Andreina
Appearances
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Yeah. In L.A., we have a very robust network of mutual aid groups that have been built by force, honestly, via this government. I think a lot of them have started up to step in. There's no denying all over L.A. that there's this crisis because you walk outside of your house and there are people sleeping on your street. There's people digging through your garbage. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
We've seen this blossoming of mutual aid groups all over the city. In times of crisis, we'll spark up a signal group that grows from zero to thousands of people overnight that are willing to jump in and get their hands dirty to to coalesce and find resources. You know, here's where we're buying masks. This door is out. Don't go to this one. Go to that one.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Who's reimbursing people for gas, et cetera, et cetera. And it's normal people. You know, I have a full-time job. My friends here in K-Town for all, some are teachers, some are in the movie industry, you know, some are random lawyers, you know, that will take their time out to do this work. And
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
I think that it's beautiful in the sense that we get people the help they need and it's never enough, which is crushing. Here in K-Town, we give supplies to about 400 or so unhoused people a week minimum. And that is hygiene supplies, tents, blankets. We... connect them to any services that they might ask us to connect them to, driving them to the hospital, etc.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
And this has been going on for the last five years. And K-Town For All specifically started as a counter protest because there was an attempt to build a shelter here in Koreatown and some homeowners organized against it. They marched down Wilshire and shut it down. And our founders found each other because they were the only five people holding up We Want Shelter signs.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
And just started doing distribution themselves. And I think that's one thing that I would really suggest to folks is it's not as intimidating as it seems to start one of these projects. It's literally you and a couple friends who decide that you're going to do something. And you acknowledge that you can't do everything and that you'll never be able to meet the need because...
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
What we need is a government who cares about people. But in the meanwhile, we're going to do the best we can. And the lives of the, you know, now 400 or so people that we see every week are a little better because we decide to do that.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Yeah, well, K-Town for All focuses here in the K-Town neighborhood. And what we've particularly focused on is mass distribution. People are sitting in, it's literally raining ash in some areas and are sitting in the soot. So there's that. There's basic tent and tarp gathering, meals. So many emergency services shut down during disasters that, you know, make sense.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
But a lot of food kitchens that people would get meals from are not open right now. So it's getting people food, getting people water. just enough to survive. In other areas, folks are gathering supplies. There's All Power Books that is a big distribution site right now. Puma Mutual Aid out in the Palms area is doing a lot of really great work.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
The South Bay got swept last night, so the South Bay Mutual Aid Club is replacing tents this morning. There's a lot of the pet mutual aid groups who are gathering pet food and finding foster homes for a It's just, I mean, I can't even list the amount of people right now that are like in their vehicles doing drop-offs to, you know, the sidewalk project.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
There's a big skid row distribution point that is building up. Crowdsourcing insulin, things that like you don't think about that people ran out of their house that they need to live. They don't have time to go get a prescription. Right. You know, at a primary care provider, like we need albuterol that people are having asthma attacks.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
So there's these kind of burdens that mutual aid projects get around because people, A, don't have to fill out any forms. They don't have to wait. If we have it, you're going to be handed it. And, you know, even medical providers... as part of our projects, have become a really big support as people on the streets are often very disabled.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
We have a lot of folks with diabetes, like diabetic open wounds, like just very horrible injuries that need constant care. All Power Bookstore has a free clinic called All Power Clinic, and they offer free medical care and come with us on our routes here in K-Town to offer free treatment for folks. And I think that's Something that is going to only grow, as you said, as this administration occurs.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Homelessness rose 18% in the last year, and that's only been the case every year since we started counting. There is no way this administration is going to institute rent control or anything that keeps people from being displaced. One mutual aid project that I think people overlook often is the tenants unions, the L.A.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Tenants Union, mobilizing to care for their members, checking in on their disabled members. These kind of community based organizations where people know people, they know who to check up on, they know who's vulnerable. Those kind of organizations are invaluable in emergencies like these.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Yeah, and I think we say this all the time in the homelessness space, you know, you're closer to being homeless than you are to be a billionaire. And I think this is one of the most direct examples. Like, these people might have been well off maybe a month or two ago, and then now they have zero.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
