, with

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Speaker 4: who you are as people, So that will probably be

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Speaker 4: where I'm going to be coming from. So my podcast started,

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Speaker 4: I had been on house for over eight years.

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Speaker 1: When I was living on the.

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Speaker 4: Streets, people were so shocked that I sounded educated. I

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Speaker 4: sounded intelligent, and that didn't sound like I was suffering

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Speaker 4: from delusions or I wasn't on any substances. And I

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Speaker 4: informed them because I had a medical emergency. While I

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Speaker 4: was an educator, I was a teacher, and I wasn't married,

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Speaker 4: I didn't have a nest egg. And if anyone know

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Speaker 4: the teaching in public schools, you don't make the big bucks.

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Speaker 4: And it shows that all it takes is a medical emergency.

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Speaker 4: You don't have to be the stereotypes that people of

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Speaker 4: unhoused people. There could be a traumatic life event that

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Speaker 4: can happen to you. A person that I interviewed for

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Speaker 4: my show, him and his wife were living. They were supers.

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Speaker 4: His wife had terminal cancer fourth stage brain camps. And

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Speaker 4: ask people that love their parents or loved their spouses

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Speaker 4: and family, they do all they can to try to

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Speaker 4: keep them alive.

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Speaker 1: And that was with him.

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Speaker 4: He started dipping into their retirement trying to keep her alive.

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Speaker 1: He was unsuccessful. She passed away.

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Speaker 4: They depleted all their money, and he started living across

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Speaker 4: the street from the building that he used to live

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Speaker 4: and work at. So the part of the thing that

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Speaker 4: I started to see when I was living on the

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Speaker 4: street and started coming up with people that had jobs professional,

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Speaker 4: working class. It didn't matter that there was some crucial

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Speaker 4: life event that caused people to having to rely on

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Speaker 4: meager savings to grapples as much as they can to

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Speaker 4: survive when it's extinguished. And then they became evicted and

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Speaker 4: out on the street. And so there was people that

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Speaker 4: had to find solace in other ways like were example,

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Speaker 4: there was a gentleman that was in stage cancer and

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Speaker 4: could barely move His wife in order to cope use

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Speaker 4: substances in order to cope with the challenges of losing

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Speaker 4: her husband and having to survive on the street with

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Speaker 4: my other friend Butterfly, who was dealing with mental health

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Speaker 4: issues and had reached her end of a rope, had

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Speaker 4: taken her own existence into the different the different plane

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Speaker 4: of existence, and it was very difficult because in the end,

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Speaker 4: which was part of I guess was the genesis of

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Speaker 4: why I started to do this show, is she became

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Speaker 4: more frustrated as society beared down on her, judged her

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Speaker 4: because of her illness, and she would lamit by I

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Speaker 4: didn't ask to be mentally ill. It just has happened,

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Speaker 4: and I can't control the challenges that sometimes happens, and

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Speaker 4: it's so much of a And so that Burton took

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Speaker 4: her into another direction. So I felt that it was

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Speaker 4: important to create a place where people that were on

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Speaker 4: the streets, that were living displaced, and that were unhoused

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Speaker 4: for a myriad of reasons, to hear their voices done

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Speaker 4: humanly with dignity and respect. I got so tired of

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Speaker 4: seeing these stories. When people make the conversation about unhouse people,

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Speaker 4: they demonized people that were on substances and that were

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Speaker 4: mentally ill. I knew the background stories of many of them.

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Speaker 4: It is not one day someone just says I'm going

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Speaker 4: to just be mentally ill. It is not one day

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Speaker 4: what someone says, I'm just going to be an addict.

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Speaker 4: There is always a beginning, middle, and not hopefully a

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Speaker 4: positive end, but an end nonetheless that has to have

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Speaker 4: a story to be understood and told with the same dignity.

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Speaker 4: This year, we've lost three unhoused people so that I

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Speaker 4: knew personally. One was a person that finally became how

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Speaker 4: that passed away at home. Another one the most recent win.

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Speaker 4: I don't know if y'all seen on the news this gentleman.

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Speaker 4: I was there in the beginning, while I was living

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Speaker 4: on the street. I recorded the story of Benito Floris.

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Speaker 4: And Benito was an individual, elderly individual that was diabetic

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Speaker 4: and had other health issues that had occupied unoccupied houses

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Speaker 4: and demanded that the city and the government provide equitable

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Speaker 4: and dignified housing for them, and they went through a battle.

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Speaker 1: They gave a two year reprieve.

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Speaker 4: The reprieve was up and they were trying to event

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Speaker 4: Beranitas and Benitas I believe was in his late sixties

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Speaker 4: early seventies, he created a treehouse to make it very

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Speaker 4: difficult for authorities. Not too a few months ago, Benito

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Speaker 4: passed away at the place where he was trying to

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Speaker 4: make his last stand. Earlier, we had another person that

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Speaker 4: I knew. Her name was Queenie. We called a Queenee.

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Speaker 4: She was I don't know if you do. A few

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Speaker 4: years ago when Mitchell Farrells was a council person and

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Speaker 4: he had created a military occupied force to displace the

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Speaker 4: unhousing campments in Echo Park, and Queen he was the

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Speaker 4: one that spoke out about talked about her five children,

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Speaker 4: talked about the challenges of having an immigrant mother and

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Speaker 4: trying to survive being out on the streets. Queen he

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Speaker 4: passed away as well as well as Gustavo was another

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Speaker 4: unhoused person that was a part of Echo Park that

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Speaker 4: passed away. And so this year has been a very

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Speaker 4: trying year for a lot of people in the movement,

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Speaker 4: and I think it's important to remember them and their

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Speaker 4: stories this year as well as remember really the focus

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Speaker 4: of why I do this show to uplift their voices,

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Speaker 4: say their names in the most respectful, dictified manner. And

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Speaker 4: I was attracted by Professor Krin's visions of this movie

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Speaker 4: and understanding her advocacy work, and I wanted to bring

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Speaker 4: you on the show to continue that tradition, to show

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Speaker 4: the same kind of respect and put the floor up

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Speaker 4: for you guys to talk about what's going on.

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Speaker 8: Thank you for that.

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Speaker 10: You're honestly just talking about the reality that our community

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Speaker 10: to go through on the layers, especially the point you

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Speaker 10: said around what folks is the idea around homelessness, right,

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Speaker 10: Like homelessness people think is such a thing where you

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Speaker 10: did something wrong in society.

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Speaker 3: Right, it doesn't matter if you're a youth, if you're

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Speaker 3: an elder person.

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Speaker 10: It's just people have this connotation with it that it's

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Speaker 10: like you did something versus realizing that it's most of

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Speaker 10: the time a systemic issue, whether it is that folks

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Speaker 10: are not receiving the mental health support they need, substance

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Speaker 10: you support they need, or when it comes to their identity,

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Speaker 10: right when we think about LGBTQ folks being pushed to

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Speaker 10: the margins society and not being supported. So I just

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Speaker 10: it is just the reality of our peoples, right. I

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Speaker 10: don't think it's down. I think unfortunately people need to

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Speaker 10: become more comfortable with that idea of homelessness because a

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Speaker 10: lot of times people don't even want to talk about it.

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Speaker 10: It's funny because at work, I was thinking, we're thinking

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Speaker 10: about doing this campaign around like the issue of homelesses globally,

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Speaker 10: particularly around lgbtqu homlesses globally, and one of the folks

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Speaker 10: that I was working with is like, oh, like, how

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Speaker 10: do we frame this issue as a like either humanitarian

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Speaker 10: crisis or youth crisis because homelessness itself is a tablet topic,

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Speaker 10: Like people want to put it to the side or

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Speaker 10: act like it doesn't exist, right, But we need to

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Speaker 10: face it, and I think people don't want to face

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Speaker 10: it because people don't want to admit that it is

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Speaker 10: a systems failures thing. Right, It's not on the It's

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Speaker 10: not an individual crisis. It's a communal crisis that we

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Speaker 10: have going on.

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Speaker 4: I've had guests on that we're part of the LGBQTI

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Speaker 4: plus community that we're used, particularly during the pandemic through

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Speaker 4: note fault of their own that parents throwing them out

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Speaker 4: of the house. But you have to be have to

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Speaker 4: be honest. Because one of the gentlemen that I interviewed

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Speaker 4: was sixteen years old. Parents found out he was gay,

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Speaker 4: and he threw them out of the house, no recourse,

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Speaker 4: no kind of support, And I just can't go back

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Speaker 4: to when I I was many eons ago, sixteen years old.

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Speaker 4: The thing about the insecurity and the uncertainty of trying

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Speaker 4: to just be thrust out into an adult world that

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Speaker 4: I had no experience in, and to be able to

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Speaker 4: navigate that. But to have such a autopathy against an

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Speaker 4: individual that you raised or was your flesh and blood,

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Speaker 4: and to throw them out because of who they are,

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Speaker 4: that strikes the core of more of a this state.

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Speaker 4: They were not mentally ill, they were not on substances.

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Speaker 4: They just with who they were, just like everyone else

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Speaker 4: going to school, going maybe juggling a crush, or maybe

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Speaker 4: just trying to figure out what they're going to college,

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Speaker 4: all of those things, even with people that are dealing

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Speaker 4: with like a butterfly.

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Speaker 1: She didn't ask to be schizophrenic. It's just a medical condition.

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Speaker 4: And in our society we don't have enough of the

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Speaker 4: stop gaps. Maybe when she was like twenty, someone had

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Speaker 4: came along and tried to help her to navigate that

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Speaker 4: she would still be here. I think the conversational framework

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Speaker 4: in order for it to be a humanitarian crisis is

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Speaker 4: everyone goes through a storm and how.

