VOA CONNECT
EPISODE #167
AIR DATE 03 26 2021
TRANSCRIPT
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
Life Without Housing
((SOT))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I have always tried to keep up with my image. At least that's
one thing that you got to hold on to. Even though, you know,
you're out here, but you don't have to look like youre out
here, you know.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Finding a Solution
((SOT))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
It's constructed out of converted shipping containers. And
this project consists of eight four-bedroom units, five of
which are occupied by families, three of which are occupied
by shared individuals.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Keeping a Commitment
((SOT))
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
Marriage has a lot of things that you need to do to work
things out. Not too many are rosy the whole time. Because
you get mad, you know, and you think, Well, maybe I should
just move on. And you can't just keep doing that. You have
to work together.
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((PKG)) PROFILE OF A HOMELESS WOMAN -
MOUANGJOI TRACY SAELEE
((TRT: 08:04))
((Filmed before the pandemic))
((Topic Banner: Unhoused in Oakland))
((Producers: Deana Mitchell, Wendi Jonassen))
((Camera: Deana Mitchell))
((Producer/Editor: Jacquelyn De Phillips))
((Drone Camera: Dariel Medina))
((Map: Oakland, California))
((Main characters: 1 female))
((Sub characters: 1 male, I female))
((NATS))
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Mark Fisher.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I had a big house where everybody comes by. If anyone
wants to take a shower, want to eat or whatsoever, you
know, wanted some clothes, they always come see me and
then theyll always be taken care of.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
My name is Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Oh, look. A cutting board.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Ive been homeless over a year. Lost employment. And
also because the rent increased, its too high to afford
it. Things went bad.
((NATS: Tracy cooking fish))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
The fish, it got donated this morning. When people donate
things, we like usually cook it and share with everyone else.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is my community. I've been staying in this area for my
whole life. And a lot of these people that is in this homeless
encampment is my friends and family and relatives, you
know.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
So, even though I wasn't homeless, I was always coming
here to visit them and bringing them food or things like that,
you know.
((NATS: Tracy reading bullet points for advocacy
event))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Housing is human rights. Safety: Women are being raped
out here. People are getting burned in the fires.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I am a volunteer. I'm the head administrator of The
Village. And I'm helping the founder very closely to help
eradicate this homelessness problem, you know.
((NATS: Charlie sings))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Telling the truth isnt going to be easy. Who broke my
window?
((NATS: Charlie laughs))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
They never know who is going to be here next. You know,
being homeless is not a crime. You know, its not a
choice. I know a lot of these people. Like I said, I grew up in
this community. And a lot of them knows me, you know, and
they respect me because I've always, you know, had a big
heart.
((NATS: Tracy helping Charlie and Didi))
((Tracy)) Put that down. Lets forget about that. Lets forget
about that.
((Charlie)) You know hes crazy. Hes cuckoo.
((Tracy)) Alright, Im going to tell you the good news. You
guys are going to leave for five days, right?
((Charlie)) Yeah.
((Tracy)) You leaving for five days?
((Charlie)) After I get her washed up, cleaned up.
((Tracy)) Okay, by the time you get back, your house will be
up.
((Charlie)) Oh, I love you.
((Tracy)) Youll go inside a house instead of a tent. Okay?
((Charlie)) Thank you.
((NATS: Crook and man arguing))
((Man))..because hes a liar, because hes a liar.
((Crook)) I understand that.
((Charlie to Didi)) Come on baby, let me take you and go
get you a shower.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I have six children. I was 13 and I had a child when I was in
seventh grade. And by being a young teen mom, you know,
we wanted to do the best for our child, right? So, I continued
going to school and graduated from high school and
proceeded to go to college. But I never finished it because,
due to the fact that, you know, just being, just life, you know.
Things go wrong and sometimes it doesn't pick back up. So,
but I thrive. And later on, I have like five more, you know,
children. And I was holding on to being a mom. I mean a
good mom. But at the same time, I lost my house in 2014
because someone got killed outside my house.
((NATS / MUSIC))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
The landlord sold the house and they evicted me. So, when
they evicted me, I don't have no money.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Everything was just like falling apart, you know. I couldnt
afford housing.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Rise and shine everybody. Meatball.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
After that I lost my children, because CPS [Child Protective
Services] said I didnt have a home for them. They have to
stay with my sister. I see them all the time. She has four
kids of her own. She's amazing.
((NATS / MUSIC))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I didn't want to like intervene with, you know, their
household, whatever, so. And also, you know, I'm with
someone. You know, we didn't want to like intrude or
anything like that, you know, because they was already set
for how many bedrooms they have. So, I didnt want them
to.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Im not wearing those fake eyelashes today.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I was staying with my mom and she had to move because of
the rent increase. For a two bedroom, she was spending
like $1600. They wanted it to go up to like $2300. She had
to move to a smaller place to which, where only she could
only have herself there, you know. I had to become
homeless and get a tent and put it here where everybody
was at.
((NATS: Tracy showing her tent))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is my little bed. And my closet is back here but its so
messy. You dont want to see that. And this is where it
is. Its the kitchen, the living room, everything is here.
If I have my generator on, then I get to watch TV.
I don't believe there's such a thing as being comfortable
around here because there is no way to be comfortable
here. Now you don't even have a house to protect
us. Especially being a woman, being out here in the streets
is even worse because you got to protect yourself from being
raped. Sometimes I'll be by myself and it's scary. And when
I stay with.....I always stay protected. So, this is what goes
in my side window, my little, tiny knife.
