WEBVTT - LA Tenants Expropriate their Landlord 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:07.400 Welcome to it could happen here a podcast where you 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:09.799 all keep telling me that we keep doing depressing episodes 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:12.160 and we never do any episodes that aren't dumerism. So 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:15.640 today this is a podcast about how you can find 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.239 the people who are making your life really bad and 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.680 make bad things happen to them instead. And with me 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:25.080 to talk about how this has been done and also 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.560 can be done, is Janet you who is a tenant 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:32.519 organizer with the Chinatown Community for Equitable Development in l 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.720 A and A. Here's another tenant organizer and leader at 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:38.479 Northside Villa um A. Janis, thank you so much for 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.840 joining us. Thank you. Yeah, and that's health Side VideA 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:47.400 Healthside via. Sorry, So this is what happens when I 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.040 have m R I brand. I guess okay, So the 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:54.000 first thing I want to sort of walk through is 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.720 basically can can can you describe the win you all 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:00.080 had a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, I can go 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:01.959 ahead and start and then and I if you want 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:05.000 to fill in at all. Um So, a couple of 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:08.960 weeks ago we were able to successfully push our city 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:14.080 council to approve alone to acquire hills Iddea from slum 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.800 lord tom Bots, and so just to make it clear, 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:20.360 this isn't the end of the fight. We have not 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.280 fully appropriated tom Bots at the moment, but this is 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:29.240 a huge victory and commitment from the city to take 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.360 the building from him. So it was really really exciting 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:34.880 for all of us, you know. I guess one thing 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:36.920 I want to clarify from the outset is that a 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:39.320 lot of the reporting about it seemed like a lot 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:41.199 of the reporting about it was saying that the city 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:42.840 had had voted to use them in the domain and 0:01:42.880 --> 0:01:46.440 they have not done that, which is my understanding. Yeah. Yeah, 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:49.560 So to clarify that part two the motion that was 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:54.160 past it does include that eminent domain will be used 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:57.800 if the landlord does not willingly sell, which he most 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:02.440 likely will not of course, Yeah, exactly, so he's not 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:05.080 gonna will if you sell his building. It does include 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:09.040 that it will be used in as part of the pathway, um, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:13.480 but it does not specifically past the eminental main piece, 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:16.200 so that will be something that we will probably have 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:20.440 to organize around. Um. Yeah, and if I'm understanding correctly, 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:24.760 then understand that that requires a second vote, right, yeah, 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:28.560 But I guess okay, for first off, also congratulations, this 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:35.200 rules us really exciting. UM. Yeah, And I guess the 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.800 second thing I wanted to ask about was how how 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.440 this organizing process started and how are you able to 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.000 do this because this is a this is a rare 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:50.400 massive w yeah mm hmm. Yeah, so this has been 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.799 a three year struggle, UM, and I can give a 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:57.720 little bit of context around how how it got started 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:00.440 and then maybe Ana you can take it from there. UM. 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:04.600 So basically, Hillside Via is part of a massive amount 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:09.280 of buildings that were built in the eighties, UM using 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:15.840 different kinds of federal and state subsidies. UM. And basically, yeah, 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:19.840 it was UM subsidies that were used to fund private 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:25.000 developers to keep buildings affordable for a temporary period of time, 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:30.200 so using affordable housing covenants and so Hillsides covenant expired 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:36.160 in twenty nineteen after thirty years of being kept affordable 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:40.160 for the tenants. And as soon as that happened, UM, 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.200 the landlord of course tried to increase the rent to 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:47.360 market rate, so folks were receiving up to two rent 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:52.040 increases mm hmm. Yeah. So you know, to actually like 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.160 talk about what those numbers are people who are paying 0:03:55.160 --> 0:03:57.680 eight hundred dollars for rent were now being asked to 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:03.440 