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Speaker 1: Previously on Windian House.

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Speaker 2: Literally reaching young people who are experiencing homelessness can be

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Speaker 2: very hard, just because access to reliable sources of communication

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Speaker 2: like phones and things like that can be really difficult,

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Speaker 2: and so bridging both of those has been core to this,

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Speaker 2: to making sure that we can bring people into the

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Speaker 2: room and make decisions alongside them.

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Speaker 3: In our community. We found mostly successful of just going

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Speaker 3: back to our original roots of community organizing and looking

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Speaker 3: at how historically marginalized communities have done community organizing and

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Speaker 3: recruitment and at simply meeting people in youth and young

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Speaker 3: adults and going to where they are. I think for

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Speaker 3: me is let youth lead the way. If you want

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Speaker 3: to censor youth, you have to be able to trust

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Speaker 3: and listen to them and know that they have their

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Speaker 3: own autonomy and can make the decisions.

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Speaker 4: Welcome back to weed the in House. I'm your host

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Speaker 4: theo Hinders. Thank you for following along. For the third

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Speaker 4: and final part of our series, Weedian Howes goes to

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Speaker 4: Washington where I cover the National Alliance The End Houselessness

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Speaker 4: and your conference this past July. I had a lot

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Speaker 4: of conversations and I'm excited to share three final talks with.

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Speaker 1: You this week, but first on House News.

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Speaker 4: Our first story is about a common villain of the show,

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Speaker 4: Gavin Newsom, who vows to take funding away from cities

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Speaker 4: in California that are not clearing encampments. But you don't

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Speaker 4: have to take my word for it. Listen in to

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Speaker 4: Gavin Newsom's hateful rhetoric for yourself.

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Speaker 5: Today, I announced an executive quarter to move the process forward.

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Speaker 6: We're done.

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Speaker 7: It's time to move.

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Speaker 5: The urgency at the local level to clean up these sites,

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Speaker 5: to focus on public health and focus on public safety.

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Speaker 8: Because there are no longer any excuses compilion dollars this

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Speaker 8: state has invested.

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Speaker 5: To supple communities to clean off these encampments. We have

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Speaker 5: now no excuse for the Supreme Court decision to subchecutive

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Speaker 5: orders about pushing that paradise further and getting sense of

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Speaker 5: urgency that's.

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Speaker 7: Required of local government to do their job.

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Speaker 9: So the governor is slamming progressive judges and liberal advocates

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Speaker 9: for California's homeless problem, and specifically for preventing city officials

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Speaker 9: in San Francisco from clearing out the tent encampments. He

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Speaker 9: called the court's order preposterous and insane, and he said

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Speaker 9: he even contemplated posting publicly the judges number so residents

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Speaker 9: could call the judge and say, let's clean up our streets,

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Speaker 9: because the Court wouldn't allow San Francisco officials to do that.

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Speaker 10: In his t shirt, jeans and aviators, Governor David Knew

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Speaker 10: some clearing a homeless encampment under the five Freeway and

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Speaker 10: Mission Hills with a message for county leaders.

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Speaker 5: If we don't see demoster results, I'll start to redirect money.

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Speaker 5: I'm not interested in status quo anti any longer, and

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Speaker 5: now we'll start in January with the January budget. Counties

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Speaker 5: need to do more.

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Speaker 10: Newsome's threat to take away state funding from counties that

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Speaker 10: fail to show improvement in tackling the homelessness crisis comes

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Speaker 10: just weeks after he issued an executive order to state agencies.

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Speaker 4: Our next story takes us up the coast to our

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Speaker 4: San Francisco villain. San Francisco Mayor London Breed praised the

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Speaker 4: Supreme Court's Grants pass decision. Recently, she has been ecstatically

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Speaker 4: planning an aggressive sweep policy, which includes bus tickets out

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Speaker 4: of San Francisco before offering local services.

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Speaker 1: But again don't take it from me.

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Speaker 4: Here's the mayor laying these horrific policies out for you.

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Speaker 11: So homeless and captains in the wake of a major

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Speaker 11: Supreme Court ruler. But there are concerns about whether the

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Speaker 11: city is doing enough to get people into shelters, and

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Speaker 11: we're starting to see signs of what the mayor calls

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Speaker 11: aggressive action to clear camp Just call comes as community

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Speaker 11: advocates and local lawmakers called on the mayor to fill

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Speaker 11: hundreds of homes they say the city is allowing to

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Speaker 11: sit empty.

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Speaker 12: So I would suggest you get your facts from the

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Speaker 12: Office of Housing and Homeless Services.

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Speaker 13: The first option that will be offered to unhoused will

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Speaker 13: be bus tickets who take them home if they accept. Now,

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Speaker 13: the new executive order came down a Thursday, which was yesterday,

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Speaker 13: from the Mayor's office, and it comes amid a crackdown

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Speaker 13: on homeless encampments after the grands Pass. Supreme Court ruling

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Speaker 13: allows city officials to enforce anti camping laws, but before

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Speaker 13: enforcement or even offering city services, the first thing city

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Speaker 13: workers who interact with unhoused are supposed to ask is

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Speaker 13: if they'd like a ticket home. Then workers will ask

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Speaker 13: if they need medical services, or if they want to

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Speaker 13: accept offers of shelter or supportive housing.

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Speaker 4: Next, our aggressive sweep policies take us here in Los Angeles, California.

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Speaker 4: The Grant's past decision has caught on like wildfire here

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Speaker 4: in Los Angeles. Last Thursday, the unhoused community in Little

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Speaker 4: Tokyo were aggressively swept. At the same time, off duty

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Speaker 4: cop Danny bama Setta caused a major accident and struck

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Speaker 4: a pedestrian while speeding down First Street. While LAPD helped

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Speaker 4: Bamba Seta, the city moved in to trash unhoused belongings

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Speaker 4: LA's sanitation left returned an hour later to destroy the

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Speaker 4: last items of an unhoused resident who left for medical care. Next,

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Speaker 4: we head to Long Beach. Grant's past tentacles have stretched

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Speaker 4: out to Long Beach, California. Long Beach has started their

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Speaker 4: own aggressive encampment crackdowns. This is a developing story and

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Speaker 4: we'll share more information as we learn it. Finally, a

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Speaker 4: story from Sacramento. A judge ruled that the city can

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Speaker 4: close Camp Resolution, a self governed city sanctioned on house

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Speaker 4: encampment established back in twenty twenty two. It's currently home

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Speaker 4: for at least fifty residents who just received a notice

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Speaker 4: to vacate by August twenty sixth, twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: And that's in House news.

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Speaker 4: We'll be right back with more from Washington. Welcome back

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Speaker 4: to Weedian House. I'm THEO Henderson. This week we're back

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Speaker 4: in DC, but more from the National Alliance to in

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Speaker 4: Houselessness event back in July. This conference had an air

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Speaker 4: of urgency, alarm and forward momentum in tackling the Supreme

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Speaker 4: Court's grants passed decision, which was passed only a week before.

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Speaker 4: Our guest was trying to get their bearings on the

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Speaker 4: new landscape. My first conversation today is with Curtis Howard,

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Speaker 4: who is an unhoused lived experienced expert. You might recognize

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Speaker 4: him from previous episode of Willian House, and I was

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Speaker 4: thrilled to welcome him back.

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Speaker 1: Here's our talk.

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Speaker 8: Always good to see you, especially in these spaces. We're

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Speaker 8: here to see what it brings this year, because you know,

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Speaker 8: last year we didn't feel that the representation of the

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Speaker 8: lived experience was on point, you know, so this year

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Speaker 8: we're looking forward to see how that works.

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Speaker 1: I agree.

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Speaker 4: Now on the wings of everyone has heard about the

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Speaker 4: Supreme Court and the grants pass, saying I'm kind of

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Speaker 4: ear hustling and hearing a.

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Speaker 1: Lot of conversations.

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Speaker 4: This is this topic obviously is going to be the

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Speaker 4: buzz in this community, in this conference.

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Speaker 1: So what's your take on it?

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Speaker 8: Well, you know, I think it's a challenge as what

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Speaker 8: we've been dealing with with so many things. It's like

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Speaker 8: we get step up and we take two steps backwards,

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Speaker 8: and just like with statistics and everything we do around homelessness,

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Speaker 8: we find out, you know that this year we housed

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Speaker 8: such and such thousand many people, but then the same

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Speaker 8: amount became homeless. Are more so now with the homeless

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Speaker 8: bands and the encampment bands that they have just started,

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Speaker 8: we're experiencing the same thing with when it comes to

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Speaker 8: progress with these bands.

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Speaker 4: I want to add something too, because I just left

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Speaker 4: one of the conference topics about medicaid, and what my

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Speaker 4: surprise was is that they are able to offer states

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Speaker 4: funding and so this kind of ticks me off because

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Speaker 4: California and other places applied for some of the grant money,

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Speaker 4: but some of the places have snatched like moneies like

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Speaker 4: EBT for families and unhoused people, and they can go

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Speaker 4: back and ask for funding to be able to step

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Speaker 4: into the gap of this.

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Speaker 1: And it really bugs me on the wings of this.

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Speaker 1: It's like, now.

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Speaker 4: You're just making it even more difficult. Now you got

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Speaker 4: to deal with the encampment mans. Now you got to

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Speaker 4: deal with starvation. Now you've got to deal with housing

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Speaker 4: insecurity and starvation. It's like the city, the state, and

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Speaker 4: the government in some kind of concert in order to

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Speaker 4: try to make it much more unattainable and much more

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Speaker 4: difficult for people just to survive. And it really when

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Speaker 4: I was listening to the different things that they can

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Speaker 4: offer the states, and all it requires is states stepping

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Speaker 4: up and making an application. Like then you got the

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Speaker 4: conservative states that don't make an application will make it

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Speaker 4: sound like it's a criminal offense to ask for help

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Speaker 4: for people that are struggling in their states. It's really infuriating,

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Speaker 4: and people are not really aware of how detrimental and

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Speaker 4: how violatile this situation is going to be if you

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Speaker 4: continue to take the legs of people.

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Speaker 8: It's true, you make a good point because money is

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Speaker 8: being moved around right now. It's being removed and it's

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Speaker 8: being replaced, and it's being moved around and it's being

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Speaker 8: taken away from places and put in other places, and

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Speaker 8: the places that they're putting it in are not the

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Speaker 8: places where it should be. And I think that this

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Speaker 8: what comes in what's very important at a time like

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Speaker 8: this is that the people who are moving this money around,

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Speaker 8: they need a more maybe even a lived experience counsel.

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Speaker 1: On where to put this money in. How you know.

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Speaker 8: That's why lived experience is so important right now when

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Speaker 8: it comes to homelessness, because it's not just lived experience

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Speaker 8: about people telling their stories. It's about lived experience in

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Speaker 8: spaces where homelessness is important. I don't care what the

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Speaker 8: space of homelessness, it's important to have that lived experience

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Speaker 8: in funding. And it's just like where it's like, lived

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Speaker 8: exper only goes so far, it stays somewhere toward the bottom.

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Speaker 8: But the shot callers and the people who are on

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Speaker 8: tob that's where we need to be.

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Speaker 4: Here's one that I've been harping on recently. And the

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Speaker 4: reason I'm really talking on is because I'm not a

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Speaker 4: younger man anymore, and I could a lot of.

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Speaker 1: Things that used to do I can't do.

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Speaker 4: I'm literally walking like an old man up the heels

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Speaker 4: and things during this heat wave.

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Speaker 1: It's like one hundred and five.

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Speaker 4: And I'm bringing this up because I've been really the

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Speaker 4: places I go, I keep saying, where are the cold

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Speaker 4: weather celtis. I'm seeing on house people out here, I'm

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Speaker 4: seeing them laid out and collapse, and I can barely

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Speaker 4: make it up the damn heel. There's no kind of

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Speaker 4: advisories out here, there's no kind of conversations, and I

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Speaker 4: keep saying this is, this is going to be. I'm

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Speaker 4: going to keep harping on this until people get tired

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Speaker 4: of me saying it. I'm like, I want ours as

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Speaker 4: a community to keep pushing the mayor about these damn

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Speaker 4: cooling stations because people need this. You know we got

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Speaker 4: heat waves, we know we got climate change, so there's

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Speaker 4: no excuse for us to be so shocked or when

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Speaker 4: you with our pants down when every summer that we

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Speaker 4: have in these things and we don't have no coming stations.

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Speaker 1: True, true, And.

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Speaker 8: And you make a good point because why do we

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Speaker 8: have to address the same issues every year? It's like,

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Speaker 8: why does this come up every year? And agenda should

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Speaker 8: not come up every year. Agenda is something that goes

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Speaker 8: on the agenda once and it gets addressed, and it

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Speaker 8: gets taken off the agenda.

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Speaker 6: They may do a follow up.

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Speaker 8: Just move on.

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Speaker 6: We can have the same things on the agenda.

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Speaker 8: I've been in meetings where we've had the same things

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Speaker 8: on the agenda for a year.

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Speaker 6: Who does that?

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Speaker 4: There's no strategic vision, Like, okay, we every year we

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Speaker 4: have a summer, we have hot weather. We know the

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Speaker 4: people are out here dying from hot weather. These people

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Speaker 4: are having to navigate this on the wings of their

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Speaker 4: civil rights, are being targeted on the wings of their

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Speaker 4: food money. It's going to be messed messed with. So

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Speaker 4: you know, you put people through the pit of desperation,

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Speaker 4: and what do you think is going to happen? That

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Speaker 4: is the basic fodder of revolutionary or very survival crimes

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Speaker 4: that people use to be able to try to survive.