You know, they're going to be fighting with insurance companies for maybe five years, you know, some of them.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
And hopefully, you know, they end up recovering. But I hope they don't forget that climate change and emergency disasters are a great equalizer. And the people that show their faces, they're not the politicians. They're not the lobbyists. They're not You know, the Democratic Party, you know, TM, it's your neighbor who has a mask for you.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
It's me, someone random from down the block who got a couple friends together who has water for you. You know, like that's who comes through and that's who you need to care for all the time, including your unhoused neighbors that are around you all the time. who live in your community and who face this emergency every day, you know, they don't know where they're going to sleep every night.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
They don't know where the next meal is coming from every day. They get their stuff destroyed by the state, you know, regularly, if not once a week, very frequently. And I hope this is really sad, but I hope it forces some empathy in people who otherwise don't think about themselves in this context of being a human that needs food, water, and shelter, you know, the basics.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
You're free to follow Ktown4all on Instagram. We are constantly uploading on our stories year-round, fundraisers, resource requests, GoFundMes, etc. We really try to stay connected with the LA Mutual Aid Network. And honestly, once you follow one of us, you kind of follow all of us because we're very supportive of each other's efforts. Mutual Aid LA is a good hub.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
They have a magazine that gets published every month that has a list of mutual aid programs all over LA. If you can't come out on physical outreach with us, which we do on Saturdays, every Saturday except the first Saturday of the month when we do our planning meeting, you're free to help us. you know, connect with others. You're free to help us financially.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
But we also, you know, funny you mentioned this, James, but if you DM us and you're like, hey, I want to talk to someone about starting a project in my region, I'm so happy to hop on Zoom with you, tell you how we do our distribution, tell you how we make our maps of encampments, tell you how we, you know, fund and crowdsource. Always happy to find that knowledge.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
And people message us all the time, can we start a neighborhood for all? chapter. And we're like, we're so honored that you would do that. Please don't ask, but you're totally welcome to. And so we have Pasadena for All that is doing great work. And Pasadena for All is definitely always in need of support. They are in a huge disaster zone.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Altadena, Pasadena, like all those areas have been evacuated. Palms Mutual Aid. But yeah, if you want to stay connected, you know, follow us on Instagram, ktownforall.com. Same Twitter, same on Blue Sky, and we'll hopefully be your input into the L.A. mutual aid scene. We're always so happy to support anyone else doing this work. And while we focus in the K-town neighborhood, L.A.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
is a giant place. And if you have any neighborhoods in Los Angeles that you feel passionate about or need extra attention, you know, we'll always be the ones to uplift those.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Yeah, you're always welcome to Venmo us, Ktown4all. Same on Venmo. We have a PayPal link. We have a website, ktown4all.org. We are 501c3. If you'd like to donate in our, you know, in some kind of corporate fancy way, feel free to DM us. We just got that figured out, but... Yeah, all of our money gets spent directly on material goods. We don't have any employees. We don't have any overhead.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Our volunteers are up to their necks in baby wipes usually when we get sock donations and things like that. And honestly, we prefer it that way just because we know what nonprofit requirements are like and that kind of burden that that places on mutual aid projects, and we're trying to avoid them. So every dime still goes to supplies.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
And I know every mutual aid project, J-Town Action in Japantown as well, operates in a very similar model. I would just suggest people get plugged in to Mutual Aid LA. They follow us on Instagram. Feel free to send any money. We're constantly on our stories uploading GoFundMes and Venmos and stuff.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
I really appreciate their help, you know, out of the country and hope that one day orgs like ours are not needed anymore because we live in a great world.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
We're always looking for staples. So those are tents and tarps constantly. Those are often the most expensive items people have to purchase. Tents go about $30 to $40 each one, and the government throws a lot of them away every week. So those items... Feel free to always DM me if you have some that you would like to drop off.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
But I will say mutual aid orgs are really good at building connections directly with vendors. And we usually get like a discount in buying in bulk. So I would really love to shake people from their fear of donating cash. I know a lot of folks feel comfortable like buying an item because you know that that's the item that's given out.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