((NATS: Tracy showing the makeshift bathroom))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is a bathroom. This is not the best-looking bathroom,
but people just go in the garbage can because the city didnt
bring us bathrooms, so we have to make our own.
((NATS: Tracy showers))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I have always tried to keep up with my image. At least that's
one thing that you got to hold on to. Even though, you know,
you're out here, but you don't have to look like youre out
here, you know. By being out here, people already
discriminate us or even judge us by the way we are living.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
So, just a little bit of looking proper is a long way to go.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Being a woman and having to have women necessities and
stuff like, you know, we have to up wash all the time. And
it's hard out here because we dont have water. We don't
have like things to keep us sanitized and keep us like
healthy.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
You know, it's cold and at the same time, you know, like
emotion and depression gets worse because we cant have
our children here with us, you know.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
When you have children, you can't bring them out here with
you because, you know, CPS [Child Protective Services] will
be like that's child endangerment.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
We need to feel like were secure, you know. We need to
feel like we're human. We need to feel like were one of
many humans that walk on this earth. We need
respect. We need encouragement.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
A lot of us, homeless people, out here, is very smart, very
intelligent, you know. They have career goals, you
know. They have things that they want to do but they can't
because they don't even have a house to go home and lay
their head down and to think about, you know, to be able to
wake up in the morning and then get ready to go to
work. So, you know, it's not because we're lazy. Its not
because we don't want to. This is the richest country in the
world, America. So, why are we homeless?
((Popup Banner:
Many Americans live in poverty, amounting to 38.1 million
people or 11.8 percent of the U.S. population.
In 2018, 6.5 million Americans experienced a severe
housing cost burden, which means they spent more than 50
percent of their income on housing.
(*National Alliance to End Homelessness)
On a single night count in January 2019, more than half a
million people in the United States were experiencing
homelessness.
Nearly 100,000 people were unhoused repeatedly, or for at
least a year.
(*US Department of Housing and Urban Development)))
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up
((Banner))
Trying to Help
((SOT))
((Cody, Unhoused))
I can go get a job, be alright for a year or so. Then Ill just
destroy it all, burn my life to the ground.
((NATS))
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B
((PKG)) SHIPPING CONTAINERS HOME FOR
HOMELESS
((TRT: 03:28))
((Banner: Small Scale Solutions))
((Reporter: Angelina Bagdasaryan))
((Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetyan))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main characters: 2 male))
((Sub characters: 1 female; 2 male))
((NATS))
((Cody, Unhoused))
I was just going to be homeless. My family was tired of me, I
guess, I dont know, not being what they
wanted. And so, me and my girlfriend just got a Greyhound
bus to California.
((NATS))
((Cody, Unhoused))
I tried to go to Social Services and get like the general relief
and all that. And I got the EBT [Electronic Benefit
Transfer] and things like that. But really, I don't have a plan
right now, no. I mean, I moved all the way across the
country. And I get to be here, which is so much better than if
you go around some of these other places, dude. Oh, man.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
Flyaway Homes is a startup that was started in conjunction
with The People Concern, one of the largest homeless
service providers in Los Angeles County, to develop a model
for producing permanent supportive housing for L.A.s
homeless population, faster and cheaper, so we can begin to
really solve this terrible problem.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
It's constructed out of converted shipping containers. And
this project consists of eight four-bedroom units, five of
which are occupied by families, three of which are occupied
by shared individuals. So, four people, two each with a
bedroom.
((NATS))
((Angel, Volunteer, Flyaway Homes))
A lot of people are doing bad. Like, they dont got
food. They dont got water. So thats what were here
for. Its all free. Donations that we get, we manage to give it
out to whoevers in need, whether its food, clothes.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
This is our community room. We have, as you can see, we
have a television here. This is normally a gathering
place. During COVID, obviously, the tenants are not
gathering, but we have laundry on site here. This can be
used for a meeting room. We have a small non-perishable
food pantry that's available for the residents, as well as the
resident services staff, who's on site, is based here as well.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
Permanent supportive housing only works for the chronically
homeless if it's combined with supportive services to keep
them housed healthy and safe which are provided by the
people.
((NATS))
((Cody, Unhoused))
Like certain things, I got, like asthma and eczema, probably
like a low immune system because I do drugs.
I can go get a job, be alright for a year or so. Then Ill just
destroy it all, burn my life to the ground.
Its all good.
((NATS))
((Cody, Unhoused))
So, I came out here with this girl that I dated for five years off
and on. And I wanted that to be the true love and all
that. And three weeks later, she left me for a guy to go do
heroin and meth with him, so. That happened. That was
like one of the worst things.
((Cody, Unhoused))
I guess you could say Im free right now. But I dwell on
things in my head, man. I got a lot of anxiety and depression
problems. And that's where, that's really why I'm here is
because I can't make it work.
((Elijah, Volunteer))
We're just charging people's phones or whatever needs to
be charged because, you know, since the coronavirus,
there's a lack of places open to charge phones.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
At our current rate, it costs about $550,000 a unit and takes
about three to five years to build a project. So, we were very
committed to find a way to build faster and cheaper, not in
terms of quality.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
We're doing that with a model that's replicable and scalable
model where we're trying to basically productionalize all the
different pieces. The part of the reason we're using modular
is that we basically are hoping to use the same basically
modular unit design across most, if not all, of our
projects. We're looking for, you know, similar sized plots of
land and we're going to basically systematize each piece of
the process, so that from beginning to end, it becomes
predictable.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
The way it works is that people pay 30 percent of whatever
their adjusted gross income is. So, if they're getting Social
Security or general leave or if they're working, 30 percent of
their income, it goes to rent and then the balance is
subsidized through a federal voucher subsidy.