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Speaker 1: We cope with it.

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Speaker 4: We should be able to be empathetic and compassionate enough

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Speaker 4: to make sure that they get through the storm safely.

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Speaker 7: Can I bounce off of what you guys were saying

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Speaker 7: when it comes to the mental health and just growing

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Speaker 7: up in general. So me growing up in the nineties

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Speaker 7: as a teenager, I was blaming myself for becoming homeless

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Speaker 7: because I put myself in the street. Now, unfortunately and

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Speaker 7: fortunately and this day and age, where I learned I

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Speaker 7: was in a very horrible.

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Speaker 3: Toxic, drug infested home.

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Speaker 7: I had no choice but to be in the street

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Speaker 7: or what I want to be being with this abuse,

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Speaker 7: constant abuse, with the drugs and the physical and the verbal.

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Speaker 7: And in the nineties, we all know we didn't have

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Speaker 7: that many resources at Allah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I was.

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Speaker 7: Fortunate to get a get coven in house and they

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Speaker 7: helped me with my documents and everything. But I want

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Speaker 7: to educate people as well to understand that sometimes you're

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Speaker 7: not doing it to yourself, You're just trying to get

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Speaker 7: away from something that's not helping you mentally, emotionally or

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Speaker 7: even at times physically. So there's a lot of education

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Speaker 7: that can be more out there on certain things, because

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Speaker 7: I'm still trying to accept I didn't put myself homeless.

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Speaker 7: I was literally beat out the door. I was literally

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Speaker 7: chose for drugs than my love. So there's so many

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Speaker 7: reasons on a person to live in the street and

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Speaker 7: weirdly feel safer than they're under their own rooms.

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Speaker 3: And just wanted to bounce off for that.

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Speaker 4: Thank you very much, Jain. That's a very excellent point,

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Speaker 4: and I think that's the beginning steps of talking about

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Speaker 4: how humanitarian and how to look beyond the stereotypes and

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Speaker 4: see the person, to see the human being, to see

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Speaker 4: when they uplift their voices. It's like, again, I have

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Speaker 4: interviewed many unhoused people and you know that had medical

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Speaker 4: emergencies like me, that had so many other things going on,

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Speaker 4: and I have yet to see any unhoused person say

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Speaker 4: I looked out on the street of my nice house

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Speaker 4: and decided the thing to do was leave all that

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Speaker 4: behind instead of start living on the street.

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Speaker 1: I have never seen that.

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Speaker 4: I have never seen someone want to just leave home,

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Speaker 4: you know, just outo on a lark and just go

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Speaker 4: out and just live and deal with the realities of

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Speaker 4: living on the street.

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Speaker 1: I haven't seen it.

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Speaker 4: So there's always the human story and most often than not,

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Speaker 4: is not their fault. A ninety nine point nine percent

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Speaker 4: is never their fault. They have circumstances beyond their control,

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Speaker 4: or lack of resources, or like parents throwing them out,

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Speaker 4: or like For example, there was this gentleman I interviewed,

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Speaker 4: and he became a house and started living on the

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Speaker 4: street at eleven years old.

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Speaker 1: His mother passed away.

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Speaker 4: They had a very elderly grandmother that was not always

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Speaker 4: the kindest. That made life a little bit difficult for him,

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Speaker 4: and it got to the point where he had to

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Speaker 4: start running away. He ran away from home and they

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Speaker 4: were trying to put him in a foster home. The

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Speaker 4: foster home people start beating him, and he felt that

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Speaker 4: He became friends with people that were living under the bridge,

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Speaker 4: and he felt it was much more safer with people

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Speaker 4: that didn't beat him. At eleven years old, and started

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Speaker 4: living on the street from there, and this gentleman was

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Speaker 4: like in his thirties, from eleven years old to he

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Speaker 4: was like thirty two. I believe to think about that,

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Speaker 4: that's just parts of the stories that don't get told

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Speaker 4: as well.

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Speaker 7: It's insane that some of us run to the street

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Speaker 7: for safety, and people don't realize that there's so many reasons.

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Speaker 7: There's sexual abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse, job laws, lay layoffs, COVID.

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Speaker 3: People don't open.

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Speaker 7: Their mind anymore to think, Damn, what did they go

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Speaker 7: through that they're in this situation?

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Speaker 3: Why are they here?

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Speaker 7: Not?

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Speaker 3: Oh, they put themselves there, So let's just keep going.

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Speaker 7: That's a big thing in the world that people are

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Speaker 7: not seeing people for people. And I think that's why

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Speaker 7: I'm speaking up now, because I'm finally being zen and

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Speaker 7: if I'm being seen, then other people can be seen

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Speaker 7: with my big mouth.

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Speaker 3: So that's how I see it.

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Speaker 1: Peoples begin up.

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Speaker 5: And so if I can just jump in there for

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Speaker 5: a quick second, just to name a couple of things

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Speaker 5: that we're talking about as well, is that we're identifying

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Speaker 5: how the problem is largely the fault of systemic and

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Speaker 5: institutional injustices right, And I think that systemic problems needs

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Speaker 5: systemic solutions, And there are alternate universes that exist where

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Speaker 5: if there were lower barriers or lower thresholds to access

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Speaker 5: universal things that make entire societies healthier, that maybe there

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Speaker 5: are worlds where these problems for individuals don't necessarily come

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Speaker 5: to bear, and so to you know, obviously, to talk

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Speaker 5: about THEO when you're talking about your circumstance, thinking about

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Speaker 5: what a different world it would be if we had

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Speaker 5: healthcare that was accessible to everybody, and we're talking about

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Speaker 5: these circumstances, whether we're talking about your friend Butterfly, or

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Speaker 5: whether we're talking about Jen, whether we're talking about your

408
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Speaker 5: caregivers when you were young, If there were lower thresholds

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Speaker 5: and barriers for mental health access for substance use supports,

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Speaker 5: if these weren't things that were so hard to access

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Speaker 5: and so stigmatized to access, and so many barriers and

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Speaker 5: thresholds that people have to go through, then perhaps there

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Speaker 5: is a world in which people get the support they

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Speaker 5: need and then these dominoes don't fall to the point

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Speaker 5: that they do. And I do this interesting exercise with

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Speaker 5: my students, my undergrad students, and I just ran a

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Speaker 5: workshop at the University of Warsaw in Poland and got

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Speaker 5: really interesting take on students there because they do have

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Speaker 5: universal health care systems things of this nature. All this said,

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Speaker 5: I do an activity where students have to propose a

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Speaker 5: simple policy solution that would ultimately lower the thresholder barrier

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Speaker 5: of challenges associated with the intersection of homelessness or housing

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Speaker 5: insecurity and health and mental health care. And then all

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Speaker 5: the students do present a different small intervention and then

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Speaker 5: we vote on who we would vote in to be

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Speaker 5: the mayor of our fictional town.

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Speaker 3: And it was very.

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Speaker 5: Interesting because the person who won in the most recent

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Speaker 5: time that I did this activity was somebody who proposed

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Speaker 5: if they were the mayor of the town, they would

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Speaker 5: make ambulance rides free. And they shared that their grandmother

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Speaker 5: had become homeless because she was already living paycheck to

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Speaker 5: paycheck if that, and was still dealing with insurmountable amounts

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Speaker 5: of debt medical debt that had been accrued over years

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Speaker 5: and years of her just simply becoming an elderly person,

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Speaker 5: you know. And what had happened was she cut her

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00:24:51,560 --> 00:24:55,040
Speaker 5: finger while cooking, very small thing, needed two stitches, and

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Speaker 5: she couldn't get herself to the hospital. She didn't have

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Speaker 5: the support, so she did call the ambulance because she

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Speaker 5: didn't she was bleeding and she didn't feel comfortable being

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Speaker 5: on the subway herself.

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Speaker 3: What have you, And that bill of what.

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Speaker 5: It took for her to get the stitches and get

444
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:14,000
Speaker 5: everything worked out was about five thousand dollars plus the

445
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:18,160
Speaker 5: two thousand dollars ambulance ride, and it put her over

446
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:22,480
Speaker 5: the edge home. Yeah, And so systemic problems are the

447
00:25:22,520 --> 00:25:27,400
Speaker 5: results of systemic injustices due to the need for real

448
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:29,520
Speaker 5: systemic solutions.

449
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:30,719
Speaker 3: And so I apologize.

450
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:32,720
Speaker 5: I think that was a really roundabout way of kind

451
00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:35,160
Speaker 5: of summarizing a lot of what we're talking about here.

452
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:38,280
Speaker 5: But I think it's remarkable to kind of think about

453
00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:40,240
Speaker 5: the pendulum that needs to swing back.

454
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:41,720
Speaker 3: And as much as it's.

455
00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:43,560
Speaker 5: Great in New York City that we have things like

456
00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:47,600
Speaker 5: right to shelter, are these band aid solutions or these

457
00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:53,400
Speaker 5: real systemic interventions that are actually going to heal and house.

458
00:25:54,119 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 4: Well, it's interesting too when New York has a conversely,

459
00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,920
Speaker 4: very different way of addressing that a house issues. In LA,

460
00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:05,000
Speaker 4: they do everything to criminalize being unhoused. There is a

461
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:07,800
Speaker 4: policy we have here I call it the New Jim Crow.

462
00:26:08,240 --> 00:26:11,959
Speaker 4: It is against the law for unhoused people to sit, sleep,

463
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:15,479
Speaker 4: or lie within the sign of five hundred feet near

464
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,920
Speaker 4: any sign that they have chose as a special enforcement zone.

