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Speaker 1: Previously on Whedian House.

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Speaker 2: Folks are free to contact my office like to directly

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Speaker 2: for my website. They can also call in and call

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Speaker 2: our office as well and my district representatives, you know,

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Speaker 2: but Carloss here, you know, they do an excellent job

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Speaker 2: of just staying in touch with the community. You know,

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Speaker 2: people reach out to me through all sorts of methods,

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Speaker 2: whether it be online or social media or going through

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Speaker 2: the traditional route of the email, you know, phone calls,

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Speaker 2: and we respond all sorts of ways. So it's it's

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Speaker 2: it's very important to me, especially as as a Latino woman,

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Speaker 2: as you know, the granddaughter of immigrants to to be

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Speaker 2: very president and who went.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Whitian House. I'm your host, Bio Henderson. In

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Speaker 1: this episode, we're going to remember housing activists Beneatha Flores

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Speaker 1: and tackle the subject of mental illness violent house from

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Speaker 1: two different perspectives, from a parent's view and from someone

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Speaker 1: with lived experience. Beneath the Flores legacy will be remembered

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Speaker 1: as a person who required dignified housing and was not

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Speaker 1: going to be dismissed with past measures.

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Speaker 3: My name is Benita Flores. I am seventeen years old

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Speaker 3: and I'm living with theovetis I am here. You're watching

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Speaker 3: Tis Betel because the jennifisivicted me right now, so I

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Speaker 3: don't give up. I was received in a very strong

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Speaker 3: way and a very creative way.

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Speaker 1: Benito passed away a few weeks ago at the age

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Speaker 1: of seventy one, fighting the good fight. City officials hastened

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Speaker 1: to go on record that they tried to help the needle,

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Speaker 1: but he was service resistant. Benito did not want to

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Speaker 1: return to houselessness. He offered for housing for four years

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Speaker 1: and to be seventy five years old and to be

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Speaker 1: in housed again. It's not a solution. Benito's position was

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Speaker 1: that he was already housed, why not extend him services

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Speaker 1: there instead of being involuntarily displaced.

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Speaker 3: They created a homeless. Then they weren't happy with that.

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Speaker 3: They created forty one eighteen to bunice the homeless. So

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Speaker 3: the reclimbers came and say the houses that reclimbers have

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Speaker 3: that verty and the half only after that. They invented

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Speaker 3: that two year period when we went to take these houses,

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Speaker 3: we didn't pay for two years. We pay for permanent housing.

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Speaker 3: The low salaries is stayed the same.

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Speaker 4: The rent is high.

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Speaker 3: We cannot go and get a jam and get a house.

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Speaker 3: We cannot do that because you cannot pay the rent

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Speaker 3: with the minimum. Waves you go to find a job,

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Speaker 3: you are going to to make sixteen dollars an hour.

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Speaker 3: You cannot pay the rent. You need to live in

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Speaker 3: the street.

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Speaker 1: Benito was the last founding reclaimer, making his last stand.

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Speaker 1: He remained unwavering in his position on dignified housing. The city, however,

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Speaker 1: had different plans. Their solution costs forty million, six hundred

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Speaker 1: and nine thousand, five hundred dollars the care plus and

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Speaker 1: voluntary removal of unhoused community members. Imagine where that fund

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Speaker 1: they could have gone to help, but need to stay

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Speaker 1: in his house. We'll talk about that in more detail

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Speaker 1: later in Unhoused News. Benito was not born unhoused. He

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Speaker 1: became unhoused. He worked for many years as a self

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Speaker 1: employed carpenter. However, his health issues made it difficult to

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Speaker 1: maintain employment. As time went on, he began living in

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Speaker 1: his van. Prior to the pandemic, Benito and other reclaimers

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Speaker 1: saw an opportunity once they observed decaying buildings in El Serno,

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Speaker 1: and thus began to occupy or reclaim them. During the pandemic.

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Speaker 1: They were successfully able to stay in those houses until

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Speaker 1: the city began eviction proceedings. Undeterred, Benita was not going

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Speaker 1: out without a fight.

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Speaker 3: Are you ready to die as a martyr who goes

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Speaker 3: to this recom pass to publicated? It is not that greasius.

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Speaker 3: It's a planification, is an organizers plan because landlords have

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Speaker 3: reasen the brand and and the politicians are alowing the

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Speaker 3: went to rise. So that is the reason I'm going

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Speaker 3: to fight. Help and if I have have to die

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Speaker 3: like a martyr, I will would I I don't release

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Speaker 3: this this house. I don't accept direction.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, and here's more on House News. Our next

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Speaker 1: story lends us in Sacramento, California. The city is now

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Speaker 1: considering a band or sleeping outside This proposal versus a

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Speaker 1: twenty eighteen policy that permitted camping from nine am to

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Speaker 1: six am on weekdays. Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarthy says it's

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Speaker 1: a public and staff safety issue. Council member Phil Pluckbaumb

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Speaker 1: voted in favor of the ordinance. He is quoted as stating,

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Speaker 1: make Sacramento an inviting place for all our citizens to

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Speaker 1: come and do. Cities business not necessarily as a place

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Speaker 1: of refuge. Our next story. A federal judge finds that

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles failed to create enough shelter for unhoused people

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Speaker 1: required in their agreement. Judge David o'carter ordered stronger oversight

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Speaker 1: by a court appointed monitor to ask the hard questions

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Speaker 1: on behalf of at Jelinos, as well as quarterly hearings

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Speaker 1: to oversee compliance to create thirteen thousand more shelter beds.

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Speaker 1: Judge Carter stated, nearly seven unhoused community members die each

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Speaker 1: day in the County of Los Angeles. These depths are

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Speaker 1: preventable and represent a moral failure by all of us.

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Speaker 1: The judge also says the city breached the agreement in

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Speaker 1: four ways. One, the city did not provide a plan

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Speaker 1: for how it intends to create twelve nine hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifteen shelter beds as promised by June twenty twenty seven. Two,

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Speaker 1: it consistently missed milestones over the years for creating those beds. Three,

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Speaker 1: it incorrectly reported encampment reductions and disobeyed the court's order

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Speaker 1: on those actions. Four the city flouted responsibilities by failing

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Speaker 1: to provide accurate, comprehensive data. Was requested and did not

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Speaker 1: provide evidence to support the number of shelter beds it

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Speaker 1: was required to create. Our last story connects to our

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Speaker 1: story on Judge Carter's rebuke. For the fiscal year from

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty one through twoenty twenty four, here is the

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Speaker 1: expenses used to forcibly evict unhoused people through care and

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Speaker 1: Care plus. Fiscal year twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 1: the labor total was twenty one million, three hundred eleven

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Speaker 1: thousand and forty eight dollars. The expense total was nineteen million,

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Speaker 1: two hundred and ninety eight thousand, four hundred and fifteen dollars.

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Speaker 1: The total of labor and expenses is forty million, six

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Speaker 1: hundred nine thousand, five hundred dollars. For the year of

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty two to two thousand twenty three, the labor

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Speaker 1: was sixteen million, four hundred eighty nine thousand and five

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Speaker 1: hundred ninety one dollars. The expenses were seventeen million, three

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Speaker 1: hundred and six thousand, two hundred dollars. The total for

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Speaker 1: labor and expenses was thirty three million, seven hundred and

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Speaker 1: ninety five thousand, seven hundred ninety one dollars. For the

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Speaker 1: year of twenty twenty one till twoenty twenty two. The

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Speaker 1: labor was thirteen million, three hundred and sixty thousand, six

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty three dollars. The expenses were twelve million,

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Speaker 1: five hundred and thirty two thousand, six hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: one dollars. The total was twenty five million, eight hundred

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Speaker 1: and ninety three thousand, two hundred and ninety four dollars.

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Speaker 1: It lends itself questions of where the money has gone.

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Speaker 1: Here's the answer. Sweeping on House people, and that's on

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Speaker 1: House News. When we come back, I'll speak with returning

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Speaker 1: guests Anita about her experience being a parent of a

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Speaker 1: son dealing with mental health challenges and being unhoused. Welcome

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Speaker 1: back to Weedian House. I'm THEO Henderson. We have two

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Speaker 1: great interviews this week. First, let's dive into our interview

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Speaker 1: with Nita. We shared her experience as a parent whose

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Speaker 1: son is grappling with mental health challenges and being in house.

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Speaker 1: Here's our conversation.

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Speaker 5: Hi, my name is Anita Woolfolk and I'm here with

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Speaker 5: THEO Henderson and we're going to talk about homelessness and

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Speaker 5: the struggles that a parent has coming especially out of

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Speaker 5: another stage.

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Speaker 1: So tell us what is the most frustrating thing about

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Speaker 1: being a parent dealing with a child that's dealing with

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Speaker 1: these kind of issues.

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Speaker 5: One of the challenges is if you have a child

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Speaker 5: that's dealing with mental health issues as well as substance abuse,

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Speaker 5: it can be have so many extenuating circumstances because I'm

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Speaker 5: out of state and he's here, and the system sometimes

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Speaker 5: let them slip through the cracks somehow, you know, taking

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Speaker 5: him to mental health services and trying to keep him there,

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Speaker 5: and they don't really care if they're there or not.

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Speaker 5: They don't have follow up like they should. And it's

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Speaker 5: like when they they not notice until something happens, when

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Speaker 5: you're begging them to please, can you fifty one point

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Speaker 5: fifty this person or you know, put them in a

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Speaker 5: thirty sixty ninety day treatment facility, and like I said,

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Speaker 5: and then when something crazy happens, then you know, it's

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Speaker 5: all eyes on them, you know, and per se to parent,

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Speaker 5: but you've been trying and never could get any help.

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Speaker 6: So that was my circumstance.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that I'm just hearing from just

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Speaker 1: hearing you mention it is one, you're looking for preventative

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Speaker 1: before something horrible happens. You want to be able to

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Speaker 1: cut it off at the past. The second thing which

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Speaker 1: brings up a question is like to dealing with people

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Speaker 1: that have some of these complexities, like have a mental

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Speaker 1: health issue or substance usage, it's the willingness to go.

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Speaker 1: Because of my own history of families that have those

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Speaker 1: issues is that when they are on the medication, they

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Speaker 1: feel like that they're cured. For example, if you have

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Speaker 1: like schizophrenia or other maladies, they believe that they're cured,

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Speaker 1: so they don't think that the treatment doesn't work or

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Speaker 1: shouldn't they shouldn't have to continue the treatment. Then they

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Speaker 1: get off and then there's an episode or some challenge

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Speaker 1: that's going on, and it starts again. How did you

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Speaker 1: get started on the cycle? What was the first time

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Speaker 1: that you had to deal with this and how did

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Speaker 1: you handle it?

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Speaker 6: Well? Him as a child, you know, he had ADHD.

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Speaker 5: It started with that and I seek medical advice, which

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Speaker 5: at that time they put him on a was rittling

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Speaker 5: or something like that. And then as he got older,

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Speaker 5: you know, then they feel they're normal, per se normal.

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Speaker 5: Then they can they feel like they can take a

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Speaker 5: drink or then the marijuana youth shage starts and god

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Speaker 5: knows what else, and then they stop using the medication

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Speaker 5: and so then, you know, then it's a whole lot

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Speaker 5: of chaos, you know, trying to figure out which way

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Speaker 5: do you go? You know, Okay, stop drinking, stop smoking.

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Speaker 5: Actually they don't realize that they can't really do anything,

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Speaker 5: and you try to talk to them, and then they

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Speaker 5: have these laws that you can't you y, you know,

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Speaker 5: they have to decide themself. M you know, well, how

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Speaker 5: does the person that that's not fully functionable make decisions

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Speaker 5: on their own when they're not fully all there?

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Speaker 6: I you know, I it it boggles my mind.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's also a conundrum too, and not to give

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Speaker 1: short shrift to what you're saying. For example, even when

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Speaker 1: we prepare for let's let's just say, because you're younger

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Speaker 1: than I am, that in ten years from now that

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Speaker 1: I might have advanced stage dementia or Alzheimer's. We usually

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Speaker 1: prepare for that, you know, by giving instructions of what

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Speaker 1: I want and when I want it, because I might

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Speaker 1: not be mentally able to make those decisions. And conversely,

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Speaker 1: the same kind of conversation doesn't seem to apply, or

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Speaker 1: it seems very difficult for people that are having you know,

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Speaker 1: a different type of mental malady, like for example, like

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Speaker 1: what you're mentioning, you know, maybe there was a do

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Speaker 1: you think there's like could be like foresight kind of

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Speaker 1: hearing or you know, when they're stabilized, you have the

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Speaker 1: card conversations and it says, let's stay, for example, that

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Speaker 1: something turns around and you have a won't say, a

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Speaker 1: relapse or have a setback, what do you want happen

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Speaker 1: to get you back on track? You know before? So

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Speaker 1: you know, you know, and maybe that's what I've been

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Speaker 1: thinking about. And I said, you know, that would probably help.

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Speaker 1: Because we do it with some other illnesses of other things,

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Speaker 1: why can't we apply that kind of conversation to do

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Speaker 1: the same with mental health? Yeah, what do you think

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Speaker 1: drug addiction?

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Speaker 5: I think that's a good idea because as a parent,

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Speaker 5: my hands are tied. They tell me, you know, okay,

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Speaker 5: you can't make him do this orday, you know, but

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Speaker 5: once the system gets ahold of them, they make them.

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Speaker 6: Do what I had been asking for them to do.

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Speaker 5: You know, before this situation hadn't see you know, and

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Speaker 5: it's just really hard hard. It's really it bothers you

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Speaker 5: as a parent because you don't really know what to do. Okay,

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Speaker 5: the law says this, The law says that I'm looking

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Speaker 5: at my child seeing and that he's struggling. You know,

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Speaker 5: you call the police. Well at that time, wasn't it Karen?