((NATS))
((Cody, Unhoused))
You want two?
I try to make it work, man, and I haven't figured out how to
do it yet.
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up
((Banner))
A Wide Spectrum
((SOT))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
For example, many people use IRA or retirement accounts
to invest in these paintings. So, we want to make sure that
the returns are as predictable as possible, and the risk is
reasonable.
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C
((PKG)) COVID -- NY ART INVESTMENT
((TRT: 02:52))
((Banner: The Economic Flipside))
((Reporter: Vladimir Lenski))
((Camera: Max Avloshenko))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: New York City, New York))
((Main characters: 1 male))
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
Art has obviously been around for centuries. Also for
centuries, it's really been collected by the ultra-wealthy,
right? Like, even if you go back hundreds of years. This is
the first time that art really can be purchased and owned by
anyone. So, from our perspective, it's not necessarily a
commoditization of the object. It's really just a way for
anyone to participate in the acquisition process.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
Very simply, investors can come to our website. They can
view different works of art that we have available for
investment.
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
They can invest amounts as small as $500 dollars or as
large as thousands of dollars in a particular painting. When
you look at the art market last year, $68 billion in art was
sold. Most of those objects are culturally significant and they
are going into private collections. They're going away from
public view. And depending on the collector, I would say the
majority of collectors in today's world don't actually lend
those objects out. So, a great feature of the Masterworks
platform is the ability to keep those objects in front of the
public. We like the idea of once we purchase these
paintings and then sell them off to investors, to re-loan them
out to museums.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
At Masterworks, our perspective has been that art is an
uncorrelated asset class, meaning that it doesn't necessarily
go in the same direction as the stock market or other asset
classes.
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
So, what we've seen with COVID is that although there's
been a large decrease in the total volume of sales by roughly
half, we've actually seen our prices increase. And I think in
June alone, we saw 22 artists that set price records.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
For example, many people use IRA or retirement accounts
to invest in these paintings. So, we want to make sure that
the returns are as predictable as possible and the risk is
reasonable.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
Obviously, most of the people that are on the Masterworks
platform today are doing that for investment, but I think it
does change how artists think about selling their work. You
know, over time, we can see a world where artists would
prefer to have a thousand people who enjoy their work and
know their work very well, own a painting rather than one
person who is frankly very wealthy and takes it out of
circulation.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
But the common question around that is, why would our
prices be increasing during COVID? And our best guess is
that our prices tend to be correlated to the top one percent.
So, as the top one percent become wealthier, we see our
prices go up. So, for better or for worse, that dynamic has
continued independent of COVID.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((PKG)) CONNECT WITH ERIC DILLON
((TRT: 03:11))
((Topic Banner: Connect with Eric Dillon))
((Reporter/Camera: Arturo Martnez))
((Locater: Fallon, Nevada))
((Main character: 1 male))
((NATS))
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
My name is Dillon. I'm retired now. I've retired a couple of
different times in various jobs. You know, I've got six kids. I
was married once before. I had three kids and I still miss
them. I see them. And then when I got with my wife now,
we had three more kids. They've all done very well, every
one. One of them is actually like a rocket scientist and so,
it's really strange how that happened.
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
Im really fulfilled as far as things that I've done. First job
was probably mowing yards, and then working in a
McDonald's, and then I was in the Navy for 20 years. And
then after that, I joined the post office for 20 years.
And then after that, I turned into a farmer. We had alfalfa for
a while. We have, we still have cows. And then after that, I
thought, you know what? I think I'd still like to work. And I
always wanted to work in the medical field. So, I went back
to school and became a surgery assistant, assistant tech.
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
I've always liked to help people and there's a lot of gratitude.
And I look back at times when I've helped a person do this or
do that or, and I think I'm glad I did that.
((NATS))
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
It's just a funny way how you meet people in smaller towns.
Fallon's pretty small too. I used to always be into tropical
fish and that grocery store sold about everything you could
think of and tropical fish. So, I was in there looking at the
tropical fish and there was a lady inside, behind the tropical
fish thing and I'm looking at them and she says, Can I help
you? And I say, Well, I wanted to buy some fish but your
tanks are the dirtiest tanks I've ever seen. And that wound
up being my wife later.
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
I'm pretty sure we've been married about 32 years, and you
know, just like everybody says, a marriage has a lot of things
that you need to do to work things out. Not too many are
rosy the whole time. Because you get mad, you know, and
you think, Well, maybe I should just move on. And you
can't just keep doing that. You have to work together and
before you get together, you need to kind of see those
things. But I know that's hard when you just meet somebody
and you're thinking about, Well, I'll just move on and get
another one. That seems like that's what everybody does
nowadays.
((NATS))
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
Theres good things. Theres bad things. But I'm pretty
happy with my life.
((NATS))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect
IN COMING WEEKS ((VO/NAT))
In coming weeks.
((Banner))
First Chinese-American Rabbi
((SOT))
((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin
Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai Oakland))
When people think Rabbi, they are often thinking of an old
man with a big old beard and that's never what I'm going to
be. I'm Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, and I'm the
senior rabbi at Temple Sinai in Oakland, California, and I'm
the first Chinese American rabbi. What does it mean to be
an insider? What does it mean to be Jewish? What
is that experience of it?