465
00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:21,199
Speaker 4: There's no human being that's going to be able to

466
00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:24,200
Speaker 4: walk for twenty four hours, You're going to sit somewhere,

467
00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 4: you got to rest somewhere, and you're going to go

468
00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:26,960
Speaker 4: to sleep.

469
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:28,119
Speaker 1: That's just a human condition.

470
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:31,720
Speaker 4: And to have that kind of idea that you can

471
00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 4: be able to use to enforce on unhoused people, to

472
00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 4: put them in jail or cite them or continually harass

473
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,679
Speaker 4: them is and the theme of who we should be

474
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:46,199
Speaker 4: as a society. And it's also I've just saw just

475
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:49,400
Speaker 4: the preview of you guys's clip to talk about one

476
00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:52,480
Speaker 4: of the things as well, always trying to be careful

477
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:57,560
Speaker 4: that we don't invest in our own oppression. And I

478
00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:01,080
Speaker 4: have been fighting that with in particut here. I have

479
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:03,640
Speaker 4: to say one of the things that opened my eyes

480
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:06,119
Speaker 4: is that I had to be aware that they people

481
00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:10,119
Speaker 4: would use me as a mascot. And I'm not saying

482
00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:13,160
Speaker 4: I'm not brilliant. I'm not saying that I can say

483
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 4: that with not any false modesty. I think I have

484
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:19,080
Speaker 4: a brain celler too. But I have to say I

485
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,880
Speaker 4: became uneasy because you said, see this guy can do it,

486
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:26,280
Speaker 4: why can't you? The reason why you are here is

487
00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:28,840
Speaker 4: because you don't do what he does. I have a

488
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:32,680
Speaker 4: specific skills. I went to school, I did different things,

489
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:34,800
Speaker 4: but that at the end of the day, when I

490
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:36,600
Speaker 4: was out on the street, no one gave a damn

491
00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:39,480
Speaker 4: how many degrees I had. I was on the street,

492
00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 4: I was susceptible to forty one, eighteen sixty three, forty

493
00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 4: four any law that was out there. I could go

494
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:49,640
Speaker 4: to jail with all of the accoutrements that I had.

495
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter.

496
00:27:50,840 --> 00:27:52,879
Speaker 4: So I'm going to point out too that there was

497
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:56,520
Speaker 4: there's always that in our communities to feel we're going

498
00:27:56,600 --> 00:28:01,520
Speaker 4: to get a sliver of a crumb if we castigate

499
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 4: people that may not have our life experience. I can't

500
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:09,040
Speaker 4: speak to Gabriel's experience about his wife dying from brain cancer,

501
00:28:09,480 --> 00:28:11,639
Speaker 4: but that doesn't mean I'm going to vilify him and

502
00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:13,159
Speaker 4: say he needs to be in jail because he's out

503
00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 4: here living on the street. I've seen butterfies struggles, but

504
00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:20,720
Speaker 4: I am not schizophrenic. But it doesn't mean I should

505
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:25,600
Speaker 4: have her running like Donald Trump's executive order forcibly involuntarily

506
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:29,479
Speaker 4: removed and locked into something that I can't be behind.

507
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:32,360
Speaker 4: That's one of the conversational points that I feel that

508
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:35,480
Speaker 4: you know we bring this up just as a centering point,

509
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:38,800
Speaker 4: and any other insight that I've missed, you're more to

510
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:39,959
Speaker 4: welcome to add to it.

511
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,880
Speaker 7: When it comes to the mental health. Mental health world

512
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:48,560
Speaker 7: is hard enough as it is. I late in life

513
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 7: was diagnosed with PTSD. Back in the day, they diagnosed

514
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:53,280
Speaker 7: me with bipolar.

515
00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:55,520
Speaker 3: Now there's a lot.

516
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:59,400
Speaker 7: Of misdiagnosis because people were going to go back to

517
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 7: me saying being seen, people are not lucky, people.

518
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:05,400
Speaker 3: Are not seeing.

519
00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:10,240
Speaker 7: I was so angry, so I cried all the time,

520
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:13,160
Speaker 7: and that meant I was depressed. But they didn't realize

521
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 7: that anger I had behind everything from witnessing abuse and everything.

522
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:22,320
Speaker 7: So mental health, I feel, does have a decent part

523
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:26,360
Speaker 7: and people in homelessness because we feel like we're not understood,

524
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,960
Speaker 7: and we keep running and keep running, and we don't

525
00:29:30,040 --> 00:29:33,680
Speaker 7: know when to stop because everybody's telling us the same thing.

526
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:36,440
Speaker 7: Either go do this or take this pill, or do

527
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:39,960
Speaker 7: this or not? How about sit down? Why are you

528
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:44,840
Speaker 7: so angry? What is triggering you to keep running? I

529
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:48,880
Speaker 7: never knew what it was to be stable, and it's

530
00:29:48,920 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 7: really true what they say. It takes a good about

531
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 7: four years with therapy and also wanting the help to

532
00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:00,080
Speaker 7: reprogram your brain, which my brain is still being repro

533
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:04,760
Speaker 7: because I do always always will I say, I feel

534
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:07,080
Speaker 7: I will always have that fear of living in the

535
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 7: street to get just because I've been there, so I

536
00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:11,800
Speaker 7: am much harder on myself.

537
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:14,800
Speaker 3: But I've never felt content.

538
00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:17,120
Speaker 7: I guess I don't think a person like me can

539
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:20,720
Speaker 7: ever say I am great because we've been there, so

540
00:30:20,800 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 7: we'll always have that fear. But it's always good to

541
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:28,719
Speaker 7: really see and listen. We get scared of ourselves, so

542
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:33,640
Speaker 7: we run and the streets are our only options sometimes unfortunately.

543
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 10: Yeah, and hearing you say that doesn't make me think

544
00:30:36,600 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 10: about Like for me, I'm always like a missionary, so

545
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:43,400
Speaker 10: I always just like to imagine, like will what would

546
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:44,960
Speaker 10: the ideal situation look like?

547
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:45,320
Speaker 3: Right?

548
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,920
Speaker 10: The fact that so many folks feel rejected or not

549
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:52,920
Speaker 10: even feel like are rejected from society, I feel like

550
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,640
Speaker 10: the streets is the place to find comfort, it does

551
00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:58,640
Speaker 10: make me wonder what could.

552
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:00,400
Speaker 3: We have in place that will be better?

553
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:02,320
Speaker 10: Right, Like what would it look like at the society

554
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:05,040
Speaker 10: if people were to show up and didn't make us

555
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:07,280
Speaker 10: feel like we have to go out and live and

556
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:09,120
Speaker 10: like be on the streets, you know, I always think

557
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:12,280
Speaker 10: about like a lot of the LGBTQ homes, youth and

558
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,040
Speaker 10: even my experience, like folks are willing to leave home.

559
00:31:17,240 --> 00:31:19,959
Speaker 10: This is not the experience for everyone, but for some people,

560
00:31:20,080 --> 00:31:22,360
Speaker 10: they're willing to leave home, leave having a roof over

561
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:26,720
Speaker 10: their head, resources and support, just so that they could

562
00:31:26,760 --> 00:31:29,120
Speaker 10: be free. Right, because sometimes you might be able to

563
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:31,720
Speaker 10: have a house, but you can be who you are,

564
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:35,320
Speaker 10: and for some people that's not enough. So the fact

565
00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:39,200
Speaker 10: that some people are willing to leave everything material and

566
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:42,440
Speaker 10: have nothing, but at least they have their dignity and

567
00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:46,960
Speaker 10: respect internally, that's worth more. And then hearing you say

568
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:50,040
Speaker 10: like sometimes you're fel more comfortable in the streets, it's

569
00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:54,320
Speaker 10: just it's so unfortunate that society becomes that way. And

570
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:56,760
Speaker 10: I think it's because there's no room for outcasts. There's

571
00:31:56,760 --> 00:32:00,040
Speaker 10: no room for people who are different, whether it's it

572
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,760
Speaker 10: is because of mental health, because of their identity, not

573
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:07,920
Speaker 10: having money. And it's ironic that the place that received

574
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:12,400
Speaker 10: you is the streets versus you know, any any societal

575
00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:14,640
Speaker 10: any societal place.

576
00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 7: Yeah, unfortunately, I'm going to tap into the technology and

577
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:22,239
Speaker 7: that we run to the streets because I say this

578
00:32:22,360 --> 00:32:25,000
Speaker 7: proudly because for some reason I don't know, I feel

579
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:25,760
Speaker 7: strongly about this.

580
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:26,520
Speaker 3: I'll run to the.

581
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,480
Speaker 7: Streets because there's no social media. I'll run to the

582
00:32:29,480 --> 00:32:32,000
Speaker 7: streets because there's no judging. I've run to the streets

583
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:34,880
Speaker 7: because there's helping, there's caring, there's understanding.

584
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:39,280
Speaker 3: And this is from people that have nothing like zero zilch.

585
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:44,000
Speaker 7: And unfortunately social media has ruined so much of the

586
00:32:44,840 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 7: eye of carrying, generosity, genuineness.

587
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:50,520
Speaker 3: Sorry, I had to intervene with that when I felt strong,

588
00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:51,720
Speaker 3: you're good and.

589
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:57,040
Speaker 5: It's an important point. And I think too, something that

590
00:32:57,160 --> 00:32:59,240
Speaker 5: is just occurring to me in real time, so forgive me.

591
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:02,240
Speaker 3: It's not a fully thought. But when I was talking.