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Speaker 5: Was it Karen Bass? She was like keeping the cops

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Speaker 5: hands tied. All I wanted them, you know, to do,

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Speaker 5: was to take him somewhere where he can get checked out,

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Speaker 5: assessed within what a seventy two hours or whatever.

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Speaker 6: And it was like, oh, I.

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Speaker 5: Feel sorry for you, but hey, do something about it.

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Speaker 5: You know, I appreciate the sympathy, but I need someone

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Speaker 5: to help me. He needs to be evaluated with at

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Speaker 5: least a seventy two hour period, you know.

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Speaker 1: Well you know also too, there's a direct link too

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Speaker 1: when there is challenges. Only time that the law enforcement

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Speaker 1: or the system intervenes that they have to do something

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Speaker 1: atrocious or something that they cannot ignore, that they have

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Speaker 1: to put them in and a curse for you. And

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Speaker 1: what you're saying is why it's just something get awful

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Speaker 1: to happen, you know, you know, and even the person

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Speaker 1: that's dealing with it don't want something in there right mind,

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Speaker 1: wants something so horrible to happen. And they come back

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Speaker 1: down that they realized about that. You have to deal

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Speaker 1: with the challenges of their ildness, also legal challenges, and

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Speaker 1: they have to navigate a way through that. Have you

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Speaker 1: found out that's going on with you or are you

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Speaker 1: noticing that?

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Speaker 6: Yes, very much so. That has been the problem.

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Speaker 5: You know, my son spent out of control, and you know,

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Speaker 5: prior to this happening, I was, you know, hollering at screaming,

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Speaker 5: asking anybody. I mean, going from mental health downtown, calling

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Speaker 5: the mental health the one that comes out in the field.

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Speaker 5: I mean they even told me letting me sleep it

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Speaker 5: off and all this stuff, or you know, he says

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Speaker 5: he doesn't want it. It's you know, please seem like

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Speaker 5: talk them into what will you just come and talk

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Speaker 5: to me, you know, and we have a discussion and

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Speaker 5: I can mark everything.

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Speaker 6: They just walk away. And thirdly, the.

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Speaker 5: Police, they just would like their hands were tied when

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Speaker 5: it came to addiction, you know, because the mayor said

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Speaker 5: don't bother them or something like that.

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Speaker 1: That's what well, you know, let's be clear too, because

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Speaker 1: a lot of times when we're dealing with the issue

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Speaker 1: of houselessness. They love to use twist words and blame

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Speaker 1: it like that their hands are tied and blaming it

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Speaker 1: and returning it back to policies and things like that.

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Speaker 1: But let's be clear, unless the person is in imminent

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Speaker 1: danger of harming another person or of themselves, they can't

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Speaker 1: do anything. Which is what brings up a different conversation

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Speaker 1: is that when they just I'm on the scene and

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Speaker 1: someone's maybe which I've noticed when I've been unhoused in

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Speaker 1: other parts and there's been on house people talking to themselves,

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Speaker 1: are yelling or arguing with themselves. They have they tell

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Speaker 1: the community there is no law for me to arrest

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Speaker 1: this person when they are arguing with themselves. You know,

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Speaker 1: you know you've talked. Yeah, you're just talking loud. Okay,

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Speaker 1: that's that's maybe a mental health issue. But the person

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Speaker 1: is not causing physical harm to you or anyone else.

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Speaker 1: They're having that conversation to themselves, so you know, you know,

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Speaker 1: we can you know, stand around, we can talk to

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Speaker 1: them or suggest things. But to be clear, which is

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Speaker 1: why I what I suggested earlier in our conversation is

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Speaker 1: to have when you have that a glimmer of opportunity

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Speaker 1: to get the person stabilized. They have a conversation. It's like,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's very hard to get you to this point.

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Speaker 1: Let's plan ahead because just in case something goes around,

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Speaker 1: maybe the medication is not working well or whatever, we

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Speaker 1: need to think ahead. We need to get some paperwork

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Speaker 1: taken care of that. Any event that you are unable

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Speaker 1: to make the informed decisions, I can make the decision

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Speaker 1: for you to get reached back into treatment or back

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Speaker 1: to get your medication stabilized, so you can be able

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Speaker 1: to make the informed decisions when you restabilize. That is

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Speaker 1: the conversation that I think we don't have. I think

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Speaker 1: you're talking about, like Gavin Newson was talking about involuntary

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Speaker 1: incarceration and voluntary commitment, and I think you know, I

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Speaker 1: was like, that may not always work, because then you

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Speaker 1: created an attack in or adversarial relationship before you have

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Speaker 1: the opportunity to give the person a chance to have

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Speaker 1: some foresight, you know, become part of the buy in

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Speaker 1: of their own treatment. And I think that is what

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Speaker 1: I see. It's like, you know, you can't force someone

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Speaker 1: to get treated if they're over at age eighteen and

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Speaker 1: you're having this frustration. Now your son is over eighteen, right,

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Speaker 1: yes he is.

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Speaker 5: And I'm remember when he first well they called me

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Speaker 5: and told me that he was caught with drugs.

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Speaker 1: Yes, and.

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Speaker 5: Through my discovery and giving him the information, I said,

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Speaker 5: he he has to be using because he's never been

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Speaker 5: a drug dealer. And I thought at that point that they,

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Speaker 5: you know, being caught with drugs, Okay, we're gonna you

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Speaker 5: got to do mandatorium thirty days or something. Okay, they

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Speaker 5: let him go with two years of paper. But I mean,

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Speaker 5: knowing that he's using, he's still free to you know,

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Speaker 5: keep using, which is going to spend him even further

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Speaker 5: out of control.

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Speaker 6: And that's exactly what happened.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 5: I thought that the first the incident, it should have

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Speaker 5: been mandated that they get some kind of help.

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Speaker 1: Well, see again, that's good. That's where the Steve He's

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Speaker 1: high part of the conversation is too with me, is

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Speaker 1: that even when he had that first incident, it still

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Speaker 1: would have been like he's been involuntary forced to do it,

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Speaker 1: and he might have bump against that. But if we

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Speaker 1: like again like they say, that's a very hard this

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Speaker 1: is a conundrum because before that incident. You didn't know

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Speaker 1: he was have these issues. Maybe you know before it

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Speaker 1: gets to that point when you have to call it, says, Okay,

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Speaker 1: don't worry about it. Let's have this current conversation before

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Speaker 1: things get out of control, before so you don't have

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Speaker 1: to wait for someone to push him or force him

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Speaker 1: to do it. Okay, remember what we talked about before

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Speaker 1: when everything was calm and stabilized. Now we can do that,

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Speaker 1: and that's what we're going to do. We're going to

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Speaker 1: stay on that path to get you back on track.

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Speaker 1: So you know, we both agreed to it, and you

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Speaker 1: understood this is what's going to happen, and that is

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Speaker 1: a different thing than when he has that incident. Then

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Speaker 1: they forced him to go in treatment. He's not gonna

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Speaker 1: want to go to the treatment. You know, it might

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Speaker 1: not be a guaranteed you want to go on treatment

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Speaker 1: even though that discussion, but at least it's a preparation

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Speaker 1: to know that anytime something jumps off, you have it

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Speaker 1: on paper, you have it on documentation that no matter

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Speaker 1: what this is, what's going to happen was how he's

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Speaker 1: going to be treated. And it may also make a

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Speaker 1: difference in the destination of how legally where he has

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Speaker 1: to be caught off in the system. He was like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: we go, he has these challenges, we need to be

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Speaker 1: able to do this or because a lot of times

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Speaker 1: what I noticed too, when people are on substances and

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Speaker 1: on medication, you know, it becomes more of a you

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Speaker 1: Ford kind of kind of experience. And some drugs are

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Speaker 1: stronger than others that overrise that feeling believe in they're cured.

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Speaker 1: Because I have a person that believes and there's the

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Speaker 1: pain in it behind. You're not curing, You're just the

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Speaker 1: only reason why, the reason why you're doing so well,

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Speaker 1: it's because you're taking the medica's a long time regularly

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Speaker 1: someone calling up with you.

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Speaker 5: Now I'm supposed to be talking to an attorney about

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Speaker 5: a mental evaluation, which he was in the process of

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Speaker 5: doing that when I had here, but they had grabbed him.

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Speaker 1: So were gonna asks because and we're just and just

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Speaker 1: go however you were you came here because you found

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Speaker 1: out what happened, Just.

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Speaker 6: Tell us, yeah, yeah, I I came here.

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Speaker 5: Well, mother, instinct I felt something was wrong because he

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Speaker 5: had not called m and my instinct sick. Come on

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Speaker 5: out to California and I did, and I was looking

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Speaker 5: looking looking for him, and I ran into a young

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Speaker 5: lady and I asked her had she seen my son?

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Speaker 5: And she says, oh, I tell you what. First looked

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Speaker 5: at the jail because I think a situation happened prior to,

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Speaker 5: you know, to you coming here. And I said, well,

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Speaker 5: you know, okay, I'll do that. And when I went there,

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Speaker 5: that's when I found out that he was there. He

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Speaker 5: had been there for about a week. Is he still

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Speaker 5: incarcerated or yes, he's still in car he hasn't had

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Speaker 5: his court that yet or whatever they call that.

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Speaker 6: I don't forget the terms, but.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay. So now, once the mental evaluation is taken

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Speaker 1: and done, what would that do for his chances of

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Speaker 1: getting some help.

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Speaker 5: I'm hoping that it would help the situation, because then

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Speaker 5: they'll know theirself.

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Speaker 6: I mean, I've gone, you know, meet him being my child.

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Speaker 5: I've seen the changes, the depression, the over the anxiety,

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Speaker 5: all of the little stages prior to this, you know.

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Speaker 5: So I'm hoping that this evaluation will get him the help.

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Speaker 6: That he really needs.

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Speaker 1: Is he just taking any medication now or yes.

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Speaker 5: They do have him on medication now that he's incarcerated.

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Speaker 5: This is the help that he needed all the time.

399
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Speaker 5: You know, as a parent, I needed to help all

400
00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:09,080
Speaker 5: the time to help you. So I'm hoping that this

401
00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 5: will help his sister his situation.

402
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Speaker 1: Did you have any other children that that? How are

403
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Speaker 1: they're tanneling? Coping with us? Oh?

404
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:22,480
Speaker 6: His brothers are like this, can't you know that this

405
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Speaker 6: can't be happening? He what you know?

406
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Speaker 5: They they're like shocked that he's ever in even in

407
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 5: this situation because he wasn't around drugs. Drugs weren't that

408
00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:40,240
Speaker 5: opened in the state that we come from, and here

409
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:44,520
Speaker 5: is like a everyday thing. And if you don't aren't grounded,

410
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Speaker 5: you can be caught up before you know it. And

411
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Speaker 5: that's exactly what happened. You're dealing with mental health issues

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Speaker 5: and then on top of that, you put in drugs

413
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Speaker 5: in your system. So it can be really mind below bottling.

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Speaker 6: For a parent. And I know he after he got

415
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:09,360
Speaker 6: somewhat sober, saying how the heck did I get here?

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Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying. So I don't know. I'm

417
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Speaker 6: just praying that everything works out on best in his favor.

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Speaker 1: You know, I was going to say, because you mentioned

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Speaker 1: earlier in a conversation that you were doing all of

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Speaker 1: this coming from Ohio here, how you know, how long

421
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 1: have you been here and how long do you have

422
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Speaker 1: you do you do you do this regularly or is

423
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Speaker 1: this just something that you know, you feel that you

424
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:39,440
Speaker 1: have to follow through or it's not going to get done,

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Speaker 1: or what's going on.

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Speaker 6: I've been coming here every month.

427
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Speaker 5: Since way before January because I felt that he needed

428
00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:53,920
Speaker 5: that extra help that he wasn't getting or that not having.

429
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Speaker 5: I even tried to get him a case manager, you know,

430
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Speaker 5: and they don't follow through.

431
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Speaker 6: I got so many cards in my purse from this program,

432
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Speaker 6: that program, the skid row program, the.

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Speaker 5: I can't even call some of the names of the programs,

434
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:16,240
Speaker 5: but no one followed him through, you know what I'm saying,

435
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:20,159
Speaker 5: to see how check it up on how you do it?

436
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:21,280
Speaker 6: So I had to do it.

437
00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 5: So I can't come here regularly just about every month,

438
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,960
Speaker 5: you know, which is a costly situation. But because he's

439
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:34,080
Speaker 5: my child, I love him, I'm gonna do whatever I

440
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:36,040
Speaker 5: have to do to try to get him guided the

441
00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:36,880
Speaker 5: right direction.

442
00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:42,520
Speaker 6: And yeah, I've been coming here for some years now.

443
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:46,560
Speaker 1: So if there's anything for the legislators of lawmakers to

444
00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:49,280
Speaker 1: do the help change these things. What do you think

445
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:50,720
Speaker 1: suppose that you would say to.

446
00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 5: Them, I think that they need to have case managers

447
00:28:55,360 --> 00:29:00,520
Speaker 5: follow up with people to see where they're mental and

448
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 5: drug use or whatever is, and possibly you know, have

449
00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:11,160
Speaker 5: conversation with them, talk to them about maybe coming to

450
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,080
Speaker 5: some meetings or something like that, you know, something that

451
00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:19,840
Speaker 5: would draw them to come, you know, other than five

452
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:21,680
Speaker 5: or ten minutes or fifteen minutes.

453
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 4: Did you do this?

454
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,160
Speaker 5: Did you do that? You know, somewhere you can sit

455
00:29:25,280 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 5: and kind of observe the person and see are they

456
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:31,920
Speaker 5: a little bit out of control?

457
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:32,880
Speaker 6: You know what I'm saying.