((Banner))
Virtual Learning
((SOT))
((Arti Jain-Kumar, National Certified Counselor; Director,
Love and Light 4 Kidz))
To help them to focus, is doing a quick chair yoga pose.
Like they can literally have their hands underneath their chair
and just putting their hands down if they want to have a shift.
They can even bring their hands and do a quick little grip.
CLOSING ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect
((PKG)) FREE PRESS MATTERS
((NATS/VIDEO/GFX))
((Popup captions over B Roll))
Near the Turkish Embassy
Washington, D.C.
May 16, 2017
President Erdogans bodyguard attacks peaceful protesters
Those terrorists deserved to be beaten
They should not be protesting our president
They got what they asked for
While some people may turn away from the news
We cover it
reliably
accurately
objectively
comprehensively
wherever the news matters
VOA
A Free Press Matters
CLOSING ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect
BREAKTHREE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
SHOW ENDS
((PKG)) SHIPPING CONTAINERS HOME FOR THE
HOMELESS
((TRT: 03:28))
((Banner: Homes for the Homeless))
((Reporter: Angelina Bagdasaryan))
((Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetyan))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main characters: 2 male))
((Sub characters: 1 female; 2 male))
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
I was just going to be homeless. My family was tired of me, I
guess, I dont know, not being what they wanted. And so, me and
my girlfriend just got a Greyhound bus to California. ((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
Flyaway Homes is a startup that was started in conjunction with
The People Concern, one of the largest homeless service
providers in Los Angeles County, to develop a model for
producing permanent supportive housing for L.A.s homeless
population, faster and cheaper, so we can begin to really solve
this terrible problem.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
It's constructed out of converted shipping containers. And this
project consists of eight four-bedroom units, five of which are
occupied by families, three of which are occupied by shared
individuals. So, four people, two each with a bedroom.
((NATS))
((Angel, Volunteer, Flyaway Homes))
A lot of people are doing bad. Like, they dont got food. They
dont got water. So thats what were here for. Its all free.
Donations that we get, we manage to give it out to whoevers in
need, whether its food, clothes.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
This is our community room. We have, as you can see, we have
a television here. This is normally a gathering place. During
COVID, obviously, the tenants are not gathering, but we have
laundry on site here. This can be used for a meeting room. We
have a small non-perishable food pantry that's available for the
residents, as well as the resident services staff, who's on site, is
based here as well.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
Permanent supportive housing only works for the chronically
homeless if it's combined with supportive services to keep them
housed healthy and safe which are provided by the people.
((NATS))
((Elijah, Volunteer))
We're just charging people's phones or whatever needs to be
charged because, you know, since the coronavirus, there's a lack
of places open to charge phones.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
At our current rate, it costs about $ 550,000 a unit and takes
about three to five years to build a project. So, we were very
committed to find a way to build faster and cheaper, not in terms
of quality.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
We're doing that with a model that's replicable and scalable model
where we're trying to basically productionalize all the different
pieces. The part of the reason we're using modular is that we
basically are hoping to use the same basically modular unit
design across most, if not all, of our projects. We're looking for,
you know, similar sized plots of land and we're going to basically
systematize each piece of the process, so that from beginning to
end, it becomes predictable.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
The way it works is that people pay 30 percent of whatever their
adjusted gross income is. So, if they're getting Social Security or
general leave or if they're working, 30 percent of their income, it
goes to rent and then the balance is subsidized through a federal
voucher subsidy.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
I got a lot of anxiety and depression problems and that's really
why I'm here, is because I can't make it work. I try to make it
work, man, and I haven't figured out how to do it yet.
((NATS))
((PKG)) HOMELESS PERSON -- KOURTEY
((TRT: 02:12))
((Topic Banner: Unhoused Person -- Kourtey))
((Reporter: Angelina Bagdasaryan))
((Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetyan))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main character: 1 male))
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused)) delete since it is a repetition
I was just going to be homeless. My family was tired of me, I
guess, I dont know, not being what they wanted. And so, me and
my girlfriend just got a Greyhound bus to California.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
I tried to go to Social Services and get like the general relief and
all that. And I got the EBC [Employee Benefits Corporation] and
things like that. But really, I don't have a plan right now, no. I
mean, I moved all the way across the country. And I get to be
here, which is so much better than if you go around some of these
other places, dude. Oh, man.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
I went to the Greyhound bus station in Atlanta, rode the
Greyhound bus all the way, stopping every two hours in different
states and cities, and slept on the floor of the Greyhound bus,
wearing no mask, get all the way to California.
Every day up here, I don't wear a mask.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
Like certain things, I got, like asthma and eczema, probably like a
low immune system because I do drugs.
I can go get a job, be alright for a year or so. Then Ill just destroy
it all, burn my life to the ground. ((He said this in the earlier piece))
Its all good.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
So, I came out here with this girl that I dated for five years, off and
on. And I wanted that to be the true love and all that. And three
weeks later, she left me for a guy to go do heroin and meth with
him, so. That happened. That was like one of the worst things. I
guess you could say Im free right now. But I dwell on things in
my head, man. I got a lot of anxiety and depression problems.
And that's where, that's really why I'm here is because I can't
make it work. I try to make it work, man, and I haven't figured out
how to do it yet.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
Yeah, I want to give one to my buddies down there. Thank you.