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Speaker 8: Right, Yeah, And you know, homelessness is just totally a

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Speaker 8: survival mode. You know, I'm a lived experience, formally incarcerated,

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Speaker 8: justice impacted person. I've been convicted three times, four times,

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Speaker 8: and three of those times was during my homelessness. In

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Speaker 8: other words, exactly, In other words, if you take away

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Speaker 8: the chargers that I got during homelessness, my record would

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Speaker 8: be good enough to apply for a government job.

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Speaker 4: But most moose crimes that most crimes that they tack

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Speaker 4: on you are survival based. Is kind of situation that

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Speaker 4: people don't understand that and an impacts.

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Speaker 6: People, which I found too.

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Speaker 4: The cities now which Medica can also provide, they have

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Speaker 4: now the incarcerated the entry program that they're putting money there.

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Speaker 4: They're finally approving it, like Arizona, California.

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Speaker 6: I don't know, I didn't quite get Washington.

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Speaker 4: But the place at the point of it is it's

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Speaker 4: starting to be a conversational point and this is the

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Speaker 4: kind of funding. If that was put on in the gap,

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Speaker 4: maybe the first half had to do the next two correct.

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Speaker 8: Oh absolutely, I'll look back at the times of my

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Speaker 8: struggles as a justice impacted person and being on probation

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Speaker 8: and being on parole and continuously repeating that cycle of recidivism,

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Speaker 8: pro violation, not reporting on time, failure to test because

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Speaker 8: I'm five miles across town and don't have a way

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Speaker 8: to get to the office. And I was charged once

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Speaker 8: with a charge called change junior address without approval that

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Speaker 8: I received four months for changing address without approval because

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Speaker 8: I became homes They said that because I didn't report

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Speaker 8: that that I had changed my address without approval. There

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Speaker 8: was no approval to change my address. I had to

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Speaker 8: go and then the office was ten miles across town.

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Speaker 8: So you know, these are just challenges, and there's accountability

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Speaker 8: and responsibility involved, but at least make it reasonable to

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Speaker 8: where I can access these things, you know, in the

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Speaker 8: midst of my survival.

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Speaker 4: Exactly, I was going to say, but you know, you know,

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Speaker 4: I'm for accountability and things of that nature. But I

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Speaker 4: do believe that they twisted, and I think they overemphasized

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Speaker 4: that even when you're you know, you're displaced, because displaced,

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Speaker 4: being displaced out here on the streets is a whole

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Speaker 4: different reality. You know, one thing I would put money

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Speaker 4: on that you wouldn't be considered obstounded if you were

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Speaker 4: still housed.

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Speaker 6: You wouldn't be having to well, you know.

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Speaker 4: That's a big responsibility itself, trying to navigate, trying to survive,

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Speaker 4: and you know, me go to the place on May

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Speaker 4: fifteen miles away at any making sure that the beakers

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Speaker 4: on and making sure you know, you're having to attend the.

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Speaker 6: Other needs you got to do.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, So no, I do think, you know, we do

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Speaker 4: have some of that, but I do think that they

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Speaker 4: twisted to make you make it all the fault of them,

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Speaker 4: Like you said.

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Speaker 8: Yes, absolutely, and we're overdue right now when it comes

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Speaker 8: to justice impacted, because during my struggles and my justice

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Speaker 8: being justice impacted and homeless, it was never even a

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Speaker 8: discussion justice impacted people were considered unsalvageable, so they were

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Speaker 8: looking to help people that they considered salvageable people. But

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Speaker 8: once you became justice impacted, once you went to jail

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Speaker 8: or prison, you were no longer considered salvageable to them.

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Speaker 8: So this discussion was never had, and I'm surprised that

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Speaker 8: it's just now coming up, and I'm really glad to

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Speaker 8: be a part of it. I sit on a board

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Speaker 8: and some committees, Justice impacted committees, you know, where I'm

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Speaker 8: providing and having these discussions and providing the information necessary

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Speaker 8: to make these changes, and hopefully we reached the people

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Speaker 8: who are in the position to make these changes and

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Speaker 8: that they are listening.

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Speaker 4: I was going to ask too, because never I didn't

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Speaker 4: get a chance to ask that, but I remember hearing

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Speaker 4: from Amy. I may be mistaken. We have a mutual

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Speaker 4: advocate friend. Amy's Amodio shout out to her that.

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Speaker 6: You wrote a book.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so you didn't. Yes, he's very humble. He won't

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Speaker 1: tell him. So I got to put him on blast. Here,

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Speaker 1: what was your book about it? Tell us a little

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Speaker 1: about it.

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Speaker 8: So I actually published two books. I published one called

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Speaker 8: Salemates that I wrote well in prison, but I also

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Speaker 8: wrote another book called Who's Left. And Who's Left is

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Speaker 8: more of an autobiography of my struggles. So my struggles telled,

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Speaker 8: you know, and tell being on the streets, being involved

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Speaker 8: in gangs, being involved with substance abusing, being in part

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Speaker 8: of the criminal justice system, and all four of those

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Speaker 8: subject matters are addressed throughout my book. So it tells

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Speaker 8: the story of my struggles in that way. But most

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Speaker 8: of my homeless struggle stories are in articles, news articles.

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Speaker 8: In my book Who's Left, I also discussed the struggle

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Speaker 8: that I have with homelessness and how it played a

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Speaker 8: part in everything else, because, as you know, society looks

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Speaker 8: at homelessness in a way, and the first thing that

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Speaker 8: comes up is drugs right.

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Speaker 4: Now, that or now, I just it was on a

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Speaker 4: radio show mental illness. They cannot get off those two topics.

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Speaker 4: I'm like, dude, there is so much you missed with this.

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Speaker 8: But mental illness, substance abuse our fault exactly.

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Speaker 4: It always returns back to that, and it's like, oh

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Speaker 4: my god, We've got.

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Speaker 8: So much work to do right because you know, homelessness

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Speaker 8: is first and everything else comes after that. And I

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Speaker 8: remember being homeless, and I never did a substance abuse

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Speaker 8: or alcohol until I became homeless, because it became something

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Speaker 8: for me to be able to deal with the situation.

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Speaker 8: It numbed me. It was the only thing. If I

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Speaker 8: hadn't done it, I wouldn't be able to be in

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Speaker 8: that situation. It would drive me mad.

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Speaker 4: To me like when the pain was too great because

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Speaker 4: I have several I got stabbed so but and I

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Speaker 4: also have other health issues. But you know, in order

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Speaker 4: for me to kind of main pain manage, I would

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Speaker 4: drink to do that. But I think the battle really

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Speaker 4: is with generations or how we were educated about on

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Speaker 4: house people, because I get back to thinking about how

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Speaker 4: when I grew up, what people looked at because people

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Speaker 4: used to didn't call them home, they used to call

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Speaker 4: them bombs. I remember their words of bombs hobos. I

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Speaker 4: think that and I remember my father would say vagabond

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Speaker 4: and then that was like, if you really want to

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Speaker 4: get floss or you're really educated, and I was like,

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Speaker 4: what the hell was a vagabon? And then when I

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Speaker 4: really realized but then, you know, it was a preconceptual

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Speaker 4: idea of what the house bleusness is.

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Speaker 1: And then I fell into it.

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Speaker 6: I said, this is not aligned and to the same reality.

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Speaker 6: What's going on?

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Speaker 4: And then when I was in for a sustained period

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Speaker 4: of time, and then I'm listening to people that I

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Speaker 4: was friends with, but people that you were considered educated

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Speaker 4: and very self aware about other social issues falling into

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Speaker 4: these very harmful conversations without lived experienced conversations that listen.

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Speaker 1: This is just not real.

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Speaker 4: I had a friend hip said, but it just like

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Speaker 4: being out there, and I kept feeling, this is no

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Speaker 4: they total please right.

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Speaker 8: I saw a conversation like that online and I just

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Speaker 8: don't even come in or get involved. Because there were

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Speaker 8: so many people who had misconceptions about homelessness. And there

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Speaker 8: was a lady who was appu tee and she had

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Speaker 8: two of her legs cut off. She was in a

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Speaker 8: wheelchair and she was homeless, and they were going in

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Speaker 8: on her, you know, you know, and the guy who

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Speaker 8: interviewed her said, well, I passed through here yesterday and

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Speaker 8: I saw you doing some drugs, you know. And then

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Speaker 8: someone else said, see there she goes, they're doing the drugs.

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Speaker 10: You know.

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Speaker 8: It took away all of them for her, and just

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Speaker 8: it turned into she's doing drugs. And then someone even

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Speaker 8: said even said for her to get a job. Yeah,

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Speaker 8: they told her that Walmart hires everyone.

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Speaker 1: Was so lady who come in and said.

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Speaker 8: Walmart hers everyone. There was a guy who was disabled

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Speaker 8: and they give disabled people jobs.

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Speaker 1: He just sip he packed.

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Speaker 8: Some and stuff some huenvelopes or something, and told her

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Speaker 8: she should get up and get out there and get

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Speaker 8: a job. And I said, are you serious?

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Speaker 4: I got one horror I want to say, went better.

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Speaker 4: I got one more horror play I was. I lived

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Speaker 4: for a short period of time and skid rolling in

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Speaker 4: Los Angeles and you see all vassages of the houselessness.

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Speaker 6: I seen.

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Speaker 4: There was this person that you said that as he

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Speaker 4: had lost one leg and he used to stay on

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Speaker 4: his wheelchair.

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Speaker 6: But at night he doesn't stay in his wheelchair.

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Speaker 4: He stays on the ground and steaks in his you know,

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Speaker 4: do you know they will stole his wheelchair? So the

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Speaker 4: next day, I'm watching him crawl trying to find a

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Speaker 4: way to be able to get some kind of freaking wheelchair,

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Speaker 4: and people up there judging him.

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Speaker 6: You know what he should have, you know, locked it

402
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Speaker 6: up or.

403
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Speaker 4: He should have you know, well, you know, if he

404
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Speaker 4: had a job, if he wasn't on again on drugs.

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Speaker 6: This is what happened. This is what you know.

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Speaker 4: And then of course he wasn't a veteran, but they

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Speaker 4: always look attack in this fake concern.

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Speaker 6: Well, this is what we do do our veterans that you're.

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Speaker 1: Sad, like, well, this is now.

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Speaker 6: You don't have to be a veteran to be crapped on.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: It could be a recon citizen that.

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Speaker 4: Just had some millness, a mad situation befall you, and

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Speaker 4: you still get crapped on.

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Speaker 6: And it's a reality. It's this notion that unhoused people

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Speaker 6: are there because of lack of rugged individualism.

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Speaker 4: They're there because it's their fault and they like being

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Speaker 4: out there and they don't want help.

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Speaker 6: Is it they on drugs?

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Speaker 4: And if they don't, if it's most sympathetic, oh, they

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Speaker 4: mentally ill, you know, you know, I'm like, what mentally

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Speaker 4: ill person that you are going to hire and you know,

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Speaker 4: you are literally afraid of and calling the police at

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Speaker 4: two minutes if you see them having an outburst, you know, right,

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Speaker 4: so you know you ain't go hire them, So stop

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Speaker 4: saying that.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, and most of that stuff comes after homelessness, you know,

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Speaker 8: most most most people who do drugs weren't doing them

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Speaker 8: until they became homelessness. Actually, more people house doing drugs

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Speaker 8: than there are homeless people.

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Speaker 1: To them, you just don't hear.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, all the all the house people, those are the

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Speaker 8: ones selling all the drugs and doing all the drugs.

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Speaker 8: They have the drug houses where they live, connections. When

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Speaker 8: you want drugs on the streets, you call and you

436
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Speaker 8: get them from people housed people.

437
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:35,080
Speaker 1: Those are the people who have the who have the drugs,

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Speaker 1: you know.

439
00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:41,760
Speaker 8: So there's just so many misconceptions and and blaming accountability

440
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:45,920
Speaker 8: issues where it concerns homelessness. So we got a lot

441
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Speaker 8: of work to do, you know, and and especially with

442
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:53,679
Speaker 8: the funding as well, we need to start finding the

443
00:24:53,760 --> 00:24:58,160
Speaker 8: proper receptacles to place these uh these funds in and

444
00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:01,120
Speaker 8: stop moving them around and taking them away from where

445
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:03,879
Speaker 8: they should be. And all the people coming up with

446
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:08,119
Speaker 8: these grand plans you know, to take over homelessness. Enough

447
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:12,320
Speaker 8: is enough. We're gonna start locking these people up now with.

448
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:16,080
Speaker 4: The Grand Decision Grant Pass, where you got mayors celebrating

449
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:19,280
Speaker 4: this decision and saying like London mayor Long then bring

450
00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:21,720
Speaker 4: to San Francisco. They're gonna ramp up it and they're

451
00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:24,040
Speaker 4: gonna wrap it up. And it's like San Diego and

452
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:26,760
Speaker 4: all of these those are places, and this is gonna

453
00:25:26,800 --> 00:25:29,920
Speaker 4: pretend badly. Like I said, like it's it's just coloring

454
00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:32,840
Speaker 4: the conversational. You could hear it in the buzz here,

455
00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:36,960
Speaker 4: but you know, in real time it's these we have

456
00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:40,199
Speaker 4: to keep our foot on their neck and let the nogan.

457
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 4: Just because they mentioned that don't mean we're gonna be

458
00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:45,240
Speaker 4: okay with this. We're gonna hold you accountable. We need

459
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:47,639
Speaker 4: you to be accountable. We need you to open up

460
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:50,359
Speaker 4: these services. We know now that there's funding that you

461
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:53,159
Speaker 4: can do to offer to alleviate some of this burden.

462
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:55,600
Speaker 4: You're gonna do it, or we're gonna be protesting and

463
00:25:56,160 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 4: doing the things we need to do.

464
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,480
Speaker 6: To make you do it. Absolutely, you know, And I think.