458
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:35,120
Speaker 1: Also, you know what you're mentioning is too is gonna

459
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:37,440
Speaker 1: that takes a little more time intensive as not only

460
00:29:37,480 --> 00:29:41,560
Speaker 1: is that funding, but one thing too. I noticed particularly here,

461
00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 1: even though that there is such an ease in substances here,

462
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:48,680
Speaker 1: there's also a blabing and shaming kind of element, a

463
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:52,480
Speaker 1: stigma here that like they believe that magically you've someone's

464
00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 1: on substances or acting out of the ordinary that just

465
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:59,360
Speaker 1: penalized them or criminalize them, which makes it to me,

466
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: makes it much more difficult for people to get treated

467
00:30:03,040 --> 00:30:06,240
Speaker 1: or to be honest about their issues because we just

468
00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:08,200
Speaker 1: and want to say throw the baby with the out

469
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:09,040
Speaker 1: with the bath order.

470
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:13,240
Speaker 5: Well that kind of thing, right, And I think a

471
00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:18,720
Speaker 5: person is using actually feels the stigma of other people.

472
00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:22,840
Speaker 5: That's why they don't reveal that, Okay, I'm using crack,

473
00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:29,000
Speaker 5: I'm using heroin, I'm using fetanol, whatever, because they're already

474
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:32,680
Speaker 5: put in a circle of all they're bad people, you know,

475
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:34,400
Speaker 5: which they're.

476
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 6: Just dealing with substance abuse disorder, you know.

477
00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 5: So I think about all the time, how how we

478
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 5: could come together and spend more time with the people.

479
00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 5: I'm gonna tell you, sometimes they don't have the right diagnosis,

480
00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:59,360
Speaker 5: you know what I'm saying. And if you've had mental

481
00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:04,000
Speaker 5: health is shoes prior to the drug youth, and you've

482
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 5: putting all of this on top of one another, so

483
00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:09,640
Speaker 5: now you do all addicted, you know, it's pretty much

484
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:15,760
Speaker 5: so and sometimes some and then it's some caseworkers that

485
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:18,680
Speaker 5: don't care as long as they get paid. You know,

486
00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:22,480
Speaker 5: you need somebody who really cares what's going on.

487
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:26,560
Speaker 1: Well also too, that burn out too because low wages

488
00:31:26,600 --> 00:31:28,280
Speaker 1: that they get as well, and some of them are

489
00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:31,080
Speaker 1: on the cusp of being on the street themselves, so

490
00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:34,960
Speaker 1: their focus and may not be entirely devoted to the

491
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:37,680
Speaker 1: envitterment of people that they're supposed to be servicing.

492
00:31:39,240 --> 00:31:44,920
Speaker 5: Just hoping that the programs to help alcohol and drug

493
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:50,520
Speaker 5: addiction continue to not cut you know, because they they

494
00:31:50,560 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 5: are very much needed. And you know, I even thought

495
00:31:55,520 --> 00:32:00,240
Speaker 5: about coming out here and helping out, being out each

496
00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:05,000
Speaker 5: worker to help women and men make a logical decision.

497
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 6: Come on, you can come to treatment. It's not gonna

498
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 6: kill you, you know.

499
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:14,240
Speaker 5: So it's very It's opened my mind, expanded my mind

500
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:16,480
Speaker 5: into how many.

501
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:20,880
Speaker 6: People need help. My son need help. I need help

502
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:25,040
Speaker 6: to understand, you know, more about the disease.

503
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:28,840
Speaker 1: I'm always a owner too, of like we also need

504
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,320
Speaker 1: as a society house and on house people need to

505
00:32:31,440 --> 00:32:34,840
Speaker 1: understand the benefits and understanding if someone has an overdose.

506
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:37,440
Speaker 1: We need to be dark can trained. It just shouldn't

507
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:41,080
Speaker 1: always fallow on the emergency because which I mentioned to.

508
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 1: Suppose you walk in and you see your child having

509
00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:48,520
Speaker 1: an OD overdose and you don't have the training or

510
00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:50,320
Speaker 1: the wherewithal to be able to save them, and you

511
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 1: can save them, just like if someone's choking or have

512
00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:56,360
Speaker 1: you need CPR. You know that skill. Why can't you

513
00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:58,440
Speaker 1: be able to use nark can to be able to

514
00:32:58,480 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 1: save someone's life because of the stigma and because we

515
00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 1: don't have an honest conversation about how we can become

516
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:09,520
Speaker 1: much more enlightened and evolved in the understanding of substitutage.

517
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 1: It's a symptom to a problem, it's not the problem itself.

518
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:14,840
Speaker 1: And I think that's a very hard thing for people

519
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 1: were in a society that's a punitative we're judging and

520
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: blaming society. So it's going to take some time. And

521
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:24,520
Speaker 1: you know, Trump is cutting all kind of funding, particularly Medicaid,

522
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:27,200
Speaker 1: so we don't know what it's going to look like

523
00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:29,320
Speaker 1: in the next few years. It's definitely not gonna be

524
00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:32,320
Speaker 1: looking positive or looking great for the better. It may

525
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:37,320
Speaker 1: look even worse. So well, this is THEO Henderson from

526
00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:40,280
Speaker 1: Weedy and Howse I thank you all for listening. May

527
00:33:40,320 --> 00:33:49,400
Speaker 1: we again meet in the light of understanding. Thank you

528
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:52,640
Speaker 1: so much to Anita for her time and for sharing

529
00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:56,000
Speaker 1: her experiences. And when we come back, I'll speak with

530
00:33:56,200 --> 00:34:04,200
Speaker 1: Claire Courtwright. Welcome back. This is THEO Henderson with Weeding

531
00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:08,520
Speaker 1: and House. My second guest today is Claire court Right,

532
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 1: who I caught up with in early June. Claire's going

533
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:14,480
Speaker 1: to educate us on the peaks and valleys of her

534
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:20,920
Speaker 1: experiences dealing with mental health challenges. Here's our talk. We

535
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:24,560
Speaker 1: have another exciting guest here, a very outstanding person, and

536
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:26,640
Speaker 1: I don't want to reveal too many of us a

537
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:30,200
Speaker 1: secrets too soon, but we have Claire court Right. Miss

538
00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,799
Speaker 1: court Right has been very instrumental in dealing with houselessness

539
00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:37,719
Speaker 1: and the tangent enshoes that are resolved. But also she

540
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,319
Speaker 1: had a quite a quicker scare herself. But I'll let

541
00:34:40,360 --> 00:34:42,319
Speaker 1: her talk a little bit about it. But what further

542
00:34:42,600 --> 00:34:45,800
Speaker 1: do miss court Right tell us a little bit about yourself.

543
00:34:45,920 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 1: You could tell the story better than I could.

544
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:51,400
Speaker 4: Sure, thank you so much for the introduction THEO. So,

545
00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:54,360
Speaker 4: I guess not too much to tell. I'm a person

546
00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:59,160
Speaker 4: with lived experience. I'm an attorney, and I stumbled into

547
00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,920
Speaker 4: doing sort of state level behavioral health policy work. So

548
00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:04,480
Speaker 4: working on a lot of the bills that have been

549
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:08,200
Speaker 4: coming out of you know, the Governor's office, primarily over

550
00:35:08,239 --> 00:35:10,400
Speaker 4: the last couple of years related to behavioral health. So

551
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:12,279
Speaker 4: it was just a baptism by fire. It was sort

552
00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:15,239
Speaker 4: of accidentally in the middle of quite a bit of it,

553
00:35:15,520 --> 00:35:19,200
Speaker 4: I think due to willingness to speak, and probably not

554
00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:22,160
Speaker 4: too much more, didn't have any business speaking.

555
00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:25,560
Speaker 1: But did you mentioned lived experience because for people that

556
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:27,680
Speaker 1: are just out in, can you tell us a little

557
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:29,480
Speaker 1: bit of what lived experience that you're talking on?

558
00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:33,239
Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure, I have lived experience of bipolar one

559
00:35:33,320 --> 00:35:37,120
Speaker 4: disorder and all of the associated you know, economic struggles

560
00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 4: and life struggles that come with that, and a lot

561
00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,719
Speaker 4: of the systemic discrimination that exists as a result of

562
00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:44,319
Speaker 4: that as well.

563
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,160
Speaker 1: So this is open as a good conversational point because

564
00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:51,920
Speaker 1: not many conversations really revolve around how you've taken your

565
00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:55,560
Speaker 1: diagnosis and you embraced it. But also use it as advocacy,

566
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:58,520
Speaker 1: if you will, on the matter how long have you

567
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:01,800
Speaker 1: been known that you were diagnosed and how did you

568
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,400
Speaker 1: get to this point where others that probably are listening

569
00:36:04,480 --> 00:36:07,440
Speaker 1: and having similar issues would probably like to step in

570
00:36:07,760 --> 00:36:10,160
Speaker 1: your footsteps or would like to get some tips on.

571
00:36:10,560 --> 00:36:13,600
Speaker 4: Oh that's a great question. It's a really long journey

572
00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:16,600
Speaker 4: because I don't think that there's very good well there's

573
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 4: not very good public information about what the actual experience

574
00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:23,000
Speaker 4: is like, So it takes a long time for sort

575
00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:26,239
Speaker 4: of your own internal recognition to happen because of the

576
00:36:26,520 --> 00:36:30,560
Speaker 4: misdescription that exists in the world. So, you know, I

577
00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:34,359
Speaker 4: think about the same time that I started really experiencing

578
00:36:34,440 --> 00:36:37,399
Speaker 4: it is also when I started becoming an advocate, because

579
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:41,759
Speaker 4: it's necessity, right, either you're resisting some sort of force

580
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:45,320
Speaker 4: over you in the system, or you are trying to

581
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:49,320
Speaker 4: figure out what this all really is, you know, both

582
00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:53,080
Speaker 4: socially and sort of medically. So I think as soon

583
00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:57,080
Speaker 4: as I started experience there's probably fifteen years ago, I

584
00:36:57,239 --> 00:37:00,239
Speaker 4: also started becoming an advocate because the first thing I

585
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:02,400
Speaker 4: had to learn was, you know, how to get out

586
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:05,799
Speaker 4: of a nine thousand dollars balanced bill from a hospital.

587
00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:08,040
Speaker 4: I'm so I think a lot of us like start

588
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:11,880
Speaker 4: that way of having to help ourselves and then seeing

589
00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:14,480
Speaker 4: that there's so little help for other members or our

590
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:16,600
Speaker 4: community just naturally grows from there.

591
00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:20,200
Speaker 1: Were you if I may ask, please, if you don't

592
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:23,200
Speaker 1: want to ask answer, that's perfectly fine. Have you ever

593
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:26,880
Speaker 1: experienced initially in the earliest stages where you're misdiagnosed or

594
00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:30,399
Speaker 1: did they have a handle on the conversation, Because I've

595
00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:34,239
Speaker 1: have interviewed friends and guests on the show that they

596
00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:37,040
Speaker 1: don't immediately come with the diagnosis. There's a lot of

597
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 1: hits that missed and then a lot of hospitalizations. And

598
00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: I don't want to parrot the same stereotates unless it's

599
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:47,839
Speaker 1: like schizophrenia, if such an extreme thing, then they can

600
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:50,320
Speaker 1: really easily put a finger on it. If it's not,

601
00:37:50,719 --> 00:37:53,719
Speaker 1: then you know, if you have other diagnoses, like my

602
00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:58,360
Speaker 1: friend that has adonia, it's not that easy to understand,

603
00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:01,879
Speaker 1: or people gave her hard time saying she didn't want

604
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,160
Speaker 1: to work, she was being lazy, but it was a

605
00:38:05,239 --> 00:38:08,200
Speaker 1: real medical condition, a real challenge, that real a bilt

606
00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 1: to health disorder that she has, and it took a

607
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:14,040
Speaker 1: minute for them to finally get a diagnosed.

608
00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:19,320
Speaker 4: Right Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, just absolutely very similar experience

609
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:22,760
Speaker 4: of not knowing myself and also just the imprecision around

610
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:26,200
Speaker 4: it in medicine, right, like we don't actually know what

611
00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:30,480
Speaker 4: causes any of it. We don't have great pharmacological treatments

612
00:38:30,520 --> 00:38:33,279
Speaker 4: for too many people, and so yeah, there's a lot

613
00:38:33,320 --> 00:38:37,360
Speaker 4: of bafflement involved, which is, you know why one of

614
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:40,560
Speaker 4: the things that I've primarily been an advocate for in

615
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:42,719
Speaker 4: the positive space, when you're not trying to like kill

616
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:45,920
Speaker 4: every bad bill or whatever is really peer support, right,

617
00:38:46,120 --> 00:38:51,719
Speaker 4: so the people that have a unique internal experience that

618
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:55,560
Speaker 4: are able to relate to and have insight into and

619
00:38:55,680 --> 00:39:00,480
Speaker 4: therefore uniquely assist other people because it is really kind

620
00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:03,040
Speaker 4: of the dark ages still when it comes to this stuff.

621
00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:05,640
Speaker 4: I mean, I can't think of such an impactful set

622
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:08,720
Speaker 4: of illnesses that we understand so little about.

623
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:12,440
Speaker 1: So which brings another good question, what things that we

624
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:15,360
Speaker 1: should know from the top about your diagnosis to educate

625
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:17,879
Speaker 1: us or so we can get right? And in two,

626
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:20,799
Speaker 1: because when you're mentioning peer support, how can we get

627
00:39:21,040 --> 00:39:24,200
Speaker 1: more peer support in the way of educating people that

628
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:27,640
Speaker 1: are neophytes. They're not aware of a tune or aware

629
00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:27,880
Speaker 1: of it.