((NATS))
EPISODE #167
AIR DATE 03 26 2021
TRANSCRIPT
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
Life Without Housing
((SOT))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I have always tried to keep up with my image. At least that's
one thing that you got to hold on to. Even though, you know,
you're out here, but you don't have to look like youre out
here, you know.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Finding a Solution
((SOT))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
It's constructed out of converted shipping containers. And
this project consists of eight four-bedroom units, five of
which are occupied by families, three of which are occupied
by shared individuals.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Keeping a Commitment
((SOT))
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
Marriage has a lot of things that you need to do to work
things out. Not too many are rosy the whole time. Because
you get mad, you know, and you think, Well, maybe I should
just move on. And you can't just keep doing that. You have
to work together.
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((PKG)) PROFILE OF A HOMELESS WOMAN -
MOUANGJOI TRACY SAELEE
((TRT: 08:04))
((Filmed before the pandemic))
((Topic Banner: Unhoused in Oakland))
((Producers: Deana Mitchell, Wendi Jonassen))
((Camera: Deana Mitchell))
((Producer/Editor: Jacquelyn De Phillips))
((Drone Camera: Dariel Medina))
((Map: Oakland, California))
((Main characters: 1 female))
((Sub characters: 1 male, I female))
((NATS))
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Mark Fisher.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I had a big house where everybody comes by. If anyone
wants to take a shower, want to eat or whatsoever, you
know, wanted some clothes, they always come see me and
then theyll always be taken care of.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
My name is Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Oh, look. A cutting board.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Ive been homeless over a year. Lost employment. And
also because the rent increased, its too high to afford
it. Things went bad.
((NATS: Tracy cooking fish))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
The fish, it got donated this morning. When people donate
things, we like usually cook it and share with everyone else.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is my community. I've been staying in this area for my
whole life. And a lot of these people that is in this homeless
encampment is my friends and family and relatives, you
know.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
So, even though I wasn't homeless, I was always coming
here to visit them and bringing them food or things like that,
you know.
((NATS: Tracy reading bullet points for advocacy
event))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Housing is human rights. Safety: Women are being raped
out here. People are getting burned in the fires.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I am a volunteer. I'm the head administrator of The
Village. And I'm helping the founder very closely to help
eradicate this homelessness problem, you know.
((NATS: Charlie sings))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Telling the truth isnt going to be easy. Who broke my
window?
((NATS: Charlie laughs))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
They never know who is going to be here next. You know,
being homeless is not a crime. You know, its not a
choice. I know a lot of these people. Like I said, I grew up in
this community. And a lot of them knows me, you know, and
they respect me because I've always, you know, had a big
heart.
((NATS: Tracy helping Charlie and Didi))
((Tracy)) Put that down. Lets forget about that. Lets forget
about that.
((Charlie)) You know hes crazy. Hes cuckoo.
((Tracy)) Alright, Im going to tell you the good news. You
guys are going to leave for five days, right?
((Charlie)) Yeah.
((Tracy)) You leaving for five days?
((Charlie)) After I get her washed up, cleaned up.
((Tracy)) Okay, by the time you get back, your house will be
up.
((Charlie)) Oh, I love you.
((Tracy)) Youll go inside a house instead of a tent. Okay?
((Charlie)) Thank you.
((NATS: Crook and man arguing))
((Man))..because hes a liar, because hes a liar.
((Crook)) I understand that.
((Charlie to Didi)) Come on baby, let me take you and go
get you a shower.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I have six children. I was 13 and I had a child when I was in
seventh grade. And by being a young teen mom, you know,
we wanted to do the best for our child, right? So, I continued
going to school and graduated from high school and
proceeded to go to college. But I never finished it because,
due to the fact that, you know, just being, just life, you know.
Things go wrong and sometimes it doesn't pick back up. So,
but I thrive. And later on, I have like five more, you know,
children. And I was holding on to being a mom. I mean a
good mom. But at the same time, I lost my house in 2014
because someone got killed outside my house.
((NATS / MUSIC))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
The landlord sold the house and they evicted me. So, when
they evicted me, I don't have no money.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Everything was just like falling apart, you know. I couldnt
afford housing.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Rise and shine everybody. Meatball.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
After that I lost my children, because CPS [Child Protective
Services] said I didnt have a home for them. They have to
stay with my sister. I see them all the time. She has four
kids of her own. She's amazing.
((NATS / MUSIC))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I didn't want to like intervene with, you know, their
household, whatever, so. And also, you know, I'm with
someone. You know, we didn't want to like intrude or
anything like that, you know, because they was already set
for how many bedrooms they have. So, I didnt want them
to.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Im not wearing those fake eyelashes today.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I was staying with my mom and she had to move because of
the rent increase. For a two bedroom, she was spending
like $1600. They wanted it to go up to like $2300. She had
to move to a smaller place to which, where only she could
only have herself there, you know. I had to become
homeless and get a tent and put it here where everybody
was at.
((NATS: Tracy showing her tent))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is my little bed. And my closet is back here but its so
messy. You dont want to see that. And this is where it
is. Its the kitchen, the living room, everything is here.
If I have my generator on, then I get to watch TV.
I don't believe there's such a thing as being comfortable
around here because there is no way to be comfortable
here. Now you don't even have a house to protect
us. Especially being a woman, being out here in the streets
is even worse because you got to protect yourself from being
raped. Sometimes I'll be by myself and it's scary. And when
I stay with.....I always stay protected. So, this is what goes
in my side window, my little, tiny knife.
((NATS: Tracy showing the makeshift bathroom))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is a bathroom. This is not the best-looking bathroom,
but people just go in the garbage can because the city didnt
bring us bathrooms, so we have to make our own.
