Episode 12: Hollywood Dreams and Nightmares

This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed Human. It's that time to put on your jersey and wave your flag, whoever you root for. Why do I watch the walk-up? That's like asking me, why do I breed? And it's beautiful. The guys are young and cute and fit. It's not just a game. It's your culture. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force. I'm Fernando Cháverri and this is American Football. A show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. Listen to American Football on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Joy is essential and it's also elusive, but now. There's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, HotaCotpe. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting and moving on air chats. Open your free I Heart Radio app search, Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with HotaCotpe is presented by CVS. My first guest is Karen Toltin. Shakira. Luke and Yerim. I have surprises. Many surprises. Welcome to the Sweet 305 podcast where the new tech comes to life. Welcome! You're the only person I know that loves the Yellow Starburst. Lemonade. This is Sweet 305. Here, over sharing is encouraged. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lille Ponds on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Close your eyes and let this poem wash over your consciousness. What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore? And then run. Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over like a surpy sweet? Maybe it's just sack like a heavy load? Or does it explode? [Music] The unhoused population has exploded and is growing with over 70,000 unhoused people. Instead of meeting this crisis with compassion and financial resources, the City Council, City Attorney, law enforcement, NIMBs and business improvement district around Los Angeles and beyond have exploded. With violence, criminalization, harassment and more punitative laws against the unhoused. Kingston Hughes, a Harlem Renaissance poet, acts an indifferent, violent, cruel, evil, and legally punitative society in the 1920s and 30s. In 2020, we asked the same question with the houseless community and the question. In this episode of Weezy Unhoused, we hear the sore, festering account from how self-made. There's a document. And I realized that it was written a long, long time ago and maybe not by the best of minds. But as we stand right now, it's all we've got. And this document has in it certain and ill and it will write. If you learn your constitution, you can do so much. And your rights that are guaranteed in that constitution do not evaporate when you become unhoused. Just because you don't have an address don't mean you're not human. The stinking account from unhoused veteran, Papa Smurf. And y'all out here in Hollywood, California, don't care what you say, it still gets cold by 6.30 with no sun out here. By not a clock, you're freezing it at. So you get sick. And then you have to deal with living with the flu for a week and you're 10. It's horrible. It's horrible. And the heavy load of life, of leses and mad dogs, triumphs and travails. It's tough to take care of somebody who has cancer or any kind of disease on this trip because we don't have amenities. We don't have a bathroom. We don't have a doctor. We don't have anything that we can, you know. So I'm trying to do this with God and kick naturally. And like I said, it's so tough because we are exhausted, dating and dating out from the relentless. Everyone else on top of our own problems. On top of being out here. I hope this episode brings about an explosion, a positive change for our unhoused guest and for all of the unhoused community. We cannot succumb to the destructive and harmful narrative of the good worthy unhoused people versus the ones that don't want help and deserve to be criminalized unhoused. Even in the homeless community, we hear this poison like the surface week in like Sinjou's poem. We hear this position, this poison, if you will, in order to justify or to blanket a certain camaraderie with certain business owners to curry favor. We must strive for balance of fact and truth and above all compassion and the resurgence of our humanity for people in a vulnerable position. Please listen, learn and help your fellow man. [Music] On House News. Two unhoused men died from exposure in Denver, Colorado, a total of 16 devs in the city. Denver Police Commander Aaron Sanchez says one of the men died near a bus stop on Brighton Boulevard, the second on the sidewalk in a 2100 block of California Street. [Music] New York City's solution is to criminalize and, statistically, calls more sufferings to the unhoused. MTA removes his backs from the benches of subway stations to stop the unhoused from sleeping. An agency spoke first and said it has an impact and improvement in safety and comfort, not looking at how unhoused people is uncomfortable. Improved cleanliness because unhoused people are dirty. We won't provide showers. We will always stand up for the sub-arriding public, not the unhoused as we work to keep stations safe, clean and orderly. As an afterthought, they have convinced service resistant had 2,800 unhoused people to accept social services. House subway writer says the unhoused population needs to be dealt with. If it keeps them from sleeping on the benches, it's fine with me. Regular people want to sit on the bench and rest their legs after a long day. Salvador Palma says removing the back of a bench is a small sacrifice for a better subway platform for everyone else. James K, 50-year-old, Houseless Man says the shelters are hard for some people. These are some mean folks and tough guys. They don't let you sleep on the training anymore, but you have to sleep somewhere. [Music] In Park Lutton Street, David Ware, 53-years-old, a house resident has admitted to pouring fuel on an unhoused man in the street before setting him a fire. At 415, February 17, 2020, Ware sprayed a flammable liquid from a bottle over at a Houseless Man who was sitting outside a fast food restaurant. He used the lighter to ignite their cellar it. [Music] A security officer in Santa Cruz, California has houseless advocates of set belittling the unhoused. A security officer from MCM