630
00:39:28,239 --> 00:39:30,000
Speaker 4: I don't know, Gosh, you could say a lot about it,

631
00:39:30,120 --> 00:39:34,120
Speaker 4: because I find even you know, having been a behavioral

632
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:37,759
Speaker 4: health provider and so working with people, I'm constantly discovering

633
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:42,040
Speaker 4: sort of different facets, even of my own diagnosis that

634
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:46,120
Speaker 4: people don't know about. Like, for instance, I haven't personally

635
00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:49,080
Speaker 4: experienced this, but I have many friends and some others

636
00:39:49,120 --> 00:39:52,759
Speaker 4: who have that. Some people when they experience psychosis, they

637
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:56,120
Speaker 4: also experience amnesia. They don't remember a dang thing that happened,

638
00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 4: and there's a lot of miscommunication with people, you know what,

639
00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:03,600
Speaker 4: I representing folks legally. Sometimes I would ask people what

640
00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:05,719
Speaker 4: had happened and they would say, I don't know, and

641
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:09,880
Speaker 4: other people took that as denialism or you know, not

642
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:11,840
Speaker 4: dealing with an issue, when in fact it was just

643
00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:16,160
Speaker 4: like literally losing your memory is actually a symptom. And

644
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:18,120
Speaker 4: so there's a lot of aspects like that that I

645
00:40:18,200 --> 00:40:21,640
Speaker 4: think people don't really have any knowledge of because it's

646
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:24,640
Speaker 4: just not common knowledge. But I think in general, I

647
00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:28,320
Speaker 4: would say that my own experience, it would take a

648
00:40:28,360 --> 00:40:30,000
Speaker 4: long time to describe because it doesn't.

649
00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:32,120
Speaker 1: Describe like a textbook, right, right, But you can give

650
00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:34,279
Speaker 1: us the highlights, you know, I don't want to, you know,

651
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:36,600
Speaker 1: put you on the spot that you got to illumerate

652
00:40:36,719 --> 00:40:38,879
Speaker 1: every single one, but you know, give us a few

653
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:41,600
Speaker 1: things that you know, could start push the needle from

654
00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 1: the dark ages into some more of a light fair fair.

655
00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:48,560
Speaker 4: I would say, the first thing for this disorder is

656
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:50,880
Speaker 4: that it's a full body thing. People think of that

657
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:55,920
Speaker 4: as primarily an emotional you know, emotional extremes, something happening

658
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:59,120
Speaker 4: to your entire body. So for me, it's like it

659
00:40:59,160 --> 00:41:02,680
Speaker 4: can also be a power, right, Like if you're sped up,

660
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:08,359
Speaker 4: you can be really creative, really quick witted, You can

661
00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:11,480
Speaker 4: concentrate for super long periods of time. But then if

662
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:14,320
Speaker 4: you go too far in that direction, things start to

663
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:16,440
Speaker 4: fall apart, and then you know, in the in the

664
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:21,239
Speaker 4: opposite direction. Yeah, I think people don't really understand like

665
00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:24,040
Speaker 4: depression in general. It's such a common word and such

666
00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:27,120
Speaker 4: a common concept, but if you see it where it's

667
00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:31,080
Speaker 4: clearly not situational, it's like something in the machinery is

668
00:41:31,160 --> 00:41:34,560
Speaker 4: going haywire. It's really in the machinery, and it's very

669
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:39,320
Speaker 4: difficult for people externally to see that and know that

670
00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:42,120
Speaker 4: actually as your you know, as your friend was interpreted

671
00:41:42,200 --> 00:41:44,680
Speaker 4: as being lazy or you know, when you don't have

672
00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:48,799
Speaker 4: access to someone else's experience, there's a lot of skepticism

673
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:52,640
Speaker 4: or misinterpretation because it's just it's simply you would have

674
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:55,600
Speaker 4: to be inside somebody's body to really know, and so

675
00:41:55,719 --> 00:41:57,800
Speaker 4: there's a mysterious aspect to it. But I think that

676
00:41:58,000 --> 00:41:59,960
Speaker 4: too is I think the thing that people don't really

677
00:42:00,320 --> 00:42:03,160
Speaker 4: is how physical this stuff is, Like, you know, a

678
00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:06,919
Speaker 4: kind of fatigue that you can't stand up for five

679
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:11,840
Speaker 4: minutes or a kind of emotional experience where it's like

680
00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:13,799
Speaker 4: every bad thing you've ever felt in your life turned

681
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:16,440
Speaker 4: up so long you can't be and you can't suffer

682
00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:18,759
Speaker 4: that much, right, people can't suffer that much and be okay.

683
00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,160
Speaker 4: So I mean, and you know, people can, I guess

684
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:26,200
Speaker 4: read the textbooky type descriptions of things, but I don't

685
00:42:26,239 --> 00:42:29,160
Speaker 4: think that they're particularly accurate. And then, you know, if

686
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:31,920
Speaker 4: people want to know more, it is hard to know

687
00:42:32,080 --> 00:42:37,160
Speaker 4: more because there's not really a public portrayal that comes

688
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:41,279
Speaker 4: from people with lived experience. It tends to be, you know,

689
00:42:41,520 --> 00:42:46,239
Speaker 4: some kind of hollywoodized portrayal of things. Yeah.

690
00:42:46,680 --> 00:42:49,040
Speaker 1: Well, I noticed one thing too when you mentioned about

691
00:42:49,080 --> 00:42:53,359
Speaker 1: depression and into even that conversation alone. Depression is looks

692
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:57,200
Speaker 1: very different with different disorders. Yes, And the reason why

693
00:42:57,320 --> 00:43:00,239
Speaker 1: she was called lazy and not willing to work is

694
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:04,160
Speaker 1: because her depression was like paralysis. And I have two

695
00:43:04,200 --> 00:43:08,320
Speaker 1: friends that have those challenges, and people didn't didn't understand

696
00:43:08,440 --> 00:43:10,920
Speaker 1: that it was to the point where friends have to

697
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:13,400
Speaker 1: come and feed her or friends have to come, and

698
00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:17,759
Speaker 1: that that it's a little bit different depression than when

699
00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:19,200
Speaker 1: people don't want to get out of the better more

700
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:22,000
Speaker 1: or they're overwhelmed and they're just now I'm gonna say,

701
00:43:22,040 --> 00:43:26,880
Speaker 1: feeling sad, but it's more widely encompassing than that. And

702
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:30,320
Speaker 1: I think that's when you said, like, yeah, because Hollywood

703
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:34,040
Speaker 1: doesn't really focus on the other parts, like Adonia when

704
00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:37,200
Speaker 1: she's going through this, or my other friend that literally

705
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:40,360
Speaker 1: had to be put into a comforts lescent place because

706
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:43,880
Speaker 1: of that depression was so severe, so you know, and

707
00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:48,560
Speaker 1: she's doing fine now, But was explaining that to me

708
00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:52,640
Speaker 1: on the show, of how intense it was, and to

709
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:56,600
Speaker 1: understand that mental health issues and disorders are so nebulous

710
00:43:56,920 --> 00:43:59,759
Speaker 1: and so expansive that you just cannot just kneel it

711
00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:02,279
Speaker 1: down on to like you said, depression like when I

712
00:44:02,440 --> 00:44:05,359
Speaker 1: because I remember her then I remember my other friend,

713
00:44:05,680 --> 00:44:07,839
Speaker 1: don't even but she said she sat in her car

714
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:11,759
Speaker 1: for sixteen hours, you know, literally not being able to

715
00:44:11,880 --> 00:44:15,040
Speaker 1: move because she was so depressed. She couldn't drive to work,

716
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:17,160
Speaker 1: but she got up early in the morning, she got

717
00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:21,160
Speaker 1: on and got dressed, but she couldn't make the transition

718
00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:24,000
Speaker 1: to go to well. Obviously she lost the job eventually,

719
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:27,480
Speaker 1: but that's another part. And when she became in house.

720
00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:30,800
Speaker 1: This is the other part of the conversation. That I

721
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:33,920
Speaker 1: don't think people understand the full scope of it. So

722
00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:36,319
Speaker 1: when they see people like they don't understand, they make

723
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:39,319
Speaker 1: the snap judgments they're resistant to treatment, or they are

724
00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:42,920
Speaker 1: when they're making having an episode or break from reality.

725
00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:49,560
Speaker 1: These things go on without a clear understanding the inner

726
00:44:49,600 --> 00:44:51,719
Speaker 1: workings of what's going on with the person. It's not

727
00:44:51,840 --> 00:44:55,960
Speaker 1: always such and usage, and people misdiagnosed or mischaracterize what

728
00:44:56,080 --> 00:44:58,439
Speaker 1: people are going through. And I think this is such

729
00:44:58,719 --> 00:45:00,600
Speaker 1: a very important converse station to have.

730
00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:04,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think part of the hollywoodization of things too

731
00:45:05,280 --> 00:45:08,320
Speaker 4: is just right. The narration never comes from the person

732
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:11,840
Speaker 4: experiencing it. And it's like if you go watch, you know,

733
00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:16,280
Speaker 4: some TV show, these illnesses will be portrayed as horrible,

734
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:19,000
Speaker 4: but they'll be portrayed as horrible because of the things

735
00:45:19,040 --> 00:45:22,120
Speaker 4: that sane people will do to you, not because of

736
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:25,600
Speaker 4: what the internal experience is. But I will say, like,

737
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:30,400
Speaker 4: I don't know anyone who you know has a diagnosis

738
00:45:30,480 --> 00:45:33,040
Speaker 4: across this spectrum, and myself and so many of my

739
00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:36,560
Speaker 4: friends do that hasn't suffered tremendously, And there's just a

740
00:45:36,680 --> 00:45:41,960
Speaker 4: real lack of empathy, I think because other people haven't

741
00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 4: experienced this same thing and their primary you know, interaction

742
00:45:48,920 --> 00:45:53,760
Speaker 4: with somebody that they know or suspect, especially on house people,

743
00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:58,200
Speaker 4: is how this person is affecting me, not what's going

744
00:45:58,239 --> 00:46:00,560
Speaker 4: on internally for this person, or how how in the

745
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:02,560
Speaker 4: heck is this person sposed to navigate.

746
00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:05,880
Speaker 1: The world like this, you know, and the limited resources too.

747
00:46:06,040 --> 00:46:08,719
Speaker 1: I remember, and I don't want to get too far

748
00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:12,799
Speaker 1: off the topic, but I also knew a gentleman he's schizophrenia,

749
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:15,799
Speaker 1: and he was telling me the frustration that he has

750
00:46:16,320 --> 00:46:19,200
Speaker 1: that he has schizophrenia, but I believe he also has

751
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:22,239
Speaker 1: like the outbursts, the verbal outbursts, like a Tourette's kind

752
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:25,960
Speaker 1: of thing, and he knows the triggers and things that's

753
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:28,400
Speaker 1: going to happen to him. And what he would do

754
00:46:28,680 --> 00:46:31,319
Speaker 1: is he would try to go in places that would

755
00:46:31,400 --> 00:46:34,160
Speaker 1: kind of be secluded or in a place where it

756
00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:38,120
Speaker 1: was it's away from people to have the episode. But

757
00:46:38,600 --> 00:46:41,480
Speaker 1: people would see him going through this episode, and you

758
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:43,440
Speaker 1: know what they do, They will call the police. And

759
00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:47,520
Speaker 1: he said, how frustrating it became because now he's got

760
00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:50,759
Speaker 1: to worry about being attacked physically whatever, and still go

761
00:46:50,880 --> 00:46:53,160
Speaker 1: through this episode. He had the enough of the presence

762
00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:55,600
Speaker 1: of mind to know that he had to juggle all

763
00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:58,120
Speaker 1: the balls at the same time and something is going

764
00:46:58,200 --> 00:47:01,759
Speaker 1: to fall. And when you have you bring on an

765
00:47:01,880 --> 00:47:05,000
Speaker 1: armed response from a police officer who claims they have

766
00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:07,800
Speaker 1: mental health training, but yet their first thing is tasting

767
00:47:07,880 --> 00:47:11,239
Speaker 1: and beating the hell out of or shooting, then you know,

768
00:47:12,160 --> 00:47:14,480
Speaker 1: it makes the encounter much more dangerous.

769
00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:19,640
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Yeah, the involvement of police is a

770
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:22,759
Speaker 4: huge problem, say the least.

771
00:47:23,200 --> 00:47:27,080
Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, So when you say you're advocating what resources,

772
00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:30,840
Speaker 1: what things can be done to help educate the audience,

773
00:47:30,960 --> 00:47:33,640
Speaker 1: but also to give some hope to people that are

774
00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:37,000
Speaker 1: experiencing this, because you said you're advocating for peer support

775
00:47:37,040 --> 00:47:39,279
Speaker 1: and things like that. So let's talk a little bit

776
00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:40,520
Speaker 1: more on that. Sure.

777
00:47:41,160 --> 00:47:44,239
Speaker 4: I think the first thing that I tell people who

778
00:47:44,360 --> 00:47:49,160
Speaker 4: don't have any knowledge of the resources that exist in

779
00:47:49,400 --> 00:47:52,920
Speaker 4: our systems is that there are virtually none. I think

780
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:57,120
Speaker 4: that's the first thing that unless you you know, work

781
00:47:57,200 --> 00:48:00,799
Speaker 4: in this field or you've experienced it personally, you will

782
00:48:01,040 --> 00:48:05,040
Speaker 4: not have a knowledge of what there is not And

783
00:48:05,280 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 4: so you would think, you know, I mean, folks with

784
00:48:08,560 --> 00:48:11,440
Speaker 4: mental illness don't have any entitlements from the state of California,

785
00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:16,480
Speaker 4: right so you're stuck. Social Security Disability or SSI. This

786
00:48:16,760 --> 00:48:19,920
Speaker 4: is what nine hundred and fourteen dollars a month if

787
00:48:20,080 --> 00:48:23,400
Speaker 4: it's SSI, or if it's SSDI, you might get twelve

788
00:48:23,480 --> 00:48:25,480
Speaker 4: hundred if you have a work history, maybe a little more.

789
00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:29,160
Speaker 4: But there's no income, right, there's no entitlement to income

790
00:48:29,840 --> 00:48:32,360
Speaker 4: from the federal level. There is no entitlement to housing.

791
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:36,239
Speaker 4: Disabled people can qualify for hood, but we know that

792
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:39,640
Speaker 4: that's then on the ground that Section eight is you know,

793
00:48:39,920 --> 00:48:42,360
Speaker 4: I mean maybe people don't like for the communities that

794
00:48:42,440 --> 00:48:45,520
Speaker 4: were from you probably do. No, there's a tenure Section

795
00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:48,520
Speaker 4: eight waiting list for most people don't know that exactly.