((NATS: Tracy showers))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I have always tried to keep up with my image. At least that's
one thing that you got to hold on to. Even though, you know,
you're out here, but you don't have to look like youre out
here, you know. By being out here, people already
discriminate us or even judge us by the way we are living.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
So, just a little bit of looking proper is a long way to go.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Being a woman and having to have women necessities and
stuff like, you know, we have to up wash all the time. And
it's hard out here because we dont have water. We don't
have like things to keep us sanitized and keep us like
healthy.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
You know, it's cold and at the same time, you know, like
emotion and depression gets worse because we cant have
our children here with us, you know.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
When you have children, you can't bring them out here with
you because, you know, CPS [Child Protective Services] will
be like that's child endangerment.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
We need to feel like were secure, you know. We need to
feel like we're human. We need to feel like were one of
many humans that walk on this earth. We need
respect. We need encouragement.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
A lot of us, homeless people, out here, is very smart, very
intelligent, you know. They have career goals, you
know. They have things that they want to do but they can't
because they don't even have a house to go home and lay
their head down and to think about, you know, to be able to
wake up in the morning and then get ready to go to
work. So, you know, it's not because we're lazy. Its not
because we don't want to. This is the richest country in the
world, America. So, why are we homeless?
((Popup Banner:
Many Americans live in poverty, amounting to 38.1 million
people or 11.8 percent of the U.S. population.
In 2018, 6.5 million Americans experienced a severe
housing cost burden, which means they spent more than 50
percent of their income on housing.
(*National Alliance to End Homelessness)
On a single night count in January 2019, more than half a
million people in the United States were experiencing
homelessness.
Nearly 100,000 people were unhoused repeatedly, or for at
least a year.
(*US Department of Housing and Urban Development)))
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up
((Banner))
Trying to Help
((SOT))
((Cody, Unhoused))
I can go get a job, be alright for a year or so. Then Ill just
destroy it all, burn my life to the ground.
((NATS))
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B
((PKG)) SHIPPING CONTAINERS HOME FOR
HOMELESS
((TRT: 03:28))
((Banner: Small Scale Solutions))
((Reporter: Angelina Bagdasaryan))
((Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetyan))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main characters: 2 male))
((Sub characters: 1 female; 2 male))
((NATS))
((Cody, Unhoused))
I was just going to be homeless. My family was tired of me, I
guess, I dont know, not being what they
wanted. And so, me and my girlfriend just got a Greyhound
bus to California.
((NATS))
((Cody, Unhoused))
I tried to go to Social Services and get like the general relief
and all that. And I got the EBT [Electronic Benefit
Transfer] and things like that. But really, I don't have a plan
right now, no. I mean, I moved all the way across the
country. And I get to be here, which is so much better than if
you go around some of these other places, dude. Oh, man.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
Flyaway Homes is a startup that was started in conjunction
with The People Concern, one of the largest homeless
service providers in Los Angeles County, to develop a model
for producing permanent supportive housing for L.A.s
homeless population, faster and cheaper, so we can begin to
really solve this terrible problem.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
It's constructed out of converted shipping containers. And
this project consists of eight four-bedroom units, five of
which are occupied by families, three of which are occupied
by shared individuals. So, four people, two each with a
bedroom.
((NATS))
((Angel, Volunteer, Flyaway Homes))
A lot of people are doing bad. Like, they dont got
food. They dont got water. So thats what were here
for. Its all free. Donations that we get, we manage to give it
out to whoevers in need, whether its food, clothes.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
This is our community room. We have, as you can see, we
have a television here. This is normally a gathering
place. During COVID, obviously, the tenants are not
gathering, but we have laundry on site here. This can be
used for a meeting room. We have a small non-perishable
food pantry that's available for the residents, as well as the
resident services staff, who's on site, is based here as well.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
Permanent supportive housing only works for the chronically
homeless if it's combined with supportive services to keep
them housed healthy and safe which are provided by the
people.
((NATS))
((Cody, Unhoused))
Like certain things, I got, like asthma and eczema, probably
like a low immune system because I do drugs.
I can go get a job, be alright for a year or so. Then Ill just
destroy it all, burn my life to the ground.
Its all good.
((NATS))
((Cody, Unhoused))
So, I came out here with this girl that I dated for five years off
and on. And I wanted that to be the true love and all
that. And three weeks later, she left me for a guy to go do
heroin and meth with him, so. That happened. That was
like one of the worst things.
((Cody, Unhoused))
I guess you could say Im free right now. But I dwell on
things in my head, man. I got a lot of anxiety and depression
problems. And that's where, that's really why I'm here is
because I can't make it work.
((Elijah, Volunteer))
We're just charging people's phones or whatever needs to
be charged because, you know, since the coronavirus,
there's a lack of places open to charge phones.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
At our current rate, it costs about $550,000 a unit and takes
about three to five years to build a project. So, we were very
committed to find a way to build faster and cheaper, not in
terms of quality.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
We're doing that with a model that's replicable and scalable
model where we're trying to basically productionalize all the
different pieces. The part of the reason we're using modular
is that we basically are hoping to use the same basically
modular unit design across most, if not all, of our
projects. We're looking for, you know, similar sized plots of
land and we're going to basically systematize each piece of
the process, so that from beginning to end, it becomes
predictable.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
The way it works is that people pay 30 percent of whatever
their adjusted gross income is. So, if they're getting Social
Security or general leave or if they're working, 30 percent of
their income, it goes to rent and then the balance is
subsidized through a federal voucher subsidy.
