WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.720 Dear listener, just a note before we start. Today's episode 2 00:00:04.760 --> 00:00:08.840 was produced ahead of the presidential elections. Much is happening 3 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:11.560 this week, and we'll be talking about it next week 4 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:16.439 on Latino USA when the dust hopefully has finally settled. Meanwhile, 5 00:00:16.520 --> 00:00:19.120 Latino USA producer Julia Rocha is going to get us 6 00:00:19.120 --> 00:00:21.320 started today. 7 00:00:23.360 --> 00:00:27.240 We found this house and we were so excited. We 8 00:00:27.240 --> 00:00:34.480 were screaming and like just overjoyed. We had community over 9 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:38.839 that came and played music. We had some harocho, we 10 00:00:38.920 --> 00:00:40.080 had rancheas. 11 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:44.360 That's MARTA's gulero. She's remembering the day she moved into 12 00:00:44.360 --> 00:00:47.720 her new house. It's a two bedroom on Sheffield Avenue 13 00:00:47.720 --> 00:00:52.720 and Ncerano, a residential neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles. Martha's 14 00:00:52.720 --> 00:00:55.320 living room is filled with books and on one of 15 00:00:55.360 --> 00:00:58.520 the walls is a banner that reads housing for All. 16 00:00:59.120 --> 00:01:01.720 This is the first room we walked into, and when 17 00:01:01.720 --> 00:01:04.880 we walked into, obviously it was empty, and now it's 18 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:07.360 filled with furniture and him. 19 00:01:07.240 --> 00:01:09.640 On my art and my rocks. 20 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:13.920 That's Messi, Martha's eight year old daughter. Before Martha and 21 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:17.160 her two daughters got to this house, they'd been CouchSurfing 22 00:01:17.200 --> 00:01:20.000 for a year and a half because of skyrocketing rents 23 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:21.319 in the city. 24 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:24.600 It was just really bad for us. I had to 25 00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:27.480 live in places that were cramped, even though family and 26 00:01:27.480 --> 00:01:29.360 friends tried their best to help us. 27 00:01:29.959 --> 00:01:33.480 Martha struggled to find affordable housing for months, but when 28 00:01:33.520 --> 00:01:37.120 the coronavirus pandemic began, finding her own place to live 29 00:01:37.319 --> 00:01:41.600 became even more urgent. So on March fourteenth, Martha, with 30 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:45.240 the help of community organizers, decided to occupy one of 31 00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:47.160 the many vacant homes in Encidento. 32 00:01:47.440 --> 00:01:50.440 A few neighbors they were really unsupportive. 33 00:01:50.560 --> 00:01:54.160 They would call the squatters, but Martha doesn't consider herself 34 00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:58.240 a squatter. She calls herself a reclaimer because this house 35 00:01:58.240 --> 00:02:02.800 she's occupying actually longs to the government. Today, the state 36 00:02:02.880 --> 00:02:06.120 owns about one hundred and forty vacant properties in this 37 00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:07.160 area alone. 38 00:02:07.640 --> 00:02:11.040 The state is literally hoarding these houses that are empty 39 00:02:11.960 --> 00:02:14.680 while people are suffering on the streets. How is this 40 00:02:14.760 --> 00:02:19.480 even possible? To me? That really became important to expose 41 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:22.280 that and to let other people know, like this is 42 00:02:22.320 --> 00:02:24.519 not right and we shouldn't let this happen. 43 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:31.840 From futuro media, it's let in a USA. I'm Maria 44 00:02:31.960 --> 00:02:35.320 nor Josa, and today how this house and over one 45 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:38.920 hundred houses just like it came to be empty, and 46 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:47.359 how the community is taking them back now. Martha moved 47 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:50.760 into the house on Sheffield Avenue in twenty twenty, but 48 00:02:50.880 --> 00:02:54.720 the story of these vacant homes goes back many decades. 49 00:02:55.960 --> 00:02:59.320 In this century, America has become a nation on weeds, 50 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:03.360 ride on wheels to work, to shop, to play, to 51 00:03:03.440 --> 00:03:07.160 go about any place we want to go. And therein 52 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:11.440 lies the challenge building highways and roads and streets fast 53 00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:13.600 enough to keep up with a knee. 54 00:03:13.639 --> 00:03:17.000 Back in nineteen fifty six, the United States undertook the 55 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:21.480 largest infrastructure project of its time, building a forty one 56 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:25.600 thousand mile system of highways that would unite the entire nation. 