796
00:48:48,640 --> 00:48:49,160
Speaker 1: Some people the.

797
00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:52,399
Speaker 4: Legislator don't know that, right, So you just you don't

798
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:54,359
Speaker 4: you're not going to have a social safety net. There's

799
00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:57,680
Speaker 4: no income, there's no housing. A lot of times there's

800
00:48:58,239 --> 00:49:02,160
Speaker 4: no adequate medical care either. And then there's no adequate

801
00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:05,279
Speaker 4: supplement to medical care because I think one of the

802
00:49:05,360 --> 00:49:08,520
Speaker 4: things that's difficult about these disabilities is like, you know,

803
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:12,360
Speaker 4: people think of intellectual or developmental disabilities as sort of

804
00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:16,719
Speaker 4: permanent static states, and we're willing to invest in resources

805
00:49:16,840 --> 00:49:21,560
Speaker 4: that are simply quality of life enhancing for people with disabilities,

806
00:49:21,760 --> 00:49:24,560
Speaker 4: but in this context, people sort of think you're either

807
00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:26,840
Speaker 4: curable or we're just going to put you in an institution.

808
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:30,560
Speaker 4: So you know, this this idea of resources that would

809
00:49:30,680 --> 00:49:33,520
Speaker 4: just be quality of life enhancing for people that doesn't

810
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:37,520
Speaker 4: really exist either. So that's fairly bleak THEOL. But you know,

811
00:49:37,600 --> 00:49:39,960
Speaker 4: I really want to hit on the medical stuff too,

812
00:49:40,239 --> 00:49:44,480
Speaker 4: because right now it's not just the federal government that's

813
00:49:44,560 --> 00:49:49,560
Speaker 4: going after our social safety net healthcare insurance, it's also

814
00:49:49,680 --> 00:49:52,839
Speaker 4: the state of California and so and it comes out

815
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:56,320
Speaker 4: of nowhere. So you know, for folks that obviously do

816
00:49:56,680 --> 00:50:00,920
Speaker 4: have serious and impactful illnesses, that will will not be

817
00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:03,680
Speaker 4: it will not go well for anyone if they don't

818
00:50:03,719 --> 00:50:07,560
Speaker 4: have access to some modalities and forms of treatment, and

819
00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:10,520
Speaker 4: we're seeing that stuff just dry up. We met through

820
00:50:10,600 --> 00:50:13,640
Speaker 4: friends because I was instrumental in no on Prop one,

821
00:50:14,239 --> 00:50:18,880
Speaker 4: which was basically, frankly, you know, the news administration doging

822
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:23,600
Speaker 4: our state systems. So I assume everyone knows the verb

823
00:50:23,760 --> 00:50:26,600
Speaker 4: to doge. It needs to come in and slash and burn.

824
00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:30,760
Speaker 4: So you know, we first had this wave of cutting

825
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:35,080
Speaker 4: all this adjunct funding, the stuff that's just cash outside

826
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:38,520
Speaker 4: of health insurance to do things like peer support or

827
00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:42,880
Speaker 4: drop in centers, or alternative and culturally specific treatments or

828
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:46,120
Speaker 4: prevention and early intervention. Right, there was just all this

829
00:50:46,440 --> 00:50:50,440
Speaker 4: body of work or non clinical respite cares. So there

830
00:50:50,560 --> 00:50:53,279
Speaker 4: was like all this stuff that was just financed out

831
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:55,960
Speaker 4: of our tax dollars, not part of health insurance, and

832
00:50:56,239 --> 00:50:59,120
Speaker 4: was meant to augment the health insurance system. And they

833
00:50:59,160 --> 00:51:01,400
Speaker 4: came in and were just like, we don't get this.

834
00:51:02,080 --> 00:51:03,960
Speaker 4: You know, we don't think this is efficient. We just

835
00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:08,120
Speaker 4: think that what everyone needs our mental health probation basically,

836
00:51:08,560 --> 00:51:11,120
Speaker 4: like you know, you need to take your meds, and

837
00:51:11,160 --> 00:51:12,520
Speaker 4: you need to get a job, and you need to

838
00:51:12,560 --> 00:51:15,560
Speaker 4: do whatever. So all of that money that was supporting

839
00:51:15,680 --> 00:51:19,320
Speaker 4: sort of alternative stuff basically got cut in favor of

840
00:51:20,160 --> 00:51:25,120
Speaker 4: pushing it into some like supposedly expanded Medicaid services or

841
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:29,640
Speaker 4: medical services. And now we're seeing threats to that expansion

842
00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:32,520
Speaker 4: from the federal level. So it's not good. And I

843
00:51:32,560 --> 00:51:35,600
Speaker 4: would say in the last you know, two weeks probably

844
00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:39,680
Speaker 4: the state of California proposed to reinstitute the asset limit

845
00:51:39,800 --> 00:51:44,000
Speaker 4: test or disabled people and elderly people on Medicaid. So

846
00:51:44,239 --> 00:51:48,360
Speaker 4: California is medical, It's you know the federal Medicaid program

847
00:51:48,480 --> 00:51:52,680
Speaker 4: in California is called medical and the budget through a

848
00:51:52,760 --> 00:51:56,160
Speaker 4: budget motion, which is budget action budget trailer bill, which

849
00:51:56,160 --> 00:51:59,000
Speaker 4: is not a normal way to make law. The governor

850
00:51:59,160 --> 00:52:04,040
Speaker 4: is proposing to return the two thousand dollars asset limit

851
00:52:04,160 --> 00:52:06,400
Speaker 4: test to getting health insurance if you're disabled. So what

852
00:52:06,440 --> 00:52:08,520
Speaker 4: does that mean. It means you have to have a

853
00:52:08,560 --> 00:52:11,600
Speaker 4: low enough income, and then you also can't own anything,

854
00:52:11,800 --> 00:52:14,600
Speaker 4: virtually anything it's two thousand dollars worth of stuff, or

855
00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:18,200
Speaker 4: you get kicked off health insurance. And maybe he hurt

856
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:20,560
Speaker 4: me when I was talking to talking about people living

857
00:52:20,600 --> 00:52:23,480
Speaker 4: in their nineteen ninety six Honda Civic with no income

858
00:52:23,560 --> 00:52:26,040
Speaker 4: and why they should have healthcare even though their cars

859
00:52:26,080 --> 00:52:29,160
Speaker 4: worth two thousand and one dollars. So it looks like

860
00:52:29,200 --> 00:52:33,560
Speaker 4: they probably will exclude home ownership and car ownership from assets.

861
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:35,360
Speaker 4: But if you have more than two thousand dollars in

862
00:52:35,400 --> 00:52:39,280
Speaker 4: the bank, you will not have health insurance for the disabled,

863
00:52:40,040 --> 00:52:42,640
Speaker 4: even if you have zero income. That's what they're proposing,

864
00:52:42,719 --> 00:52:45,000
Speaker 4: and that's on top of what's going on at the

865
00:52:45,040 --> 00:52:48,560
Speaker 4: federal level, which will also disenroll people. I think the

866
00:52:48,640 --> 00:52:52,920
Speaker 4: primary concern for disabled people is work requirements in Medicaid

867
00:52:52,960 --> 00:52:57,160
Speaker 4: at the federal level, they usually try to exempt out

868
00:52:57,680 --> 00:53:01,000
Speaker 4: people with disabilities, but they can make those those exemptions

869
00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:04,040
Speaker 4: so narrow, are so burdensome that the result is people

870
00:53:04,120 --> 00:53:09,160
Speaker 4: getting disenrolled. So I think the future right now, unfortunately

871
00:53:09,239 --> 00:53:11,680
Speaker 4: in California, is going to look like a lot more

872
00:53:11,800 --> 00:53:17,840
Speaker 4: uninsured people, even people with severe and disabling conditions, which.

873
00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:20,200
Speaker 1: Also uptails nicely into the next point of I was

874
00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:23,960
Speaker 1: mentioning about the EBT and the requirements. What they're doing.

875
00:53:24,040 --> 00:53:28,520
Speaker 1: They're forcing older people, even disabled people to work under

876
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:32,440
Speaker 1: stricter guidelines. They've recently passed it, and I was wondering

877
00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:36,279
Speaker 1: to see this how this portends very ominously, because not

878
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:40,000
Speaker 1: only if you are not physically able to sustain yourself

879
00:53:40,360 --> 00:53:42,880
Speaker 1: and into now you're dealing with starvation, you're dealing with

880
00:53:43,080 --> 00:53:47,839
Speaker 1: the privation of needs necessities in order to survive. Now

881
00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:51,600
Speaker 1: it's become much more dystopian. And I was wondering, what

882
00:53:51,800 --> 00:53:54,360
Speaker 1: do you see? What is your perspective on the recent

883
00:53:54,560 --> 00:53:57,440
Speaker 1: Republican budget cuts against SNAP and EBT.

884
00:53:58,080 --> 00:54:00,920
Speaker 4: Actually, I have been so swamp trying to figure out

885
00:54:00,960 --> 00:54:04,200
Speaker 4: what they were doing with medicaid and medical in California.

886
00:54:04,200 --> 00:54:06,000
Speaker 4: And because you get no notice and then you have

887
00:54:06,160 --> 00:54:08,719
Speaker 4: no virtually no opportunity if you're going to do advocacy

888
00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:11,960
Speaker 4: to respond. So I haven't actually looked particularly at the

889
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:15,040
Speaker 4: snap stuff, and you will be educating me, but I mean,

890
00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:17,319
Speaker 4: as you know, it's only been how many years has

891
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:20,160
Speaker 4: it even been since you've been able to get Social

892
00:54:20,239 --> 00:54:23,959
Speaker 4: Security SSISSDI and food stamps? Not that many years?

893
00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:26,920
Speaker 1: Yes, to give a little more background on it as well,

894
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:31,200
Speaker 1: that before women that had children were exempt and could

895
00:54:31,360 --> 00:54:34,120
Speaker 1: get snapped. But there's this point if their child is

896
00:54:34,160 --> 00:54:36,960
Speaker 1: seven years old, then they must get back to verb now.

897
00:54:37,480 --> 00:54:40,480
Speaker 1: And the person that is like older disabled but to

898
00:54:40,680 --> 00:54:43,320
Speaker 1: like sixty four years old, they have to work and

899
00:54:43,440 --> 00:54:46,720
Speaker 1: the term limit is three months to be on EBT SNAP.

900
00:54:47,120 --> 00:54:49,080
Speaker 1: So that seems like a disaster to me. And I

901
00:54:49,239 --> 00:54:52,120
Speaker 1: just wanted to see why all of this is going on,

902
00:54:52,320 --> 00:54:54,520
Speaker 1: and one of it brings back the purpose of the

903
00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:59,320
Speaker 1: show is to educate people that want to really understand

904
00:54:59,480 --> 00:55:04,759
Speaker 1: how bad things are and how challenging dealing with houselessness is.

905
00:55:04,920 --> 00:55:07,560
Speaker 1: It's not just as simple this person made bad choices

906
00:55:07,600 --> 00:55:10,320
Speaker 1: and then they're following on part times too bad so

907
00:55:10,520 --> 00:55:13,239
Speaker 1: sad it's like this is not out of tandem. These

908
00:55:13,280 --> 00:55:16,400
Speaker 1: things are well thought out. These things are engineered to

909
00:55:16,520 --> 00:55:20,560
Speaker 1: create as much misery, much displacement, and much pain to

910
00:55:20,840 --> 00:55:24,120
Speaker 1: vulnerable people almost often and not people of color or

911
00:55:24,200 --> 00:55:27,839
Speaker 1: people with disabilities, and also the intersections that run through

912
00:55:28,000 --> 00:55:31,320
Speaker 1: poverty to suffer as much as they possibly can, and

913
00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:34,560
Speaker 1: to blame them for their own misfortunes.

914
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:38,520
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean this will have a traumatic Snap cuts

915
00:55:38,520 --> 00:55:42,040
Speaker 4: would have a dramatic especially if there's work requirements. And

916
00:55:42,280 --> 00:55:44,319
Speaker 4: I mean, I think it's also important to just say,

917
00:55:44,480 --> 00:55:48,720
Speaker 4: you know, we're using the acronyms SSI, SSDI or SNAP,

918
00:55:49,200 --> 00:55:51,360
Speaker 4: and the S in all of those stands for the

919
00:55:51,440 --> 00:55:55,280
Speaker 4: same thing. It stands for supplemental. Yes, it's never supposed

920
00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:59,120
Speaker 4: to have been enough money to eat or enough money

921
00:55:59,200 --> 00:56:02,880
Speaker 4: to live on. And so to you know, cut the

922
00:56:02,960 --> 00:56:05,839
Speaker 4: legs out of something that is supposed to be supplemental

923
00:56:05,920 --> 00:56:10,160
Speaker 4: and that tens of millions of Americans currently qualify for

924
00:56:10,440 --> 00:56:15,600
Speaker 4: and rely on. And I just can't, I mean, obviously

925
00:56:16,560 --> 00:56:20,879
Speaker 4: when you for too many people, right, the supplement isn't

926
00:56:20,920 --> 00:56:23,120
Speaker 4: to supplement, it's the whole thing, is.

927
00:56:23,120 --> 00:56:25,960
Speaker 1: The first thing, especially if you're in the house, especially.