465
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:04,000
Speaker 4: That's where the before when I first heard it, I

466
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:06,760
Speaker 4: was in you know, even though I was like, they're

467
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:08,560
Speaker 4: not gonna overturn it.

468
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:10,000
Speaker 6: But when I did, it was a bit of shock.

469
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:11,520
Speaker 6: I went through the four stages agree.

470
00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:14,560
Speaker 4: It was pissed off and I didn't want to say

471
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 4: something publicly that could be banned off of social media.

472
00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:22,159
Speaker 14: At the FBI call coming up and interview with me,

473
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:24,919
Speaker 14: so I was like, Okay, I cannot, and people who

474
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 14: did ass but then, like I s I had.

475
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:30,720
Speaker 4: Calmed myself down and got over the revenge fantasies and

476
00:26:30,760 --> 00:26:37,359
Speaker 4: all of that, I didn't. So the point of it

477
00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:41,879
Speaker 4: is that now I've gotten my my sense back, I

478
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:44,640
Speaker 4: feel that we can there's things we can do. There

479
00:26:44,720 --> 00:26:49,240
Speaker 4: is constantly we must agitate, agitate, agitate. As Fredick Douglas too.

480
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:54,280
Speaker 8: Did you know, as I've been revisiting everything that's going

481
00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 8: on right now, I'm from the organization all of us

482
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:02,160
Speaker 8: are none, and the lead organizer, all of us are none.

483
00:27:02,400 --> 00:27:06,200
Speaker 8: As a national organization that has we have twenty nine

484
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:11,240
Speaker 8: chapters nationwide, we advocate for formerly incarcerated people and their families.

485
00:27:11,520 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 8: But through the advocacy that we do, we kind of

486
00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:17,560
Speaker 8: ramp it up. We don't like sit in rooms and

487
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 8: have these discussions every day. We go out and lobby,

488
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:26,040
Speaker 8: we put get things legislation policy. You know, we go

489
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:30,840
Speaker 8: to Capitol Hills shout, take some disturb some places and everything,

490
00:27:31,560 --> 00:27:35,919
Speaker 8: and we get things done. You know. And and I

491
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:39,399
Speaker 8: don't know, this homelessness situation is beginning to go to

492
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:43,040
Speaker 8: a point to where the advocacy may need to level

493
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:44,960
Speaker 8: up a little bit to a lot.

494
00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 14: So I want to because he's not advocating what I

495
00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:57,080
Speaker 14: was saying, not the family guy kind of situations.

496
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,919
Speaker 8: Yeah, it just it seems like, you know, it's just

497
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:05,400
Speaker 8: getting where people will do what you know, it's they

498
00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 8: just will continue to do until people step in and say,

499
00:28:10,359 --> 00:28:14,080
Speaker 8: you know, no, enough is enough. You know, and you

500
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:16,720
Speaker 8: know it's getting to the point to where we may

501
00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:23,280
Speaker 8: have to advocate, you know, may consider different levels of protests, right.

502
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:25,040
Speaker 6: You know, I.

503
00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:31,000
Speaker 8: Choose a homelessness because it is something that intersects and

504
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:36,400
Speaker 8: branches out to all so many other things. So when

505
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:40,280
Speaker 8: you address problems, you address the root of problems. And

506
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 8: when I look at homelessness, I see it as the

507
00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:48,960
Speaker 8: root of so mental health. I mean, I've saw people

508
00:28:49,040 --> 00:28:54,080
Speaker 8: who were homeless friends of mine, Hey, how you doing, hey,

509
00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 8: And as they continue to be homeless and struggled. Then

510
00:28:59,320 --> 00:29:03,200
Speaker 8: I would say, talking to themselves, and then I would

511
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 8: see them yelling, and then I would see them yelling

512
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 8: at cars passing by. And so this is a process

513
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:15,600
Speaker 8: you know, that takes place, you know, as a result

514
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 8: of the struggle with homelessness, of actually saw people's mental

515
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:22,800
Speaker 8: health decline as a result of hoons.

516
00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:25,240
Speaker 4: And I have to put the point here two points

517
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 4: before it goes out. Is one of the points that

518
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:30,720
Speaker 4: I remember the challenges of me being in house and

519
00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:35,440
Speaker 4: I am so fortunate that I was able to get

520
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,160
Speaker 4: out of the despayspare and the depression that it was

521
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:43,200
Speaker 4: because I had befriended people and they, in some way

522
00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:46,840
Speaker 4: or another made sure that it was I was able

523
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:49,480
Speaker 4: to keep my mind still, the acuity that my mental

524
00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:53,920
Speaker 4: acuity there, my spirit was at least I wasn't like

525
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:56,000
Speaker 4: I'm not saying I was skipping it happening jumping down

526
00:29:56,040 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 4: the street, being on the street.

527
00:29:58,000 --> 00:29:59,120
Speaker 1: But it was able.

528
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:02,880
Speaker 4: It was I was able to bear it more because

529
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:04,680
Speaker 4: I don't think I would have been able to bear

530
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:07,120
Speaker 4: it sometimes just trying to.

531
00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:10,200
Speaker 6: Do things to.

532
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:12,719
Speaker 4: Get out of that sinking quagmire that what house business brings,

533
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:15,360
Speaker 4: you know, I started tutoring, and I was do things

534
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:19,640
Speaker 4: to you know, try to do this, And it comes

535
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:20,280
Speaker 4: down to this.

536
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:21,960
Speaker 6: It's like us a society.

537
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:24,160
Speaker 4: And I'm going to end this with this quote because

538
00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:27,280
Speaker 4: when I listened at the end of doctor King's life

539
00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:30,000
Speaker 4: when he spoke about the intersections over there in Vietnam

540
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 4: and how he was vilified, and he encapsulated something that

541
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 4: Steven Wonder says, and.

542
00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:37,040
Speaker 6: It's very true. And I'm going to say this too.

543
00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:42,280
Speaker 4: Use your heart to love somebody, and if your heart

544
00:30:42,360 --> 00:30:45,720
Speaker 4: is big enough, use your heart to love everybody. And

545
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,240
Speaker 4: we need to show that kind of empathetic love, the

546
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 4: agape love, in order for us to look at how

547
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 4: we can be able to solve us because we are

548
00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:57,320
Speaker 4: in the same storm. We may not be in the

549
00:30:57,360 --> 00:30:59,920
Speaker 4: same boat, we may not be having some of it

550
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 4: on the rife wrap. Some of us are barely hanging

551
00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 4: on to the boat, and some of us are just

552
00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,080
Speaker 4: out in the middle of the ocean, drowning, desperately trying

553
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 4: to hit someone to throw a lifeline. Thank you to

554
00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 4: Curtis for his time. And when we come back more

555
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:25,720
Speaker 4: from d C. Welcome back to Weedian House where I'm

556
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,880
Speaker 4: in the field at the National Alliance the in Houselessness

557
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:33,800
Speaker 4: in Washington, d C. Our next guest is Rachel Parker,

558
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 4: an Indigenous unhoused lived experienced expert who shares a story

559
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:42,480
Speaker 4: of redemption and air proactive stance and helping other unhoused people.

560
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:46,080
Speaker 1: Rachel's story is very inspiring. Let's listen in.

561
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:54,400
Speaker 15: Chantay wash daywe My Indian name is good Heart woman,

562
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:57,400
Speaker 15: but my government name is Rachel Parker. I am an

563
00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 15: enrolled member of the Umaha Tribe located Omaha, Nebraska, with

564
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 15: descendancy of the Winnebago tribe and also of Cajun descent

565
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 15: in New Orleans.

566
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:08,160
Speaker 16: Thank you for having me THEO.

567
00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:10,600
Speaker 4: Thank you for showing me on taking the time of

568
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:14,600
Speaker 4: your busy schedule. So I wanted to ask about because

569
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:18,560
Speaker 4: you mentioned several points in a class or workshop that

570
00:32:18,560 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 4: we were in, and I wanted you to elucidate a

571
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:23,320
Speaker 4: little bit more for our audience to hear about your

572
00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 4: perspectives on like doubling up on house. That's a new

573
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,280
Speaker 4: term for many of our listeners, but it's important.

574
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:30,480
Speaker 6: So what is your insight on it?

575
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 4: Because you mentioned a couple of things about the reservations

576
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:33,360
Speaker 4: and things.

577
00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:37,240
Speaker 15: So in terms of doubling up by hud definition. That

578
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:40,040
Speaker 15: does not benefit individuals who are CouchSurfing because at the

579
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 15: end of the day, they are still facing housing instability.

580
00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:47,040
Speaker 15: You know, we not only need to recognize and elevate

581
00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:50,720
Speaker 15: that they are going through crisis, but how it affects

582
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:54,160
Speaker 15: those individuals that they are help surfing with. Housing is

583
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:59,440
Speaker 15: a human right. Everybody deserves to have a home. Anybody

584
00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:03,400
Speaker 15: who is an experience housing instability can attest to how

585
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 15: traumatic that experience is. Within my own experience, I have

586
00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:10,200
Speaker 15: lived experience of homelessness within the last five years.

587
00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:12,479
Speaker 4: Can you talk a little bit of how did you

588
00:33:12,800 --> 00:33:15,480
Speaker 4: how was the descent of getting it to be homeless?

589
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:16,120
Speaker 1: How did it happen?

590
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 15: Okay, so I will say in my lived experience includes

591
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:24,720
Speaker 15: domestic violence and which resulted in my addiction of alcohol

592
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:29,040
Speaker 15: and math. And so I fled DV in hopes of

593
00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:32,600
Speaker 15: you know, starting over, but dealing with the trauma and

594
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:36,200
Speaker 15: the mental anguish that I endured from that experience. I

595
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:38,480
Speaker 15: was not able to pick myself back up. I did

596
00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,160
Speaker 15: not have the supports at the time, and so I

597
00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:45,360
Speaker 15: did turn to self medication through that within three years,

598
00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:49,560
Speaker 15: I lost my home, my job, my car, my family.

599
00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 15: But The underlying reason for my homelessness was not alcoholism.

600
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 15: It was the trauma that I endured and the lack

601
00:33:56,480 --> 00:33:59,880
Speaker 15: of support. And so, you know, the turning point in

602
00:33:59,880 --> 00:34:03,640
Speaker 15: my life was being incarcerated. I became incarcerated and at

603
00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 15: that time I lost custody of my daughters and they

604
00:34:06,880 --> 00:34:09,799
Speaker 15: were in the child welfare system. And so waking up

605
00:34:09,840 --> 00:34:14,239
Speaker 15: in jail completely helpless, completely vulnerable. I had been assaulted

606
00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:17,160
Speaker 15: by a family member. That's what it led me to

607
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:20,200
Speaker 15: go to jail, you know, feeling like there was no hope.

608
00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:23,480
Speaker 15: You know, in recovery rooms, they say when you're sick

609
00:34:23,520 --> 00:34:26,120
Speaker 15: of your own stuff, then that's when you change.

610
00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 16: And waking up and not having my.

611
00:34:27,719 --> 00:34:31,040
Speaker 15: Children and feeling completely defeated, I knew I had to

612
00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:35,000
Speaker 15: change what I was doing. So when I was released

613
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:38,720
Speaker 15: from jail, I was forced to adhere to a strict

614
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 15: regimen of drug and alcohol testing. But because I was clean,

615
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:44,799
Speaker 15: I was able to get into a shelter, and that

616
00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:47,759
Speaker 15: shelter in Omaha is called the Stephens Center. I want

617
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:49,759
Speaker 15: to elevate that that is my home.

618
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:50,800
Speaker 16: Still to this day.

619
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:54,240
Speaker 15: They gave me the support that I needed. They walked

620
00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:57,759
Speaker 15: me through my fires, so to speak and so from

621
00:34:57,800 --> 00:35:00,160
Speaker 15: that point I was in shelter for thirty days. I

622
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:03,680
Speaker 15: went to outpatient treatment. I then got into sober living.

623
00:35:03,960 --> 00:35:06,640
Speaker 15: From sober living, I was fortunate enough to get into

624
00:35:06,680 --> 00:35:10,719
Speaker 15: a PSH apartment at the Stevens Center and I got

625
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:13,400
Speaker 15: my daughters back within six months of them being removed.

626
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:15,880
Speaker 15: So that was the greatest Christmas present in the world.

627
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:18,640
Speaker 15: That year twenty nineteen was when you know, I started

628
00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:22,839
Speaker 15: my journey in recovery. And from there I lived at

629
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:25,719
Speaker 15: PSH for two years and then I moved into my

630
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:29,239
Speaker 15: own apartment and since then this year alone, this is

631
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,960
Speaker 15: the year for us. We moved into a four bedroom

632
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,600
Speaker 15: home in a great part of town. I have gainful employment,

633
00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:39,000
Speaker 15: I have the most wonderful support and with that, you

634
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:41,880
Speaker 15: know that I found my passion with this work.

635
00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:44,440
Speaker 16: So it's not like work. It's just me doing what

636
00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:44,919
Speaker 16: I love.

637
00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:48,879
Speaker 15: And so you know, to elevate and to walk alongside

638
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:52,080
Speaker 15: people who are walking through their own fires, that is

639
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:54,640
Speaker 15: what we do, and that is why we do the work.

640
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,360
Speaker 6: That is so inspiring and so riveting.

641
00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:00,440
Speaker 4: To hear your story and which is also why when

642
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:03,160
Speaker 4: I felt your passion when you was talking yesterday at

643
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:05,840
Speaker 4: the class I was say, oh, okay, this is a

644
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:09,479
Speaker 4: very dynamic person to be interviewed. So let me ask

645
00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:13,600
Speaker 4: you if, for example, what's going on with the grants past.

