Today I met a person living in their car for the first time ever.

57 years old.

They were a factory worker until a back injury put them out of work. Then their partner died, and he couldn't afford the rent alone.

Two months after her funeral - the sheriff threw him out. He's never been on any benefits before. He went to HACLA and has been told wait lists for Section 8 are so full they're closed.

He plans to live in his car until he can figure something our. He now has en eviction on his record and his disability is only $700 a month.

Today I met a woman working two (TWO!!) full time jobs who is living in her car. She fled domestic violence in the middle of the night. Shelters are full. Her ex trashed their apt, so she has an eviction + judgement no landlord that isn't a slumlord will rent to her. Not to mention, a huge portion of her fast food worker income is spent on eating out and paying for gas + parking + insurance since she has to keep moving her car for it not to get towed. Being poor is so expensive.

That video of the elderly man setting himself on fire as the cops try to forcibly evict him from his home made me sick to my stomach. And this is the reality that hundreds of thousands of seniors are facing every day. They're the fastest growing group of homeless people. In the last year, I've had to start packing bed sore cream, adult diapers, and denture cream in my outreach wagon because so many elderly people were asking for them. I run out often.

We're getting 10+ inches of rain over the next week, and LA sanitation is sweeping ppl + throwing away tents, blankets, and sleeping bags today.

All while not having any shelter beds.

Every person living on the street about to die from the cold is being murdered via policy. What you can do: Call your LA City Councilperson + tell them to stop sweeping in the lead up to this storm or people will die of the cold when the rain hits. Look in your closets for any extra sweaters, blankets, camping equipment like tents/sleeping bags that you can give out.

Kevin Hart says the hood is full of liquor stores and check cashing pay day loan places because people aren't "smart enough" to have bank accounts.

These celebs get a little $$ and think they can comment on planned systemic poverty + financial exploitation. Does the hood have bank locations welcoming to them? Is a DMV close by? Can they take the day off to go get an ID? Can they afford the over draft/account fees? Will it mess up their benefits that they need to survive? Is a bank account going to fill itself with a decent wage?

Right now a few dozen volunteers are mobilizing to prepare for the hurricane rains about to hit LA this weekend.

We're buying tarp, tents, ponchos, + plastic bags so our unhoused neighbors can stay dry + so they can keep their stuff dry.

Ways you can help:

🧵 Last rains we heard people say they hadn't eaten in days because they didn't want to go outside and get soaked or get the inside of their tent wet.

Drop off some meals + water to your unhoused neighbors if you can so they don't have to go outside.

Nobody every plans to end up on the street in a tent.

But it's so easy.

An emergency occurs: Your: car breaks down, partner dies, hospitalized due to an accident, get sick, get laid off, hours are reduced, the cost of your meds went up, etc.

You miss a couple of paychecks.🧵 You get evicted.

Then if you don't have friends/family to move you in, you probably move into your car.

You try to get rehoused but don't have a large deposit saved up. You have an eviction on your record so you're automatically declined for most apartments.

No therapy/medication given to an unhoused person is going to repair their credit, give them 3x the rent in deposit, 3x the rent in income, positive references, and increasing income to cover rent increases for years. The for profit housing system is not set up to house the poor. Most unhoused people have evictions on their records that make it impossible to rent a market rate apartment ever again. WE NEED HOUSING WITHOUT BARRIERS. Publically owned, maintained, affordable, and not dependent on credit or other economic screening tools.

This type of "news" only serves to rile up the ppl who believe that the unhoused deserve nothing and if they have anything other than nothing they must not really be suffering. The comment section is filled with ppl saying how the person is lazy and mooching off tax dollars. Newsflash: Housed ppl leave tech out for free every time they move in this city. I got a free food processor that way.

Also: A generator/solar battery costs less than rent. A mint mobile plan costs less than rent. A shared Netflix account costs less than rent.

My cousins are now Qanon MAGA right wingers even though their parents were undocumented Mexican immigrants and grew up in a heavily Mexican community. They got radicalized online and came to hate our music + culture + coming to family parties. They've since taken on more Anglo sounding nicknames and stopped speaking Spanish completely, and there's a ton of people like that out there. Self-hatred and assimilation will have radicalized people of color embracing nazism thinking they're "one of the good ones."