diversified has used YouTube to document his interactions with the unhoused. He says this goes on YouTube for public shaming so you can learn your lessons, you can get a better life like everybody else, get jobs, pay taxes, the guard uploaded 15 videos to his YouTube page, entitled Working Class Person. [Music] Unhoused Californians win new protection and cow trans settlement. Cow trans will pay $2 million for destroying unhoused people's belongings and modify its procedures for sweeps of encampments. A lawsuit was filed in 2016 on behalf of Houseless Californians who challenged the destruction of their property including food, clothing, medical supplies and family heirlooms between December 2014 and October 2019. Legal Director Elisa Della Piana says the Forfirmiment protects all of us against the unjust seizure of our belongings, not just people who are housed. Olshanuman supervising attorney of the East Bay Community Law Center said for years we heard complaints of people who told us they had to stand by helplessly while cow trans crew through belongings, they treasured and the trash compacting garbage trucks. Sometimes people with disabilities were giving only a few minutes to move everything they wanted to save. We hope with this settlement those days are over. [Music] And other news, more than one in three Californians fear becoming houseless. One in four Californians feel that they or a family member can actually become unhoused. According to the US see price school of public policy and a USC's Schwarzenegger Institute for state and global policy. Dr. Gary Painted Ways in saying it shouldn't be surprising because there are over 1.3 million households in California. Pay more than half their income as rent. We saw that 37.5% of voters are afraid that they are either themselves or someone in their family could become houseless. Voters attitude shows a mixture of compassion and enforcement. 28% favor an enforcement first approach while 50% support is no housing and no other options available have family stay with their children. 65% support housing understanding that economic factors and forces are driving first time houselessness actually does change how people think about the problem. Good afternoon this is Theodore Henderson from Weezy Unhoused. I'm currently in Hollywood California. I'm talking to a disabled unhoused person about the challenges that goes on here with detective Gainey and other police officers targeting disabled unhoused people by forcing their tents down due to medical issues that they need to tense up. It is a very warm 70 and above kind of day and unhoused people like house people need shelter. However due to new remartingances wore on the unhoused and the anti-hunt house sentiment here in Hollywood California they have been pushing to terrorize unhoused people. One must ask the question what causes people to hate poor people so much that they will make them suffer. They cannot abide by people having to survive. They don't want to see it. They claim to be Christians, they claim to be taxpayers, they claim to be anything but a decent human being in order to get supportive housing. So in the studios we have a how and I was just mentioning that if I'm so excited we've been trying to meet up for some time and it's now it's like it's finally here so welcome to the Weedian House studios so give us a little introduction. Hey I'm how I've been unhoused in the Hollywood area for a little more than a year profoundly disabled. From birth genetic problems wheelchair bound. Living intent with my caregiver in central Hollywood. You stated that you are wheelchair bound like many of the unhoused like in other places such as Echo Park and Chatsworth and North Hollywood. You need certain accommodations because the 1965 Disability Act clarifies that. Unfortunately when they have Nuri Martinez who is trying to break the law you need to be able to do some things because you don't have a house or they're appropriate place to be able to do certain things. What do you do? How do you take care of yourself? As far as bathroom facilities we use a bucket and trash bags and normally sanitation comes through every day and picks it up. We leave trash in a specific spot. They come get it we break down and they move along. Has the police been around to Bobby or kind of a conversation with you? Almost daily we argue about my constitutional right to shelter life liberty of pursuit of happiness and to be secure in my person's properties and papers etc etc not to mention my ADA rights which the ADA states that it matters of housing all reasonable accommodations that could be made should be made. My 10 is my housing at the moment so your municipal code is bunk according to federal law. I have a right to survive. I agree so I understand you informed me last week that they were threatening to arrest you or tell us a little bit what happened that brought up to that. Last week was a street cleaning day and I'm supposed to completely break down to zeroes and move my camp so that they can allegedly power wash sweep and spray bleach water. How are you able to do that in a wheelchair and you're able to move? Well I do have a caregiver and he does 99% of the work. I do all of the arguing. So okay so so the police came over and what happened? I refused to get out my tent I invoked several of my constitutional rights. They threatened to cut me out of my tent threatened to destroy my property kidnapped me and take me to jail. Okay you know what police officer that did this because uh that was detective gay name Shannon Gady. I'm surprised because they every Steve Lopez makes her out to be some kind of same person that is resourceful kind and compassionate. I make no unsubstantiated claims all of my interactions with police are recorded and uploaded to YouTube immediately check me out. Tell us how did you become unhoused? I'm originally from Tennessee I am also transgender and you know if you're from the southeast and you do not fall into all four categories of rich white heterosexual and cisgender you are a problem to be eradicated. This soon as my transition became apparent my landlord's made up some really bad things but it was a civil case I wasn't afforded a lawyer. Did some slick tall kidding got out from under it without an eviction on