646
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:18,640
Speaker 4: Imagine that someone that is another ratual outfare going through

647
00:36:18,880 --> 00:36:21,440
Speaker 4: because I know we need to talk about it, because

648
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 4: that's making it just a little bit more harder. How

649
00:36:24,680 --> 00:36:27,520
Speaker 4: do you think and what could we do to help

650
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 4: the Rachel's about going to come behind you in this journey.

651
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:34,200
Speaker 15: I feel like it really does come down to support

652
00:36:34,400 --> 00:36:37,719
Speaker 15: and being, you know, showing grace to individuals who are

653
00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:42,120
Speaker 15: navigating through their own housing instability from what I've seen

654
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:46,760
Speaker 15: in our city, being able to have human centered conversations

655
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:48,960
Speaker 15: with individuals to get all of you know, to get

656
00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:52,840
Speaker 15: information that's pertinent, to assist them through their supports, but

657
00:36:53,040 --> 00:36:57,239
Speaker 15: really being intentional on not re traumatizing individuals by having

658
00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:01,279
Speaker 15: them tell their story over and over my process. I

659
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,080
Speaker 15: am not a frontline worker, but I provide direct supports

660
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:07,240
Speaker 15: to frontline workers, and I will never turn a client away,

661
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 15: even though I come from case management prior, in my

662
00:37:10,160 --> 00:37:14,120
Speaker 15: prior position in child welfare, I will never turn anybody away.

663
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:17,400
Speaker 15: And so what I do for me and what works

664
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 15: for me and the client is I will speak with them,

665
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:22,839
Speaker 15: talk with them for thirty forty five minutes, you know,

666
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:26,200
Speaker 15: get the information that is necessary, and I do a

667
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:29,719
Speaker 15: warm handoff to the frontline staff that I am directing

668
00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 15: them to. And then that you know, helps that process

669
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:37,680
Speaker 15: because we got to remember, trauma is always an underlying factor,

670
00:37:37,719 --> 00:37:41,200
Speaker 15: and when we go through homelessness, that is adding trauma

671
00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 15: on top of trauma. It really comes down to being empathetic.

672
00:37:45,360 --> 00:37:45,600
Speaker 16: Right.

673
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:49,040
Speaker 15: The empathy is the connection that you have with an individual.

674
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:52,319
Speaker 15: So because of my lived experience, you know, in all

675
00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:55,720
Speaker 15: of these different areas, you know, I'm able to connect

676
00:37:55,840 --> 00:37:59,759
Speaker 15: effectively by just being myself and just treating people like

677
00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:04,040
Speaker 15: human beings. It's so simple. I say, it's humans that

678
00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:05,960
Speaker 15: make it hard, right.

679
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:07,760
Speaker 1: Very true.

680
00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:10,760
Speaker 4: Now, you know, let Supreme Court as and this has

681
00:38:10,800 --> 00:38:12,440
Speaker 4: been the buzz what I've been hearing.

682
00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:13,640
Speaker 6: I've had if recently.

683
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:16,560
Speaker 4: Just today, I had a conversation with someone about the

684
00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:21,440
Speaker 4: Supreme Court's decision about Grant's past and to educate our

685
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:26,360
Speaker 4: audience who may not be aware. Previously, prior to Grant's

686
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:31,719
Speaker 4: past ruling, there was a appellate decision or Superior Court

687
00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:36,600
Speaker 4: decision on It was called Martin versus Boising, and the

688
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:40,360
Speaker 4: gist of that argument was it was cruel and unusual

689
00:38:40,440 --> 00:38:45,480
Speaker 4: punishment to criminalize an unhoused person for existing and trying

690
00:38:45,520 --> 00:38:49,200
Speaker 4: to survive when there are not available resources, and that

691
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:51,319
Speaker 4: I want to remember, I want you to remember that.

692
00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:55,080
Speaker 4: Whereas when the Supreme Court listened to the Grant's past ruling,

693
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:58,480
Speaker 4: they ruled that it is not cruel and unusual punishment

694
00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:02,200
Speaker 4: to demoni or site unhoused people even if you don't

695
00:39:02,200 --> 00:39:06,080
Speaker 4: have resources for them. So in essence is that more example,

696
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:09,160
Speaker 4: like in Little Tokyo a few days ago, there was

697
00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:13,279
Speaker 4: a community of unhoused people in Little Tokyo surviving under

698
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:18,040
Speaker 4: the heat wave. And because a community I guess I

699
00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:23,880
Speaker 4: used this derogatorily. A community business owner saw these unhoused

700
00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:26,759
Speaker 4: and the contents in order to survive the heat wave,

701
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:30,440
Speaker 4: while he goes into air conditioned building called the police,

702
00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:34,520
Speaker 4: who promptly returned and told the unhoused that they must

703
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:37,160
Speaker 4: leave and never come back because they are violating the

704
00:39:37,239 --> 00:39:41,640
Speaker 4: ADA standards and basically using as a catapult or the

705
00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:46,799
Speaker 4: pivot point of the Grant's past decision into intensifying the

706
00:39:46,920 --> 00:39:51,920
Speaker 4: ways of criminalizing or focusing on erasing the existence of

707
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:57,600
Speaker 4: unhoused people, insofar as in San Francisco, California, Maryland and

708
00:39:57,719 --> 00:40:02,080
Speaker 4: Breed has been bragging or vowing more intensity and sweeping

709
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:04,799
Speaker 4: and house people, whether even they have the resources or not.

710
00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:08,839
Speaker 4: So on the wings of that conversation, what is your

711
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:09,600
Speaker 4: insight on that?

712
00:40:10,480 --> 00:40:13,480
Speaker 15: So it's interesting to me because the people that are

713
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:19,239
Speaker 15: trying to criminalize and demonize homelessness have probably never experienced it.

714
00:40:19,719 --> 00:40:21,160
Speaker 16: So let me throw that back.

715
00:40:21,239 --> 00:40:24,080
Speaker 15: If the shoe was on the other foot, and if

716
00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:26,960
Speaker 15: they had to endure the you know, the heat, the

717
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,320
Speaker 15: excessive heat, the lack of resources.

718
00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 16: Which if this is.

719
00:40:31,160 --> 00:40:34,120
Speaker 15: The problem, then if you're not part of the solution,

720
00:40:34,280 --> 00:40:36,800
Speaker 15: then you're part of the problem. You are not giving

721
00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:40,120
Speaker 15: the community the ability to scratch out out of this.

722
00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:43,719
Speaker 15: You want to criminalize it, but yet you know we

723
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:46,760
Speaker 15: are here. Look at what we are doing to people.

724
00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:49,400
Speaker 15: You know, it is not humane to be out in

725
00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:53,400
Speaker 15: excessive heat. I always use this term. Anybody in this country,

726
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:57,799
Speaker 15: middle class and lower are one paycheck away from homelessness.

727
00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:02,600
Speaker 15: Should they be punished because of a medical condition, because

728
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:05,800
Speaker 15: of their mental health, because oh maybe they.

729
00:41:05,680 --> 00:41:07,320
Speaker 16: Lost their job? Right?

730
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:10,960
Speaker 15: Those are life things. Life life be lifing for people.

731
00:41:11,080 --> 00:41:14,879
Speaker 15: Let's just say that life happens, and you are going

732
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:17,960
Speaker 15: to punish them when they are already going through It

733
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 15: does not make sense to me.

734
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:20,360
Speaker 16: In our own community.

735
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:23,520
Speaker 15: And in Nebraska, there is a bill i'll be thirteen

736
00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:26,440
Speaker 15: fifty seven which they did want to criminalize homelessness in

737
00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:31,040
Speaker 15: public areas. You know, we were very, very intentional and

738
00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:33,920
Speaker 15: we went hard on you know, having a position on that,

739
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:37,000
Speaker 15: and you know successfully, you know, they did not pass

740
00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:38,640
Speaker 15: the bill. We went all the way to Lincoln, we

741
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:42,120
Speaker 15: sent lived experience folks there to testify, you know. But

742
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:44,880
Speaker 15: yet we are here, Supreme Court. We are here, so

743
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:47,879
Speaker 15: we're back to square one. But know this, we will

744
00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 15: never stop fighting. We are just going to come harder.

745
00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:54,279
Speaker 15: So come on and bring it because we're ready for it.

746
00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:57,960
Speaker 15: You know, we are an army, an army of warriors.

747
00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:00,920
Speaker 15: We do this work because we know we will make

748
00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,480
Speaker 15: a change. We may not end homelessness tomorrow, we may

749
00:42:04,520 --> 00:42:07,239
Speaker 15: not end homelessness next year, but through the work that

750
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:11,520
Speaker 15: we do, it takes one spark to light that flame

751
00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:14,799
Speaker 15: of that individual that can be the one to make

752
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:16,759
Speaker 15: that change, to be the voice.

753
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:19,879
Speaker 16: And so we're going to keep coming. It's not going to.

754
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:22,600
Speaker 6: Stop, never give up, give in or give out.

755
00:42:22,560 --> 00:42:27,200
Speaker 4: Because this is the fight of the soul of our country,

756
00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:31,080
Speaker 4: of our land, of our society. We must fight for

757
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:36,719
Speaker 4: this because apparently the dark forces that are in respectability politics,

758
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:40,680
Speaker 4: law and order, or blaming the people for living life

759
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:45,360
Speaker 4: or having life experiences that leads them into houselessness.

760
00:42:45,040 --> 00:42:47,360
Speaker 6: Is trying to hold sway.

761
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:51,120
Speaker 17: You know, I'm talking about Trump Project twenty twenty five

762
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:55,480
Speaker 17: and his viewpoints on houselessness when he first was running

763
00:42:55,480 --> 00:42:58,240
Speaker 17: for office, talking about putting him out in the airport

764
00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:03,719
Speaker 17: in Los Angeles, somewhere far away from the humdruma of society.

765
00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:07,759
Speaker 4: These are the people that are coming for everyone, no

766
00:43:07,840 --> 00:43:10,239
Speaker 4: matter what station of life. And if we do not

767
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:13,719
Speaker 4: understand this and understanding the connective tissue that it is

768
00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:17,799
Speaker 4: with houselessness and the structural will breakdown of our society,

769
00:43:18,040 --> 00:43:22,760
Speaker 4: then we are going to be looking at a landscape

770
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:27,239
Speaker 4: of much desolation. But I'm encouraged because we have advocates

771
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:30,040
Speaker 4: like Rachel and I also encouraged that to know that

772
00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:33,480
Speaker 4: we are still not willing to lay down even though

773
00:43:33,560 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 4: Supreme Court read this decision. One other thing too, I

774
00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:39,920
Speaker 4: wanted to ask about is that in Omaha. How is

775
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:43,440
Speaker 4: the houses the situation with because I'm making this point

776
00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:47,120
Speaker 4: this has been my soap box thing. It is hot outside.

777
00:43:47,200 --> 00:43:50,440
Speaker 4: I don't know if you know that. Yes, it's hot outside.

778
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:54,239
Speaker 4: What is this situation there in Omaha? Do they have

779
00:43:54,320 --> 00:43:55,040
Speaker 4: cooling stations?

780
00:43:55,160 --> 00:43:56,840
Speaker 16: Yes, we do have cooling stations.

781
00:43:56,920 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 15: So our organization reimagine we are out of omahas we

782
00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 15: are partners with our local COEOC which is called Threshold,

783
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:07,280
Speaker 15: and Threshold I will say I do like the idea

784
00:44:07,320 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 15: of this. They are intentional of offering cooling stations throughout

785
00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:14,480
Speaker 15: the city. At our own location downtown, we are in

786
00:44:14,520 --> 00:44:16,960
Speaker 15: the heart of downtown where a lot of our unhoused

787
00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:20,680
Speaker 15: population is. We partnered with an agency called Together Inc.

788
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:23,840
Speaker 15: They're amazing and what their pilot program is, which just

789
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:26,920
Speaker 15: started this year, is called a Housing Stability Clinic, and

790
00:44:27,000 --> 00:44:29,200
Speaker 15: so it is a one stop shop. We have different

791
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:33,680
Speaker 15: organizations within the city that come on specific days and

792
00:44:34,120 --> 00:44:37,040
Speaker 15: we see the lines around the corner. So even to

793
00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:40,200
Speaker 15: do little things being human centered, right, coming back to

794
00:44:40,239 --> 00:44:43,640
Speaker 15: the basics, we offer water. We are in the process

795
00:44:43,640 --> 00:44:47,680
Speaker 15: of providing awnings while they are standing because it's very uncomfortable, right,

796
00:44:47,719 --> 00:44:51,680
Speaker 15: and so just being intentional. Their street outreach has been amazing.

797
00:44:52,040 --> 00:44:54,879
Speaker 15: They go out, they go to the encampments, they make

798
00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:58,000
Speaker 15: contact with a lot of the unhoused population. I have

799
00:44:58,120 --> 00:45:00,600
Speaker 15: people out on the street who are not working with

800
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:03,399
Speaker 15: an organization but just love to do the work and

801
00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:06,799
Speaker 15: they ensure that they know where the resources are and

802
00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:09,279
Speaker 15: who they can reach out to. So it really is

803
00:45:09,320 --> 00:45:12,600
Speaker 15: about collaboration, you know, with the from the boots on

804
00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:15,120
Speaker 15: the ground folks, you know, to the people that are

805
00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:17,719
Speaker 15: doing you know, the frontline staff that are working directly,

806
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,400
Speaker 15: you know when people come in for services, and you know,

807
00:45:21,000 --> 00:45:23,720
Speaker 15: really getting leadership to get on board with that because

808
00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:26,319
Speaker 15: you know, in this realm, we are a spoke on

809
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:28,719
Speaker 15: a will right, and so it takes all of these

810
00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:32,319
Speaker 15: different elements and facets right for this to work. And

811
00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:35,560
Speaker 15: so what our mission reimagine is to ensure that we

812
00:45:35,600 --> 00:45:38,040
Speaker 15: are able to be a part of that cross sectionalization

813
00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:42,280
Speaker 15: from the medical to the schools and specifically for our youth.