Waking up to a text from a young lady who has been trying desperately to get off the streets. 4 LAHop requests - the requests that are supposed to get a LAHSA social worker out to people to connect them to services - and zero connections made. "They don't want help" is a lie. And heartbreakingly, while she's desperately trying to figure out how to get inside, she's also worrying about her tent and all her belongings being thrown away in a sweep during the rain. ID cards, medicine, pets, food, clothing. They don't care they toss it all.

"Jordan Neely was arrested 40 times"

Being homeless is illegal in the US. Loitering, pan handling, trespassing, open containers in public, public urination, + dozens of other crimes are used as an excuse to arrest ppl who don't have a place to live and public facilities to use. A lot of people don't have criminal records until they become unhoused - or become unhoused after their first charge that keeps them from being able to find a place to live. Then they get more and more charges due to the nature of the criminalization of the poor + survival.

Absolutely heart wrenching to hear that a Black man in a mental crisis due to being unhoused, tired, and hungry was MURDERED. Even in death they're calling this man "the vagrant." His murderer, a white Marine, who held him in a choke hold for 15 mins was released without charges. This man needed help - he needed someone to give him some food and water and maybe a chat. He needed a home. Medicine. Sleep. A doctor. A therapist. He didn't hurt anyone. He was venting in pain and was murdered while everyone recorded. I'm fucking sick.

One of the people murdered in Texas had a green card, and people are posting it in Abbott's tweet as if it matters.

I've been undocumented, had a green card, and then became a naturalized citizen, and some people will never ever recognize my humanity. The dislike doesn't come from legal status, believe it or not. If it did, they'd be building a wall with Canada, but they're not. This woman did it "right," and even in death, the governor of the state she lived in reduces her to a right wing dehumanizing talking point.

There are so many elderly people living on the streets. I feel like throwing up when I see a brittle 75+ newly homeless person trying to figure out how to survive. They usually end up unhoused after being discharged after a health issue. Take too long healing and you get evicted. I've also learned that if you're in a care home, hospital, rehab for 3+ months where Medicaid pays for more than half your stay Social Security only pays you $30. These seniors can't pay rent + have no place to live by the time they get out.

ssa.gov/ssi/spotlights…

Imagine all of the health issues people face regularly: A cut on your finger, a UTI, the flu, a cold, COVID, RSV, an ingrown toe nail, a sinus infection.

Now imagine treating those minor issues in a cold, wet, rainy tent. No matter how hard you try - you're dirty all the time. These common issues are particularly deadly in diabetics or those with HIV and compromised immune systems. Homelessness kills. Living outside while being human and facing regular pathogens/injuries is deadly.

Constantly fundraising for tents, sleeping bags, clothing, food, and hygiene supplies for our unhoused neighbors knowing the city is just going to sweep + throw all their belongings out week after week is so soul crushing. Pictured:

While walking my dog today I ran into an unhoused man completely drenched from the rain, shivering, blue lips with no shoes on. I asked if he'd like me to call 911 and he said yes please.

The paramedics gave me a little gruff about taking him in because "beds were filling up" but after pointing out that it looked like he had frostbite setting in on his fingers, they took him in.

I gave him my Crocs and he was really happy about that because he hadn't had shoes in a while.

I don't know. I'm just heartbroken. Our government fails people so horribly.

My advice to young college kids aspiring to work at non-profits: Don't. Go work for a soulless corporation that pays you in real money and has a decent work life balance and volunteer with a mutual aid org on your own time. These non profits are good person soul sucking vampires. Now this doesn't mean run to Raytheon. There's just no shame working a normal job and avoiding the economic devastation working non-profit (often) gives you.

That thread asking people how they would get out of homelessness if they only had $20 is literally people saying "I would simply just'" and then saying something that is literally impossible, unavailable, or has been made illegal by local city governments. "I'd find a minimum wage job and save up money while I stayed at a shelter!"

Who is hiring you when you don't have an address, your ID, or a car?

Shelter is full. Also you have to leave the shelter at 6am and show up at 1pm to get a bed. You also have to pay to stay there.

A 41.18 area was swept this Wednesday. A lot of people couldn't move their tents (in 100° weather) across the street in time and they got their tents thrown away + IDs, important docs, and medication. No one is helped. No closer to being housed. All on waiting lists for housing. Watching a person in a wheelchair try to breakdown their tent and wheel their items back and forth across the street in the 10 mins. they were given or face a fine or arrest is heartbreaking and a total disregard of any disability protections.