592
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:06,960
Speaker 5: Before about barriers to access, barriers to acceptance, barriers to help,

593
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:10,760
Speaker 5: something I'm realizing is that streets doesn't have that. It's

594
00:33:10,880 --> 00:33:14,240
Speaker 5: kind of this, it's kind of this open vacuum or

595
00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:18,880
Speaker 5: void that you know, anybody can go to theoretically and

596
00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:22,480
Speaker 5: try to seek community, try to seek help, try to

597
00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:25,479
Speaker 5: seek you know, wherever that street or path, if we're

598
00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:27,600
Speaker 5: going to use a metaphor whatever that might lead you to.

599
00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:31,960
Speaker 5: However long or short that journey is. And that's something

600
00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 5: that's really interesting. And so to tie it back to

601
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:37,600
Speaker 5: what THEO was talking about before, is that now that

602
00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 5: space becoming increasingly policed and people going out to seek

603
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:46,360
Speaker 5: their own avenues of support and whatever that might mean,

604
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:52,040
Speaker 5: even if that means leading to community supports and nonprofit supports,

605
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,160
Speaker 5: medical supports, you know what have you. But now your

606
00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:58,600
Speaker 5: journey to that if that includes one night where you

607
00:33:58,680 --> 00:34:01,120
Speaker 5: have to close your eyes because you quite simply don't

608
00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 5: know where you're going, just quite yet that you could

609
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:07,160
Speaker 5: open your eyes in prison, and how unjust is that?

610
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:11,879
Speaker 4: When we come back more on the new documentary Outcast Nation,

611
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 4: the LGBQTI plus Homeless Unseen in New York City.

612
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,480
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Weedian Howes. I'm THEO Henderson.

613
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:29,000
Speaker 4: Let's get back into my conversation with Kaitlin Crann, Madith Gorilla,

614
00:34:29,320 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 4: Jen Lacori, and Charlie Spickler.

615
00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:35,319
Speaker 5: To tie back to what Jen was saying before that

616
00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:38,520
Speaker 5: I think is remarkable is that we often talk about

617
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:42,520
Speaker 5: mental health concerns as the cause of homelessness and being unhoused,

618
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:46,879
Speaker 5: and we don't often talk as frequently about mental health

619
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:50,480
Speaker 5: concerns being the symptom or the byproduct of being unhoused,

620
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:55,239
Speaker 5: and how that is cyclical in nature, and for that matter,

621
00:34:55,280 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 5: I would even extend substance use supports as often that

622
00:34:58,680 --> 00:35:02,000
Speaker 5: being a content as well. Something that we learned through

623
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:04,440
Speaker 5: this movie with one of our other lived experts and

624
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:08,200
Speaker 5: learned more about was you know how a remarkable amount

625
00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:13,400
Speaker 5: of people who are unhoused start using substances once they

626
00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,480
Speaker 5: are unhoused. It's not the cause of them becoming homeless,

627
00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 5: but once they are unhoused, they're either using substances to

628
00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:23,959
Speaker 5: cope with mental health concerns that they're really encountering, using

629
00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:29,480
Speaker 5: substances to stay warm if they are cold, to sleep

630
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:32,720
Speaker 5: because they are so frightened and fearful that they can't

631
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:35,960
Speaker 5: ever close their eyes and rest. You know, all different

632
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:38,800
Speaker 5: kinds of rationale and reasons to stay, to stay awake,

633
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:40,960
Speaker 5: to keep themselves safe. Thank you so much for that,

634
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:44,080
Speaker 5: THEO and or not to care. Yeah, and then I

635
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:46,720
Speaker 5: think so many reasons and so many rationale of how

636
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:50,640
Speaker 5: a lot of concerns exponentiate upon themselves and they don't

637
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 5: necessarily always cause homelessness. Often more often, more often than not,

638
00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:59,839
Speaker 5: they are the symptoms of the systemic failure that makes

639
00:35:59,880 --> 00:36:02,440
Speaker 5: you homeless. In the first place, and I'll extend that

640
00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:05,920
Speaker 5: onto health as well. Something we know statistically speaking is

641
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:09,360
Speaker 5: that being street homeless takes an average of twenty years

642
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:10,640
Speaker 5: off of a person's life.

643
00:36:11,080 --> 00:36:14,240
Speaker 4: For me, because I'm a diabetic, I have hard issues

644
00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:17,640
Speaker 4: and different things, and then I was violently stabbed, and

645
00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:21,200
Speaker 4: so there's some parts of my internal organs that are missing.

646
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:24,040
Speaker 4: So I say all of us to say that in

647
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:26,840
Speaker 4: order to cope with me, because I was out on

648
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:31,560
Speaker 4: the street, I didn't do substances, and I put substances

649
00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:35,160
Speaker 4: in air quotes because I was a diabetic, but I

650
00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:39,080
Speaker 4: also stress apes and I couldn't keep the medication. I

651
00:36:39,080 --> 00:36:42,640
Speaker 4: couldn't regulate my medication out on the street. It is

652
00:36:42,719 --> 00:36:45,239
Speaker 4: freaking impossible. And it used to drive me nuts when

653
00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:46,799
Speaker 4: I would go back to the doctor when they would

654
00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:49,799
Speaker 4: pit prick on the blood and the blood fresh up,

655
00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:51,960
Speaker 4: and you got to go through and then I have to,

656
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:55,360
Speaker 4: you know, go through being shamed and humbled because let's

657
00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,480
Speaker 4: just say, I didn't follow the most decent uphealth plans,

658
00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,200
Speaker 4: but I had to do what I had to do

659
00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:05,000
Speaker 4: in order to I don't wanst say survive, but to

660
00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:08,440
Speaker 4: survive because I didn't have refrigeration. I didn't have a

661
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:11,680
Speaker 4: place where I could piecemeal eat a meal in order

662
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:15,239
Speaker 4: to survive. So what I would call myself doing, which

663
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:17,839
Speaker 4: was still I don't have eyes as healthwise, I would

664
00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:20,600
Speaker 4: double dip in order so I didn't have to worry

665
00:37:20,960 --> 00:37:22,439
Speaker 4: if my sugar would got low.

666
00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:25,080
Speaker 1: And it's taken me a while to stop doing that.

667
00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:26,799
Speaker 4: I don't have to do that now, and I'm in

668
00:37:26,840 --> 00:37:30,439
Speaker 4: a place inside I have to force myself to try

669
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:32,880
Speaker 4: to eat to a reasonable point and just leave it.

670
00:37:32,920 --> 00:37:34,839
Speaker 1: I don't have to eat the whole meal. I don't

671
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:37,560
Speaker 1: have to eat the whole plolate because I'm worried.

672
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:40,160
Speaker 4: About having to go out and then my blood sugar

673
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:42,920
Speaker 4: drops or I have another stroke or a heart attack

674
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:45,799
Speaker 4: and I can't I can't regulate in time, and so

675
00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:49,880
Speaker 4: those I won't say street found type of remedies is

676
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:53,440
Speaker 4: another thing, is why maybe I wasn't on substances, but

677
00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:55,960
Speaker 4: I was on substances in another form in order for

678
00:37:56,040 --> 00:37:59,239
Speaker 4: me to survive in those streets and gleat many if

679
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,840
Speaker 4: you find out, uh, the worries about being diabetic, I

680
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:04,640
Speaker 4: making sure you're checking for cuts.

681
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:06,319
Speaker 1: I still have to go through that.

682
00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:09,200
Speaker 4: But there's still the fear that I bumped into something

683
00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:12,279
Speaker 4: and that the cuts heal, or like for example, when

684
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:14,480
Speaker 4: I broke my leg it took so long. When I

685
00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,120
Speaker 4: was out in the pandemic, there was no hospitals. People

686
00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:20,359
Speaker 4: were freaking afraid of unhoused people here. They were putting

687
00:38:20,400 --> 00:38:23,320
Speaker 4: them on ships and putting them setting them out to sea. Conversely,

688
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:26,360
Speaker 4: with people that were housed, they had them going to

689
00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,160
Speaker 4: the hospitals here, which is another untold story that doesn't

690
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:32,400
Speaker 4: get told, not how unhoused people were treated during the

691
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:34,960
Speaker 4: pandemic conversely then how house people were treated.

692
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:38,319
Speaker 9: We worked with the New Alternative Astrology P. Two and

693
00:38:38,560 --> 00:38:42,239
Speaker 9: Kate was telling us a number of their people who

694
00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:46,400
Speaker 9: died from illnesses that if you have access to healthcare,

695
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:48,160
Speaker 9: you shouldn't die from. Right.

696
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:50,960
Speaker 8: There was a there was some diamese, there was a.

697
00:38:50,920 --> 00:38:54,000
Speaker 9: Heart failure, there was somebody that died because they had

698
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:58,120
Speaker 9: a mount infection that went septic. Things that if you

699
00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:01,160
Speaker 9: have any access to healthcare at all, you don't die from.

700
00:39:01,360 --> 00:39:05,160
Speaker 9: And that is something that they have witnessed a lot

701
00:39:05,640 --> 00:39:07,600
Speaker 9: with the people that they've been working with.

702
00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:14,560
Speaker 7: Unfortunately, homeless people don't have things that a normal human

703
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:18,720
Speaker 7: being will need. A routine. When you're on the streets,

704
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,400
Speaker 7: you don't have a list, the check off list. For instance,

705
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:25,400
Speaker 7: you don't have the time to give you your insolent

706
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:27,879
Speaker 7: because you don't know the time, you don't know where

707
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:30,400
Speaker 7: you're walking to to feel safe to pull out a

708
00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:34,320
Speaker 7: needle without looking like an attic, because in your eyes,

709
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:35,440
Speaker 7: I'm shooting heroin.