814
00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:46,080
Speaker 15: Our youth, the ages between ages nineteen and twenty four

815
00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:50,320
Speaker 15: in our community, especially coming out of foster care, experience

816
00:45:50,480 --> 00:45:53,960
Speaker 15: homelessness at much higher rates than any other group. And

817
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:57,080
Speaker 15: so you know, the barrier is for young people, it's

818
00:45:57,120 --> 00:45:59,080
Speaker 15: hard to find housing for them. We are in a

819
00:45:59,080 --> 00:46:02,440
Speaker 15: housing crisis in our whole country, right, and we can

820
00:46:02,520 --> 00:46:05,040
Speaker 15: come back, you know, but you know that I'm going

821
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:07,799
Speaker 15: to throw that back to our government. You know, give

822
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:12,919
Speaker 15: us the funds, support the communities, build the houses, right,

823
00:46:13,120 --> 00:46:15,319
Speaker 15: you know, make low income. What we are seeing in

824
00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:18,640
Speaker 15: our community is older individuals and people that are facing

825
00:46:18,760 --> 00:46:23,600
Speaker 15: medically complex situations. And nine times out of ten those individuals,

826
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:26,960
Speaker 15: that is the reason for their homelessness, right. And so

827
00:46:27,640 --> 00:46:30,600
Speaker 15: little things cooling centers, waters, you know what I mean,

828
00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:34,120
Speaker 15: the ability to come in and ask for help when needed.

829
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:36,200
Speaker 15: So those are just some of the things that we

830
00:46:36,280 --> 00:46:38,560
Speaker 15: are working on in our city, and we are intentional

831
00:46:38,640 --> 00:46:41,280
Speaker 15: of being a part of that cultural shift.

832
00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:44,120
Speaker 4: And I also wanted to point out too the people

833
00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:46,840
Speaker 4: that are housing secure and doubling up. Any idea is

834
00:46:46,880 --> 00:46:48,520
Speaker 4: how do we reach out to make sure that they

835
00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:51,680
Speaker 4: feel safe from the stigma because it is a vic stigma.

836
00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:57,360
Speaker 4: Or sometimes people defend themselves against not jeopardizing the person

837
00:46:57,360 --> 00:47:00,560
Speaker 4: that's offering them lodging because I name, it's a very

838
00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:02,880
Speaker 4: good point about that. They don't want to put the

839
00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:05,600
Speaker 4: person on blast that is being kind, harder or let

840
00:47:05,640 --> 00:47:08,880
Speaker 4: them stay, but they can lose their housing for doing so.

841
00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:12,160
Speaker 15: So something that are I am the Training and Lived

842
00:47:12,160 --> 00:47:15,319
Speaker 15: Experience director for our company, and something that we have

843
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:20,040
Speaker 15: been intentional about is offering housing problems solving training to

844
00:47:20,120 --> 00:47:22,920
Speaker 15: our frontline staff because nine times out of ten, when

845
00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:26,120
Speaker 15: you're in a CouchSurfing situation or doubled up, you know,

846
00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:28,399
Speaker 15: they may not be able to use family or friends

847
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:29,120
Speaker 15: as a resource.

848
00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:30,879
Speaker 16: But it's just the lack of communication.

849
00:47:31,600 --> 00:47:34,520
Speaker 15: So you know, if you have someone almost like mediating

850
00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:38,280
Speaker 15: in a way, you know, as a frontline worker, saying hey, listen,

851
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:42,560
Speaker 15: this is the situation. Clear communication, lay out the expectations,

852
00:47:42,840 --> 00:47:45,840
Speaker 15: you know, be open and honest, you know, and set boundaries,

853
00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:48,360
Speaker 15: you know, and sometimes that's not always easy with family,

854
00:47:48,719 --> 00:47:50,200
Speaker 15: you know, But at the end of the day, it

855
00:47:50,239 --> 00:47:55,040
Speaker 15: really comes down to getting individuals stabilized, not in terms

856
00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:57,239
Speaker 15: of what you think is best for them, but part

857
00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:00,800
Speaker 15: of being human centered and having those conversations conversations is

858
00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:03,839
Speaker 15: giving the client the autonomy to make their own decisions

859
00:48:04,200 --> 00:48:07,120
Speaker 15: and supporting them and coming from a place of non

860
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:10,880
Speaker 15: judgment and coming from a place of acceptance. And so

861
00:48:11,040 --> 00:48:13,760
Speaker 15: you know, that's an element in our and that's something

862
00:48:13,840 --> 00:48:16,800
Speaker 15: that that's our angle, that is the position we're trying

863
00:48:16,840 --> 00:48:19,520
Speaker 15: to take. And I will say that our COEOC has

864
00:48:19,560 --> 00:48:21,520
Speaker 15: been very supportive of that process.

865
00:48:21,960 --> 00:48:23,640
Speaker 1: I think I covered all of the questions.

866
00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:25,520
Speaker 6: It is anything you like to talk.

867
00:48:26,239 --> 00:48:28,399
Speaker 15: I just want to say thank you for the opportunity.

868
00:48:28,920 --> 00:48:32,960
Speaker 15: I will say that these conferences are so crucial because

869
00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:35,520
Speaker 15: you get to meet other individuals and hear about other

870
00:48:35,600 --> 00:48:38,600
Speaker 15: communities and what is working and so, you know, we

871
00:48:38,680 --> 00:48:41,480
Speaker 15: can talk about how to solve homelessness all day, but

872
00:48:41,840 --> 00:48:44,360
Speaker 15: we want to be the ones to make that change.

873
00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:48,719
Speaker 15: And so you know, like like you said, walking alongside

874
00:48:48,760 --> 00:48:51,800
Speaker 15: people and supporting them and doing the work and holding

875
00:48:51,840 --> 00:48:57,359
Speaker 15: that passion and you know, coming from a place of love, empathy, understanding,

876
00:48:57,800 --> 00:48:59,080
Speaker 15: that's what it's all about.

877
00:49:02,760 --> 00:49:06,480
Speaker 4: Thanks so much to Rachel for their time and their story.

878
00:49:06,920 --> 00:49:09,880
Speaker 4: And when we come back my final interview from d

879
00:49:10,000 --> 00:49:19,040
Speaker 4: C stay with us. Welcome back to Weedian House for

880
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:22,400
Speaker 4: the grand conclusion to our series on DC and the

881
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:26,680
Speaker 4: National Alliance the in Houselessness Conference this past July. Our

882
00:49:26,719 --> 00:49:30,440
Speaker 4: final interview was with Tawana Simpson, one of the Unhoused

883
00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:32,840
Speaker 4: Lived Experienced advocates from Detroit, Michigan.

884
00:49:33,480 --> 00:49:39,080
Speaker 1: Let's hear her story.

885
00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:43,080
Speaker 12: My story begins. I have very humble beginnings in Detroit.

886
00:49:43,560 --> 00:49:46,920
Speaker 12: I grew up, you know, in a large family that

887
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:51,680
Speaker 12: understood helping each other makes a difference. So I start there.

888
00:49:52,000 --> 00:49:56,520
Speaker 12: And as as my educational career grew, from elementary to

889
00:49:56,600 --> 00:49:59,000
Speaker 12: junior high to high school, I always found myself in

890
00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:03,080
Speaker 12: the stupid council president of this, you know, just a

891
00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:06,440
Speaker 12: leader of my people because being the fifth child of

892
00:50:06,520 --> 00:50:10,840
Speaker 12: sixth I understood probably a little more than some of

893
00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:13,680
Speaker 12: my peers did, because most of them didn't come from

894
00:50:13,760 --> 00:50:17,040
Speaker 12: large families in my neighborhood that I was from. But

895
00:50:17,680 --> 00:50:20,640
Speaker 12: after that, after high school, went to college, came back home,

896
00:50:20,680 --> 00:50:24,680
Speaker 12: and I became an advocate in my community, Prestin Delegate

897
00:50:24,760 --> 00:50:28,400
Speaker 12: citizen Citizen District Council, which is a group in each

898
00:50:28,800 --> 00:50:33,600
Speaker 12: community that helped develop their community. But I became unhoused

899
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:36,040
Speaker 12: after I was elected a school board member.

900
00:50:36,200 --> 00:50:38,400
Speaker 6: Oh and how did that come to be?

901
00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:42,640
Speaker 12: I believe from my advocacy, I truly believe that. But

902
00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:45,719
Speaker 12: of course, you know, I was a person who was

903
00:50:45,800 --> 00:50:50,480
Speaker 12: receiving Section eight. My daughter had become of age, she

904
00:50:50,520 --> 00:50:57,319
Speaker 12: was in college, and the political agenda associated with me

905
00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:01,319
Speaker 12: being on the school board doing emergency man which is

906
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:05,080
Speaker 12: a law in Michigan Pa. Four thirty six that gave

907
00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:10,719
Speaker 12: the governor a full governance over whatever happened with the

908
00:51:10,719 --> 00:51:14,080
Speaker 12: City of Detroit. The city, the school district, and a

909
00:51:14,120 --> 00:51:19,200
Speaker 12: few other municipalities surrounding Detroit was also involved. And so

910
00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:22,799
Speaker 12: that was very detrimental to our community because then your

911
00:51:22,840 --> 00:51:26,200
Speaker 12: elected officials lost their voice and their way to advocate

912
00:51:26,200 --> 00:51:28,920
Speaker 12: for you. So in the process of me fighting that,

913
00:51:29,640 --> 00:51:32,480
Speaker 12: I got caught up. I guess researched and found out

914
00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:36,839
Speaker 12: that I was actually receiving subsidies from the state, and

915
00:51:36,920 --> 00:51:40,719
Speaker 12: so they came and talked with the manager and somehow

916
00:51:41,000 --> 00:51:47,240
Speaker 12: decided that I was scheming the system won by having

917
00:51:47,320 --> 00:51:51,400
Speaker 12: enough tenacity and understanding that much is given, much is

918
00:51:51,719 --> 00:51:54,560
Speaker 12: deserved and earned, and you got to help other people.

919
00:51:55,120 --> 00:51:58,279
Speaker 12: So I became an advocate for our community, and they

920
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:01,960
Speaker 12: used that against me as if I was scheming or something.

921
00:52:02,239 --> 00:52:05,440
Speaker 12: So therefore, my daughter is an adult in college. The

922
00:52:05,480 --> 00:52:08,160
Speaker 12: subdivision I was living in did not have a one

923
00:52:08,200 --> 00:52:10,880
Speaker 12: bedroom available for me to transfer to now that my

924
00:52:10,960 --> 00:52:13,480
Speaker 12: daughter wasn't in a home, but they used that against

925
00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:16,480
Speaker 12: me and I become I became unsheltered because of that,

926
00:52:17,239 --> 00:52:21,320
Speaker 12: and at that point I had to advocate unsheltered.

927
00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:25,720
Speaker 4: How was that experience conversely than being an advocate house?

928
00:52:25,920 --> 00:52:29,200
Speaker 4: Is it been different or is it more involved?

929
00:52:29,800 --> 00:52:30,200
Speaker 7: It was?

930
00:52:30,760 --> 00:52:37,080
Speaker 12: It was both, It was both, and it was both

931
00:52:37,160 --> 00:52:39,600
Speaker 12: both of them. Was on a hundred. Okay, I was

932
00:52:39,640 --> 00:52:42,200
Speaker 12: on a hundred because then I had no water, I

933
00:52:42,239 --> 00:52:47,880
Speaker 12: had clothes, my pride. I didn't want to burden my

934
00:52:47,960 --> 00:52:50,799
Speaker 12: mother at that time she was eighty years old. Who

935
00:52:50,840 --> 00:52:53,399
Speaker 12: wants to come home and to your eighty old parent?

936
00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:55,120
Speaker 12: Even though I was there every day helping her, but

937
00:52:55,160 --> 00:53:00,480
Speaker 12: I didn't want her to feel or yeah with me,

938
00:53:01,040 --> 00:53:03,640
Speaker 12: And then I was fighting my own personal feelings. Now

939
00:53:03,640 --> 00:53:07,680
Speaker 12: I would be this grown having to go home, you know, So.

940
00:53:09,239 --> 00:53:12,000
Speaker 7: I don't know. It eventually worked out.

941
00:53:12,360 --> 00:53:15,840
Speaker 12: The universe really helped me out, because believe it or not,

942
00:53:16,160 --> 00:53:18,399
Speaker 12: and most people don't, but it's the honest to god truth.

943
00:53:18,920 --> 00:53:21,920
Speaker 12: One of the seniors that was in my mother's senior building,

944
00:53:21,960 --> 00:53:23,480
Speaker 12: because she was living in a senior brog, I couldn't

945
00:53:23,480 --> 00:53:27,120
Speaker 12: even go if I wanted to, and so they were

946
00:53:27,239 --> 00:53:30,240
Speaker 12: very supportive of what I was doing and then doing COVID.

947
00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:33,000
Speaker 12: They knew them my heart because I took care of

948
00:53:33,040 --> 00:53:37,600
Speaker 12: the whole building. I went grocery shopping, I used my

949
00:53:38,320 --> 00:53:41,239
Speaker 12: phone or their phones to pay their bills, talk to they,

950
00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:44,520
Speaker 12: you know, coordinated with their family members and all that

951
00:53:44,560 --> 00:53:46,360
Speaker 12: we had to do to keep everybody safe. And it

952
00:53:46,400 --> 00:53:48,640
Speaker 12: was about eighty eight people in that building, and of

953
00:53:48,680 --> 00:53:52,279
Speaker 12: the eighty eight, I believe I helped maybe about sixty five.