pay liked, so that's a de facto eviction, right, and um, 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.720 as soon as that happened, there's actually this like origin 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:09.760 story that I really love is that one of our 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:14.520 tenant leaders, Leslie, who's uh bilingual like Spanish and English speaker, 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.640 she came up to a tenant who is a monolingual 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:22.120 Cantonese speaker, held up one of the rent increases, ripped 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:27.840 it to shreds, and the Benson, our Cantonese tenant leader, 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.840 just said okay. And that's like one of the origin 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:36.360 stories that really just shows like how um, yeah, like 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:40.400 oppositional our tenants were from the beginning. Um. And then 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:44.000 what happened was that another tenant leader, Luisa, who actually 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:48.080 has since passed away due to COVID, she actually called 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:50.640 all the news stations in l A just blew this 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:54.200 the funk up and um yeah, and then that's how 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.479 organizers kind of got involved and maybe a I you 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.680 can share your personal experience of going through all of this, 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:06.200 yeah for sure. UM. So about right, a little before 0:05:06.360 --> 0:05:10.680 the association was started at Hillside Villa, Um, we had 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:17.160 been living here for about seven years and at that time. UM. 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:19.679 So I was working with my mom at the time, 0:05:19.920 --> 0:05:23.279 and we went out um in the morning for work. 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:29.240 We came back around the afternoon, UM to find that 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:34.839 we couldn't get into our apartment. Our keys were actually um, 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:37.640 they weren't going into the locks. So we went to 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:40.920 the manager's office and asked them, like why our key 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:45.279 wasn't working. So they sent management up to our our 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:48.440 floor and UM, they told us that we had been 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:52.360 evicted and that we couldn't like go back and yeah, 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.520 that we couldn't go back into our apartment. UM. So 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:01.679 it's just just within that one MM that one morning, 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:04.719 you know, our whole pretty much our whole life was 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:09.640 like flipped upside down. UM. They told us that they 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:14.000 actually worked unfortunately with them, and I think this is 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:18.719 a very common UM thing is that UM landlords UM 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:22.400 work directly with the Sheriff's department. So the sheriff department 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:27.320 came and switched out our lock. UM. So we were 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:32.880 pretty much uprooted. UM that day. UM, we had to 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.760 figure out like what to do. UM. We were all 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:39.920 separated like that day, we all, you know, my sister 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:42.560 went to her friend's house, my mom had to go 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:46.839 rent a hotel to stay with her husband, and then 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:51.960 I went to my partner's house. So that lasted about 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:54.920 two to three days. And in those two to three 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:59.920 days we were personally. I started looking up tenant law 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:04.880 as tenant rights, and we found thanks to to a 0:07:04.920 --> 0:07:10.160 friend UM, she recommended the Eviction Defense Network, who provides 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:15.240 UM free lawyers for UM tenants facing UM eviction in 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:18.600 l A. So they heard us up with a lawyer 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.880 and UM they found that UM the eviction had actually 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.760 been an illegal eviction. And then we all we also 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:27.680 had like the paperwork to show that that it was 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:33.240 an illegal eviction. So UM we threatened to suit UM 0:07:33.280 --> 0:07:36.400 the landlord and because of that, he dropped the case 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:39.720 and led us back in to our apartment after like 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.920 three or four days or something like that from what 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:47.160 I can remember, UM, but in those days it was 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:53.440 it was UM really enraging obviously, like who wouldn't be 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:57.760 like super piste off at this, like it would boil 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.920 your blood, you know, and and it did UM. And 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:08.360 that's one of the things that like UM kind of 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:13.120 made me UM very much so more involved in like 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:18.880 tenant rights and and UM organizing UM and then also 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:22.520 like just to throw this in a little more detail. Um, 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:25.240 when we were locked out, um, they actually locked our 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:29.000 animals in in CD apartment so we couldn't even get 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:31.880 our dogs right away. Oh my god, did they like 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:34.000 were they okay? Like did you were able to like 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.960 was anyone feeding them? Like? They weren't there all the 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.080 three days I think we were. We had to like 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.120 really like push for them to open up the apartment 0:08:44.200 --> 0:08:48.199 so that we can get them like the day of um. 