710
00:39:35,760 --> 00:39:38,000
Speaker 3: In my health, I'm trying to take my insulin.

711
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:42,839
Speaker 7: So routine is such a big aspect in a person's life,

712
00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:46,280
Speaker 7: and once you don't have that, it can fall apart.

713
00:39:46,560 --> 00:39:50,480
Speaker 7: It's very scary out there, and it's just horrible. And

714
00:39:50,520 --> 00:39:52,960
Speaker 7: you would think, because we're in twenty twenty five and

715
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,520
Speaker 7: we've been working on this from god knows how long

716
00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:57,359
Speaker 7: we would be somewhere like.

717
00:39:57,360 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 3: Covenant House has been open since nineteen seventy two.

718
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 7: Yes, you'd think that we're raising so much money and

719
00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:08,719
Speaker 7: fun getting funding, But what about the payroll? What about

720
00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:11,160
Speaker 7: the food that this supplied for the homeless? What about

721
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:15,359
Speaker 7: the electricity, the water, the heat, the beds they got

722
00:40:15,360 --> 00:40:15,720
Speaker 7: to buy.

723
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:19,439
Speaker 3: All those little things add up. So four hundred, five

724
00:40:19,520 --> 00:40:22,560
Speaker 3: hundred thousand may seem a lot to like another person,

725
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,799
Speaker 3: but five hundred dollars could probably only keep the heat

726
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:28,239
Speaker 3: on in a shelter for at least a year or two,

727
00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:32,799
Speaker 3: or supply a certain amount of beds. People don't understand.

728
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:36,279
Speaker 5: And so one of the really remarkable things, because I

729
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:38,960
Speaker 5: know THEO we were talking about kind of passively, the

730
00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:43,759
Speaker 5: differences between how LA, for example, addresses homelessness versus how New.

731
00:40:43,719 --> 00:40:44,439
Speaker 3: York City does.

732
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:48,960
Speaker 5: And yes, we might have right to shelter laws, and

733
00:40:49,680 --> 00:40:53,560
Speaker 5: it really does serve as a misguided solution to a

734
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:57,040
Speaker 5: misunderstood public health problem. That's what right to shelter is,

735
00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:00,600
Speaker 5: a misguided solution to a misunderstood public health problem that

736
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:04,759
Speaker 5: serves as a kind of permanent band aid or bandage

737
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:08,960
Speaker 5: to keep people in their press state. There are so

738
00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:14,040
Speaker 5: many extensive cost benefit analyzes that have happened dating back

739
00:41:14,080 --> 00:41:15,840
Speaker 5: to the eighties and the work that's been done in

740
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:18,680
Speaker 5: housing verse that shows us that it costs us more

741
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:22,640
Speaker 5: money to uphold the system as it is than to

742
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:26,680
Speaker 5: actually just provide people with housing. So when Jen is

743
00:41:26,719 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 5: talking about, you know, these multi million dollar nonprofit systems

744
00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:35,040
Speaker 5: that ultimately, of course, Covenant has a wonderful place. I'm

745
00:41:35,040 --> 00:41:39,000
Speaker 5: on the associate board there proudly, and we shouldn't have

746
00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:41,640
Speaker 5: to be raising all this money to spin all of

747
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:47,040
Speaker 5: this nonprofit industrial complex solutions because it is ultimately that's

748
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:50,000
Speaker 5: what it is. It is a complex that serves to

749
00:41:50,120 --> 00:41:53,280
Speaker 5: keep people in their oppressed state. Not any one institution

750
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:56,840
Speaker 5: or one organization, but the system writ large that refuses

751
00:41:56,920 --> 00:42:00,640
Speaker 5: to do what the research shows us is evidence based

752
00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:03,640
Speaker 5: to solve the problem, and that's to invest in just

753
00:42:03,719 --> 00:42:06,920
Speaker 5: making sure that people have access to housing, that everyone

754
00:42:06,920 --> 00:42:09,120
Speaker 5: who needs access to housing has it.

755
00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:12,120
Speaker 7: And I don't ever want people to think that I'm

756
00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:16,080
Speaker 7: saying other like I appreciate we all appreciate it, but

757
00:42:16,200 --> 00:42:19,600
Speaker 7: I just don't want people looking at a number and

758
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:22,760
Speaker 7: not understanding where it goes to and how it works.

759
00:42:23,000 --> 00:42:24,319
Speaker 3: And may I mentioned this is.

760
00:42:24,320 --> 00:42:27,680
Speaker 7: Coming from a person who's forty two, who's looked on

761
00:42:27,719 --> 00:42:30,880
Speaker 7: the streets and granted, yes I have my ged, but

762
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:34,279
Speaker 7: in reality I don't have that serious book background. I'm

763
00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:38,680
Speaker 7: more streets smart than anything. So people just see numbers

764
00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:41,320
Speaker 7: instead of oh, how much is that.

765
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:45,040
Speaker 3: Food a year going to cost? Fifty dollars?

766
00:42:45,080 --> 00:42:49,320
Speaker 7: No way in hell to supply so many foods, diapers,

767
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:53,319
Speaker 7: just supplies for somebody is insane. Did you guys know,

768
00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:56,840
Speaker 7: for a person to live comfortable in New York City

769
00:42:57,480 --> 00:42:58,279
Speaker 7: a year what they.

770
00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:00,279
Speaker 3: Would have to make Are you guys ready for this?

771
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:05,279
Speaker 3: One hundred and seventy nine, one hundred thousand dollars? How

772
00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:08,600
Speaker 3: the how am I to make that money?

773
00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:13,279
Speaker 9: I can tell you that my eldest two friends know

774
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:17,480
Speaker 9: where we talked about, and their partner who lived with us,

775
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:18,439
Speaker 9: both work.

776
00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:21,920
Speaker 8: They both work in theater. And my actually my.

777
00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:25,239
Speaker 9: Other has two jobs in state manager and he works

778
00:43:25,280 --> 00:43:28,799
Speaker 9: in an escape room. And seeing our guy does a

779
00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:32,279
Speaker 9: lot of theater, they're looking to get a place. In

780
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:35,399
Speaker 9: the last week my wife, who has a real job

781
00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:38,520
Speaker 9: and makes a decent amount of money, so I can be.

782
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:39,000
Speaker 8: A let about.

783
00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:46,600
Speaker 9: They asked these two kids for a guarantee of eighty

784
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:52,160
Speaker 9: times the rent mm hm in not a great part

785
00:43:52,160 --> 00:43:56,040
Speaker 9: of Brooklyn, not not Parkslow not not you know, Brooklyn

786
00:43:56,040 --> 00:44:01,839
Speaker 9: Heights Sunset Park, which is you know, it's lowerman eighty

787
00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:06,000
Speaker 9: times through rent guarantee that what makes the world go

788
00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:10,280
Speaker 9: to part from us the papers who have been funny,

789
00:44:10,280 --> 00:44:13,600
Speaker 9: it was like just no, and in that neighborhood, the

790
00:44:13,680 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 9: people who make that aren't going to move into that apartment.

791
00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:20,960
Speaker 9: And it was two thousand dollars a month not including utility. Yeah,

792
00:44:21,200 --> 00:44:22,680
Speaker 9: this is one I don't understand.

793
00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:23,360
Speaker 1: Bedroom.

794
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:24,799
Speaker 8: I don't know.

795
00:44:25,239 --> 00:44:29,480
Speaker 7: How people are expected to live out of high school.

796
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:33,680
Speaker 7: Some of us still get very blessed. I've been very

797
00:44:33,680 --> 00:44:37,680
Speaker 7: blessed to get apartment. But again that's me living check

798
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:41,640
Speaker 7: to check to check to check. I'm not complaining. Again,

799
00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:43,840
Speaker 7: I feel rich. I may not be rich, but I

800
00:44:43,840 --> 00:44:46,239
Speaker 7: will always feel rich because I never had anything that.

801
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:51,360
Speaker 3: I have now. But am I tired? Yes, because every

802
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:53,040
Speaker 3: week I have two penny pinch.

803
00:44:53,880 --> 00:44:57,520
Speaker 7: How is a person coming off the streets learning new

804
00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:00,800
Speaker 7: things gonna survive with the rent so high?

805
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:04,880
Speaker 3: Train three dollars one way, it's a lot.

806
00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:08,320
Speaker 7: I don't get how everything keeps going higher and higher

807
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:08,760
Speaker 7: and higher.

808
00:45:08,800 --> 00:45:10,799
Speaker 3: We're supposed to be getting better and better and better.

809
00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:14,719
Speaker 8: That was something that the borough president told us when

810
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:17,640
Speaker 8: we talked to him about you know, how does somebody

811
00:45:18,000 --> 00:45:20,680
Speaker 8: who you know goes to the door, you know, gets

812
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:23,960
Speaker 8: all these resources and stuff and where they're gonna go,

813
00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:26,600
Speaker 8: wherever they're going to find a place to live. You know,

814
00:45:26,840 --> 00:45:28,719
Speaker 8: there are people who are from here.