954
00:53:53,760 --> 00:53:58,080
Speaker 12: So long story short, she allowed me to stay in

955
00:53:58,120 --> 00:54:02,440
Speaker 12: her abandoned house that she had walked away from going

956
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:05,160
Speaker 12: to senior building because you can no longer maintain it.

957
00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:09,719
Speaker 12: So that was my saving grace. That was my saving grace.

958
00:54:09,760 --> 00:54:12,160
Speaker 12: So that's how I was able to handle that.

959
00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:12,520
Speaker 16: Now.

960
00:54:12,600 --> 00:54:15,920
Speaker 4: Also I wanted to take a kind of a picturesque

961
00:54:16,040 --> 00:54:17,520
Speaker 4: of the backdrop.

962
00:54:17,080 --> 00:54:17,759
Speaker 3: That was going on.

963
00:54:18,239 --> 00:54:20,840
Speaker 4: You mentioned Michigan, and I'm going to be in Michigan

964
00:54:21,920 --> 00:54:24,560
Speaker 4: in August. But one of the things that was going

965
00:54:24,600 --> 00:54:27,640
Speaker 4: on that we touched on is that there was a

966
00:54:27,719 --> 00:54:31,120
Speaker 4: housing graces not just in Michigan but also all around

967
00:54:31,200 --> 00:54:35,160
Speaker 4: the country. But you mentioned about there was issues going

968
00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:38,000
Speaker 4: on with the water. But we've heard about Flint, so

969
00:54:38,040 --> 00:54:39,200
Speaker 4: I if you can touch.

970
00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:41,359
Speaker 12: On oh, we have the same problem in Detroit because

971
00:54:41,400 --> 00:54:46,120
Speaker 12: the Natuality Flint was getting their water from Detroit. They

972
00:54:46,239 --> 00:54:52,040
Speaker 12: switched from Detroit to another municipality near them, but the

973
00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:55,279
Speaker 12: damage was done from the water from Detroit. A lot

974
00:54:55,320 --> 00:54:58,040
Speaker 12: of people don't want to say that, but that was

975
00:54:58,239 --> 00:55:02,200
Speaker 12: I believe personally, that was just the overlay for the underlay,

976
00:55:02,239 --> 00:55:05,920
Speaker 12: you know, so that it wasn't directly pointed back to Detroit.

977
00:55:06,080 --> 00:55:09,480
Speaker 12: But because there's a notion that we have good water,

978
00:55:09,760 --> 00:55:12,879
Speaker 12: but really our water is horrible, because we were, if

979
00:55:12,880 --> 00:55:15,960
Speaker 12: my if my memory served me correctly, if not the first,

980
00:55:16,000 --> 00:55:19,000
Speaker 12: but one of the first five states that first started

981
00:55:19,040 --> 00:55:21,600
Speaker 12: putting floor ride in the water. So we now know

982
00:55:21,719 --> 00:55:24,439
Speaker 12: that floor ride is not good for us. And most

983
00:55:24,440 --> 00:55:26,919
Speaker 12: of the chemicals that that they put in the water,

984
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:31,560
Speaker 12: the floor the floor ride, the chlorine, and and several

985
00:55:31,560 --> 00:55:35,319
Speaker 12: other different chemicals that were put in our water. So

986
00:55:36,120 --> 00:55:39,120
Speaker 12: you know, which really was the reason that the rusted

987
00:55:39,160 --> 00:55:43,839
Speaker 12: out the auto plant that was in Flint that cost

988
00:55:43,920 --> 00:55:45,719
Speaker 12: the you know, that brought the attention.

989
00:55:45,440 --> 00:55:48,600
Speaker 4: Brings a different question because I noticed when the courts

990
00:55:48,640 --> 00:55:51,480
Speaker 4: when the housing crisis was going on, but I also noticed,

991
00:55:51,760 --> 00:55:56,520
Speaker 4: and it was now that things are going so negatively

992
00:55:56,800 --> 00:55:59,160
Speaker 4: due to the Supreme Court grants past ruling.

993
00:55:59,680 --> 00:56:00,640
Speaker 6: I just couldn't help.

994
00:56:00,640 --> 00:56:03,000
Speaker 4: But understand that here you have people that are living

995
00:56:03,000 --> 00:56:06,319
Speaker 4: in buildings and they're sheltered to some degree, and they

996
00:56:06,320 --> 00:56:09,759
Speaker 4: have bad water, and then they happen to use alternative

997
00:56:09,760 --> 00:56:10,640
Speaker 4: ways of getting water.

998
00:56:10,880 --> 00:56:13,480
Speaker 6: What's going on with the unhoused community. How are they

999
00:56:13,520 --> 00:56:15,080
Speaker 6: are able to because they can't just do.

1000
00:56:15,160 --> 00:56:21,240
Speaker 12: Not only the unhoused, the incarcerated, Okay, the unhoused incarcerated,

1001
00:56:21,600 --> 00:56:25,279
Speaker 12: and then those who just are not articulate enough to

1002
00:56:25,440 --> 00:56:29,120
Speaker 12: understand what's going to him. I just lost a very

1003
00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:32,280
Speaker 12: good friend of mine that was living in public housing

1004
00:56:32,800 --> 00:56:34,440
Speaker 12: and they were still in Detroit.

1005
00:56:34,480 --> 00:56:34,960
Speaker 7: And this is.

1006
00:56:35,040 --> 00:56:38,960
Speaker 12: Within the month the water was brown. They couldn't get

1007
00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:41,200
Speaker 12: him to stop drinking it, and he died from it.

1008
00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:46,440
Speaker 12: Oh man, And that's happened within a month ago in Detroit, you.

1009
00:56:46,440 --> 00:56:48,920
Speaker 4: Know, because he was drinking it because he maybe not

1010
00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:52,279
Speaker 4: have the alternative or the financial wherewithal to get bottled water.

1011
00:56:52,600 --> 00:56:54,440
Speaker 4: I fee what he wanted to say too, because you know,

1012
00:56:54,520 --> 00:56:56,200
Speaker 4: it's not like I don't think people like, let's go

1013
00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:57,000
Speaker 4: drink brown water.

1014
00:56:57,120 --> 00:56:59,080
Speaker 6: No, that's just that not happened these people.

1015
00:56:59,320 --> 00:57:02,040
Speaker 7: We have to in a heat wave, and you know.

1016
00:57:03,320 --> 00:57:05,440
Speaker 12: And you have to bathe because anything you put on

1017
00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:08,080
Speaker 12: your skin goes straight into your blood stream. At least

1018
00:57:08,120 --> 00:57:10,839
Speaker 12: your digestive system can help you out a bit until

1019
00:57:10,880 --> 00:57:12,000
Speaker 12: they get fully burned.

1020
00:57:12,520 --> 00:57:13,799
Speaker 7: But yeah, so the.

1021
00:57:13,719 --> 00:57:16,880
Speaker 12: Water crisis is still happening and we're still having problems.

1022
00:57:17,160 --> 00:57:21,000
Speaker 12: Detroit is a very, very old city and infrastructure has

1023
00:57:21,080 --> 00:57:27,280
Speaker 12: not been updated since its inception. As a matter of fact,

1024
00:57:27,560 --> 00:57:30,840
Speaker 12: I know that Michigan was one of the last states

1025
00:57:30,880 --> 00:57:35,600
Speaker 12: that required the industry to filter and do all the

1026
00:57:35,640 --> 00:57:39,200
Speaker 12: things they need to keep the air pollution correctly. Not

1027
00:57:39,320 --> 00:57:41,840
Speaker 12: only the auto industries, the hospitals. We have a hospital

1028
00:57:41,840 --> 00:57:46,040
Speaker 12: they're hearing Ford, who makes more money off buying whatever.

1029
00:57:46,080 --> 00:57:49,080
Speaker 7: The hospitals take out of people that's toxic, that's wrong,

1030
00:57:49,320 --> 00:57:53,160
Speaker 7: or limbs and these things and get rid of them.

1031
00:57:53,240 --> 00:57:55,439
Speaker 12: I lived across the street from that place for twenty

1032
00:57:55,480 --> 00:57:57,680
Speaker 12: six years and had to smell that smell. So I

1033
00:57:57,720 --> 00:58:01,160
Speaker 12: was one of the organizers who helped you a filtration system.

1034
00:58:01,200 --> 00:58:03,800
Speaker 12: We live in here, we have to smell this. So's

1035
00:58:04,240 --> 00:58:07,400
Speaker 12: it's a lot of toxic things that's going on. Michigan

1036
00:58:07,480 --> 00:58:10,000
Speaker 12: even accepts the toxic waste from Canada.

1037
00:58:10,200 --> 00:58:10,960
Speaker 16: Oh is that right?

1038
00:58:11,280 --> 00:58:13,480
Speaker 7: Yes, I know that.

1039
00:58:13,480 --> 00:58:17,960
Speaker 12: That's why I'm you know so, because I'm an advocate,

1040
00:58:18,040 --> 00:58:20,960
Speaker 12: and like I said, I was elected under emergency management,

1041
00:58:21,280 --> 00:58:24,000
Speaker 12: which we had to deal with not only our schools,

1042
00:58:24,280 --> 00:58:28,720
Speaker 12: our city, the city bankruptcy, the school takeover as well

1043
00:58:28,760 --> 00:58:31,640
Speaker 12: as the water and all that falls under what was

1044
00:58:31,760 --> 00:58:34,640
Speaker 12: legislated under PA four thirty six. Okay, and then there

1045
00:58:34,680 --> 00:58:36,800
Speaker 12: was a PA ten and it was a PA four,

1046
00:58:37,120 --> 00:58:39,640
Speaker 12: but it eventually all those led to that PA four

1047
00:58:39,720 --> 00:58:40,280
Speaker 12: thirty six.

1048
00:58:40,640 --> 00:58:43,120
Speaker 6: Now I'm gonna ask two different questions, but I'm gonna

1049
00:58:43,120 --> 00:58:46,480
Speaker 6: sit the first one. Last time I was here in Washington.

1050
00:58:46,160 --> 00:58:49,360
Speaker 4: Really to take in the sites when I was in college,

1051
00:58:49,400 --> 00:58:51,959
Speaker 4: but I've been here for a couple of the conferences

1052
00:58:52,320 --> 00:58:54,480
Speaker 4: and I don't know if you notice, like we're in

1053
00:58:54,520 --> 00:58:57,080
Speaker 4: that nice air conditioning, a little chestnut here, Yes, so

1054
00:58:57,160 --> 00:59:00,160
Speaker 4: when you step out, it's like who that that that

1055
00:59:00,280 --> 00:59:04,160
Speaker 4: he has no joke? And I am by no means

1056
00:59:04,240 --> 00:59:07,200
Speaker 4: of an Olympic track star, but one trying to traverse

1057
00:59:07,240 --> 00:59:10,000
Speaker 4: here with all of that humility and that heat. I'm

1058
00:59:10,040 --> 00:59:13,919
Speaker 4: telling you, it's like it's really something. And I guarantee

1059
00:59:14,160 --> 00:59:16,240
Speaker 4: in other places of life that and I was wanting

1060
00:59:16,320 --> 00:59:18,920
Speaker 4: to know what is being done there is there Do

1061
00:59:19,640 --> 00:59:23,800
Speaker 4: Detroit have cooling sitations for the ung housed community there.

1062
00:59:23,840 --> 00:59:25,960
Speaker 7: Okay, so I'm gonna turn. I had to the left now.

1063
00:59:26,760 --> 00:59:28,000
Speaker 7: So first half of a story.

1064
00:59:28,120 --> 00:59:29,880
Speaker 12: I told you I became a house and I was

1065
00:59:29,920 --> 00:59:34,200
Speaker 12: so embarrassed by it that I had to deal with

1066
00:59:34,240 --> 00:59:37,480
Speaker 12: it until someone just finally seen me sleeping in my

1067
00:59:37,600 --> 00:59:40,240
Speaker 12: car and offered me to live in an abandoned house

1068
00:59:40,880 --> 00:59:44,520
Speaker 12: that they walked away from. So once I got my

1069
00:59:44,560 --> 00:59:47,840
Speaker 12: housing straight, I prayed and I told myself I would

1070
00:59:47,880 --> 00:59:50,480
Speaker 12: do something. I would do something to help the community.

1071
00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:52,760
Speaker 12: So I went and got a job as a monitor

1072
00:59:52,800 --> 00:59:55,800
Speaker 12: in a shelter. My first job was an activity director

1073
00:59:55,800 --> 00:59:58,200
Speaker 12: in a nursing home. Then I worked in a shelter.

1074
00:59:58,640 --> 01:00:02,640
Speaker 12: So to answer your question, yes and no. Okay, so yes,

1075
01:00:03,120 --> 01:00:05,920
Speaker 12: they they say you can go to the libraries, you

1076
01:00:05,920 --> 01:00:09,280
Speaker 12: can go to different places, but they're only open so long.

1077
01:00:09,400 --> 01:00:12,760
Speaker 4: Ah right, and like for me, like when they say

1078
01:00:12,800 --> 01:00:15,680
Speaker 4: that same thing in Los Angeles, And I asked, because

1079
01:00:15,720 --> 01:00:18,000
Speaker 4: I was out here in these many of these heat ways,

1080
01:00:18,240 --> 01:00:20,280
Speaker 4: I had to create an impromptu one. But I will

1081
01:00:20,320 --> 01:00:23,080
Speaker 4: tell you that later. But the thing it is, they're

1082
01:00:23,080 --> 01:00:25,240
Speaker 4: not open on Sundays. I I don't know if other

1083
01:00:25,280 --> 01:00:27,840
Speaker 4: places may have it. They're not open on Sundays.