my record but still ended up unhoused. What what pronoun genders you use? He him his. So how did you just decide to come to California if he was in Tennessee? That actually was funny. My caregiver and I was my significant other we've been together for seven years. We finally realized that that unhoused was going to be a thing and we started out thinking we were going to go to Denver but even before that I'm like thinking about what we're going to do and I have no idea and under my breath kind of not even thinking about it not being serious. I just like let's go to a legal state and live in the car and my my partner caregiver from across the one bedroom apartment we had was let's do it. It's like cool so we started out thinking about Denver but it was September. We had to be out of the apartment by September and Denver based the mountains my bones winter time 10 no and then it was Santa Monica we ended up in Santa Monica for about a month and then we were in Venice for a couple of weeks and that didn't end well either and then I had an appointment at the LGBT and we found a 10 row not far away. I have the question so how was it to be unhoused in Santa Monica is it a little kinder? Ish I can't really say I was looking at it through very naive is it a ton? I'm gonna say we never went hungry but apparently there were some people who would take pictures of us in our sleep on muscle beach and send them to the cops. That's just to the 30 news. I have had a conversation and I want your perspective on I was having a conversation with the photographer who stated that there was a picture of a gentleman that was in a compromising position and he stated as a journalist there was consulability is to record it. There's no such thing as inappropriate journalism and I wanted your perspective. How did you feel to have your pictures taken while you were asleep? I believe in such a thing as camera. You don't want to be caught with your pants down so to speak and I understand journalist objectivity but also you have some humidity. Well this rejoined on that it says maybe it gets the conversation going about what is humane and humanity they probably are trying to advance a perspective what's your thoughts on that? Then you don't take pictures of someone while they're asleep you come back while they're awake you have a conversation you get consent and then come back maybe at a later date and catch them sleeping at some point you don't just camera rape somebody. Well that's a unique way of putting it. I legitimately do podcasts and I don't record or interview with people without asking their permission. I'm even though because I have a responsibility because I want to get the full story and their their humanism. However I know that there's been some controversy and photography because right now the city is being sued for taking picture of a house person and putting it on a vigilante group and had people coming after him. There was another controversial picture where a person was taking a picture of someone when their pants were literally down and you can see their buttocks showing. So what do you what do you think if you had seen that they even though your face was covered that it was a picture of you where you're private behind or you're behind with one. That would be completely unacceptable completely unacceptable. I go to great lengths to make sure I'm not exposed in such a way as would be inconvenient to anyone else and if by some chance I were to fail at that I don't need the entire world to know that. We're human we make mistakes you don't get to take advantage of that just because you think you're better than me. I get what you're saying. I just wanted to because that conversation just came up and it had a lot of interesting dialogue and I'm one that's like you know what I'll give it a chance to have what unhoused people have to say about it because a lot of times that they're missed in the conversation even though the photographer was unhoused himself he felt that it was important for him to take the shot in the angle so and it was supposed to be conversation starting. What could you think that would have been a better conversation point to have about the unhoused crisis. At that point, Like I said, if you find someone that you really think their story is important, it needs to be told, you come back to them when they're awake, when they can give consent to the story to capitalize on someone else's misfortune as a human. There's a document, and I realized that it was written a long, long time ago and maybe not by the best of minds. This document has in it certain and ineligible rights. Well said. The other thing is I wanted to ask you is that when you came here down to Hollywood, there's an LGBTQT Center. You said. How did you get connected with them? Well, there was another lady that moved from Tennessee that got me hooked in with them. She was very forthcoming with information about the LGBT Center and actually provided my first interaction, transportation with them. For the unhoused people that are LGBTQT, can you give the address so they can know as well? I do not know it off the top of my head, but it's on straighter. And if you have access to Google, you can Google LGBT straighter and it will give you the address. So, go ahead. You will say she gave you the information. Yeah, she gave me the information actually provided my transportation to and from back to my original campsite. Let us stay with her for a little bit when we first got here, but housing is slow and the wheels of bureaucracy grind to a home out here. So, it didn't last long and we've been out here for over a year now. So how is the housing situation? Do you on any list or anything for housing? It depends on who you talk to. I have heard different things from different organizations. They designed this thing to be a hopeless void vortex of swirling mixed signals that you just give up on. And that's exactly what it is. I doubt they've been prepared for an autistic kid with a special interest. My question is this. What do you think when people say that unhoused people are service-resistant after that statement? I am absolutely not service-resistant. There are specific parameters under which I will accept services. I will not go into a shelter. I have been in Path