815
00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:31,800
Speaker 9: We one kid tell us that basically, you know, people

816
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:34,200
Speaker 9: are He actually got a job as a a PA

817
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:36,040
Speaker 9: had very big law from him one of our one

818
00:45:36,040 --> 00:45:38,759
Speaker 9: of our men on the street people and told us that,

819
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:40,600
Speaker 9: you know, he's in this place where there's all this

820
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:43,239
Speaker 9: wealth and everything. We told you about how actual New

821
00:45:43,320 --> 00:45:46,359
Speaker 9: Yorkers are moving out of New York because they can't

822
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:49,360
Speaker 9: afford to live in New York anymore. We spoke to

823
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:52,440
Speaker 9: a bus driver from an MTNA who basically lives in

824
00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:55,279
Speaker 9: New Jersey and comes in from New Jersey to drive

825
00:45:55,560 --> 00:45:57,480
Speaker 9: a bus in New York City because he can't afford

826
00:45:57,520 --> 00:46:00,279
Speaker 9: to live here in any of the five borough.

827
00:46:00,719 --> 00:46:03,560
Speaker 10: Yeah, that's the conversation that makes me think about how

828
00:46:04,400 --> 00:46:08,279
Speaker 10: you know, unfortunately back to like another systemic issues or

829
00:46:08,320 --> 00:46:11,680
Speaker 10: symptom is gentrification, right, because that's also what happens a

830
00:46:11,719 --> 00:46:14,240
Speaker 10: lot of the time. You see the cost of rent

831
00:46:14,719 --> 00:46:17,239
Speaker 10: going up, and people who've grown up in these communities

832
00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:19,839
Speaker 10: for their whole lives no longer could afford it, and

833
00:46:19,880 --> 00:46:22,840
Speaker 10: you see folks being kicked out. You know, I always

834
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:25,960
Speaker 10: think about how the cost of living is rising, but

835
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:30,520
Speaker 10: people's salaries and wages are not rising.

836
00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:33,080
Speaker 3: Yeah.

837
00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:35,360
Speaker 10: Well, one of the things that I that I thought

838
00:46:35,400 --> 00:46:37,319
Speaker 10: was very interesting when I used to actually do these

839
00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:40,719
Speaker 10: shelter inspections and a lot of people. And this is

840
00:46:40,719 --> 00:46:43,400
Speaker 10: an adult shelter system. A lot of people were working

841
00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:46,160
Speaker 10: people in New York City who had more than two

842
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:48,759
Speaker 10: jobs and still and you know, again, because of the

843
00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:53,560
Speaker 10: cost of rent, had to live in shelter. And when

844
00:46:53,560 --> 00:46:55,759
Speaker 10: I was a youth advocate, when I was experiencing with

845
00:46:55,880 --> 00:46:57,760
Speaker 10: my system, I was youth advocate, and I was sitting

846
00:46:58,160 --> 00:47:00,759
Speaker 10: at the tables with the people who are making all

847
00:47:00,800 --> 00:47:04,560
Speaker 10: these decisions around programs of homelessness and whatnot. I always

848
00:47:04,640 --> 00:47:06,479
Speaker 10: used to think and sit to myself, you know, because

849
00:47:06,520 --> 00:47:09,920
Speaker 10: everybody loves to say we're working to end you homelessness,

850
00:47:10,040 --> 00:47:12,040
Speaker 10: but I will always be like, we'll, no, we're not.

851
00:47:12,080 --> 00:47:15,440
Speaker 10: We're actually funding a year after year, we're literally funding

852
00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:17,000
Speaker 10: the homelessness.

853
00:47:16,320 --> 00:47:17,320
Speaker 8: And dustrial complex.

854
00:47:17,719 --> 00:47:19,359
Speaker 10: And the reason why we're funding it is because we're

855
00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:21,960
Speaker 10: not putting the money into the right places in New

856
00:47:22,040 --> 00:47:25,239
Speaker 10: York City. For a youth to be in a shelter bed,

857
00:47:25,640 --> 00:47:29,520
Speaker 10: it costs a little bit under ninety thousand dollars sixty

858
00:47:29,800 --> 00:47:31,840
Speaker 10: to ninety thousand dollars a year, So that's just for

859
00:47:31,880 --> 00:47:32,319
Speaker 10: one year.

860
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:34,799
Speaker 3: For a year, that's a lot as it is right there.

861
00:47:34,760 --> 00:47:38,719
Speaker 10: In the shelterbed exactly, and it's like, but imagine if

862
00:47:38,920 --> 00:47:41,560
Speaker 10: if we were to give somebody that money or half.

863
00:47:41,680 --> 00:47:43,799
Speaker 10: Like you know, we did a pilot program in New

864
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:46,279
Speaker 10: York City called the Direct Cash Transfer Program, which was

865
00:47:46,719 --> 00:47:50,520
Speaker 10: giving young people unconditional cash, and we gave them a thousand,

866
00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:52,919
Speaker 10: one hundred dollars a month for over two more month,

867
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:55,560
Speaker 10: which ended up being a little bit under thirty thousand

868
00:47:55,600 --> 00:47:57,919
Speaker 10: dollars a year for two years.

869
00:47:57,960 --> 00:47:58,520
Speaker 3: Excuse me.

870
00:47:58,800 --> 00:47:59,680
Speaker 1: And so you think.

871
00:47:59,520 --> 00:48:01,640
Speaker 3: About what one shelter that costs for youth.

872
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:05,920
Speaker 10: We could fund three youth direct cash transfers and most

873
00:48:06,000 --> 00:48:08,760
Speaker 10: youth out of that pilot were able to actually get housing.

874
00:48:08,800 --> 00:48:10,960
Speaker 10: And that was the point of the pilot was for

875
00:48:11,080 --> 00:48:15,120
Speaker 10: folks to get housing. And oftentimes the cities don't want

876
00:48:15,120 --> 00:48:17,080
Speaker 10: to invest in this thing because they have a preconceived

877
00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:20,080
Speaker 10: notion that people are going to spend the money on

878
00:48:20,160 --> 00:48:23,600
Speaker 10: drugs and alcohol, which the data has shown that less

879
00:48:23,600 --> 00:48:26,719
Speaker 10: than four percent of people who receive guarantee income or

880
00:48:26,760 --> 00:48:29,880
Speaker 10: direct cash transfer the money goes to that right like

881
00:48:30,200 --> 00:48:32,960
Speaker 10: people are actually using the money to pay the rent.

882
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:34,839
Speaker 3: Why it works out that way.

883
00:48:35,160 --> 00:48:38,920
Speaker 7: I've been holding this statement in for the longest because

884
00:48:39,440 --> 00:48:44,920
Speaker 7: homeless people are resilient and grateful and appreciate, and once

885
00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:50,000
Speaker 7: they get that home stability and just that home comfort

886
00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:52,600
Speaker 7: and love, they're going to want to keep it. And

887
00:48:52,719 --> 00:48:56,319
Speaker 7: unlike somebody else who was just handing it off and like, oh,

888
00:48:56,360 --> 00:48:59,480
Speaker 7: they don't care about they're over here building that empire

889
00:48:59,719 --> 00:49:02,839
Speaker 7: from that eleven hundred a month that you supplied us,

890
00:49:03,280 --> 00:49:05,800
Speaker 7: because we never had somebody say, wait, I got you,

891
00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:06,279
Speaker 7: let me.

892
00:49:06,280 --> 00:49:07,520
Speaker 8: Help you exactly.

893
00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:09,120
Speaker 10: And you know, that was actually one of the things

894
00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:11,840
Speaker 10: that we always used to tell people was when people

895
00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:14,960
Speaker 10: feel like they're being respected and it's like restoring their dignity,

896
00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:18,360
Speaker 10: people actually make impactful choices that benefit their life.

897
00:49:18,400 --> 00:49:21,320
Speaker 3: It's just counter to the narrative that people believe.

898
00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:24,239
Speaker 10: It's just so wild because when I think about what

899
00:49:24,320 --> 00:49:29,120
Speaker 10: our alternative systems and what our actual root cause interventions

900
00:49:29,160 --> 00:49:31,920
Speaker 10: to Kaylin's point, right, and not just band aid effects.

901
00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:34,080
Speaker 10: These are things that we could be investing in and

902
00:49:34,200 --> 00:49:38,960
Speaker 10: also prevention. So many people, like like you were saying, Jen,

903
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:41,840
Speaker 10: like you know, living paycheck to paycheck. So many people

904
00:49:41,920 --> 00:49:44,480
Speaker 10: are one paycheck away. So what would it look like

905
00:49:44,520 --> 00:49:47,600
Speaker 10: if we invested in prevention and gave people, you know,

906
00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:50,880
Speaker 10: suppported people, we paid the rent, you know, right before

907
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:53,359
Speaker 10: they're about to be evicted. We gave people some cash, right,

908
00:49:53,719 --> 00:49:56,840
Speaker 10: things will look totally different. I worked on a prevention

909
00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:59,399
Speaker 10: report once, and it was so interesting that a lot

910
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:02,759
Speaker 10: of provider thought that shelter was prevention, and I was

911
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:05,520
Speaker 10: just so baffled by that point, because I'm like, when

912
00:50:05,520 --> 00:50:07,759
Speaker 10: you're in a shelter, like you are literally like you're

913
00:50:07,800 --> 00:50:09,719
Speaker 10: very homeless, you know, like, we're not preventing. Yeah, we're

914
00:50:09,719 --> 00:50:12,719
Speaker 10: preventing people from making street homeless. You know, but you're

915
00:50:12,719 --> 00:50:15,680
Speaker 10: already after the facts, you're already homeless. You know, Whether

916
00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:18,839
Speaker 10: true prevention means how do we get people before they

917
00:50:18,840 --> 00:50:20,359
Speaker 10: have to enter the system, before they have.

918
00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:21,360
Speaker 3: To answer the shelter system.

919
00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:21,600
Speaker 6: Right.

920
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:23,240
Speaker 1: So it's just these.