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:52.320 But then like we couldn't just like grab all our things, um, 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:57.880 including like medication that was like for my mom's husband 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:03.320 who has a diabete ease and whatnot. So I think 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:06.680 that was like the first time we acted as a 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:12.200 family to like not let um someone pretty much bully 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:17.800 and harass us into a forced eviction that was completely 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:23.679 illegal um. And that's within that time. It was also 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.959 happening to all the tenants around us. I mean there 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:30.760 was the word was going all over the apartment. I 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:34.800 mean you you could see management was doing a cash 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:39.040 for keys um, which is also an illegal tactic for 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:45.840 um landlords to do. And um they were trying Yeah, um, 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:49.080 so cash for keys um. It's probably going to be 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.680 like a rough definition of what it is, but it's 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:58.679 when UM, when a landlord offers a certain amount of 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.199 money in order for you to give up your apartment UM. 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:06.200 And this could be a couple of thousand UM, ten thousand, 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:11.600 twenty thousand, sometimes way less than that UM. So that 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:13.800 was a tactic that he was trying to use to 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:17.360 evict people from our apartment so that he could remodel 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:21.200 and then UM move it up to like market rate 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:23.800 and get pretty much all of our community out of 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:28.600 this apartment, which was an affordable apartment. UM. It worked 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:32.120 for a lot of some tenants did end up doing that. 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:36.319 A lot of people didn't want to fight back UM, 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:42.000 but the ones that did UM started the association UM. 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.800 And there's also a lot of like language barriers with 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:49.480 the tenants UM, some that only spoke Spanish and didn't 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:52.760 understand what was happening. They were trying to get people 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:58.400 to sign contracts UM for for the increase of the 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:03.080 rent UM. Yeah. So that was my experience here to 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:07.840 begin with UM and and why we decided to fight 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:14.120 back and not allow this to to happen to our family, 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.719 but also like our community here who were also experiencing 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:19.840 the same thing. You know, it wasn't just an ice. 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:22.080 I say this all the time. It felt like an 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:26.600 isolated situation at the time, but it on the broader perspective, 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.920 it was not an isolated thing, and that's what brought 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:37.880 our community together. That's a really powerful, be incredibly enraging, 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:40.920 And yeah, there's a lot of really interesting things they're like, 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:45.720 I mean, one, obviously, the cops doing like the sheriff's 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:49.160 like helping them do the illegal eviction is just incredibly 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:52.400 on the nose and the wather thing I think is 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:57.040 really interesting about the way that like I mean, okay, 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.880 the way the law only exists for rich people if 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:02.959 you can like throw it into their faces and make 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.640 it embarrassing enough that like the state has to enforce it. 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:08.240 So I read a lot of media coverage of this, 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.800 and not a single person who who covered the story 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.120 that that that I saw from these articles mentioned that 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.000 the that cash per keys is illegal a lot because 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:19.480 a lot of the articles mentioned it, but they don't 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:21.320 they don't they don't mention that, like you legally can't 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:25.560 do this, And so yeah, I think that's a that 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:27.280 that that's I don't know, I guess it goes to 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:31.960 show that like even among the press, like whose job 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:35.200 it is to do this, there's there's such like little 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:39.520 there's such a little knowledge of what what what practices 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:42.600 aren't and are and aren't allowed and that. Yeah, I mean, 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:43.959 I think as you're talking about like that, that that that's 