Shrater's shelter and that is a meth dead. I refuse to be victim to secondhand smoke. At the time I was in there was greatly disproportionate. Well, maybe that was because it's the recovery center for them first and they would try to slap on and put everybody in that, which is another issue. It is not that is not the way to do it. That leads to a thing called body brokering people you are creating new addicts to run through an insurance scheme. So basically saying that they are not service-resistant as they have conditions like everyone else. I have noticed that when you are looking for homes, if you don't accept one home that doesn't mean you are home-resistant, you are just trying to find out where your options are that will be the best for you. Why is it that people believed that unhoused people do not get that right? We should just take an accept everything we have just given to us. So very in lies another dilemma. One other question I have is do you have any family out here or are they in Tennessee? I have very little blood family remaining alive, some are seen out, some are sick. My caregiver, his family has been better to me than my own ever was. I miss them a lot. They are back in Tennessee. But no, most of the people that I consider family are out here. I didn't find them until I came out here. That's wonderful to say. Is there anything else would you like to add to the listeners to about the unhoused situation for people that don't know and they want to help? What's the best way for us to help you? Keep in touch and when we put out the call for help, come. I interact with police almost daily and almost daily I am under threat of kidnapping. To stop that I need the support of the housed people in the area. If I put out the call for help I need help. I'm not crying wolf. I'm trying to stand up for not just my rights but the rights of everybody else out here. If I can use my white passing privilege to fight the fight that those who can't for any other reason let me do that because I got a whole lot of good years left. But I can't do it alone and I need the support of the other housed folks in the area. If you come by my camp you will be amazed at the cleanliness, the orderliness, the amount of art and compassion and intelligence that goes on. And kindness. And kindness. I don't let anybody go hungry and the only ones that I get particularly confrontational with are the mess addicts that come around and want to act some kind of way. I was like no I don't do that go away. So there you have it that the best way to understand how to help them is to be as a house member in this area is to show and be a person of your words to help out. I'm using my heterosexual privilege as my African American privilege to help all of the unhoused. And this is what we all as human beings do. And Dr. King said it very clearly. We are tied by a single thread of human destiny and it is our humanity. So this is the oh Henderson with the wheel in the house and I thank you all for listening and maybe we all again meet in the light of understanding. Thank you very much. Good morning. I have two guests here today and I want to share you some experiences they've had. When people hear about CPS, many people hear different things, the most extreme cases of children being abandoned in things of that nature or hurt badly. But they don't hear about the issues from the perspective of unhoused parents and out of house people that have been in the system of rip apart. So today in this podcast we're going to discuss this. We're going to just talk with Black Lilly and Black Wolf. Let's get started with Black Lilly first and then we will hand it over to Black Wolf. So Black Lilly, welcome and tell us a little bit about your story. Hi, my name is Black Lilly. I first came out to LA in hopes of starting a career. Singing, acting, both those actually. But then I ended up having a relationship with somebody that resulted in a pregnancy. I was put into housing programs that weren't exactly helpful. People think that, "Oh, just go to a shelter. Just go to this program over here." And I think it'll be just fine. I thought it was going to be fine. I'm strong. Dead wrong. They called DCFS saying that I was leaving my daughter in the bathtub unattended. This was women's care cottage. They placed me and my daughter in an apartment that had cockroaches and two gas leaks. And then when I try to fix it myself and call a company, you get fixed. They pushed me into a different housing program, upward boundhouse, upward boundhouse, kept giving my daughter water at three months and getting in the middle of breastfeeding. My daughter's doctor. He had me and my daughter on a strict feeding schedule. Every two hours for breastfeeding and one night my daughter was crying. She would not stop. She wouldn't sleep in the crib. Every mother knows how their child will not sleep in the crib. So what I did was I set up a little sleeping area. I laid down a blanket on the floor. I laid a little area for her to sleep in so I would roll over on top of her. And we slept like that. She slept just fine. But once she started crying again, the police came in because apparently they were called. She was only three months. Please set there was nothing wrong but the public health nurse said you got to take your daughter to the hospital or she was taking a hospital. She was diagnosed with failure to thrive. I was really devastated about that. I was planning myself which part of it was my fault for letting everybody else parent for me. They after that they took my daughter out of my physical custody. And after they took my daughter out of my physical custody, the housing program I was in kicked me out. And I have been homeless ever since. I've been fighting and fighting but my health has been declining. I'm dealing with crones which is a lifelong disorder and will never go away and will only get worse. I really wish I had known about this diagnosis when I was pregnant, honestly, but that's okay. Um, but yeah, I came out here hoping for a career. And then when my daughter was born, I was hoping I would have her in my career. Well, not in my career but, you know, doing my career with her and that was taken away. My children. chance at being a mom, taken away. Well, because LA thinks that, you know, I'm