((NATS))
((Cody, Unhoused))
You want two?
I try to make it work, man, and I haven't figured out how to
do it yet.
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up
((Banner))
A Wide Spectrum
((SOT))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
For example, many people use IRA or retirement accounts
to invest in these paintings. So, we want to make sure that
the returns are as predictable as possible, and the risk is
reasonable.
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C
((PKG)) COVID -- NY ART INVESTMENT
((TRT: 02:52))
((Banner: The Economic Flipside))
((Reporter: Vladimir Lenski))
((Camera: Max Avloshenko))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: New York City, New York))
((Main characters: 1 male))
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
Art has obviously been around for centuries. Also for
centuries, it's really been collected by the ultra-wealthy,
right? Like, even if you go back hundreds of years. This is
the first time that art really can be purchased and owned by
anyone. So, from our perspective, it's not necessarily a
commoditization of the object. It's really just a way for
anyone to participate in the acquisition process.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
Very simply, investors can come to our website. They can
view different works of art that we have available for
investment.
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
They can invest amounts as small as $500 dollars or as
large as thousands of dollars in a particular painting. When
you look at the art market last year, $68 billion in art was
sold. Most of those objects are culturally significant and they
are going into private collections. They're going away from
public view. And depending on the collector, I would say the
majority of collectors in today's world don't actually lend
those objects out. So, a great feature of the Masterworks
platform is the ability to keep those objects in front of the
public. We like the idea of once we purchase these
paintings and then sell them off to investors, to re-loan them
out to museums.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
At Masterworks, our perspective has been that art is an
uncorrelated asset class, meaning that it doesn't necessarily
go in the same direction as the stock market or other asset
classes.
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
So, what we've seen with COVID is that although there's
been a large decrease in the total volume of sales by roughly
half, we've actually seen our prices increase. And I think in
June alone, we saw 22 artists that set price records.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
For example, many people use IRA or retirement accounts
to invest in these paintings. So, we want to make sure that
the returns are as predictable as possible and the risk is
reasonable.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
Obviously, most of the people that are on the Masterworks
platform today are doing that for investment, but I think it
does change how artists think about selling their work. You
know, over time, we can see a world where artists would
prefer to have a thousand people who enjoy their work and
know their work very well, own a painting rather than one
person who is frankly very wealthy and takes it out of
circulation.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((Scott Lynn, Founder, Masterworks))
But the common question around that is, why would our
prices be increasing during COVID? And our best guess is
that our prices tend to be correlated to the top one percent.
So, as the top one percent become wealthier, we see our
prices go up. So, for better or for worse, that dynamic has
continued independent of COVID.
((MUSIC/NATS))
((PKG)) CONNECT WITH ERIC DILLON
((TRT: 03:11))
((Topic Banner: Connect with Eric Dillon))
((Reporter/Camera: Arturo Martnez))
((Locater: Fallon, Nevada))
((Main character: 1 male))
((NATS))
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
My name is Dillon. I'm retired now. I've retired a couple of
different times in various jobs. You know, I've got six kids. I
was married once before. I had three kids and I still miss
them. I see them. And then when I got with my wife now,
we had three more kids. They've all done very well, every
one. One of them is actually like a rocket scientist and so,
it's really strange how that happened.
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
Im really fulfilled as far as things that I've done. First job
was probably mowing yards, and then working in a
McDonald's, and then I was in the Navy for 20 years. And
then after that, I joined the post office for 20 years.
And then after that, I turned into a farmer. We had alfalfa for
a while. We have, we still have cows. And then after that, I
thought, you know what? I think I'd still like to work. And I
always wanted to work in the medical field. So, I went back
to school and became a surgery assistant, assistant tech.
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
I've always liked to help people and there's a lot of gratitude.
And I look back at times when I've helped a person do this or
do that or, and I think I'm glad I did that.
((NATS))
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
It's just a funny way how you meet people in smaller towns.
Fallon's pretty small too. I used to always be into tropical
fish and that grocery store sold about everything you could
think of and tropical fish. So, I was in there looking at the
tropical fish and there was a lady inside, behind the tropical
fish thing and I'm looking at them and she says, Can I help
you? And I say, Well, I wanted to buy some fish but your
tanks are the dirtiest tanks I've ever seen. And that wound
up being my wife later.
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
I'm pretty sure we've been married about 32 years, and you
know, just like everybody says, a marriage has a lot of things
that you need to do to work things out. Not too many are
rosy the whole time. Because you get mad, you know, and
you think, Well, maybe I should just move on. And you
can't just keep doing that. You have to work together and
before you get together, you need to kind of see those
things. But I know that's hard when you just meet somebody
and you're thinking about, Well, I'll just move on and get
another one. That seems like that's what everybody does
nowadays.
((NATS))
((Eric Dillon, Fallon Resident))
Theres good things. Theres bad things. But I'm pretty
happy with my life.
((NATS))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect
IN COMING WEEKS ((VO/NAT))
In coming weeks.
((Banner))
First Chinese-American Rabbi
((SOT))
((Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin
Senior Rabbi, Temple Sinai Oakland))
When people think Rabbi, they are often thinking of an old
man with a big old beard and that's never what I'm going to
be. I'm Rabbi Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, and I'm the
senior rabbi at Temple Sinai in Oakland, California, and I'm
the first Chinese American rabbi. What does it mean to be
an insider? What does it mean to be Jewish? What
is that experience of it?