1084
01:00:27,440 --> 01:00:30,320
Speaker 12: Sunday Mondays, and and another day through the week in Detroit,

1085
01:00:30,360 --> 01:00:33,600
Speaker 12: because the libraries is funded by the public schools, and

1086
01:00:33,640 --> 01:00:35,920
Speaker 12: the public schools on the you know, it's going through

1087
01:00:35,920 --> 01:00:41,080
Speaker 12: their their mits hats. And then in shelters they require

1088
01:00:41,160 --> 01:00:45,360
Speaker 12: you to leave. Yeah, yeah, and in the heating in

1089
01:00:45,400 --> 01:00:49,240
Speaker 12: the winter. In these things, so yes and no yes

1090
01:00:49,360 --> 01:00:53,280
Speaker 12: on paper there is, but in actuality the places really

1091
01:00:53,320 --> 01:00:56,640
Speaker 12: don't make sense. And the main one they tell you

1092
01:00:56,680 --> 01:00:59,720
Speaker 12: to go is to the library. And like most libraries

1093
01:00:59,720 --> 01:01:02,439
Speaker 12: are not open seven days a week.

1094
01:01:02,520 --> 01:01:04,920
Speaker 4: And in Los Angeles, I also want to point this

1095
01:01:05,160 --> 01:01:08,240
Speaker 4: out too, it's like when I was out in one

1096
01:01:08,280 --> 01:01:10,680
Speaker 4: of the heat waves. You can't have a back like

1097
01:01:10,800 --> 01:01:12,800
Speaker 4: a certain degree, and if.

1098
01:01:12,680 --> 01:01:15,160
Speaker 7: You go over that, you can't you can't come in right.

1099
01:01:15,200 --> 01:01:17,800
Speaker 4: And then they won't let you keep your stuff near

1100
01:01:17,960 --> 01:01:20,800
Speaker 4: outside in your library because they'll have it taken away or.

1101
01:01:20,720 --> 01:01:21,680
Speaker 7: Throw the run away.

1102
01:01:21,960 --> 01:01:26,040
Speaker 4: And so in essence, it's really like a catch twenty two.

1103
01:01:26,120 --> 01:01:26,880
Speaker 6: You're damned if you do.

1104
01:01:27,040 --> 01:01:29,480
Speaker 7: Due you damned if you don't. And then we have

1105
01:01:29,680 --> 01:01:31,400
Speaker 7: the rec centers.

1106
01:01:30,960 --> 01:01:34,520
Speaker 4: And and some representers don't want to hunt house people anyway.

1107
01:01:34,360 --> 01:01:38,400
Speaker 12: Yeah, they don't because of the children and because of

1108
01:01:38,480 --> 01:01:41,520
Speaker 12: the you know whatever whatever, you know, those type of things.

1109
01:01:41,560 --> 01:01:44,720
Speaker 12: But also in Detroit, most of our rec centers were

1110
01:01:44,720 --> 01:01:49,680
Speaker 12: closed and was used doing the COVID for whatever reasons.

1111
01:01:50,320 --> 01:01:51,560
Speaker 7: But they haven't reopened.

1112
01:01:51,920 --> 01:01:53,880
Speaker 12: And so I know we're going like in our third

1113
01:01:54,000 --> 01:01:58,160
Speaker 12: year post COVID, and we still haven't open enough rec

1114
01:01:58,240 --> 01:02:02,200
Speaker 12: centers to provide the type of sheltered and showering and

1115
01:02:02,240 --> 01:02:03,880
Speaker 12: things that the unhoused needs.

1116
01:02:03,920 --> 01:02:06,960
Speaker 4: The parks that I was at, and I remember clearly

1117
01:02:07,040 --> 01:02:10,080
Speaker 4: because they refused to have places for unhouse people, and

1118
01:02:10,120 --> 01:02:11,760
Speaker 4: then when they did open up a place where it

1119
01:02:12,440 --> 01:02:16,000
Speaker 4: was so merrit very based that you know, if you

1120
01:02:16,000 --> 01:02:18,240
Speaker 4: were in the program, you could come in. But if

1121
01:02:18,240 --> 01:02:20,320
Speaker 4: it's like an I, a person that you know, don't

1122
01:02:20,400 --> 01:02:22,880
Speaker 4: want to go into that whatever is going on over there,

1123
01:02:23,200 --> 01:02:25,600
Speaker 4: they could, they couldn't come in. So they had it

1124
01:02:25,640 --> 01:02:28,360
Speaker 4: separated where the kids wouldn't be there, because they always

1125
01:02:28,400 --> 01:02:29,280
Speaker 4: have this belief that.

1126
01:02:29,200 --> 01:02:32,560
Speaker 6: On house people are gonna pounce on the children. After time,

1127
01:02:32,600 --> 01:02:33,280
Speaker 6: they just try.

1128
01:02:33,200 --> 01:02:34,680
Speaker 7: To survive, just trying to survive.

1129
01:02:35,320 --> 01:02:38,960
Speaker 4: So it is this this, this this dichotomic. They don't

1130
01:02:39,040 --> 01:02:41,920
Speaker 4: have the staying empathy of humanity. They just have it

1131
01:02:41,960 --> 01:02:42,800
Speaker 4: on paper they.

1132
01:02:42,640 --> 01:02:45,080
Speaker 12: Have it on paper, but not in real life. And

1133
01:02:45,080 --> 01:02:47,960
Speaker 12: and that's what I learned being a monitor in a shelter.

1134
01:02:48,360 --> 01:02:49,720
Speaker 7: I'm gonna leave the shelter.

1135
01:02:49,520 --> 01:02:53,840
Speaker 12: Name unnamed because I think it's a good organization, but

1136
01:02:53,920 --> 01:02:58,000
Speaker 12: sometimes you know, people are not yet. Everything can always

1137
01:02:58,000 --> 01:03:00,560
Speaker 12: be better. But the problem I have is the very

1138
01:03:00,600 --> 01:03:03,320
Speaker 12: problem that you're trying to solve, and that you were

1139
01:03:03,520 --> 01:03:08,600
Speaker 12: because not everyone in shelters have mental illness. Not everyone

1140
01:03:08,800 --> 01:03:14,000
Speaker 12: in shelters are people who don't have jobs, don't have cars.

1141
01:03:14,080 --> 01:03:16,840
Speaker 12: They have cars, and a lot of it is because

1142
01:03:16,840 --> 01:03:24,479
Speaker 12: they just simply can't afford housing. And the other part

1143
01:03:24,560 --> 01:03:29,400
Speaker 12: there's two other demographics that I noticed working in the shelter.

1144
01:03:29,680 --> 01:03:33,000
Speaker 7: Was one was people who were adopted.

1145
01:03:33,160 --> 01:03:37,360
Speaker 12: Yah really, yeah, okay, I will So if you get

1146
01:03:37,400 --> 01:03:40,800
Speaker 12: adopted by a family or whatever, then you're basically no

1147
01:03:40,880 --> 01:03:46,320
Speaker 12: longer able to get all the services that everyone gets.

1148
01:03:47,000 --> 01:03:49,120
Speaker 12: I don't know if that's everywhere in the world, but

1149
01:03:49,240 --> 01:03:53,360
Speaker 12: in Michigan so. And it has to do with your

1150
01:03:53,400 --> 01:03:57,080
Speaker 12: age also, but even once you get past eighteen nineteen,

1151
01:03:57,160 --> 01:03:59,960
Speaker 12: I'm really talking about that kind of group between sixteen

1152
01:04:00,120 --> 01:04:01,640
Speaker 12: in twenty six, we're not.

1153
01:04:01,600 --> 01:04:03,080
Speaker 6: Talking about foster care. No.

1154
01:04:03,160 --> 01:04:05,640
Speaker 12: I've got talking about adoption and foster care is two

1155
01:04:05,680 --> 01:04:08,560
Speaker 12: different things. Because foster care they have all kinds of

1156
01:04:08,840 --> 01:04:12,760
Speaker 12: safety nets. But once you get adopted, if something happened

1157
01:04:12,800 --> 01:04:15,720
Speaker 12: to the person that adopts you, let's just they have

1158
01:04:15,840 --> 01:04:18,400
Speaker 12: some kind of fatal something and they no longer hear

1159
01:04:18,560 --> 01:04:22,360
Speaker 12: or they no longer can help, You're back in the

1160
01:04:22,400 --> 01:04:24,680
Speaker 12: same prediction you is because the family don't have.

1161
01:04:24,680 --> 01:04:27,120
Speaker 7: To take care of you. My time in the shelter

1162
01:04:27,320 --> 01:04:28,440
Speaker 7: as a monitor, I.

1163
01:04:28,440 --> 01:04:32,600
Speaker 12: Met several people with that history and background, and there's

1164
01:04:32,680 --> 01:04:35,320
Speaker 12: nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do in

1165
01:04:35,400 --> 01:04:37,640
Speaker 12: terms of you have to wait out. I think it's

1166
01:04:37,680 --> 01:04:40,760
Speaker 12: a certain time. And please don't quote me on this,

1167
01:04:40,840 --> 01:04:42,800
Speaker 12: but I believe that's what one of them. It was

1168
01:04:42,880 --> 01:04:45,040
Speaker 12: just so many problems was coming at me. I couldn't

1169
01:04:45,080 --> 01:04:48,440
Speaker 12: research it all to help everyone, but I made it

1170
01:04:48,640 --> 01:04:52,000
Speaker 12: my personal mission to help.

1171
01:04:51,800 --> 01:04:55,480
Speaker 7: Those that was not mentally ill, that was just there.

1172
01:04:56,000 --> 01:04:58,440
Speaker 12: And then some people who were like I met a

1173
01:04:58,480 --> 01:05:04,160
Speaker 12: family that both of the sisters had some cognitive issues.

1174
01:05:04,240 --> 01:05:05,000
Speaker 7: Mother died.

1175
01:05:05,640 --> 01:05:07,720
Speaker 12: They could live day to day in the house and

1176
01:05:07,760 --> 01:05:11,600
Speaker 12: all that, but they didn't have a capacity to help themselves.

1177
01:05:11,920 --> 01:05:16,040
Speaker 7: When the pipes burst in the basement, so both of.

1178
01:05:16,000 --> 01:05:20,520
Speaker 12: Them wan special needs and came into the shelter and

1179
01:05:20,960 --> 01:05:25,120
Speaker 12: became a victim of the employees there because no one

1180
01:05:25,160 --> 01:05:28,160
Speaker 12: wanted to take the time to deal with their disability.

1181
01:05:28,680 --> 01:05:33,080
Speaker 12: They just they The one sister kept saying, we own

1182
01:05:33,120 --> 01:05:34,240
Speaker 12: a house, we have a house.

1183
01:05:34,440 --> 01:05:35,960
Speaker 7: We're just displaced.

1184
01:05:36,600 --> 01:05:39,720
Speaker 12: And then they came in and actually tried to get

1185
01:05:39,760 --> 01:05:43,000
Speaker 12: them to sign their house over to someone personally that

1186
01:05:43,120 --> 01:05:43,560
Speaker 12: worked there.

1187
01:05:43,680 --> 01:05:45,840
Speaker 6: Oh my goodness, that's just horrible.

1188
01:05:45,720 --> 01:05:51,040
Speaker 12: In exchange for the certificate for the housing certificate. So

1189
01:05:51,080 --> 01:05:53,440
Speaker 12: I kind of took them under my wing and showed

1190
01:05:53,480 --> 01:05:57,280
Speaker 12: them kind of what to do, how to how to navigate,

1191
01:05:57,920 --> 01:06:00,760
Speaker 12: and I'm glad that they didn't sign their house over.

1192
01:06:00,840 --> 01:06:04,600
Speaker 12: They end up getting a certificate and so now they

1193
01:06:04,640 --> 01:06:08,000
Speaker 12: can accept because because they didn't sign their house over,

1194
01:06:08,080 --> 01:06:10,640
Speaker 12: they put a dart Protective services on them. Now they

1195
01:06:10,680 --> 01:06:13,680
Speaker 12: have no income because if the guardian has their income,

1196
01:06:13,720 --> 01:06:16,200
Speaker 12: and the guardian can say where they can go, if

1197
01:06:16,200 --> 01:06:19,800
Speaker 12: they can keep it, whatnot. So hopefully it's an appeal

1198
01:06:19,920 --> 01:06:24,040
Speaker 12: process going on because the adult Protective Services case was

1199
01:06:24,080 --> 01:06:28,480
Speaker 12: that that the younger sister was not able to take

1200
01:06:28,480 --> 01:06:30,520
Speaker 12: care of the older sister Pumper.

1201
01:06:30,680 --> 01:06:34,919
Speaker 7: Both of them have different forms of the same.

1202
01:06:35,120 --> 01:06:35,800
Speaker 6: It's not the same.

1203
01:06:36,480 --> 01:06:39,840
Speaker 12: So one is more visible than the other, physically visible

1204
01:06:39,960 --> 01:06:44,000
Speaker 12: than the other. Okay, But that that's saved there because

1205
01:06:44,000 --> 01:06:45,960
Speaker 12: now they can go to the court and say I

1206
01:06:46,080 --> 01:06:48,000
Speaker 12: have this, and this is why we end up here

1207
01:06:48,080 --> 01:06:50,360
Speaker 12: with a house because I didn't know how to do

1208
01:06:50,400 --> 01:06:52,200
Speaker 12: this because of this.

1209
01:06:53,000 --> 01:06:56,560
Speaker 7: So they're they're they're actually in the process of going

1210
01:06:56,600 --> 01:06:56,959
Speaker 7: to court.

1211
01:06:57,040 --> 01:06:57,200
Speaker 6: Now.