not a good mom. And now that I don't have my daughter and I'm out here on the streets, now they're trying to kick the homeless out. Now I will never have the chance to see my daughter. I will-- if this thing comes to play, I will never have a chance to see my daughter. I will never have a chance to hold her. And not only that, I will not have a chance to get off the streets. I'm sorry to hear that. And it is very difficult. Tell us something that people misunderstand about the unhoused situation. A lot of people think that the unhoused are all just druggies that all of them just look to get high and wasted and don't really care about their life. And that's not really the case. Some of us out here-- there's some people that just gave up on life because people wouldn't help them. And so the only way to get rid of that pain is through drugs. They also think that we have no life, that we don't know how to work or that we don't want to work. A lot of times it's not that we don't want to work. It's that we either can't or there's no work available. Thank you for your story. We're going to take a quick break here, and I will be back. [MUSIC PLAYING] This is Theo Henderson again from Weedian House. We're out here in sunny California in Hollywood. It's a warm day. And I noticed because I too am disabled. And for me, I noticed that when this gets warm, I have to have shade because of the medication that I take. I don't get sick. So I want to interview another gentleman here that is a part of the community that's here. So introduce us to you. Hi, I am Papa Smurf. Papa Smurf. How long have you been out here? About a year now. How did you become unhoused? Lost my job. Moved out to sunny California. Decided why not. What did you do for a job? I do actually have a job. I do work for a local cafe cookie lab place here in Hollywood. You have cookie lab and you're still on house. I am. The housing situation out here is just tremendously expensive. For a little four by four room give or take, you're going to pay almost $1,000. And that's not counting your security, turning your lights on, eating groceries every month. I don't make that much money. No matter how much I work. So I'm stuck out here. That's horrible. My question for you is, how is it being out here on the street? Our cops are not here to protect and serve. They are here to harass us. If we do not have our tons down by 6 a.m. in the morning, and it's about 50 degrees, we will get hassled. Me personally. I don't like to get out of bed before 7. I don't come knocking at your door at 6 o'clock in the morning to wake you up and tell you you have to put your house down. This is where I sleep. This is where my belongings are. Leave me alone. If it was all messy and disgusting and nasty, then come talk to me. Otherwise, leave me alone. OK, here's a good point. You said you work. Does your shift allow you-- do you work in the evening, graveyard? How does this work? Because if you come in, if anybody else worked, they want to have a good rest. And it says it seems like you're able to get that. Well, I work Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to about 6 p.m. So I can get my rest. But it's still not a whole lot because you can't put your 10 up to 4.9 p.m. And you all out here in Hollywood, California, OK, what you say? It still gets cold by 6.30 with no sun out here. By 9 o'clock, you're freezing a death. So you get sick. Yeah. And then you have to deal with living with the flu for a week and your 10. It's horrible. It's horrible. So that's how I'm sorry to hear that. I was going to ask, is there any particular police officers that focus in on their harassment of you? Well, you got to detect the gainy who leads the harassment around here pretty much. What are some of the most Irish examples of this kind of harassment? OK, so my friend Hal over here is in a wheelchair. OK, has a note from the doctor that states that he has a flu that he needs to be resting. They threatened to cut the man out of his tent. Pull him out and arrest him just because he had a doctor's note saying that he was sick. You know, there's been a lot of deaths in jails with they had to happen. And based on they don't have the enough adequate medical personnel to help people that are even able body that can walk around as well as the unhoused and have some challenges. So that's very disconcerting me here that anything else? Well, when you stand here and you tell me that something is above your pay grade, that doesn't work either. I'm sorry. I'm a taxpayer. I do work. So I pay taxes. Do not give me the excuse that that's above your pay grade. Another thing. I am a veteran. So that means I have fought in a war for your ass to be free. Not for you to tell me that my constitutional rights do not matter. Sorry about the language that just really aggravates me. And it's on YouTube. Go to YouTube and look for it. Officer with the ADA law. Check it out, man. He says there is no-- we do not have a constitutional right here. Please, somebody do something. Well said. I wouldn't point it out to you is that you say to you as a veteran, what on war did you serve? I served in Desert Storm. Wow. Thank you for your service. You want them. I want-- Thank you. You're support. Thank you. I see why I'm out here trying to get all the stories that's necessary so we can have compassion and better understanding of the situation. Is there any message that you would like to leave with the audience about how is the best way that we can help you? Yo, be a neighbor. Come over and see if we need something. Ask us. We will not bite you. We are not disease. We are human beings just like you. Be treated respect. You get respect. Just common sense. Well said. This is Theo Henderson from Wee the Unhoused. I thank you all for listening. And hopefully we take and account these very same words here in Hollywood, California, as well as all over the world, as well as in Los Angeles in general. [MUSIC PLAYING] All right. And we're out here in sunny California, Los Angeles, Hollywood, to be exact. And I'm interviewing a gentleman who is so gracious enough to give me some of his time. I'm going to give him a chance to tell me his story. My name's Jay. I came out here with my husband because we were right out of where we were. We decided that