57 00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:29.919 These new highways will have a far reaching economic impact 58 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:33.079 on the entire nation. They open up vast new areas 59 00:03:33.080 --> 00:03:37.440 for suburban living, and they encourage industry to disperse out 60 00:03:37.480 --> 00:03:38.400 of city congestion. 61 00:03:38.920 --> 00:03:43.119 Historically, in Los Angeles and all over the country, freeway 62 00:03:43.200 --> 00:03:51.240 construction has had a massive impact on housing. While this 63 00:03:51.320 --> 00:03:55.280 web of freeways allowed the sprawling suburbs of Los Angeles 64 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:59.560 to grow, entire neighborhoods were demolished in order to construct 65 00:03:59.640 --> 00:04:03.119 those roads, and it was usually black and brown communities 66 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:04.040 that paid the price. 67 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:05.880 One of those. 68 00:04:05.720 --> 00:04:10.120 Communities was in El Serreno in northeast Los Angeles. Back 69 00:04:10.160 --> 00:04:13.080 in the nineteen fifties and sixties, the California Department of 70 00:04:13.080 --> 00:04:17.560 Transportation bought the house that Martha lives in and hundreds 71 00:04:17.560 --> 00:04:20.560 of other homes in order to construct the seven to 72 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:25.640 ten Freeway. This is a story of a house in 73 00:04:25.640 --> 00:04:29.080 El cer Reno and its residents past and present who 74 00:04:29.080 --> 00:04:35.919 have fought to make it their home. Back to producer Julia. 75 00:04:35.720 --> 00:04:43.360 Rocha, driving on a freeway in Los Angeles will get 76 00:04:43.400 --> 00:04:45.760 you from point A to point B, but if you 77 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:48.560 take the scenic route, you get to see the personality 78 00:04:48.600 --> 00:04:51.720 of each neighborhood. The East Side of LA has been 79 00:04:51.760 --> 00:04:56.400 a historically immigrant and latinx area, intersected by almost every 80 00:04:56.480 --> 00:05:00.160 major freeway in the county. If you drive north, I'll 81 00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:03.920 get to Edge Ceno, which sits at a crossroads between 82 00:05:03.960 --> 00:05:07.760 two worlds, nestled between the working class neighborhoods of the 83 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:11.080 East Side and the white picket fences of wealthier suburbs 84 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:16.880 like Pasadena, Edsno's main street, Huntington drive is bustling with 85 00:05:17.000 --> 00:05:20.919 restaurants and stores decked out in bright murals. According to 86 00:05:20.960 --> 00:05:24.440 the most recent census data, Esserno is eighty one percent 87 00:05:24.520 --> 00:05:29.240 Latino and mostly lower middle class. The neighborhood's residential streets 88 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:32.560 are lined with rows of modest, single family homes. 89 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:37.119 My first impressions were, this is what a neighborhood looks 90 00:05:37.160 --> 00:05:37.719 like on TV. 91 00:05:38.080 --> 00:05:41.240 That's Michelle Chavis. She was thirteen years old in nineteen 92 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:43.839 eighty six when her family was looking to move into 93 00:05:43.880 --> 00:05:46.800 a bigger home. Michelle's mom was a file clerk and 94 00:05:46.880 --> 00:05:50.520 her dad was a construction worker. At the time, Michelle, 95 00:05:50.560 --> 00:05:53.599 her parents, and her younger brother Jamie were all living 96 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:56.800 in a one bedroom apartment in rose Hill, a residential 97 00:05:56.839 --> 00:05:59.400 area just a few miles northwest of ed Serno. 98 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:03.520 A pretty bad neighborhood and originally grew up in. You 99 00:06:03.600 --> 00:06:05.640 stayed in your house and made sure your doors were 100 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:08.400 locked because it was not safe. 101 00:06:08.440 --> 00:06:11.920 A single family home had never been an option until 102 00:06:11.960 --> 00:06:15.320 Michelle's mom heard about an affordable rent program in the 103 00:06:15.320 --> 00:06:18.880 neighborhood of ed Serno. It was run by the California 104 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:23.520 Department of Transportation better known as Caltrans. Back in the sixties, 105 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:26.919 Caltrans purchased hundreds