921
00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:25,399
Speaker 10: Are, in my ideal world, these are the bucket areas

922
00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:27,400
Speaker 10: we could really invest in it. We can invest in

923
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:31,120
Speaker 10: prevention and invest in interventions that are people centered and

924
00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:35,000
Speaker 10: policies that are people centered. It's just there's just so much,

925
00:50:35,239 --> 00:50:37,799
Speaker 10: so much disconnect, and there's just so much history of

926
00:50:38,480 --> 00:50:42,759
Speaker 10: people who make policies their realities are disconnected and don't

927
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:46,000
Speaker 10: actually align with what people need on the ground.

928
00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:48,759
Speaker 8: I think part of the reason why we made this

929
00:50:48,840 --> 00:50:54,600
Speaker 8: movie was exactly that. To highlight and shine a light

930
00:50:54,719 --> 00:50:58,240
Speaker 8: on what is really going on. Most people have no idea.

931
00:50:58,239 --> 00:51:00,720
Speaker 9: I told people when I started making this movie, before

932
00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:04,279
Speaker 9: I found the wonderful tegue, that I'm going to make

933
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:06,879
Speaker 9: this movie and I already had the numbers. I'd already

934
00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:08,320
Speaker 9: done that you died, and I had the numbers. And

935
00:51:08,360 --> 00:51:11,120
Speaker 9: I told some people They're like, that can't be. Well,

936
00:51:11,160 --> 00:51:13,960
Speaker 9: I said, well it can be. And it is people

937
00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:16,279
Speaker 9: who are like just you know, average New Yorker who

938
00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:19,040
Speaker 9: goes about their lives and doesn't have no idea, have

939
00:51:19,160 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 9: no concept about what our homeless youth go through and

940
00:51:22,960 --> 00:51:25,680
Speaker 9: the numbers that the sheer numbers. And we walked around

941
00:51:25,719 --> 00:51:27,840
Speaker 9: up people on the street and talking to them and

942
00:51:27,880 --> 00:51:31,920
Speaker 9: asking them how many homeless youth things thought they it

943
00:51:32,120 --> 00:51:35,360
Speaker 9: foggled their mind when we were talking about six figures.

944
00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 8: They just couldn't even get their heads.

945
00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:41,280
Speaker 9: Around those numbers. We met one woman in Union Square

946
00:51:41,360 --> 00:51:44,760
Speaker 9: who almost cried. He was having an emotional moment because

947
00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:47,839
Speaker 9: they just don't know. So hopefully, you know, we're making

948
00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:50,879
Speaker 9: make this film and actually it's quite good, I think,

949
00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:53,400
Speaker 9: and I think we made the point and all of

950
00:51:53,440 --> 00:51:57,480
Speaker 9: our our news here journ and Max said our others

951
00:51:57,520 --> 00:51:58,640
Speaker 9: who told their stories.

952
00:51:59,320 --> 00:52:00,680
Speaker 8: I looked for one the other day.

953
00:52:00,719 --> 00:52:02,279
Speaker 9: He just cried for like an hour and a half

954
00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:07,080
Speaker 9: basically because she was blown away by you guys.

955
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:11,400
Speaker 8: Totally, totally, yeah.

956
00:52:11,280 --> 00:52:12,839
Speaker 3: Thank you. I appreciate you.

957
00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:16,200
Speaker 9: But Jane, you were so open with us and telling you,

958
00:52:16,480 --> 00:52:17,520
Speaker 9: I'm emotional.

959
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:22,640
Speaker 7: I haven't been seeing you guys. See me, you guys,

960
00:52:22,760 --> 00:52:26,320
Speaker 7: allow me to feel what I went through. Instead of saying,

961
00:52:26,760 --> 00:52:29,880
Speaker 7: all right, bucker up, soldier, it's time to keep it

962
00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:33,640
Speaker 7: on moving. That's what I'm used to, so it was no,

963
00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:36,239
Speaker 7: it's time for you. It's time to open up and

964
00:52:36,320 --> 00:52:36,799
Speaker 7: let it go.

965
00:52:37,640 --> 00:52:39,520
Speaker 8: And you did, and really really did.

966
00:52:39,719 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you.

967
00:52:41,560 --> 00:52:45,400
Speaker 7: I just hope that this movie opens up eyes to

968
00:52:45,560 --> 00:52:49,799
Speaker 7: so many reasons behind homelessness, not just look at us

969
00:52:49,840 --> 00:52:53,040
Speaker 7: and be like, oh, rebellious. She got so many tattoos

970
00:52:53,040 --> 00:52:54,200
Speaker 7: on her Hair's crazy.

971
00:52:54,640 --> 00:52:55,680
Speaker 8: Your tattoos are great.

972
00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:56,120
Speaker 3: Yeah.

973
00:52:56,200 --> 00:52:58,759
Speaker 7: No, But I'm just saying on how the world can

974
00:52:58,760 --> 00:53:02,400
Speaker 7: look at somebody, and I to use myself as an example,

975
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:05,600
Speaker 7: because I am a person that people look at and

976
00:53:05,719 --> 00:53:08,040
Speaker 7: judge and then when I open my mouth they're like really,

977
00:53:08,560 --> 00:53:09,640
Speaker 7: like wow.

978
00:53:10,160 --> 00:53:13,759
Speaker 5: That is really a big focus of the movie and

979
00:53:13,840 --> 00:53:16,759
Speaker 5: of this work. In general, is really partnering with and

980
00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:21,759
Speaker 5: elevating the voices of lived experts because Tumatics's earlier point,

981
00:53:22,080 --> 00:53:24,720
Speaker 5: the people that are often sitting at these tables making

982
00:53:24,719 --> 00:53:27,640
Speaker 5: these policy decisions, or the people that are sitting at

983
00:53:27,680 --> 00:53:32,600
Speaker 5: these tables making these decisions about you know, shelter services

984
00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:34,960
Speaker 5: and how they will be executed on or what have you.

985
00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:37,759
Speaker 5: The people that are making the decisions about funding allocation

986
00:53:38,040 --> 00:53:39,759
Speaker 5: for homeless services, for.

987
00:53:39,920 --> 00:53:42,440
Speaker 3: We sutting down section eight in housing.

988
00:53:42,480 --> 00:53:47,279
Speaker 5: And worse right, these are not people who often even

989
00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:52,759
Speaker 5: understand or are aware of the problems of the numbers,

990
00:53:52,880 --> 00:53:56,640
Speaker 5: of the of the nature of such, and then that

991
00:53:56,840 --> 00:54:00,719
Speaker 5: is why often the band aid solution or even the

992
00:54:01,160 --> 00:54:05,600
Speaker 5: attempts at systemic interventions end up being like I said earlier,

993
00:54:05,640 --> 00:54:10,319
Speaker 5: you know, misguided solutions to misunderstood public health problems and

994
00:54:10,440 --> 00:54:14,400
Speaker 5: systemic injustices. And so that's what we're really trying to

995
00:54:14,440 --> 00:54:17,440
Speaker 5: do with this film is center the voices of lived experts,

996
00:54:17,480 --> 00:54:20,879
Speaker 5: elevate those voices, and do some meaningful what I've come

997
00:54:20,960 --> 00:54:24,760
Speaker 5: to call homelessness narrative work. We can't solve a problem

998
00:54:24,760 --> 00:54:28,040
Speaker 5: as a society that we don't understand, and that is

999
00:54:28,080 --> 00:54:30,480
Speaker 5: what we need to do. We need to make sure

1000
00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:33,640
Speaker 5: that we as a broader society and then therefore as

1001
00:54:33,640 --> 00:54:37,000
Speaker 5: a body politic, are understanding this problem so we can

1002
00:54:37,040 --> 00:54:40,280
Speaker 5: address it, so we can vote in people into positions

1003
00:54:40,280 --> 00:54:44,280
Speaker 5: of power, making these funding allocations and decisions that actually

1004
00:54:44,360 --> 00:54:47,800
Speaker 5: address the problems and don't just serve to uphold states

1005
00:54:47,800 --> 00:54:51,520
Speaker 5: of oppression. And in the perfect world, even elevating these

1006
00:54:51,600 --> 00:54:55,719
Speaker 5: voices so high that they are the electeds right, that

1007
00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:59,840
Speaker 5: they have lived experts, who are the people getting voted

1008
00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:02,720
Speaker 5: into office and making these decisions on behalf of entire

1009
00:55:02,800 --> 00:55:05,719
Speaker 5: communities that not only feel seen by them, but that

1010
00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:11,120
Speaker 5: they directly see. And that's part of our goal here

1011
00:55:11,360 --> 00:55:14,040
Speaker 5: is really making sure that we are flipping the script

1012
00:55:14,680 --> 00:55:16,920
Speaker 5: and making sure that the script is being written by

1013
00:55:16,920 --> 00:55:17,840
Speaker 5: the right folks.

1014
00:55:18,239 --> 00:55:21,279
Speaker 9: Getting the Broken Borough president in the movie, who was

1015
00:55:22,160 --> 00:55:26,440
Speaker 9: just a major advocate for youth homelessness and getting things

1016
00:55:26,480 --> 00:55:29,680
Speaker 9: done and really had no problem shredding the current administration

1017
00:55:30,280 --> 00:55:33,840
Speaker 9: with their lack of just doing anything positive and a

1018
00:55:33,880 --> 00:55:38,000
Speaker 9: lot of what what he call performative actions. We believe

1019
00:55:38,040 --> 00:55:42,040
Speaker 9: they're doing something, but not really addressing issues like housing first,

1020
00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:45,600
Speaker 9: and which he talked about a lot actually which we

1021
00:55:45,640 --> 00:55:49,320
Speaker 9: all know, and Debra talked about that he actually folks

1022
00:55:49,360 --> 00:55:53,000
Speaker 9: about in the movie how much more cost for somebody

1023
00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:54,760
Speaker 9: to be on the screen to go to the hospital,

1024
00:55:54,840 --> 00:55:58,240
Speaker 9: to be arrested. All these things that actually he housed

1025
00:55:58,600 --> 00:56:01,880
Speaker 9: for housing first numbers are real and I'm hoping that

1026
00:56:01,960 --> 00:56:03,880
Speaker 9: you know, we're presenting it in the movie in a

1027
00:56:03,920 --> 00:56:05,640
Speaker 9: way that people will understand.

