Housing Justice LA

Molly, LaRae and Bill gather in Molly's backyard for a socially distant season wrap-up episode. Meeting in person for the first time after 6+ months of quarantine, we respond to comments and questions received from listeners, talk about what we've learned throughout the course of producing this season, and reflect on the perspectives gleaned from the pandemic as well as this summer's uprisings in response to the murder of George Floyd and other acts of racial violence. We discuss what's next for each of us, where the work needs to go from here, and close with another song from LaRae's son, Melvin, titled "I CANT BREATHE" by 2HUNGRY. Please also check out the music video!    

In this episode we explore the intersection of domestic violence and homelessness. We begin by hearing the personal stories of 5 survivors of domestic violence and the issues they faced in obtaining and maintaining housing. Then we are joined by Amy Turk, CEO of the Downtown Women's Center, an organization that each year serves over 5,000 women facing homelessness, to discuss domestic violence's influence on homelessness and the particular effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on serving domestic violence survivors. We then close the show with an anonymous poem from a DV survivor, read by Larae's daughter, Destiny.

On today's episode we flip the script, beginning with a personal story from Pamela Marshall. She tells us how a health crisis lead to finding herself living on Skid Row. A moment of human connection with a worker at the Downtown Women's Center gave her the confidence and information she needed to begin on her road to recovery.  Having been on the receiving end of positive outreach, in turn, she helps a woman she meets at the shelter secure services and housing, and eventually becomes a Peer Advocate at Skid Row Housing Trust. Then, Keris Jän Myrick, Chief of Peer and Allied Health Professions at LA County's Department of Mental Health, joins us to discuss mental health, and challenge our assumptions about the nexus of work required to ameliorate our nation's homelessness crisis. We close with a live poetry reading by Suzette Shaw at the Housing Justice LA Summit earlier this year.  

We begin today's episode with a personal story from Reginald Murray about his experience trying to retain permanent housing after an extended prison stay, along with his work as an advocate helping to secure housing for the recently released. Then we are joined by Becky Dennison, the Executive Director of the Venice Community Housing Corporation, to discuss othering and NIMBYism in Venice and Los Angeles at large, the results of "Broken Windows" policing on Skid Row, and the importance of not severing clients from their local communities in the process of providing them with services. We close the show with a poem called "Wash Your Hands" by Dori Midnight.

On this episode, Larae interviews her son Melvin about the day he was shot outside of their home in a Los Angeles housing project, his recovery, the trauma it inflicted, and how he uses music as catharsis in order to heal. Molly and Larae discuss how violence and a lack of overall safety often affects the sense of community and well being of residents in the areas where clients and case managers are able to find affordable housing. You can find Melvin's music and social media links at: https://linktr.ee/thee.2hungry