But sometimes we get a better deal buying a thousand of those tents and your dollar goes farther. So, you know, tents, blankets. And again, don't be afraid to do this by yourself. Like you can go to Home Depot and buy a tent and hand it to someone. You can go to Home Depot and buy masks right now and hand them to someone. You don't have to wait for a group like this to be around and to help you.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
So about three or four days ago, we got a warning that we were going to be experiencing high winds up to 50 miles per hour, which is nuts. And they were going to be coming from the desert. So this is just like a barrage of hot wind. So we were preparing to have to replace tents and tarps. because, you know, man-made structures that people are surviving with can't survive that kind of wind.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
But when we hear that wind here in Southern California, we immediately think fire, sadly, because any little, you know, a cigarette butt, an electrical spark, you know, like when it's this dry, it's enough to cause devastation, which is exactly what's happened. There are about 60
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
fires right now spread around the perimeter of Los Angeles County that have been started and then spread massively by these giant winds everywhere. So the embers are being picked up. Thankfully, the wind has settled down, but the wind itself has prevented, you know, the big water tinkers from flying, which has led to the massive devastation that you saw in the Palisades and other areas.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
You know, the entire water fleet being grounded for a while just meant that It was burning with no control, relying on on-the-ground firefighters. So what we've seen is just mass devastation, thousands of homes lost. I think there is a death tally, thankfully very low, in about 10-ish, I think. I've heard from this morning with confirmation. But yeah, that's what we're facing right now.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Yeah, the fire hydrants ran dry in some areas, which is terrifying to think of. And we were warned, I'm in the Koreatown neighborhood, we were warned about low water pressure. And I do know that some areas in Los Angeles, particularly in that region, are being warned to boil water and that their water is unsafe to drink right now.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
I saw something large like that of just the people that have been evacuated. Yeah. Right north of me was the Sunset Fire, and that was very concerningly close to the Korea 10 neighborhood that is generally never concerned about fires because we're so in the concrete jungle, like we're so insulated. I think that's the closest we've come to devastation.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
And we were really stressed out last night just keeping an eye on the news because that's, you know, not even two miles away from the core of the densest neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Yeah, particularly the Palisades, which is historically a significantly wealthy neighborhood. You know, a den of celebrity and Hollywood elites. And seeing it devastated just kind of sends home the point that, you know, you have wealth that insulates you from the worst of what we're facing, but that only goes so far.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
I saw that there was a couple of wealthy people on Twitter begging for private property. fired fighting forces to come save their homes. Famously, the same ones that are talking about tax evasion and how smart they are to do real estate, you know, maneuvering to not pay into the social system that helps in these times.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Clearly, we're severely underfunded and severely undermanaged when it comes to the government stepping in during these emergencies.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Yeah, from what we've seen here in K-Town, if you weren't immediately evacuated, there's nothing. All of our outreach folks that were out talking to all of our unhoused neighbors here in the area, which are in the hundreds, first of all, didn't know what was going on.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
They saw the sky, they assumed there was a fire nearby, but they didn't know the swath of the devastation and that we were generally threatened as well. They didn't have any supplies. And in some areas of Los Angeles, we've heard as of this morning and yesterday that sweeps have continued. So the city has continued throwing away tents from the people living on the streets.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
And then for the house people that have been displaced, there are shelter designations that they've set up. Pan Pacific Park is one of them for Hollywood. There's one in Pasadena and the like. But it seems to be a hodgepodge of you know, disorganization and a lot of, you know, mutual aid folks on the ground being the ones to direct people and gather the supplies.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
I have not heard of, you know, a very formalized system. There is no word on any kind of significant assistance for people who have lost their homes at the moment. I don't know if the Red Cross is going to set a staging zone up or anything, but I do know that the people who are setting up, you know, places for people to go are
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Food, water, even pet care, things like that have been just random volunteers. You know, I'm in this chat group, Mutual Aid LA, that spurred, you know, literally just on Signal the day that the fire started that has a thousand people on it, mobilizing and distributing and volunteering to move people from one area of the city to the other.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