of homes in et, Serno, Alhambra, and 106 00:06:26.960 --> 00:06:30.560 Pasadena in order to demolish them and construct the seven 107 00:06:30.600 --> 00:06:35.239 ten Freeway. The freeway began at the port of Long Beach, 108 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:39.000 one of the nation's busiest sites of international trade, and 109 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:43.000 connected it to the greater city of Los Angeles. By 110 00:06:43.080 --> 00:06:46.560 nineteen sixty four, Caltrans built twenty three miles of the 111 00:06:46.560 --> 00:06:50.159 twenty seven and a half mile freeway route, demolishing hundreds 112 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:53.080 of houses on the east side, But right before the 113 00:06:53.080 --> 00:06:56.719 construction reached at Serno, the project was halted because of 114 00:06:56.720 --> 00:07:01.200 community backlash from the neighboring suburbs. While the agency waited 115 00:07:01.240 --> 00:07:05.000 for construction to be approved by the legislature, Caltrans began 116 00:07:05.080 --> 00:07:08.400 renting the homes it had purchased. At the point that 117 00:07:08.400 --> 00:07:11.120 Michelle's mom was looking to rent a home, and in Serno, 118 00:07:11.400 --> 00:07:14.240 the construction had been in a legal limbo for over 119 00:07:14.280 --> 00:07:17.560 a decade. She filled out an application for the affordable 120 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:20.520 rent program, and when she found out she'd been accepted, 121 00:07:20.840 --> 00:07:23.239 a Caltrans employee gave her a tour of the houses 122 00:07:23.280 --> 00:07:27.960 in a Serino. Michelle still remembers what it was like 123 00:07:28.080 --> 00:07:30.239 to walk through the neighborhood for the first time. 124 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:33.480 No bars on the window. That's the first thing I 125 00:07:33.520 --> 00:07:36.720 think my brother and I noticed, just walking through and 126 00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:41.000 seeing grass. There were people sitting on their porches. Nobody 127 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:42.680 sat on their porches where I grew up. 128 00:07:42.960 --> 00:07:45.560 After the tour, Michelle's parents picked out the house they 129 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:48.600 liked best, a two bedroom on Sheffield Avenue. 130 00:07:48.840 --> 00:07:52.520 Moving to the Sheffield House was actually like an amazing 131 00:07:52.880 --> 00:07:55.760 dream because I was getting my own room. We had 132 00:07:55.760 --> 00:07:59.600 a living room, we had a separate dining room, and 133 00:07:59.640 --> 00:08:02.480 then we had a fenced yard. It was like we 134 00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:03.280 hit the jackpot. 135 00:08:03.520 --> 00:08:06.080 Michelle remembers walking through the house with her brother the 136 00:08:06.160 --> 00:08:09.040 day her family moved in. She recalls how a little 137 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:11.760 narrow area by the kitchen caught their attention. 138 00:08:12.440 --> 00:08:14.680 We were like, oh my gosh, what is this for? 139 00:08:14.840 --> 00:08:15.080 You know? 140 00:08:15.280 --> 00:08:17.960 My dad was like, it's for a washer and dryer, 141 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:20.000 and we're like, oh my god, does that mean we 142 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:22.040 don't have to go to the laundromat anymore? I think 143 00:08:22.080 --> 00:08:26.440 that was my brother my dream. 144 00:08:26.520 --> 00:08:30.160 But soon their honeymoon phase came to an end. 145 00:08:30.880 --> 00:08:34.240 What we started noticing is when bigger things would break, 146 00:08:34.280 --> 00:08:37.480 something with the electricity, something with the water. My parents 147 00:08:37.520 --> 00:08:40.760 weren't getting the response you're supposed to get when you're 148 00:08:40.760 --> 00:08:45.080 in a rental, and the sentiment was echoed through many houses. 149 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:48.960 They're like, Oh, don't even bother calling because they'll either 150 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:51.079 take a month to fix it, or they won't get 151 00:08:51.120 --> 00:08:52.760 fixed at all, or they're going to tell you they 152 00:08:52.800 --> 00:08:54.480 lost your report. 153 00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:58.360 As the months went on, the family noticed there was 154 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:01.400 no ventilation in the kitchen, there was a leak in 155 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:05.640 the plumbing, the garage door didn't open, the phone jacks broke. 156 00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:08.640 Michelle says they tried to file a report. 157 00:09:08.760 --> 00:09:10.960 Each time they were like, oh, well, you have to 158 00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:14.720 call this number, call that number, leave a message, and 159 00:09:15.280 --> 00:09:17.520 that would go on for like a couple of weeks. 