we were going to be homeless. And we were going to do it where the weather was nice. Jay, so what has your husband, your experiences been out here on the street? Mostly the cops harassing us. So they are not all here to serve and protect you just to harass. Is there any notable incident that you would like to point out that really got your goat or-- well, a lot of our constitutional rights are being trampled all over. And not even just the ADA thing, it's everybody should be denied their shelter. That's just how I see it. I agree. So tell us what is the best way for us to be able to help you? What would you like as if someone was asked? What would be a viable solution to help you? Well, if we weren't worried about having our things stolen every single day, we might be able to get some things done. I've been trying to compose, either, in our earlier part, of Spring or this summer, a talent show. And I noticed that you played guitar. How long have you been playing a guitar? 15 plus years. What got you into playing the guitar? There was a music class in my high school, and I decided to get into that. And it was a guitar class. And I picked up the guitar, and I just enjoyed it. Wow. So what's your favorite shredder? The King Eric Clapton. Oh, Eric Clapton. You don't like Jimmy Hendrix? Jimmy Hendrix is great, yes. - But Air Clapton is the king. (laughing) - Okay, what's your favorite song of his? - There's so many. - Oh, okay. - Well, I understand. So you like Air Clapton. So could you, you have any special songs that you created or anything? - I do have a couple of originals yet. - Would you mind playing just a little small snippet for the audience? - Not really of my originals. It's not really that polished yet. - Oh, okay, well. That's understandable, because I'm protective of my unedited work as well. How long have you guys been at this part of Hollywood? - About three months. - It's been a lot of cleaning and a lot of police harassment as you said. So as you can hear the police coming in the background, is there any messages would you like to get the police to allow you guys to have your tent up a little bit? Would you be acceptable with that? - 'Cause I'm looking at this place here, and it's very clean. I don't understand why they always say that unhoused people are just a mess. And every can, every can camp that I've gone to in an interview with people has been clean. It's just like, I'm just don't understand this lie that they keep saying. - Right, and when they do come through and do their cleaning, they don't even clean. They don't sweep or anything. And if we had a broom it, be cleaner than it is. - So what did they do when they come to clean? They just pick up the trash and take up half hour to an hour break and leave. - Wow, so there you have it. This is Theo Henderson from William House. Thank you for listening, and may we all again meet in a light of understanding. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Okay, this is Theo Henderson from William House. Again, I want to talk to two people here that are living under a bridge and they get their name and their stories. So let's start with Leslie. - I've been out here since 2000, out here since 2010. - So you've been here almost to 10 years. So how did you become unhoused? - You said you was an addict, right? - I'm an addict originally from New York. My mom passed away, which was kind of bad because my addiction that led me cold to end or in which she passed away, I didn't know what to do. So I came out here because my daughter has her father out here and I've been on the streets since. - So where was the first time you became hooked on, what is your jogger choice? - Well, when I was in New York, it was a crack. I spoke to crack for almost 30 years. And that might actually be almost 50. And out here, it's definitely a crystalline. - How is it, you said earlier, the harassment? Can you talk a little bit about that? - Yeah, everybody's not an addict. There are a lot of people that have mental illness out here. - Disabilities. - Disabilities, you know, and the harassment is relentless. You know, we have our part to play with the trash. It's a big problem with this. - When you say that, like for example, some camps don't have trash cans and they ask for it and they are very neat. So that's, why is it, do you think the city won't provide that if they want the trash gone? - Money, because it takes away from the paychecks of sanitation or it puts too much in their pockets because they're not, the city does it, or the state does want to pay that much money to constantly have these cleanups the way that they do. But we actually convinced them finally to give us trash cans and they have, you know, if you want to help homeless people who have mental disabilities, the first way to start is not just the trash. Yeah, accommodate us a little bit. We're willing to work with them if they're willing to work with us, like a port of potty or two. Provided, provided you have like this bridge just kind of a community. So we, right, we know each other here. So they don't have a problem keeping things clean over here. I don't know where anybody else. - Yeah, the other places do the same. - I've seen a lot of places that are clean, but they stuff like that. - I don't know how bad. - My question is this too about it being on house, living under a bridge is that the fact is you just said that you have a community. I've been to other places where there are communities as well. And they also have the same thing. They want port parties, mobile showers. And if you want to work with them, that they're more than happy to work with them. But like you say, it's like a money thing. They have more money, you know, it costs $3,000 for them to come and clean up all those tents and throw it in the trash, wear a little bit cheaper. - I'm not giving a thing. - Good job, cops are getting overtime. So that is one of the things that is what you have to understand. When they send out a care team is over $3,000 for that to be taken in place. Because if you're a police officer or a sanitation word, they are on the clock. Because they're not doing it voluntarily. They're going to-- - The whole of the postation and the respect made is what I respect. - Believe it or not, what people don't seem to