You know, I have this person who needs a place to stay, like who's got a list of places that are open, right? Because when you have disasters this big, you need help quickly. Yeah. And bureaucracy just doesn't, you know, that's not built for that.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Yeah, and this is something we see repeatedly. It hasn't rained in L.A. for about eight months, but when it did rain, we had historical rains. Last year in particular, we had a cold front where folks die every time. And we know folks are going to die every time it rains here in L.A.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
We have more people that die of hypothermia in Los Angeles than New York and San Francisco combined every year because hypothermia actually doesn't require it to be freezing to set in. It just requires you... to be in around 60 degrees and be wet, which is very common on the streets here of LA.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
We've seen people get frostbite from having their skin against cold concrete, you know, over the night while it's raining. And our electeds know this. When I first started doing this work There was a slogan that we were chanting for a day in L.A., and that was the number of unhoused people that died every day. And now we're at about six or seven.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
We request, you know, through the Freedom of Information Act, request the coroner's report every year of how many people died. And that number is only growing. And the government knows this. They know every time we have a heat wave that there are 70,000 people sleeping on the streets, sleeping in their cars. They know that during the winter, you know, people are out there in the cold and the rain.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
And I talk to people who aren't into the organizing space and they ask me like, well, aren't there, you know, insert service here that you think there should be? You know, right now during the fires, like, aren't there vans picking people up and taking them to shelter? And it's like, that would be wonderful when there's not, there's never any vans picking people up, you know?
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Even when they open up cooling shelters and warming shelters, the number one barrier we hear from people on the streets is how would I get there? And when I get there, they make me not bring my stuff in. So it's all going to get stolen. Yeah. There's just all of these barriers that the city is just completely, you know, purposely neglecting.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
They could talk to any of us on how to run a successful, you know, warming or cooling shelter. They don't, you know, they have no interest in what we have to say. In fact, our city council person here in K-Town doesn't respond to any of our inquiries at all. She just flat out doesn't respond to us whenever we email her with concerns or questions or
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
And that's kind of how we've been, you know, working just with the knowledge that we don't have the support of this agency. And in fact, they're our opposition. You know, we're the ones having to organize around them and what they're doing.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Yeah, and I think there's this sense of, like, apathy that has built, and rightfully so, from the people that live on the streets, where we've, you know, relayed messages that we've heard, like, hey, 211 says they have 100 shelter beds tonight, call and see if you can get in. And they're like, okay, you know, like, I'll give it a shot, you know, and it's very well received messages.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
because we understand the amount of disappointment these people have gone through. When they do the Care Plus sweeps, which is in itself such an evil name for when they throw all their stuff away, when they show up and they do Care Plus, they show up with a social worker first.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
Which, if I was a social worker, I'd be kicking and screaming about how damaging that is that right before they throw away everything that a non-house person owns, they send in a lone social worker to write their names and maybe their numbers down and tell them that the shelters are full, but they'll get back to them, and then they have all of their belongings thrown away. Right.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
I can't imagine the harm that has done for just... Trusting services, even when they're available, you know, accessing them and then giving them your information. I have one person who rightfully so told me they have trauma about filling out forms because they've done this 300 times. You know, they said something incredible.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
They've been counting about how many times they've filled the same forms out to have it lead nowhere. And I can't imagine, you know, that kind of resilience happening. Now with this devastation, there's going to be a lot of homeowners who are going to experience that firsthand. I'm seeing a lot of people that are homeless for the first time ever in their lives, like in their late fifties.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
And these are people that have owned homes that have worked careers that have, you know, lived their whole life as you're supposed to in the United States, and then in their elder years befalls some sort of disaster or Social Security doesn't pay anymore. And they are severely shocked when I tell them what the landscape of our social safety net looks like.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
I've had people ask me, like, where do I go to sign up for free housing? And I have to tell them, you know, the wait list for vouchers is 15 years long and it's a lottery. The list is closed because it's so full. You can apply to a senior housing, but that's about a 10 year wait. You know that I have to be the one to tell them that.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 165
And that sort of shock, I think, is going to be hitting a lot of folks that have never tried to access services before.