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.719 one of the they're they're relying like in order to 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:48.280 do this with landlords are like, yeah, that they're they're 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:51.240 relying on people not knowing their rights to relying on 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:55.200 being able to trick people. They're relying on just straight 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:57.560 up handing people stuff they can't read and forcing them 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:02.839 to sign it, which, m I don't know that my 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:05.360 brain is weird, but like the thing that reminds me 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:07.920 of is like that the Spanish conquistadors showing up and 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:10.800 then really like ask asking people to convert to Christianity 0:13:10.840 --> 0:13:12.920 in Spanish language they didn't speak, and then shooting them 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.520 when they didn't do it. It's like, yeah, that's a 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:22.080 fitting analogy, honestly. Yeah, it's a new form of colonization yea, 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:36.880 and one that we're you know, resisting, Yeah, yea. That that 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:38.360 that was one of the other things I wanted to 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.120 talk about in terms of resisting this kind of stuff 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.880 is Yeah, what what was it like dealing with the 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:47.960 kind of language barriers that you get here when you 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.319 have I don't know, Like I mean, you've mentioned like 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.360 at least three languages that people are speaking. There's probably 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.040 more because that's just that's how working class communities work. 0:13:56.800 --> 0:14:00.080 Mm hmm. Yeah. I feel like that's been such a 0:14:00.120 --> 0:14:04.959 central part of our fight, is language justice and the 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.440 tenant meetings that we've had every single week for the 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:12.120 past three years. Um, so that's like about a hundred 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:15.400 and fifteen meetings. Every single one of them has included 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:19.400 some form of translation. Um. So yeah, we've had a 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:24.800 lot of support from folks from Union davcos organizers there 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:30.800 have gear where we can do like simultaneous translation. Yeah. 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:32.840 So if you go to one of our meetings, it's 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:37.920 folks who, um, if they're monolingual Spanish or English speakers, 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:41.160 they're having a headset on where we then have someone 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:45.920 who's offering simultaneous translation um. And then since we have 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:50.000 fewer Cantonese or Mandarin speakers, will also have organizers on 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:53.880 the side doing um, consecutive translation for them. So our 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.160 meetings are run and like usually three if not more 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:01.720 languages M and I guess, I guess it leads into 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.160 you another question that I had, which was, so, how 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.040 how did I think from unders staying this One of 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:13.480 the parts of the story is like, is people who 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:17.440 people who have been doing established tenant organizing like getting 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:19.680 getting involved with the struggle, and I wanted to, I guess, 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:25.840 talk about how that happens and yeah, yeah, yeah, So 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:30.080 I think because that original tenant, Louisa like really blew 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:33.840 this story up, UM, different orgs heard about it, and 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:37.080 eventually UM a lot too, So the l A Tenants 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.240 Union and then c c D UM, the organ that 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:45.920 I'm in, we heard about it and got involved long term. 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:49.920 And even with that, like I'm a relatively new organizer, 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:52.440 I only started volunteering with c c D a couple 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:54.080 of years ago, so it's really been like one of 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.840 my first UM site fights we like to call them. 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.920 But there are other folks who have had more a 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:04.840 bit more experience with different buildings in l A as well. 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:07.760 But I think what's important to emphasize is that this 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:12.160 fight has really been tenant lead UM, and even though 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:16.720 we have like these kind of yeah, outside organizers, it's 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:24.240 always been the tenants demands and the tenants interests first. Yeah, 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:26.160 it seems I mean, you know, from from your descriptions, 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:28.600 like people showing up a translation equipment. Yeah, it seems 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:31.000 like a really good way to do this kind of stuff, 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.160 which is you show up and you give help to people, 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:35.720 but it's it's you know, it's it's them doing the organizing, 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.480 which I don't know. It reminds me a lot of 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.640 like my experiences between union organizing stuff, which is like, yeah, 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:45.960 I know, it's it's some Yeah, like you have people 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.320 who have experience with stuff and they come in and 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:51.560 their job is to help the people who are actually 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:56.000 trying to organize the place. Mm hmm, yeah, exactly exactly, 0:16:56.080 --> 0:17:00.320 the people who are like actually directly impacted. UM. Yeah. 