160 00:09:18.400 --> 00:09:21.280 Michelle was only a teenager back then, but it was 161 00:09:21.320 --> 00:09:23.640 becoming clear that something was wrong. 162 00:09:24.280 --> 00:09:27.800 I mean, bottom line, Caltrans they were slum lords. They 163 00:09:27.800 --> 00:09:30.160 did not know how to be landlords. There were business 164 00:09:30.200 --> 00:09:35.439 people working in a government office. 165 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:37.880 Then one day, when Michelle was in high school in 166 00:09:37.880 --> 00:09:40.560 the early nineties, she went to debate club and the 167 00:09:40.640 --> 00:09:44.000 topic was Caltrans versus the neighborhood in the battle to 168 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:47.000 build the seven to ten freeway. It was that day 169 00:09:47.080 --> 00:09:50.920 that she understood why her landlords were a transportation agency. 170 00:09:51.640 --> 00:09:56.600 I started learning in school about the Caltrans homes and 171 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:00.320 about the seven to ten extension freeway debate and the 172 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:03.839 fight between the neighborhood, and I'm like, wait, that's my neighborhood. 173 00:10:04.240 --> 00:10:05.160 I didn't know that. 174 00:10:05.920 --> 00:10:09.360 The two sides went something like this. Caltrans wanted to 175 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:12.360 finish the freeway because the residential areas along the seven 176 00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:15.960 ten were booming and traffic was worse than ever, but 177 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:20.160 residents of Etceerino, South Pasadena and Pasadena didn't want a 178 00:10:20.200 --> 00:10:24.280 highway running through their neighborhood. For the debate, Michelle took 179 00:10:24.280 --> 00:10:27.400 the side of those against the extension and argued that 180 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:30.880 destroying people's homes was too high a price for improving 181 00:10:30.920 --> 00:10:34.520 the flow of traffic. What Michelle didn't realize until that 182 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:37.360 day was that this debate was not only happening in 183 00:10:37.400 --> 00:10:40.640 her classroom. It was also happening in the state government, 184 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:44.760 because Caltrans was still fighting in court to continue building 185 00:10:44.760 --> 00:10:45.400 the seven ten. 186 00:10:45.960 --> 00:10:48.720 I brought that home to my mom, and she wasn't 187 00:10:48.760 --> 00:10:52.960 familiar that we would be evicted maybe soon for this 188 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:56.560 freeway extension. You know, it was It was kind of 189 00:10:56.559 --> 00:10:58.840 eye opening to even some of the neighbors are like no, 190 00:10:59.200 --> 00:10:59.959 like this isn't good. 191 00:11:00.160 --> 00:11:04.640 Happened in her neighborhood of mostly low income Mexican American 192 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:08.520 and immigrant families. Michelle realized that many of her neighbors 193 00:11:08.679 --> 00:11:11.960 didn't know that Caltrans was still planning to move forward 194 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:13.040 with the freeway project. 195 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:18.760 Sadly, a lot of older people that lived in the neighborhood. 196 00:11:18.800 --> 00:11:23.120 It was parents who were not highly educated and couldn't read, 197 00:11:23.760 --> 00:11:26.800 so their kids were the ones reading things. 198 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:30.480 Because Michelle's mom couldn't read very well, she didn't know 199 00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:34.160 that the housing contract she signed gave Caltrans the legal 200 00:11:34.200 --> 00:11:36.840 power to evict the family if the seven to ten 201 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:40.880 extension was approved. Michelle wondered if there was a way 202 00:11:40.920 --> 00:11:42.960 to ensure that they would be able to stay in 203 00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:43.400 their home. 204 00:11:43.800 --> 00:11:46.360 So I wrote the assembly member at the time, and 205 00:11:46.440 --> 00:11:49.640 he wrote me back and he informed me of some 206 00:11:50.040 --> 00:11:54.360 marches and he thanked me too for volunteering my time 207 00:11:54.800 --> 00:12:00.480 to fight against this freeway extension. The first rally we 208 00:12:00.520 --> 00:12:04.640 went to it was in South Pasadena. We started marching 209 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:08.640 down the streets and people started joining with just signs 210 00:12:08.679 --> 00:12:10.959 that had like the seven to ten and the line 211 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:12.880 across it. It was very empowering. 