((Banner))
Virtual Learning
((SOT))
((Arti Jain-Kumar, National Certified Counselor; Director,
Love and Light 4 Kidz))
To help them to focus, is doing a quick chair yoga pose.
Like they can literally have their hands underneath their chair
and just putting their hands down if they want to have a shift.
They can even bring their hands and do a quick little grip.
CLOSING ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect
((PKG)) FREE PRESS MATTERS
((NATS/VIDEO/GFX))
((Popup captions over B Roll))
Near the Turkish Embassy
Washington, D.C.
May 16, 2017
President Erdogans bodyguard attacks peaceful protesters
Those terrorists deserved to be beaten
They should not be protesting our president
They got what they asked for
While some people may turn away from the news
We cover it
reliably
accurately
objectively
comprehensively
wherever the news matters
VOA
A Free Press Matters
CLOSING ((ANIM))
voanews.com/connect
BREAKTHREE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
SHOW ENDS
((PKG)) SHIPPING CONTAINERS HOME FOR THE
HOMELESS
((TRT: 03:28))
((Banner: Homes for the Homeless))
((Reporter: Angelina Bagdasaryan))
((Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetyan))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main characters: 2 male))
((Sub characters: 1 female; 2 male))
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
I was just going to be homeless. My family was tired of me, I
guess, I dont know, not being what they wanted. And so, me and
my girlfriend just got a Greyhound bus to California. ((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
Flyaway Homes is a startup that was started in conjunction with
The People Concern, one of the largest homeless service
providers in Los Angeles County, to develop a model for
producing permanent supportive housing for L.A.s homeless
population, faster and cheaper, so we can begin to really solve
this terrible problem.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
It's constructed out of converted shipping containers. And this
project consists of eight four-bedroom units, five of which are
occupied by families, three of which are occupied by shared
individuals. So, four people, two each with a bedroom.
((NATS))
((Angel, Volunteer, Flyaway Homes))
A lot of people are doing bad. Like, they dont got food. They
dont got water. So thats what were here for. Its all free.
Donations that we get, we manage to give it out to whoevers in
need, whether its food, clothes.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
This is our community room. We have, as you can see, we have
a television here. This is normally a gathering place. During
COVID, obviously, the tenants are not gathering, but we have
laundry on site here. This can be used for a meeting room. We
have a small non-perishable food pantry that's available for the
residents, as well as the resident services staff, who's on site, is
based here as well.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
Permanent supportive housing only works for the chronically
homeless if it's combined with supportive services to keep them
housed healthy and safe which are provided by the people.
((NATS))
((Elijah, Volunteer))
We're just charging people's phones or whatever needs to be
charged because, you know, since the coronavirus, there's a lack
of places open to charge phones.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
At our current rate, it costs about $ 550,000 a unit and takes
about three to five years to build a project. So, we were very
committed to find a way to build faster and cheaper, not in terms
of quality.
((NATS))
((Michael Parks, President and CEO, Flyaway Homes))
We're doing that with a model that's replicable and scalable model
where we're trying to basically productionalize all the different
pieces. The part of the reason we're using modular is that we
basically are hoping to use the same basically modular unit
design across most, if not all, of our projects. We're looking for,
you know, similar sized plots of land and we're going to basically
systematize each piece of the process, so that from beginning to
end, it becomes predictable.
((NATS))
((John Maceri, CEO, The People Concern))
The way it works is that people pay 30 percent of whatever their
adjusted gross income is. So, if they're getting Social Security or
general leave or if they're working, 30 percent of their income, it
goes to rent and then the balance is subsidized through a federal
voucher subsidy.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
I got a lot of anxiety and depression problems and that's really
why I'm here, is because I can't make it work. I try to make it
work, man, and I haven't figured out how to do it yet.
((NATS))
((PKG)) HOMELESS PERSON -- KOURTEY
((TRT: 02:12))
((Topic Banner: Unhoused Person -- Kourtey))
((Reporter: Angelina Bagdasaryan))
((Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetyan))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Los Angeles, California))
((Main character: 1 male))
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused)) delete since it is a repetition
I was just going to be homeless. My family was tired of me, I
guess, I dont know, not being what they wanted. And so, me and
my girlfriend just got a Greyhound bus to California.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
I tried to go to Social Services and get like the general relief and
all that. And I got the EBC [Employee Benefits Corporation] and
things like that. But really, I don't have a plan right now, no. I
mean, I moved all the way across the country. And I get to be
here, which is so much better than if you go around some of these
other places, dude. Oh, man.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
I went to the Greyhound bus station in Atlanta, rode the
Greyhound bus all the way, stopping every two hours in different
states and cities, and slept on the floor of the Greyhound bus,
wearing no mask, get all the way to California.
Every day up here, I don't wear a mask.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
Like certain things, I got, like asthma and eczema, probably like a
low immune system because I do drugs.
I can go get a job, be alright for a year or so. Then Ill just destroy
it all, burn my life to the ground. ((He said this in the earlier piece))
Its all good.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
So, I came out here with this girl that I dated for five years, off and
on. And I wanted that to be the true love and all that. And three
weeks later, she left me for a guy to go do heroin and meth with
him, so. That happened. That was like one of the worst things. I
guess you could say Im free right now. But I dwell on things in
my head, man. I got a lot of anxiety and depression problems.
And that's where, that's really why I'm here is because I can't
make it work. I try to make it work, man, and I haven't figured out
how to do it yet.
((NATS))
((Kourtey, Unhoused))
Yeah, I want to give one to my buddies down there. Thank you.
((NATS))