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:03.040 I feel like our role has really just been facilitating, 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:07.320 offering like the technical support UM more of that stuff. 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.439 But I think you can really talk about how so 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.080 much of this fight has really been building the tenant's 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.960 power and becoming more and more like militant UM and 0:17:17.080 --> 0:17:22.240 radical and just the tenants like yeah, just definitely feeling 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:27.520 their own fire. Yeah. So we are like super duper 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:32.639 grateful for the UM organizers that have come out for 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:37.440 the last three years or however long UM they've decided 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:42.520 to or have joined the association to help. UM and 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:46.280 a lot of the tenants always always like gives things 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:51.359 and they're super appreciative or the organizers, but sometimes they 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:54.960 don't give themselves the credit either. They think it's only 0:17:55.840 --> 0:18:01.560 like they think the organizers, which is like super important 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.840 and we're super grateful, but they don't realize that they're 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:12.159 a huge part of of the fight. UM. For example, UM, 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:16.919 actually my mom UH has been a part of the 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:20.560 association for longer than I have. UM. I've only been 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:25.280 organizing for about UM well not only UM a year 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:29.720 and a half, but she's actually been in the organization 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:35.600 for three years. UM because not only because she needed 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:42.159 the support and the organizers really helped to UM to 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.879 guide her to like learn to use her voice for 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:53.600 UM for the outcome that we all want to see. UM. 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:58.280 And a lot of the tenants are UM are women, 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:04.359 their elders, you know, their generation elders, so UM, they're 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:10.640 very strong people. They UM a lot of like the 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:16.359 elder like UM. Like I guess Latina, I don't know 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.600 how I feel about that term, but UM. You know, 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:27.240 women UM are our natural leaders and with the help 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:32.639 of the organizers. Um, they really just helped to to 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:36.560 help them too, you know, use their voice and to 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:40.800 empower them to to do what they can naturally do, 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:45.320 which is speak up and ask for what they want. So, yeah, 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.760 my mom is you know, learned over the last three 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.919 years how to talk in front of politicians, how to 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.720 um communicate the process and the struggle that we've all 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:03.560 been enduring, but to also demand what we rightfully deserve, 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:09.080 which is housing, safe housing, and for politicians to do 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:12.920 their job, which is to represent as they should be 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:17.560 the community that they are working for and not and 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:20.960 you know, not to beg them to do things, but 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:24.480 to demand that um, they take action in the way 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:30.280 that we have taken action. Um, much more then than 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.679 any politician has in the last three years. Um, it 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.040 was up to the tenants and it still is and 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:41.000 thanks to them we have gotten as far as we have. 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.960 That That was those Yeah, really well said. I want 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:47.840 to I guess shift a little bit into talking about 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:52.920 like what specifically y'all were doing, because I guess I 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:56.400 guess both that is like what how how how how 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:59.479 did you actually do this? And then how can other 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:04.359 people sort like how can other people replicate it. Mm hmm, yeah, 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:07.520 I don't know that we necessarily have like a model 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:12.160 UM that other people can apply, because I think reflecting 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:15.239 about this whole fight, it was such a like just 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:20.600 dynamic campaign where at first when it started, UM folks 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:24.720 war kind of using more you know, like legal tactics, 0:21:24.760 --> 0:21:29.160 just like looking for errors in UM the rent increases 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:31.439 that bots would hand out and this would you know, 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:35.040 lead to UM being able to stall the rent hikes 0:21:35.160 --> 0:21:38.760 for months at a time. UM. But then that obviously 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:43.840 wasn't enough, so then people started escalating and UM eventually 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:46.840 like putting pressure to get this on the radar of 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:51.920 our districts, like city council person guil cdeo, And eventually, 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:55.240 through that, UM they were able to get CDEO to 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:59.119 make a deal with the landlord to extend the covenant 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:04.080 UM and have his loaned speed his debtbat forgiven. UM. 