928
00:56:25,560 --> 00:56:28,080
Speaker 4: If you're on house, especially if you're disabled and you

929
00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:31,040
Speaker 4: don't work, the supplement is all you get. It's never

930
00:56:31,160 --> 00:56:33,879
Speaker 4: been enough. And you know, the way that this kind

931
00:56:33,880 --> 00:56:37,759
Speaker 4: of immediately dovetails and affects people with disabilities is like

932
00:56:38,280 --> 00:56:41,919
Speaker 4: the rules, the legal rules under which we institutionalize people

933
00:56:41,960 --> 00:56:45,520
Speaker 4: in California are you can't provide for your own food, clothing,

934
00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:49,440
Speaker 4: and shelter, and you have, you know, now a substance

935
00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:52,759
Speaker 4: use disorder or a mental illness. And so it's a

936
00:56:52,800 --> 00:56:55,840
Speaker 4: bit of a catch twenty two, right if you're unable

937
00:56:55,920 --> 00:56:59,200
Speaker 4: to work, including because you're unwelcome, right, including because of

938
00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:02,320
Speaker 4: systemic just crimination, including because it's going to be difficult

939
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:04,800
Speaker 4: to get hired. If you're on house, you don't have

940
00:57:05,000 --> 00:57:08,600
Speaker 4: somewhere to shower, clean up, or simply people there's a

941
00:57:08,719 --> 00:57:11,920
Speaker 4: stigma associated with you or negative feelings associated with you

942
00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:13,759
Speaker 4: because you are in house, even if you're trying to

943
00:57:13,920 --> 00:57:16,640
Speaker 4: dig yourself out, you know, in the same thing with

944
00:57:16,880 --> 00:57:20,720
Speaker 4: many forms of disability. And so you know, it's a

945
00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:24,720
Speaker 4: catch twenty two for folks. It's you can't provide for yourself,

946
00:57:25,040 --> 00:57:28,960
Speaker 4: and these strings attached of if the state has to

947
00:57:29,040 --> 00:57:30,760
Speaker 4: provide for you, as the state can do any damn

948
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:33,800
Speaker 4: thing it wants, and that should be really concerning to people,

949
00:57:33,880 --> 00:57:36,920
Speaker 4: I think to all people, because we shouldn't have our

950
00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:41,880
Speaker 4: benefits systems be forms of state control. I mean, anyone

951
00:57:42,000 --> 00:57:45,560
Speaker 4: may end up needing it. And I don't understand the

952
00:57:45,640 --> 00:57:52,120
Speaker 4: point of becoming more harsh, creating harsher conditions for people

953
00:57:52,960 --> 00:57:57,560
Speaker 4: when we're clearly living in bad economic times, in extraordinarily

954
00:57:57,960 --> 00:58:01,480
Speaker 4: historically bad economic times when it comes to housing. And

955
00:58:01,560 --> 00:58:04,200
Speaker 4: I don't know what the powers that be think the

956
00:58:04,320 --> 00:58:08,200
Speaker 4: cumulative effect of this will be, but it's not going

957
00:58:08,280 --> 00:58:11,200
Speaker 4: to be nothing. We're talking about a very large number

958
00:58:11,240 --> 00:58:14,800
Speaker 4: of people, and I think that's something that is different.

959
00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:18,479
Speaker 4: I don't think, you know, we haven't seen administrations really

960
00:58:18,800 --> 00:58:22,680
Speaker 4: go quite so hard after the Social Safety Net since

961
00:58:22,880 --> 00:58:25,880
Speaker 4: you know, I mean I was too young for Clinton,

962
00:58:26,800 --> 00:58:29,480
Speaker 4: uh you know, because I think that's the last time

963
00:58:29,560 --> 00:58:31,960
Speaker 4: it was sort of in the national consciousness that there

964
00:58:32,080 --> 00:58:34,000
Speaker 4: was like such a thing as a welfare queen and

965
00:58:34,080 --> 00:58:36,280
Speaker 4: we're going to make it stop. But I was too

966
00:58:36,360 --> 00:58:38,919
Speaker 4: young to really understand what was happening then in terms

967
00:58:38,960 --> 00:58:42,160
Speaker 4: of policy. I was probably like ten, So I don't know,

968
00:58:42,320 --> 00:58:44,520
Speaker 4: but it feels like it's been a long time since

969
00:58:44,600 --> 00:58:49,320
Speaker 4: We've been in a place where there is a real

970
00:58:50,000 --> 00:58:54,840
Speaker 4: concerted desire and insufficient pushback to just sort of rip

971
00:58:54,880 --> 00:58:57,640
Speaker 4: away a lot of this social safety net stuff. And

972
00:58:58,000 --> 00:58:59,520
Speaker 4: I don't know what the impact is going to be

973
00:58:59,600 --> 00:59:03,440
Speaker 4: because it's just too many people. It's so many people,

974
00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:06,120
Speaker 4: and so I you know, as a political calculus, I'm

975
00:59:06,200 --> 00:59:10,040
Speaker 4: kind of like when y'all think's gonna happen. No, I mean,

976
00:59:10,080 --> 00:59:11,840
Speaker 4: I don't want to laugh about it because it's not funny,

977
00:59:11,880 --> 00:59:14,640
Speaker 4: because there is too much misery. But it's not good

978
00:59:14,720 --> 00:59:17,560
Speaker 4: economic times, and you know, and not only that, but

979
00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:21,160
Speaker 4: it's various other forms of restriction. And you know, everyone's

980
00:59:21,200 --> 00:59:24,240
Speaker 4: familiar with what happened after you know, let them Eat Cake,

981
00:59:24,680 --> 00:59:27,360
Speaker 4: So don't let them Eat Cake could be a new

982
00:59:27,720 --> 00:59:29,440
Speaker 4: episode and we'll see what happens.

983
00:59:31,120 --> 00:59:39,000
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more from Claire Cardway. Welcome

984
00:59:39,040 --> 00:59:42,200
Speaker 1: back to Weedian House. I'm Theo Henderson. Let's jump back

985
00:59:42,240 --> 00:59:46,280
Speaker 1: into my conversation with Claire, which brings up an interesting

986
00:59:46,360 --> 00:59:48,920
Speaker 1: point too, because this looks like we're going to go

987
00:59:49,040 --> 00:59:53,120
Speaker 1: into economic tail spin because there's no way with the

988
00:59:53,880 --> 00:59:57,360
Speaker 1: screws being tightened on every facet of poor and vulnerable

989
00:59:57,440 --> 01:00:00,160
Speaker 1: people there's going to be some kind of movement or

990
01:00:00,240 --> 01:00:03,560
Speaker 1: there's going to be some crying out because you cannot

991
01:00:03,760 --> 01:00:07,280
Speaker 1: cut off or you cannot demonize a vulnerable people and

992
01:00:07,400 --> 01:00:09,520
Speaker 1: expect them to stay silent. You know, you know, it

993
01:00:10,360 --> 01:00:13,280
Speaker 1: can work for a brief moment that you can claim

994
01:00:13,360 --> 01:00:15,440
Speaker 1: them as the bad people or the bad guys, but

995
01:00:15,680 --> 01:00:17,800
Speaker 1: then there's going to be a certain period of time,

996
01:00:17,920 --> 01:00:19,960
Speaker 1: like for example, as we are, we're going to take

997
01:00:19,960 --> 01:00:23,800
Speaker 1: a moment to talk of dumpy Trump about his his

998
01:00:23,960 --> 01:00:26,960
Speaker 1: followers that are shocked that they are being mistreated or

999
01:00:27,040 --> 01:00:30,120
Speaker 1: being deported or they're losing their jobs. And this is

1000
01:00:30,240 --> 01:00:32,560
Speaker 1: my response to that. It's like you were, okay, we're

1001
01:00:32,640 --> 01:00:36,320
Speaker 1: hurting other people, but you did not calculate that this

1002
01:00:36,560 --> 01:00:37,720
Speaker 1: was going to be you were going to be hurt.

1003
01:00:37,840 --> 01:00:42,240
Speaker 1: So my empathy is very marginally marginal on their their

1004
01:00:42,320 --> 01:00:44,280
Speaker 1: misery and role. But the point of it is if

1005
01:00:44,320 --> 01:00:47,680
Speaker 1: they wasn't being the fact that you will be applauding

1006
01:00:47,840 --> 01:00:51,560
Speaker 1: Matt Lee or sycopathically against them suffering of us a

1007
01:00:51,640 --> 01:00:54,160
Speaker 1: vulnerable people. And the thing of it is now that

1008
01:00:54,320 --> 01:00:57,360
Speaker 1: this is going to be hit a wide net of people.

1009
01:00:57,560 --> 01:00:59,520
Speaker 1: This is just not going to just be on only

1010
01:00:59,600 --> 01:01:02,840
Speaker 1: one community. This is going to hit people in every

1011
01:01:02,880 --> 01:01:06,640
Speaker 1: aspect of life, from house to unhoused to housing and secure.

1012
01:01:07,160 --> 01:01:10,000
Speaker 1: These is going to impact people, and people may do

1013
01:01:10,960 --> 01:01:13,600
Speaker 1: creative solutions to meet the need and meet the moment,

1014
01:01:13,840 --> 01:01:16,000
Speaker 1: you know. And like a friend of mine used to say,

1015
01:01:16,040 --> 01:01:18,800
Speaker 1: take penitentiary chances in order to surlive, you know.

1016
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:23,439
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean absolutely it will have a broad

1017
01:01:23,520 --> 01:01:28,240
Speaker 4: economic impact because it also you know, this is a

1018
01:01:28,400 --> 01:01:31,000
Speaker 4: form of I mean, you're it's a form of consumption, right,

1019
01:01:31,240 --> 01:01:34,000
Speaker 4: Like we're paying for healthcare, we're paying for food, right,

1020
01:01:34,360 --> 01:01:38,360
Speaker 4: We're paying for housing, and so that does ripple out

1021
01:01:38,440 --> 01:01:42,000
Speaker 4: into the broader economy. And yeah, so I don't think

1022
01:01:42,040 --> 01:01:45,360
Speaker 4: anybody can really calculate exactly how great the impact will

1023
01:01:45,400 --> 01:01:48,600
Speaker 4: be right now. But again, it's it's really hard to

1024
01:01:48,960 --> 01:01:54,200
Speaker 4: sort of sell the narrative that individual, you know, responsibility

1025
01:01:54,360 --> 01:01:57,960
Speaker 4: is the problem when it's a third of the country

1026
01:01:58,160 --> 01:02:00,240
Speaker 4: at least, right, And I mean, if you're talking about

1027
01:02:00,320 --> 01:02:03,760
Speaker 4: non duplicated numbers between you know, children that are on

1028
01:02:03,920 --> 01:02:09,600
Speaker 4: Medicaid or people receiving SNAP or people receiving SSISSDI, because

1029
01:02:09,640 --> 01:02:11,680
Speaker 4: you don't know what they're going to mess with, you're

1030
01:02:11,720 --> 01:02:13,760
Speaker 4: starting to talk about like at least a third of

1031
01:02:13,800 --> 01:02:16,120
Speaker 4: the country, there's only three hundred and thirty million people.

1032
01:02:16,200 --> 01:02:19,000
Speaker 4: When you're telling me there's you know, seventy two million

1033
01:02:19,080 --> 01:02:23,560
Speaker 4: people on Medicaid or forty two million people on food stamps,

1034
01:02:24,080 --> 01:02:26,320
Speaker 4: you know, it becomes I think, more and more difficult

1035
01:02:26,520 --> 01:02:30,160
Speaker 4: to use the sort of economic segregation in the country

1036
01:02:30,280 --> 01:02:33,920
Speaker 4: as a way to that not knowing not knowing how

1037
01:02:33,960 --> 01:02:38,800
Speaker 4: it is that you fall off the treadmill of capitalism

1038
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:41,240
Speaker 4: in the United States because you haven't fallen off yet,

1039
01:02:41,280 --> 01:02:43,480
Speaker 4: but the ways that you could fall off are infinite,

1040
01:02:43,920 --> 01:02:46,920
Speaker 4: and so you know, people who haven't ever fallen off

1041
01:02:47,000 --> 01:02:50,360
Speaker 4: or come close to falling off, have maybe a sense

1042
01:02:50,520 --> 01:02:53,000
Speaker 4: that it's it's only one or two ways that this

1043
01:02:53,120 --> 01:02:56,160
Speaker 4: could happen, when it's it's really infinite. But when you start,

1044
01:02:56,360 --> 01:03:00,000
Speaker 4: you know, when you're so economically segregated in the neighborhood

1045
01:03:00,120 --> 01:03:02,080
Speaker 4: that you live in you can't afford to live in,

1046
01:03:02,600 --> 01:03:05,400
Speaker 4: you start having people that also have kind of a

1047
01:03:05,600 --> 01:03:10,080
Speaker 4: stale and non various experience in some ways, but you

1048
01:03:10,480 --> 01:03:12,560
Speaker 4: come from a different kind of neighborhood, or you lived

1049
01:03:12,600 --> 01:03:14,640
Speaker 4: in a different kind of neighborhood, or you're in the

1050
01:03:15,080 --> 01:03:19,240
Speaker 4: lower classes. I guess really where I came from. Then

1051
01:03:19,280 --> 01:03:23,240
Speaker 4: you do just in the back of your pocket have Oh, well,

1052
01:03:23,320 --> 01:03:25,080
Speaker 4: this is what happened to my neighbor, this is what

1053
01:03:25,160 --> 01:03:27,800
Speaker 4: happened to my friend's husband is a veteran. He died

1054
01:03:27,840 --> 01:03:31,640
Speaker 4: by suicide. To young kids, you know, another person died

1055
01:03:31,640 --> 01:03:36,600
Speaker 4: of cancer, or there was an accident or or I mean,

1056
01:03:36,680 --> 01:03:41,560
Speaker 4: it's just and especially now when things have gotten very,

1057
01:03:41,720 --> 01:03:44,240
Speaker 4: very difficult with the cost of housing. It could be

1058
01:03:44,320 --> 01:03:46,400
Speaker 4: anyone at any time, and you don't want to feel

1059
01:03:46,440 --> 01:03:51,600
Speaker 4: that vulnerability, but it definitely exists for everyone, especially in California.