1212
01:06:57,440 --> 01:07:00,120
Speaker 12: I think they have to keep the guardian for six months,

1213
01:07:00,160 --> 01:07:03,360
Speaker 12: and we're just gonna pray that the guardian, don't, you know,

1214
01:07:03,720 --> 01:07:07,760
Speaker 12: make them separate the two, yeah, or do something various,

1215
01:07:07,880 --> 01:07:10,720
Speaker 12: but you know, you got that going on. They're in

1216
01:07:10,720 --> 01:07:13,360
Speaker 12: the shelter, and then you have that age group of

1217
01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:19,600
Speaker 12: women and men that's forty five to fifty five or four.

1218
01:07:19,640 --> 01:07:22,720
Speaker 12: I'm just gonna even go down and say thirty five,

1219
01:07:23,520 --> 01:07:27,160
Speaker 12: thirty five, thirty okay, that don't qualify for a lot

1220
01:07:27,160 --> 01:07:31,600
Speaker 12: of things because they're the empty net, empty ness mold.

1221
01:07:31,800 --> 01:07:32,160
Speaker 6: Okay.

1222
01:07:32,400 --> 01:07:34,480
Speaker 12: So they may have had Section eight taking care of

1223
01:07:34,480 --> 01:07:37,800
Speaker 12: their children, just like I'm my situation, and then when

1224
01:07:37,800 --> 01:07:40,600
Speaker 12: a child gets older, then you actually lose it and

1225
01:07:40,640 --> 01:07:42,840
Speaker 12: then you back in the same situation it was when

1226
01:07:42,840 --> 01:07:43,840
Speaker 12: you got it.

1227
01:07:43,680 --> 01:07:46,440
Speaker 7: For most people, and.

1228
01:07:46,040 --> 01:07:49,680
Speaker 12: For those people who had been working in these jobs,

1229
01:07:50,200 --> 01:07:52,680
Speaker 12: and they're not demeaning jobs that just don't pay a lot,

1230
01:07:53,040 --> 01:07:56,160
Speaker 12: because when you had Section eight or something in Michigan,

1231
01:07:56,200 --> 01:07:58,400
Speaker 12: you only can work so much and you only can

1232
01:07:58,440 --> 01:07:58,919
Speaker 12: make so.

1233
01:07:58,960 --> 01:08:01,920
Speaker 7: Much, so you end up being.

1234
01:08:01,520 --> 01:08:06,720
Speaker 12: Like the cross walk of the lunch lady or working

1235
01:08:06,840 --> 01:08:11,920
Speaker 12: in laundry mac places where they're only paying ten fifteen,

1236
01:08:12,080 --> 01:08:15,320
Speaker 12: you know, under under fifteen dollars an hour. I don't

1237
01:08:15,360 --> 01:08:16,840
Speaker 12: want to call out any more these jobs because I

1238
01:08:16,840 --> 01:08:19,320
Speaker 12: don't want to to send the meeting. But if you

1239
01:08:19,400 --> 01:08:22,760
Speaker 12: made under fifteen, any job making under fifteen dollars an hour,

1240
01:08:23,520 --> 01:08:28,679
Speaker 12: so then that their children get older, they been ten

1241
01:08:28,760 --> 01:08:32,880
Speaker 12: twenty years working somewhere for ten dollars an hour, and

1242
01:08:32,920 --> 01:08:35,479
Speaker 12: so now they end up in a shelter, so they

1243
01:08:35,479 --> 01:08:38,559
Speaker 12: can't afford to live anywhere for ten dollars an hour.

1244
01:08:39,080 --> 01:08:41,080
Speaker 7: So I found that demograph.

1245
01:08:41,720 --> 01:08:45,479
Speaker 12: That's a big demographic, and they don't have disabilities or

1246
01:08:45,520 --> 01:08:50,080
Speaker 12: anything any mental illnesses. It's just that they don't make

1247
01:08:50,200 --> 01:08:51,439
Speaker 12: enough money to live.

1248
01:08:51,640 --> 01:08:54,479
Speaker 4: And that's another myth that it's break broken to is

1249
01:08:54,479 --> 01:08:58,839
Speaker 4: that many people that are house are employed, are working,

1250
01:08:59,080 --> 01:09:02,040
Speaker 4: but they don't have enough financial swhereithal to be able

1251
01:09:02,040 --> 01:09:05,719
Speaker 4: to sustain themselves in an exploding run crisis. Hell, people

1252
01:09:05,720 --> 01:09:09,680
Speaker 4: that are fully functional or halfway making more than ten

1253
01:09:09,720 --> 01:09:12,000
Speaker 4: dollars hour can barely afford the rests, you know.

1254
01:09:12,040 --> 01:09:14,559
Speaker 6: But also I know there's a big thing that's going

1255
01:09:14,600 --> 01:09:18,559
Speaker 6: on that we are just now talking about. It's particularly

1256
01:09:18,560 --> 01:09:19,240
Speaker 6: in Los Angeles.

1257
01:09:19,280 --> 01:09:19,680
Speaker 8: I don't know.

1258
01:09:20,360 --> 01:09:23,400
Speaker 6: The oldest house person that I had been interviewing is

1259
01:09:23,439 --> 01:09:24,160
Speaker 6: eighty years old.

1260
01:09:24,400 --> 01:09:26,760
Speaker 1: And you can't just tell them to go get a job.

1261
01:09:26,920 --> 01:09:29,360
Speaker 12: And that was the other demographic. I mean to cut

1262
01:09:29,360 --> 01:09:31,040
Speaker 12: you off. Remember I say it was three. That was

1263
01:09:31,080 --> 01:09:36,080
Speaker 12: the other one was our senior citizen that oh god,

1264
01:09:36,120 --> 01:09:36,840
Speaker 12: oh god, I met.

1265
01:09:36,840 --> 01:09:38,960
Speaker 7: I met. I met three ladies.

1266
01:09:39,400 --> 01:09:41,160
Speaker 12: I had to, you know, and it was against the

1267
01:09:41,240 --> 01:09:43,880
Speaker 12: rules of working in the shelter, but I did it.

1268
01:09:43,920 --> 01:09:48,760
Speaker 12: I found their families and in shelters with them. We

1269
01:09:48,800 --> 01:09:51,200
Speaker 12: need training. I had the background of coming from a

1270
01:09:51,280 --> 01:09:53,880
Speaker 12: nursing home as an activity director, so I was able

1271
01:09:53,880 --> 01:09:59,800
Speaker 12: to identify UTI and what happens with the lethargic behavior.

1272
01:10:00,479 --> 01:10:01,920
Speaker 7: And I was able to identify it.

1273
01:10:01,960 --> 01:10:05,559
Speaker 12: And I kept trying to tell my director that we

1274
01:10:05,720 --> 01:10:08,320
Speaker 12: had people in here got UTI's they need to you know,

1275
01:10:08,400 --> 01:10:10,920
Speaker 12: go get some help because miss so and so can't

1276
01:10:10,960 --> 01:10:13,599
Speaker 12: remember where her room is, she can't remember when it's

1277
01:10:13,600 --> 01:10:17,080
Speaker 12: time for dinner. And a lot of them are just

1278
01:10:17,400 --> 01:10:21,759
Speaker 12: became prideful people who didn't want to be a burden

1279
01:10:22,240 --> 01:10:26,240
Speaker 12: to their children. Or you have the other half, which

1280
01:10:26,280 --> 01:10:29,479
Speaker 12: is a larger percentage of the children and got up

1281
01:10:29,479 --> 01:10:31,920
Speaker 12: and left and living their lives.

1282
01:10:31,600 --> 01:10:32,679
Speaker 7: And they don't even know.

1283
01:10:33,000 --> 01:10:35,000
Speaker 4: There's a lot of more elderly people that are on

1284
01:10:35,120 --> 01:10:39,160
Speaker 4: housed and I'm sheltered, and it's we can't ignore it anymore.

1285
01:10:40,120 --> 01:10:42,080
Speaker 6: You can't just tell them to get a job, right, you.

1286
01:10:42,000 --> 01:10:42,519
Speaker 7: Can't, you know.

1287
01:10:42,680 --> 01:10:46,599
Speaker 12: And sometimes sometimes fifty or sixty depending on their ailment,

1288
01:10:47,040 --> 01:10:49,400
Speaker 12: because we get a lot because we have bad water

1289
01:10:49,520 --> 01:10:53,120
Speaker 12: in Detroit, so we have a lot of cognitive issues

1290
01:10:53,120 --> 01:10:56,519
Speaker 12: that people have, you know, obtained just.

1291
01:10:56,760 --> 01:10:59,000
Speaker 7: From the water, yes, let alone.

1292
01:10:58,600 --> 01:11:02,080
Speaker 12: The physical abuse their body has been through because Michigan's

1293
01:11:02,080 --> 01:11:04,760
Speaker 12: a very cold place to be homeless in Michigan. You're

1294
01:11:05,000 --> 01:11:09,200
Speaker 12: six months, you're in you know, cold weather. Actually I

1295
01:11:09,320 --> 01:11:11,599
Speaker 12: was dare to say more than six months. Yeah, that's

1296
01:11:11,640 --> 01:11:12,679
Speaker 12: wait more than six months.

1297
01:11:12,720 --> 01:11:13,480
Speaker 6: That's disturbing.

1298
01:11:13,760 --> 01:11:15,960
Speaker 4: One of the things that I'm wan quickly to talk

1299
01:11:16,000 --> 01:11:17,840
Speaker 4: on is I don't know if you knew about the

1300
01:11:17,840 --> 01:11:20,760
Speaker 4: Supreme Court decision about the grants past thing.

1301
01:11:21,240 --> 01:11:25,800
Speaker 12: I think that it's a disgrace before the universe to

1302
01:11:26,400 --> 01:11:31,639
Speaker 12: inconcerate someone because they can't help themselves in a capitalistic society.

1303
01:11:32,080 --> 01:11:33,040
Speaker 7: I got a button.

1304
01:11:32,760 --> 01:11:38,240
Speaker 12: From someone yesterday house keys instead of handcuffs, and it's

1305
01:11:38,240 --> 01:11:39,880
Speaker 12: on my other shirt. I wish I had it on

1306
01:11:40,000 --> 01:11:43,360
Speaker 12: to day, but that's I just don't just I just

1307
01:11:43,400 --> 01:11:44,439
Speaker 12: I totally disagree with that.

1308
01:11:44,520 --> 01:11:46,840
Speaker 7: I think that is a horrible way to deal with it.

1309
01:11:47,360 --> 01:11:49,759
Speaker 7: You know, in Detroit, I can't say across the whole state.

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Speaker 12: But one of the reasons I was eager to come

1311
01:11:52,479 --> 01:11:55,479
Speaker 12: to this convention and talk to my congressional leadership is

1312
01:11:55,520 --> 01:11:59,400
Speaker 12: because I think that the shelters and getting this money

1313
01:11:59,400 --> 01:12:02,080
Speaker 12: to help people should not be given all the money

1314
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Speaker 12: until they help the person.

1315
01:12:03,800 --> 01:12:05,480
Speaker 7: It should be divbied.

1316
01:12:05,080 --> 01:12:08,880
Speaker 12: Out because what I found out is that our state

1317
01:12:08,920 --> 01:12:12,280
Speaker 12: law says in the shelter, the case manager or the

1318
01:12:12,479 --> 01:12:15,080
Speaker 12: social worker only have to see the client once a month.

1319
01:12:15,800 --> 01:12:17,640
Speaker 7: So if you're only seeing someone want a month, how

1320
01:12:17,680 --> 01:12:18,559
Speaker 7: are you really helping them?

1321
01:12:19,439 --> 01:12:21,800
Speaker 4: Well, this has been in a very engaging conversation, and

1322
01:12:21,800 --> 01:12:24,600
Speaker 4: we to drop it off here and we must not

1323
01:12:24,760 --> 01:12:26,280
Speaker 4: give up, give out.

1324
01:12:26,120 --> 01:12:26,559
Speaker 1: Or give in.

1325
01:12:28,960 --> 01:12:32,200
Speaker 4: Thank you so much Tauana for her time, and thank

1326
01:12:32,280 --> 01:12:35,320
Speaker 4: you again for listening to our series on the conference

1327
01:12:35,680 --> 01:12:39,720
Speaker 4: and my journey to Washington, DC. Next week, I'm back

1328
01:12:39,760 --> 01:12:42,600
Speaker 4: on the road. Median House went all the way to

1329
01:12:42,680 --> 01:12:45,840
Speaker 4: Detroit and Flint, Michigan, where I learned more about the

1330
01:12:45,880 --> 01:12:51,799
Speaker 4: Heidelbert Project and its connections to houselessness. And as always,

1331
01:12:52,080 --> 01:12:54,599
Speaker 4: please like and subscribe, and if you'd like to share

1332
01:12:54,680 --> 01:12:56,880
Speaker 4: your story on median House, please reach out to me

1333
01:12:57,400 --> 01:13:01,200
Speaker 4: at Medianhouse dot com, at weedian House on Instagram, or

1334
01:13:01,240 --> 01:13:05,080
Speaker 4: email me at Wiedianhouse at gmail dot com. Thank you

1335
01:13:05,200 --> 01:13:08,800
Speaker 4: again for listening, and may we again meet in the

1336
01:13:08,880 --> 01:13:14,080
Speaker 4: light of understanding. Wheedian Howes is a production of iHeartRadio.

1337
01:13:14,720 --> 01:13:18,839
Speaker 4: It is written, hosted, and created by me Theo Henderson,

1338
01:13:19,880 --> 01:13:26,200
Speaker 4: our producers Jbie Loftus, Kailey Fager, Katieficial, and Lyra Smith.

1339
01:13:26,880 --> 01:13:30,240
Speaker 4: Our editor is Adam Wand, and our local art is

1340
01:13:30,280 --> 01:13:31,600
Speaker 4: also by Katieficial.

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01:13:32,160 --> 01:13:32,960
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.