1028
00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:08,160
Speaker 7: I just want to go back to the ambulance ride.

1029
00:56:08,440 --> 00:56:11,160
Speaker 7: I don't think people understand that an ambulance ride can

1030
00:56:11,239 --> 00:56:14,200
Speaker 7: run anywhere from three thousand to nine thousand just to

1031
00:56:14,239 --> 00:56:17,279
Speaker 7: the hospital in five minutes. I'm sorry, that could be

1032
00:56:17,440 --> 00:56:20,440
Speaker 7: like six months of my rent. I'm just saying that

1033
00:56:20,480 --> 00:56:23,400
Speaker 7: could feed so many children that don't have nothing.

1034
00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:26,360
Speaker 9: I was in the ant a long time ago, working

1035
00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:28,839
Speaker 9: for one of the prival ambulance companies, and I can

1036
00:56:28,880 --> 00:56:31,360
Speaker 9: tell you what they charge.

1037
00:56:31,920 --> 00:56:33,920
Speaker 8: They charge for the oxygen.

1038
00:56:34,200 --> 00:56:36,800
Speaker 3: The private one a little above higher.

1039
00:56:36,920 --> 00:56:43,160
Speaker 9: I think at the bandages, the oxygen breathing inside the ambulance.

1040
00:56:43,200 --> 00:56:46,200
Speaker 8: I mean the thing that you can be charged for,

1041
00:56:46,800 --> 00:56:47,520
Speaker 8: it is charged.

1042
00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:50,960
Speaker 9: And when you are an ant in that place, you

1043
00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:54,240
Speaker 9: actually have to write down each thing as a separate

1044
00:56:54,360 --> 00:56:57,279
Speaker 9: line item, and if you don't, they yell at you,

1045
00:56:57,640 --> 00:56:59,399
Speaker 9: which is why I didn't work for them very long

1046
00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:02,440
Speaker 9: because I was nauseated by what I had to do.

1047
00:57:03,040 --> 00:57:06,040
Speaker 9: But yes, that's why ambulance riots are so expensive, the

1048
00:57:06,200 --> 00:57:08,520
Speaker 9: Nickel and don because they can you have no choice.

1049
00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:12,160
Speaker 8: You're in an ambulance and you're sort of captured. You

1050
00:57:12,200 --> 00:57:14,759
Speaker 8: can't sick. My arm is falling off. You know, I'm

1051
00:57:14,760 --> 00:57:18,120
Speaker 8: not going to drive myself to the hospital. So yeah,

1052
00:57:18,240 --> 00:57:21,040
Speaker 8: that is it's a stamp. It's a huge stamp.

1053
00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:25,960
Speaker 4: Well, we are closing in on the time to end

1054
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:30,440
Speaker 4: this excellent, wonderful conversation. So tell us what's the name

1055
00:57:30,520 --> 00:57:33,240
Speaker 4: of the movie? When is it coming, Eric, and where

1056
00:57:33,240 --> 00:57:34,040
Speaker 4: we can find.

1057
00:57:33,840 --> 00:57:36,640
Speaker 5: This Charlie, I'll yield to you to give the most

1058
00:57:36,640 --> 00:57:37,440
Speaker 5: recent update.

1059
00:57:38,200 --> 00:57:42,680
Speaker 8: So what's very cool? And I'll just talk sometime a

1060
00:57:42,760 --> 00:57:43,160
Speaker 8: little bit.

1061
00:57:43,520 --> 00:57:45,760
Speaker 9: I've been doing it so long, and this is my

1062
00:57:46,160 --> 00:57:50,040
Speaker 9: accan station, is my gift documentary and my entire life

1063
00:57:50,480 --> 00:57:54,520
Speaker 9: of being a documentary filmmaker. I want the micilm on PBS. Well,

1064
00:57:54,880 --> 00:57:58,280
Speaker 9: yesterday it came up on the PBS dot org website.

1065
00:57:58,480 --> 00:58:01,320
Speaker 9: It's there with the little PBS guy in the corner.

1066
00:58:01,600 --> 00:58:03,480
Speaker 9: You can't cook on it yet because it's gonna go

1067
00:58:03,600 --> 00:58:04,600
Speaker 9: live December sixth.

1068
00:58:04,640 --> 00:58:06,920
Speaker 1: December sixth, okay local time.

1069
00:58:07,480 --> 00:58:10,280
Speaker 9: I always cried after it, now do you miss your We

1070
00:58:10,320 --> 00:58:12,360
Speaker 9: don't care about oscars, we don't care about amys.

1071
00:58:12,520 --> 00:58:15,000
Speaker 8: We can about seeing that PBS thing by our by

1072
00:58:15,000 --> 00:58:18,280
Speaker 8: our movies. That's what we live for. So it was

1073
00:58:18,320 --> 00:58:21,960
Speaker 8: a little tear. But you can actually go on the

1074
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:23,520
Speaker 8: PBS dot org website.

1075
00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:25,280
Speaker 3: Do it now.

1076
00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:28,840
Speaker 5: So the movie is outcast nation and the air date

1077
00:58:28,960 --> 00:58:31,920
Speaker 5: is December sixth on PBS dot org. But you can

1078
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:35,560
Speaker 5: go on now and view it to get the anticipation.

1079
00:58:35,720 --> 00:58:39,040
Speaker 5: You can share it, and please share far and wide,

1080
00:58:39,080 --> 00:58:41,640
Speaker 5: because it's extremely important that we flip the script and

1081
00:58:41,680 --> 00:58:45,520
Speaker 5: rewrite the narrative on what homelessness is in this country

1082
00:58:45,600 --> 00:58:47,240
Speaker 5: and what needs to be done to solve it.

1083
00:58:47,960 --> 00:58:50,960
Speaker 7: And if you want to see vulnerability, it is all there.

1084
00:58:51,440 --> 00:58:52,520
Speaker 7: Come and check us out.

1085
00:58:53,080 --> 00:58:58,200
Speaker 9: Outstanding, totally truly, you guys, You guys were great. You

1086
00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:02,840
Speaker 9: made the movie quite frankly. You know, going in, I

1087
00:59:03,040 --> 00:59:05,000
Speaker 9: was like, you know, this is the story I want

1088
00:59:05,000 --> 00:59:07,040
Speaker 9: to tell. Am I going to get people in this

1089
00:59:07,120 --> 00:59:09,080
Speaker 9: movie who are going to tell their story.

1090
00:59:09,400 --> 00:59:11,240
Speaker 8: And you know, going in, you know you never know,

1091
00:59:11,680 --> 00:59:13,560
Speaker 8: you really never know what the movie is gonna be

1092
00:59:13,680 --> 00:59:14,320
Speaker 8: when you start.

1093
00:59:14,760 --> 00:59:16,640
Speaker 9: And then Kate jumped in and we had like a

1094
00:59:16,720 --> 00:59:19,520
Speaker 9: thing and now we're like, you know, like partners like this,

1095
00:59:21,280 --> 00:59:22,240
Speaker 9: and we got the kids.

1096
00:59:22,560 --> 00:59:25,000
Speaker 8: You're not kids anymore, but you know, to meet your kids.

1097
00:59:25,000 --> 00:59:25,439
Speaker 8: I'm old.

1098
00:59:26,680 --> 00:59:28,919
Speaker 9: And they told their stories and we have a movie

1099
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Speaker 9: because of that, and so everybody should watch this thing.

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Speaker 9: I think it's going to make a lot of people

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Speaker 9: think twice about their ideas about homelessness.

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Speaker 4: Well, I can't wait to see it myself, and I

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Speaker 4: thank you all for stopping in and taking the time

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00:59:44,720 --> 00:59:47,680
Speaker 4: and patience to tell me about your experiences and the

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Speaker 4: insights that you've gleaned over through your own lift experiences.

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Speaker 4: And I hope our audiences have listened. Thank you very.

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Speaker 3: Much, thank you, thank you.

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Speaker 4: Thanks so much to the entire team for at time

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Speaker 4: and work. The documentary airs on PBS this weekend December sixth,

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Speaker 4: twenty twenty five. You can learn more about it and

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Speaker 4: watch it for yourselves at the link in the description. Finally,

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Speaker 4: thank you for listening in. If you have a story

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Speaker 4: you'd like to share that needs to be highlighted, please

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Speaker 4: reach out to me at Widian House at gmail dot

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Speaker 4: com or Widianhouse on Instagram. Until then, may we again

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Speaker 4: meet in the light of understanding. Whedian House is a

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Speaker 4: production of iHeartRadio. It is written, hosted, and created by

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Speaker 4: me Theo Henderson, our producers Jamie Loftus, Hailey Fager, Katie Fischer,

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Speaker 4: and Lyra Smith. Our editor is Adam Wand, our engineer

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Speaker 4: is Joel Jerome, and our local art is also by

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Speaker 4: Katie Fisher. Thank you for listening.