1060
01:03:52,280 --> 01:03:55,720
Speaker 1: No, you know, I always say in order for oppressing

1061
01:03:55,840 --> 01:03:59,040
Speaker 1: to be as effective as it is, you need participants

1062
01:03:59,120 --> 01:04:02,920
Speaker 1: that are invested in their own oppression. But also that

1063
01:04:03,040 --> 01:04:05,880
Speaker 1: if you can demonize the people, then you can criminalize them.

1064
01:04:06,200 --> 01:04:09,240
Speaker 1: And it goes and send hand to hand with the

1065
01:04:09,480 --> 01:04:13,040
Speaker 1: verdict or the ettic that President Trump mentioned about the

1066
01:04:13,120 --> 01:04:17,120
Speaker 1: unhoused community on public lands and telling about mass sweeps

1067
01:04:17,160 --> 01:04:21,320
Speaker 1: and things like that, these kind of actions are happening

1068
01:04:21,480 --> 01:04:24,960
Speaker 1: under our nose, on our attention or lack thereof, and

1069
01:04:25,760 --> 01:04:28,640
Speaker 1: we are at a point that we need to ask

1070
01:04:28,720 --> 01:04:32,480
Speaker 1: some questions like what can we do, what should we do,

1071
01:04:32,840 --> 01:04:34,920
Speaker 1: and is there is there anything we can do?

1072
01:04:35,440 --> 01:04:38,680
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I'm asking myself this too, because you know,

1073
01:04:38,800 --> 01:04:42,480
Speaker 4: I'm blessed because even though you know, I haven't been

1074
01:04:42,640 --> 01:04:45,800
Speaker 4: on house for long periods of time or dealt with

1075
01:04:46,080 --> 01:04:51,080
Speaker 4: completely unsheltered homelessness, and I have increasingly, you know, as

1076
01:04:51,120 --> 01:04:54,360
Speaker 4: I've done different work, and I've realized that I should

1077
01:04:54,400 --> 01:04:56,760
Speaker 4: talk to my neighbors, that they are my neighbors. That

1078
01:04:56,920 --> 01:04:59,040
Speaker 4: when I've lived in a neighborhood and there are folks

1079
01:04:59,080 --> 01:05:01,000
Speaker 4: that are in house that I'm unable to house too,

1080
01:05:01,320 --> 01:05:03,479
Speaker 4: I just don't have the resources to do it. Can't

1081
01:05:03,720 --> 01:05:05,880
Speaker 4: let somebody be in my apartment unfortunately, or what it

1082
01:05:05,960 --> 01:05:08,600
Speaker 4: house at least one of my friends. But you know,

1083
01:05:08,960 --> 01:05:11,880
Speaker 4: as I just started to get to know people and

1084
01:05:12,000 --> 01:05:16,800
Speaker 4: have conversations with people, I realized that the culture really

1085
01:05:16,880 --> 01:05:20,080
Speaker 4: has to change. And I realized that for me, I mean,

1086
01:05:20,160 --> 01:05:22,080
Speaker 4: this is just like the way that I'm thinking about

1087
01:05:22,080 --> 01:05:25,360
Speaker 4: it right now, but like this economic segregation and the

1088
01:05:25,440 --> 01:05:28,280
Speaker 4: suspicion that you're supposed to have across sort of lines

1089
01:05:28,320 --> 01:05:31,560
Speaker 4: of class. And the more that I talk to people

1090
01:05:32,040 --> 01:05:35,320
Speaker 4: and got to know people, the more that it changed me.

1091
01:05:35,920 --> 01:05:38,600
Speaker 4: You know, it changed my culture and my way of

1092
01:05:38,720 --> 01:05:41,200
Speaker 4: thinking and who I think about as my neighbors and

1093
01:05:41,280 --> 01:05:44,080
Speaker 4: even how I think about my neighborhood as safe or

1094
01:05:44,200 --> 01:05:47,840
Speaker 4: not safe. But it's it has been a very trying

1095
01:05:47,920 --> 01:05:50,880
Speaker 4: and overwhelming time, both at the state and the federal level,

1096
01:05:51,480 --> 01:05:53,920
Speaker 4: where when you do know people and you know the

1097
01:05:54,480 --> 01:05:58,160
Speaker 4: inaccuracies and the kind of the vicious narratives that are

1098
01:05:58,200 --> 01:06:01,520
Speaker 4: pushed around people, you know, you know, it's like really

1099
01:06:01,560 --> 01:06:04,000
Speaker 4: easy to spot a stereotype when you know the person

1100
01:06:04,120 --> 01:06:07,120
Speaker 4: that is supposed to fit the stereotype and doesn't, And

1101
01:06:07,320 --> 01:06:10,280
Speaker 4: so you know, more and more and more, just in

1102
01:06:10,360 --> 01:06:12,280
Speaker 4: my own life, I started to see that and you

1103
01:06:12,400 --> 01:06:15,360
Speaker 4: feel like really powerless right now because it's like a

1104
01:06:15,560 --> 01:06:19,720
Speaker 4: blitz creed. There's just a lot going on that is laying,

1105
01:06:20,520 --> 01:06:24,200
Speaker 4: you know, economic problems at the feet of people who

1106
01:06:24,320 --> 01:06:27,520
Speaker 4: are at least able to do something about it. Because

1107
01:06:27,520 --> 01:06:29,600
Speaker 4: I kind of think in some ways that even the

1108
01:06:30,280 --> 01:06:32,440
Speaker 4: you know, is it is it your fault that you're

1109
01:06:32,480 --> 01:06:34,600
Speaker 4: on house, Is it your fault that you're mentally ill?

1110
01:06:34,720 --> 01:06:36,440
Speaker 4: Is it your fault that you're poor? I mean, in

1111
01:06:36,560 --> 01:06:39,840
Speaker 4: some ways that's not even responsive to the to the situation,

1112
01:06:40,120 --> 01:06:43,200
Speaker 4: because it's really who has the power to do something

1113
01:06:43,320 --> 01:06:48,640
Speaker 4: about it. And my folks are virtually powerless, virtually powerless,

1114
01:06:48,840 --> 01:06:51,160
Speaker 4: and so you know, part of it is just it's

1115
01:06:51,240 --> 01:06:55,240
Speaker 4: non responsive because it's like, okay, even if you can

1116
01:06:55,400 --> 01:06:58,560
Speaker 4: use all of your carcural nets and your force treatment

1117
01:06:58,640 --> 01:07:01,840
Speaker 4: systems and the way that that's melding together, it's illogical.

1118
01:07:01,920 --> 01:07:02,440
Speaker 6: And they know it.

1119
01:07:02,600 --> 01:07:06,440
Speaker 4: It's like, even if you restore someone to sanity and

1120
01:07:06,680 --> 01:07:10,400
Speaker 4: sobriety after ten years on the street, than what that's

1121
01:07:10,520 --> 01:07:13,440
Speaker 4: enough to be housed in California. No, it's not right.

1122
01:07:13,640 --> 01:07:18,000
Speaker 4: This notion that personal responsibility is even an effective avenue

1123
01:07:18,080 --> 01:07:20,160
Speaker 4: to address some of these things seems kind of bunk

1124
01:07:20,280 --> 01:07:23,600
Speaker 4: to me, you know, but I don't know. I've really

1125
01:07:23,680 --> 01:07:26,680
Speaker 4: been thinking about it too. And you know, I defend

1126
01:07:26,720 --> 01:07:28,680
Speaker 4: my friends where I can. We have our little mutual

1127
01:07:28,720 --> 01:07:31,320
Speaker 4: aid networks. Is like somebody's jammed up, call me, call

1128
01:07:31,720 --> 01:07:33,200
Speaker 4: you know, we'll figure it out. We don't know how

1129
01:07:33,240 --> 01:07:34,960
Speaker 4: to do it, but we'll figure it out. So it's

1130
01:07:34,960 --> 01:07:36,760
Speaker 4: been a lot of that. But I think too that

1131
01:07:37,840 --> 01:07:40,200
Speaker 4: I was reflecting that I really think that culture is

1132
01:07:40,280 --> 01:07:43,560
Speaker 4: more powerful than law. It's more powerful than law. There's

1133
01:07:43,560 --> 01:07:45,320
Speaker 4: a lot of things that don't happen in the world

1134
01:07:45,400 --> 01:07:48,720
Speaker 4: simply because it's socially unacceptable and not because there's some

1135
01:07:48,960 --> 01:07:51,440
Speaker 4: law against it. I mean, I'm sure there is an

1136
01:07:51,440 --> 01:07:54,360
Speaker 4: anti littering law, but that's not the reason why there's

1137
01:07:54,440 --> 01:07:57,600
Speaker 4: not like people just throwing things out of their cars

1138
01:07:57,600 --> 01:07:59,200
Speaker 4: when they're driving down the street. It's more of a

1139
01:07:59,280 --> 01:08:02,640
Speaker 4: cultural and so to me, I'm like, the politics is

1140
01:08:02,720 --> 01:08:07,360
Speaker 4: so overwhelming that I'm slightly more interested in doing small

1141
01:08:07,480 --> 01:08:12,200
Speaker 4: things because I think that if the culture changes, that

1142
01:08:13,160 --> 01:08:15,120
Speaker 4: it just rolls uphill.

1143
01:08:15,560 --> 01:08:18,360
Speaker 1: What small things do you think get the ball going talk.

1144
01:08:18,240 --> 01:08:21,400
Speaker 4: To your on house neighbors, to talk to your neighbors period,

1145
01:08:21,880 --> 01:08:24,280
Speaker 4: you know, And it is kind of what you said

1146
01:08:25,040 --> 01:08:29,519
Speaker 4: about you know, what are people gonna taken penitentiary chances? Yeah,

1147
01:08:29,880 --> 01:08:32,880
Speaker 4: I mean, necessity is the mother of all invention, and

1148
01:08:32,960 --> 01:08:36,040
Speaker 4: so I'm just trying to think small, like what can

1149
01:08:36,160 --> 01:08:40,439
Speaker 4: I actually concretely do but also speak, you know, speak

1150
01:08:40,520 --> 01:08:44,559
Speaker 4: authentically about these things. And you know, I have friends

1151
01:08:44,600 --> 01:08:48,400
Speaker 4: all across the political spectrum, and I am gentle about it,

1152
01:08:48,479 --> 01:08:51,600
Speaker 4: but I will say, like, this isn't morally right, this

1153
01:08:51,760 --> 01:08:55,439
Speaker 4: isn't a good solution, this isn't meaningful policy, And I

1154
01:08:55,479 --> 01:08:57,679
Speaker 4: think that there's a lot more good will out there.

1155
01:08:58,160 --> 01:09:01,280
Speaker 4: I think a lot of the viciousness really thrives in

1156
01:09:02,240 --> 01:09:05,960
Speaker 4: suspicions and disconnections of people you don't actually know. I

1157
01:09:06,040 --> 01:09:09,640
Speaker 4: think it's it thrives on you know, the unknown to

1158
01:09:09,800 --> 01:09:13,400
Speaker 4: some extent, not all of it. But I feel like

1159
01:09:13,520 --> 01:09:16,280
Speaker 4: there's still more goodwill in the world than not. And

1160
01:09:16,320 --> 01:09:18,120
Speaker 4: I'm just not sure how to tap it and move

1161
01:09:18,160 --> 01:09:20,439
Speaker 4: it in the right direction. But I mean, we're clearly

1162
01:09:20,520 --> 01:09:23,679
Speaker 4: on the precipice of something because you just can't take

1163
01:09:23,840 --> 01:09:27,280
Speaker 4: the kind of economic conditions that exists in the United

1164
01:09:27,320 --> 01:09:31,599
Speaker 4: States broadly, and the number of people that are needing

1165
01:09:31,720 --> 01:09:36,200
Speaker 4: some form of qualifying for some form of supplemental assistance,

1166
01:09:36,200 --> 01:09:37,840
Speaker 4: because that's the other thing that people that have never

1167
01:09:38,000 --> 01:09:40,439
Speaker 4: like been on benefits don't know. It's like, oh, you

1168
01:09:40,520 --> 01:09:45,200
Speaker 4: think you just get stuff because you study dirt poor dirt,

1169
01:09:45,439 --> 01:09:48,599
Speaker 4: dirt dirt poor to qualify for most of this stuff,

1170
01:09:49,080 --> 01:09:51,519
Speaker 4: and then it's still just not even supposed to be enough.

1171
01:09:51,600 --> 01:09:53,240
Speaker 4: And you know, I mean, but I see all that

1172
01:09:53,360 --> 01:09:53,840
Speaker 4: stuff too.

1173
01:09:54,160 --> 01:09:55,960
Speaker 1: And the irony of it is is if you do

1174
01:09:56,120 --> 01:09:59,160
Speaker 1: get a halfway a foot back in the game, you

1175
01:09:59,280 --> 01:10:01,479
Speaker 1: have to pay pay back. They don't tell you that,

1176
01:10:01,680 --> 01:10:04,080
Speaker 1: like r you have to pay it back, right.

1177
01:10:04,040 --> 01:10:07,560
Speaker 4: And disabled people are caught in poverty traps, and like

1178
01:10:07,720 --> 01:10:12,120
Speaker 4: one of them is like putting an asset limit on Medicaid.

1179
01:10:12,240 --> 01:10:14,479
Speaker 4: So you want my people to get well and get

1180
01:10:14,520 --> 01:10:17,200
Speaker 4: a job, but they can't save up money for a

1181
01:10:17,360 --> 01:10:19,960
Speaker 4: car because they'll lose their health insurance. They can't save

1182
01:10:20,040 --> 01:10:22,880
Speaker 4: up money because they'll lose their food stamps, they can't

1183
01:10:22,880 --> 01:10:25,080
Speaker 4: save up money because they'll lose their housing. And so

1184
01:10:25,200 --> 01:10:30,639
Speaker 4: it's like this very strange system that is so invested

1185
01:10:30,720 --> 01:10:35,960
Speaker 4: in being punitive or attaching some kind of extremity to

1186
01:10:36,439 --> 01:10:40,080
Speaker 4: the benefit that people can't even move out of it

1187
01:10:40,600 --> 01:10:43,720
Speaker 4: because they're trapped. It's you know, they call it the

1188
01:10:43,800 --> 01:10:45,040
Speaker 4: welfare cliff, right.