realize is homeless people deal with the bulk of everything. We, you have the officers, you have fire trucks that there's supposed to be on the upload site. And they come running by revenue engines at all. I was in line. We have people that rev their cars on hours and night people that are drinking, throwing bottles, doing this, doing that. So a lot of the homes are extremely exhausted every single day. When we're hot, we stay hot. When we're cold, we stay cold. Because we don't get to go inside where they get to go inside. And a person circumstance, I'm fortunate that people don't know because not everybody isn't addict. They were just a discipline. So we-- - That's why we're talking about the story. - Yeah, they don't see that. So they, they, they, you think that the people that have a home would be more dignified as to come out to help. But they don't get a lot of them do themselves come out of buildings throwing trash to make us look just as worse. And a lot of people are tired. We get so tired that we don't want to keep it clean. We don't want to keep doing this and doing that for people. We don't appreciate it even as homeless because we get knocked down a lot of times because of that. - I understand you earlier just mentioned that your husband is a dying of cancer. - My husband has a stage for cold cancer. - Okay. - And so you're taking care of him or you guys are taking care of each other, it seems like. So how long have you guys, how long have you guys been married? - Three years. - Three years ago. - So this is one of your support systems. I didn't get your name, sir. So what's your name? - My name is Antonio, but my everybody calls me Natholome. - Well, Natholome, how long have you been out here on the street? - What year did I go? - Oh, you know what the-- (laughing) - I broke my-- I had a house up in Hollywood. It was like, blew it up. My mistake, it was done by mistake. - Okay. - I was a mess cook. - A mess cook. - Okay. - And I blew it up the house because my friend was out here. - I was out here, too far. - Oh my gosh. - And I'm going to help myself. And I'll part you in the juice. - Good work. - My, I have a question is like, is you staying in here, you have stage for cancer? Where would you, do you have made, what was the legacy, what you like to leave? Would you have any children? - The thing is this. I know I got a cold cancer, I found out. Now I'm fine, I'm done. I got so much fun, good. I don't appreciate hospitals. I don't like hospitals. So ever since, hey, you can't drop blood for me and kick me out and I was real sick, I don't go to hospital. My wife takes care of me. She saved my wife, I got a big hole there. She saved my hand. I was getting my poison. What I remember, she stayed with me, no matter what. She didn't care. She just wanted to believe me. I think it's a rush. This is the type of love that you know, how else people can learn. - She's died, I'm supposed to die. I'm supposed to die before everyone. They won't die before me. And it's, it's bothering me because sometimes the pain gets so severe, it hits me all night time. Is it during the day or when I'm actually at night? - How are you? - I'm so sorry to be able to, it is tough to take care of somebody who has cancer or any kind of disease on the street because we don't have like amenities, you know, we don't have a bathroom, we don't have a doctor, we don't have anything that we can, you know, so I'm kind of doing this, you know, with God and keep naturally. And like I said, it's so tough because we are exhausted, date in and date now from the relentless list. - Everyone else on top of our own problem, on top of being out here. - I come over here now, the thing is about the home street. - There's no union. - I've been on the streets before the places, I'm from Boston, Massachusetts, because nobody cares. And the reason for that is because of the dog. Everybody is fat now, and it's eating everybody's brains up. I'm trying to talk to these people. I mean, I spoke with, I have a medical, it's a medical, it's legal, but I get mine from medical, and mine is, you know, top of one. But as soon as I walk out the door, I get a suicide, but my bills, I don't have enough on my asses, I pay my bills. So, I, I, I, I, - You don't have bills, though, yes we do. - Exactly, I was gonna say, you're the second person I know that is. - She's seven thousand dollars on my bills right now. - You know, as I said, as long as people think that we don't do anything like normal people do, yes we do, we just don't have a big deal. - But what are the stuff? - I've got to be able to take it. - We live a life. - And he knows us. with most reliable, dependable people. Come on. But we don't steal. My word is my word and people trust me. That's one way to get stuck in union. You have to trust me. Yeah, but the problem with the unity is the dope. Honestly, the truth no matter is the. And the substance use is community, yeah. The truth is the truth is the myth is really. You know, you have people that have mental disabilities that are using the structures. Right. Some doctors. I can't knock it because I use it myself and the truth no matter is I stay calm, I can clean, I can focus when I'm used as opposed to when I'm not, unfortunately. I wish I didn't turn my life out that way, but that's the way my life turned out. But there are people who can't control this type of disabilities. Mentally, they have health issues. You see a lot of people that are walking around talking to themselves. They're completely out of their minds. And a lot of that is because of the myth, honestly. Well, you have given us an education here. I wanted to ask you, if someone was to say, come to you and say, "Lesson, mad dog, what is the best way to help you? How can we help you?" We're willing to do our part as we are. We need a place. That's the bottom line. We need a place here. It's hard for us. I want to. Although I was. He's disabled. He's so stressed out. I agree with people just like this. I mean, I can't. I don't care if they use it, but it hurts for a while. But I still go back and do what I say. I think we can help you. You want to know how someone can help us? Yeah, like what we do for them. Yeah, it's true. We do. We do. We do. We do. We have things that you. They come from the bush