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:06.880 But the landlord just like reneged on that deal, right 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:12.840 So yeah yeah, So then UM, I think it's through 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:17.480 those experiences that the tenants really learned like Okay, it's 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:20.879 like the this politician is not going to save us. UM. 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:23.960 So then I think our fight became like more and 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:28.200 more militant, so just directly going to the landlords Malibu 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:32.320 Villa and shouting like fuck you, and you know, just 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:36.960 like yeah, just like those direct confrontations. And then even 0:22:37.040 --> 0:22:41.760 Sidio himself, U has not been you know, this friendly 0:22:41.800 --> 0:22:47.240 relationship where we're thanking him for putting our putting our 0:22:47.280 --> 0:22:51.960 story into city council. It's been extremely confrontational and oppositional 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:55.400 the entire time. And I think thinking about what got 0:22:55.480 --> 0:22:59.479 us this recent when it was um as it has 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:03.120 been this whole fight direct action, because we ended up 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:05.600 the first day that city Council opened up to the 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:09.159 public again, a group of us went in kind of 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:12.199 like slid our way through security and went to his 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:17.280 office and surprisingly he opened the door, um, and it 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:20.240 was him and not a staffer, and of course he 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:24.199 saw it was us. He us. He immediately tried to 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:28.000 close the door, and one of our amazing tenant leaders, Rosario, 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:33.760 who's yeah, this elder Latino woman, she stuck her foot 0:23:33.760 --> 0:23:38.320 in the door and refused to let him close it. Yeah, 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:40.679 And because of that we were able to just like 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:43.320 directly confront him like, where the funk have you been. 0:23:43.440 --> 0:23:47.280 It's been three years, um and you haven't seen this 0:23:47.359 --> 0:23:49.960 through like you said you were going to, and we 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:54.800 got all that you know, recorded video evidence of him 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:59.800 UM just yeah, fumbling around, and he sent the cops 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:03.840 on us, of course. UM. And yeah, I think that 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:06.280 was such a great action because all of the we 0:24:06.359 --> 0:24:09.000 call them, like the Mohas, so the Latino women who 0:24:09.040 --> 0:24:11.600 have been leading the fight, they were just so defiant 0:24:11.600 --> 0:24:14.920 towards the cops. UM, not scared at all, and just 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:17.560 you know, standing their gown and that they're just defending 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:21.800 you know, they're human right to housing. UM. And a 0:24:21.880 --> 0:24:27.520 week after that confrontational action, we got this UM this 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:32.399 city council motion passed. So you know, I think it 0:24:33.119 --> 0:24:36.000 from our experience trying to go through the nice way 0:24:36.160 --> 0:24:39.840 and like you know, doing traditional lobbying, trying to schedule 0:24:39.880 --> 0:24:44.639 meetings and like texting, calling all of that, things didn't 0:24:44.680 --> 0:24:48.040 happen for years, and then once we did more and 0:24:48.080 --> 0:24:52.520 more militant actions, things happened really quickly. Yeah. Another thing 0:24:52.560 --> 0:24:55.080 I'd like to add on to that, UM that I 0:24:55.119 --> 0:25:00.520 actually heard was something that not a lot of UM, 0:25:00.600 --> 0:25:04.520 other associations UM that are fighting for their housing UM 0:25:04.640 --> 0:25:09.639 do often was UM to bring the community together. UM. 0:25:09.680 --> 0:25:12.200 And like I mean, really coming together. I mean, we're 0:25:12.320 --> 0:25:16.280 meeting every week for the last three years, and even 0:25:16.359 --> 0:25:19.840 during the pandemic, UM we weren't in person. We actually 0:25:19.880 --> 0:25:24.840 were on zoom for a really long time. UM. And 0:25:25.119 --> 0:25:28.600 that's one of the biggest things was UM the consistency 0:25:28.760 --> 0:25:33.080 that we all pushed through even during the pandemic. UM 0:25:33.080 --> 0:25:37.040 from the beginning was meeting every single week, and some 0:25:37.200 --> 0:25:41.480 other UM organizers also meet more than once a week. 0:25:41.800 --> 0:25:45.600 You know, we're meeting multiple times a week too, kind 0:25:45.640 --> 0:25:49.720 of talk over like the fine detail of of you know, 0:25:49.800 --> 0:25:53.960 the next steps UM. But definitely consistency has been one 0:25:54.000 --> 0:25:56.320 of the biggest things in the last three years that 0:25:56.400 --> 0:26:02.560 has gotten us where we are today. Yeah, that that 0:26:02.600 --> 0:26:06.560 makes a lot of sense. It's I know, I keep 0:26:06.560 --> 0:26:08.159 going back to this because this is the sort of 0:26:08.280 --> 0:26:10.960 I mean, I guess I did some tendant organizing, but UM, 0:26:11.000 --> 0:26:13.080 this is the thing that I know now. Was like, Yeah, 0:26:13.119 --> 0:26:15.040 it reminds me a lot of just like the way 0:26:15.119 --> 0:26:17.640 the way that Union get pagins that like work run 0:26:17.800 --> 0:26:20.520 of just you have to keep you have you have 0:26:20.560 --> 0:26:23.640 to keep getting people together to do the thing. Yeah, 0:26:23.720 --> 0:26:27.400