1189
01:10:46,080 --> 01:10:49,759
Speaker 1: Very true. So now that we've gotten that, I wanted

1190
01:10:49,840 --> 01:10:53,320
Speaker 1: to touch base just on what have you been dealing

1191
01:10:53,400 --> 01:10:55,280
Speaker 1: with because you were working with the state bills you

1192
01:10:55,360 --> 01:10:57,720
Speaker 1: were mentioned earlier, what state bills that we should be

1193
01:10:57,760 --> 01:10:58,720
Speaker 1: paying attention.

1194
01:10:58,439 --> 01:11:01,040
Speaker 4: To now, I mean, really, the I think the most

1195
01:11:01,080 --> 01:11:04,360
Speaker 4: impactful stuff for disabled people is really what's in the

1196
01:11:04,360 --> 01:11:06,960
Speaker 4: budget trailer bill. And for people that aren't familiar with

1197
01:11:07,080 --> 01:11:12,679
Speaker 4: that process, Unfortunately, in May, the governor gets to revise

1198
01:11:12,760 --> 01:11:16,000
Speaker 4: the budget, and this is a very accelerated process. It

1199
01:11:16,120 --> 01:11:19,200
Speaker 4: really only gets introduced early May and passed by mid June.

1200
01:11:19,760 --> 01:11:22,559
Speaker 4: So unfortunately that process has been used to make law

1201
01:11:22,640 --> 01:11:26,920
Speaker 4: when it should really just be used to do budget adjustments.

1202
01:11:27,640 --> 01:11:30,000
Speaker 4: So in California, it's kind of like grown into this

1203
01:11:30,200 --> 01:11:33,200
Speaker 4: monster where you can have something like this asset limit

1204
01:11:33,320 --> 01:11:36,719
Speaker 4: task returning to medical and virtually no time to respond.

1205
01:11:37,160 --> 01:11:40,240
Speaker 4: That is a huge impact to disabled people because it

1206
01:11:40,520 --> 01:11:43,120
Speaker 4: will kick people off the rolls and a lot of

1207
01:11:43,400 --> 01:11:47,000
Speaker 4: disabled folks use in home supportive services to be able

1208
01:11:47,080 --> 01:11:49,080
Speaker 4: to live in their homes and not in some kind

1209
01:11:49,120 --> 01:11:51,599
Speaker 4: of care facility, and a lot of people are employed

1210
01:11:51,640 --> 01:11:56,280
Speaker 4: as their families caretakers HSS workers. So we're looking at

1211
01:11:56,320 --> 01:11:59,439
Speaker 4: some really big impacts to elderly and disabled people in

1212
01:11:59,479 --> 01:12:02,519
Speaker 4: that budget trailer bill. Because the proposal isn't a one

1213
01:12:02,600 --> 01:12:06,439
Speaker 4: time budget cut. It's California over a period don't quote week,

1214
01:12:06,520 --> 01:12:10,320
Speaker 4: but I think about ten years progressively increased and then

1215
01:12:10,479 --> 01:12:13,040
Speaker 4: got rid of this asset limit. So it went from

1216
01:12:13,200 --> 01:12:14,640
Speaker 4: a couple of years ago it was one hundred and

1217
01:12:14,680 --> 01:12:17,360
Speaker 4: thirty thousand dollars, then it went to zero, there was

1218
01:12:17,479 --> 01:12:19,400
Speaker 4: no asset limit, and now it's going back to two

1219
01:12:19,520 --> 01:12:22,560
Speaker 4: grand So people that don't know this and they have

1220
01:12:22,680 --> 01:12:26,120
Speaker 4: accumulated too many assets and goodwill could lose their health

1221
01:12:26,200 --> 01:12:30,080
Speaker 4: insurance and there's nothing else, right, like, there's nothing else.

1222
01:12:30,600 --> 01:12:34,000
Speaker 4: This is straight medicaid. They can't go get Obamacare, they

1223
01:12:34,000 --> 01:12:35,160
Speaker 4: don't qualify for it.

1224
01:12:35,720 --> 01:12:36,639
Speaker 1: This is it for them.

1225
01:12:36,840 --> 01:12:39,840
Speaker 4: So it's really catastrophic. So that's a big one that

1226
01:12:40,200 --> 01:12:44,120
Speaker 4: hopefully there's so much opposition to it won't happen. Other bills,

1227
01:12:44,680 --> 01:12:50,160
Speaker 4: it's kind of been the usual attempts to well unusual.

1228
01:12:51,360 --> 01:12:54,479
Speaker 4: We're looking at just the same stuff right this wedding

1229
01:12:54,920 --> 01:12:59,839
Speaker 4: of the treatment courts, civil treatment courts, so court ordered substance,

1230
01:12:59,840 --> 01:13:03,559
Speaker 4: you ordered mental health treatment. That we're really getting very

1231
01:13:03,600 --> 01:13:07,160
Speaker 4: closely married with the criminal laws, and especially after Grant's

1232
01:13:07,160 --> 01:13:10,640
Speaker 4: pass right, because you can make any action associated with

1233
01:13:10,720 --> 01:13:13,479
Speaker 4: being unhoused a crime, and then you can use that

1234
01:13:13,680 --> 01:13:17,040
Speaker 4: crime either a diversion program or a threat of being

1235
01:13:17,080 --> 01:13:20,920
Speaker 4: criminally prosecuted to move people into the civil treatment courts.

1236
01:13:21,200 --> 01:13:23,840
Speaker 4: And part of the reason for that is that it

1237
01:13:23,960 --> 01:13:26,880
Speaker 4: does kind of also move people into these state guardianships

1238
01:13:27,320 --> 01:13:30,400
Speaker 4: where it's just control, right, state control like conservatorships. So

1239
01:13:30,400 --> 01:13:33,280
Speaker 4: we've just seen loss of that right. Lots of people

1240
01:13:33,400 --> 01:13:35,880
Speaker 4: still trying to implement Prop. Thirty six in a way

1241
01:13:35,960 --> 01:13:39,479
Speaker 4: that's going to marry SUD treatment with the criminal courts,

1242
01:13:40,040 --> 01:13:45,639
Speaker 4: increase the reasons and criteria for conservatorships or care court.

1243
01:13:46,080 --> 01:13:48,000
Speaker 4: Some of these bills have died, but I think they

1244
01:13:48,120 --> 01:13:51,400
Speaker 4: died because the state is having budgetary problems and anything

1245
01:13:51,439 --> 01:13:55,880
Speaker 4: that costs money and is kind of not a mainstay

1246
01:13:56,200 --> 01:14:00,719
Speaker 4: bill is likely to die this session. But that's mostly

1247
01:14:01,040 --> 01:14:02,920
Speaker 4: you know, what I've been watching is the budget trailer

1248
01:14:02,960 --> 01:14:05,439
Speaker 4: Bill SB three three one, which is one of these

1249
01:14:05,479 --> 01:14:11,240
Speaker 4: ones that tries to expand again conservatorships and cycleds to

1250
01:14:11,479 --> 01:14:14,000
Speaker 4: more and more people like people with dementia. I think

1251
01:14:14,040 --> 01:14:15,880
Speaker 4: that's kind of the next wave, is that people that

1252
01:14:16,040 --> 01:14:20,280
Speaker 4: really want to use civil treatment courts as a supposed

1253
01:14:21,040 --> 01:14:24,040
Speaker 4: solution but really just a different vehicle besides the criminal

1254
01:14:24,120 --> 01:14:27,000
Speaker 4: law to pick people up and move them. I think

1255
01:14:27,439 --> 01:14:30,760
Speaker 4: that that is really starting to expand, well beyond even

1256
01:14:31,080 --> 01:14:34,360
Speaker 4: mental illness and substance use disorders, because they're realizing so

1257
01:14:34,479 --> 01:14:37,240
Speaker 4: many people on the streets are elderly, so I think

1258
01:14:37,240 --> 01:14:42,560
Speaker 4: they're really looking at dementia and Alzheimer's and you know,

1259
01:14:42,880 --> 01:14:48,040
Speaker 4: different organic TV traumatic brain injuries, different reasons that people

1260
01:14:48,240 --> 01:14:51,599
Speaker 4: might be disabled and unhoused and on the streets. There's

1261
01:14:51,640 --> 01:14:55,200
Speaker 4: trying to sweep it all into this same paradigm. There's

1262
01:14:55,240 --> 01:14:57,280
Speaker 4: some resistance to that for sure.

1263
01:14:58,640 --> 01:15:00,840
Speaker 1: Well you point it out a very point two because

1264
01:15:00,840 --> 01:15:03,920
Speaker 1: of the high rate of elderly on house and it's

1265
01:15:04,080 --> 01:15:07,200
Speaker 1: very difficult, which I have been pushing in this conversation

1266
01:15:07,320 --> 01:15:10,120
Speaker 1: to show, is that it's very hard for to say

1267
01:15:10,200 --> 01:15:12,160
Speaker 1: that people don't want to work at at eighty years old,

1268
01:15:12,800 --> 01:15:14,760
Speaker 1: who's going to be hiring. It's very hard for them

1269
01:15:14,800 --> 01:15:17,000
Speaker 1: to saying that they like being outfare or they are

1270
01:15:17,320 --> 01:15:19,360
Speaker 1: on substances and all of this kind of thing. When

1271
01:15:19,400 --> 01:15:23,559
Speaker 1: you're seeing the population get older and much more frailer

1272
01:15:23,680 --> 01:15:29,200
Speaker 1: and medically compromised, those statements, those stereotypes are not holding up.

1273
01:15:29,320 --> 01:15:32,040
Speaker 1: But it takes people to have a keen eye of

1274
01:15:32,120 --> 01:15:34,920
Speaker 1: seeing what's going on. But or are they willing to

1275
01:15:35,080 --> 01:15:36,560
Speaker 1: look outside the stereotypes.

1276
01:15:37,240 --> 01:15:43,280
Speaker 4: Yes, And I will say I think that issues of disability,

1277
01:15:43,600 --> 01:15:49,000
Speaker 4: issues of state guardianships, issues of public benefits are going

1278
01:15:49,160 --> 01:15:52,240
Speaker 4: to become one of the hottest topics in the country

1279
01:15:52,320 --> 01:15:54,439
Speaker 4: because of our aging population.

1280
01:15:54,160 --> 01:15:55,479
Speaker 1: And young population too.

1281
01:15:55,520 --> 01:15:59,840
Speaker 4: Young population too. But I mean, you're basically guaranteed to

1282
01:16:00,120 --> 01:16:02,960
Speaker 4: fall into the category of disabled as you age, and

1283
01:16:03,040 --> 01:16:06,360
Speaker 4: we've got seventy five million baby boomers that are going

1284
01:16:06,439 --> 01:16:10,559
Speaker 4: to age into all of these types of medical frailty

1285
01:16:11,040 --> 01:16:16,000
Speaker 4: or cognitive issues, you know, behavioral issues. I hate the word,

1286
01:16:16,600 --> 01:16:20,439
Speaker 4: and it's going to get real, sus if we're not

1287
01:16:20,960 --> 01:16:25,280
Speaker 4: cutting back on and being very careful about what's going

1288
01:16:25,360 --> 01:16:28,200
Speaker 4: on with these involuntary treatment laws. Because this is the paradigm.

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01:16:28,439 --> 01:16:31,880
Speaker 4: It's a state guardianship. It's taking your assets, it's taking

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01:16:31,960 --> 01:16:37,320
Speaker 4: your driver's license. It's this mode of sort of care cops.

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01:16:37,880 --> 01:16:40,200
Speaker 4: That's what the government likes. And you have to be

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01:16:40,280 --> 01:16:42,840
Speaker 4: really careful with that stuff because, especially in the mental

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01:16:42,880 --> 01:16:46,519
Speaker 4: health context and actually in the broader medical context, what

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01:16:46,600 --> 01:16:49,559
Speaker 4: you're seeing is a lot of private equity or hedge

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01:16:49,640 --> 01:16:54,160
Speaker 4: fund owned facilities. They're just buying up huge parts of

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01:16:54,280 --> 01:16:57,040
Speaker 4: healthcare and you know, using it as a way to

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01:16:57,120 --> 01:16:59,519
Speaker 4: make money. And if you don't want your grandma to

1298
01:16:59,600 --> 01:17:04,439
Speaker 4: get monetize like a casino token and someone's horrifying, you know,

1299
01:17:04,720 --> 01:17:07,320
Speaker 4: pay to play locked facility, you need to pay attention

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01:17:07,520 --> 01:17:08,200
Speaker 4: to what's happening.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, Thank you so much to Claire for her time.

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Speaker 1: You can learn more about her in the description. Thank

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01:17:21,160 --> 01:17:23,599
Speaker 1: you all for listening to another episode of Weedian House.

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01:17:24,000 --> 01:17:25,760
Speaker 1: If you have a story you'd like to share, please

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01:17:25,840 --> 01:17:28,880
Speaker 1: reached out to me at Wiedianhouse at gmail dot com

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01:17:29,640 --> 01:17:33,800
Speaker 1: or at wiedian House on Instagram. Until then, may we

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01:17:33,880 --> 01:17:39,240
Speaker 1: again meet in the light of understanding. Whedian House is

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01:17:39,280 --> 01:17:42,799
Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. It is written, hosted, and created

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01:17:42,880 --> 01:17:48,400
Speaker 1: by me Theo Henderson, our producers Jamie Loftus, Hailey Fager,

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01:17:48,800 --> 01:17:53,000
Speaker 1: Katie Fischel, and Lyra Smith. Our editor is Adam Want,

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01:17:53,720 --> 01:17:58,080
Speaker 1: our engineer is Joel Jerome, and our local art is

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01:17:58,200 --> 01:18:01,759
Speaker 1: also by Katie Fischer. Thank you for listening.