too. They come and ask for advice. And. The advice we give you. And we see. And it's the same thing. It's the bottom line. Everybody hears us, but they're not listening. Yes, they are. Well, we're listening at Weedy Unhoused. And no Dr. Drew says, like the majority of Unhoused people are mentally unondrous, which is not true. I'm encouraged to hear that you guys want to have some place. I can say I will do my very best to tell your story humanely and not take a decade, I use it for some nefarious purposes. But I also wanted to leave you with this. The Unhoused community is like communities here and everywhere else in California and in the world. I interview people from Greece, Japan. They all have the same thing. And they all are dealing with the same challenges that the society doesn't listen to. So we want to make sure that they understand that these guys want their place to stay. And I'm going to try to see what we can do to try to help you. This is Theodore Henderson from Weedy Unhoused. And I thank you all for listening. And may we again meet in a light of understanding. This episode couldn't be done without the help and efforts of many. I would like to thank our guest, Jack Perriott, Carlos Nieto, as well as other like Zinn and Mario, Craig Wong from CCD, Democratic Socialist Union, Annie Shaw, Taigi, my Marcaruaro, as well as many others that remain in the scenes. Melissa who feeds for the community, Melissa Ocidero, Jane Wynn, Mark Fortland, these people are getting the voices out. And thank you all again. Weedy Unhoused is a podcast we record every week. We interview people from different places and we use our resources in order for it to make it happen. And up to now what we've been depleting all types of energy, time, and patience to give you a quality product. Now you will not hear our recordings in a live quiet studio, but what you will hear is where we meet the clients or the listeners and the guests at these places where they are. In order for us to continue, we're going to need some help. In order for us to start a new project where we will have Weedy Unhoused for people that are wanting to share their stories visually. And then we're going to have a podcast for Weedy Unhoused for children. So in order for this to happen, we're going to need a lot of help from our listeners and for people that are interested in doing something for the community. And after this, if you would like to contribute to this campaign, you can contact Weedy Unhoused on Twitter. That's my thing where I have a PayPal link and you can link it there and you can make any donation for $2 to $5 or however you feel, but it's really appreciated. One in four Californians believe they or family member can become unhoused. Prior to the housing and unhoused crises, many people had wrote off the unhoused community as criminals deserving nothing more but the highest contempt. Countless times have I converse with people who were stubborn in this belief. Vote 28% still believe this evil practice. More of society is waking up to the fact that the group of neighbors you share Mimosas brunches with will call their local council member and law enforcement officials if you pitch your tent in front of their neighborhood. Despite this shift, there is much work to be done. We have a pecking order in the unhoused community with messages to exclude, unworthy in their eyes of unhoused people, advocating for law enforcement to harass, target and even kill other unhoused people. And I said before and I will say it again, no matter what we came in on, we are in the same boat now, housing unhoused. I have reviewed so many people out here at unhoused and they have all the words and flaws like anybody else that are housed. They do not deserve to be criminalized, tortured or harassed. Dignity is a word that's often tossed around. But we don't understand that, but in this episode, I hope you understood what dignity means to a member that has stage 4 colon cancer. It is not the constant threat of harassment for police, local council members such as Newary Martinez saying if we harass them enough, they will go away. But the man is dying. A very simple dignity dignified response to him and his wife, find them a place where she can care for him and his last remaining time is peaceful and without stress and without problems. I'm sure we can find it within our hearts in test no fortitude that we can do something about this crisis. Right now, we're in a dark time in history. From the president to our local council members, they are indifferent to the sufferings of unhoused people, but they are receptive to listening to the pocketbooks of the rich. When will it end? When are we going to evict these enterlopers in our justice system? When are we going to give the walking papers to these council members? Mitchell Farrow, his election is in 2022. So the house and unhoused community, it is very incumbent upon us to look at this and give them their walking papers. We cannot let this rest of society forget that they were on the wrong side of history and they are dangerous to our humanity. We cannot elect them overshadow that. I thank you all for listening and maybe we'll again meet in the light of our lives. It's that time to put on your jersey and wave your flag whoever you root for. Why do I watch the walk up? That's like asking me why do I breed? And it's beautiful. It's your culture. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernando Chabarri and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the US and its underdog roots. Listen to American Football on the iHeard Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Joy is essential and it's also elusive but now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, How to Copy. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid uplifting and moving on air chats. Open your free iHeard Radio app search Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with HotaCopy is presented by CVS. My first guest is Paris Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerin. Have surprises, many surprises, Welcome to the Sweet 305 podcast where the group check comes to life. You're the only person I know that loves the Yellow Starbursts. Lemonade. This is Sweet 305. 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