212 00:12:13.800 --> 00:12:16.679 Looking around the rally, Michelle was surprised to see that 213 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:19.480 she and her friends were some of the only Latinos 214 00:12:19.520 --> 00:12:22.000 and also some of the only Caltrans tendants. 215 00:12:22.400 --> 00:12:25.440 There was a lot of Caucasian people from the more 216 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:30.920 pricier houses up in South Pass because the homeowners around 217 00:12:30.920 --> 00:12:33.080 there didn't want a freeway, you know, for them, it's 218 00:12:33.080 --> 00:12:34.960 going to bring down their housing prices. 219 00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:39.079 Michelle was beginning to understand one of the biggest reasons 220 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:42.480 at Cerno hadn't been bulldozed was because the residents in 221 00:12:42.520 --> 00:12:46.600 South Pasadena and Pasadena knew that if construction went through 222 00:12:46.640 --> 00:12:51.280 at Serino, their communities would be next. And even though 223 00:12:51.280 --> 00:12:54.040 at Sereno would be the most impacted by the extension, 224 00:12:54.559 --> 00:12:57.880 it was the interests of wealthier homeowners that carried the 225 00:12:57.920 --> 00:13:01.359 most weight, and that really left a mark on Michelle. 226 00:13:01.880 --> 00:13:05.040 I feel it helped me in really deciding what I 227 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:08.560 wanted to major in in college, because I wanted to 228 00:13:08.640 --> 00:13:12.880 help people like my parents, like my neighbors. And I 229 00:13:12.920 --> 00:13:16.520 do believe that kel Trans know that the people that 230 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:19.360 they ran into in the eighties nineties, they were low 231 00:13:19.400 --> 00:13:21.800 income families who were looking for a better life for 232 00:13:21.880 --> 00:13:24.560 their kids and they took advantage of that. 233 00:13:37.720 --> 00:13:41.280 Coming up on Latino USA, El Serno's battle with kel 234 00:13:41.360 --> 00:14:41.760 Trans continued. Stay with us, Hey, we're back, And before 235 00:14:41.800 --> 00:14:44.560 the break, we were listening to the story of Michelle Chavis. 236 00:14:45.120 --> 00:14:48.160 Her family was renting a house from the California Department 237 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:52.600 of Transportation. Since she was a teenager, Michelle had been 238 00:14:52.640 --> 00:14:56.560 advocating for her family, protesting the construction of a freeway 239 00:14:56.880 --> 00:15:01.240 that threatened to demolish her entire street. But this was 240 00:15:01.280 --> 00:15:04.400 only the beginning of her family's fight to stay in 241 00:15:04.440 --> 00:15:07.840 their home back now to produce her juyi rocha. 242 00:15:08.760 --> 00:15:12.240 After seeing the disparities her community faced, Michelle left at 243 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:15.920 SIDO in nineteen ninety one to study political science. She 244 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:18.200 went on to work in local government, and in two 245 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:20.960 thousand and seven she moved to Washington State, where she 246 00:15:21.040 --> 00:15:24.400 lives today. Although she no longer lived in Los Angeles, 247 00:15:24.760 --> 00:15:29.400 Michelle never stopped helping her mom fill out the Caltrans paperwork. Then, 248 00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:33.800 in twenty twelve, Michelle got a desperate call. Her mom 249 00:15:33.920 --> 00:15:36.960 had received a notice that she needed to reapply for 250 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:41.240 the Affordable Rent program, otherwise her rent would be raised. 251 00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:44.960 She would send in the affordable rent application and then 252 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:47.960 they would say, we're missing some information. It was denied, 253 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:51.640 your rent's going up, And then my mom would send 254 00:15:51.640 --> 00:15:54.360 in again and then they're like, well, we never received 255 00:15:54.360 --> 00:15:55.120 your paperwork. 256 00:15:55.520 --> 00:15:59.480 Michelle's family wasn't alone in struggling with the bureaucracy of 257 00:15:59.520 --> 00:16:04.640 the application. In twenty thirteen, a collective calling itself United 258 00:16:04.640 --> 00:16:08.960 Caltrans Tenants came together to help residents navigate the agency's 259 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:13.920 dysfunctional housing program. One of the lead organizers is Roberto Flores. 260 00:16:14.440 --> 00:16:17.760 He runs a community center in Eserino called Eastside Cafe, 261 00:16:18.800 --> 00:16:21.520 and despite its name, it's not a hip coffee shop, 262 00:16:21.920 --> 00:16:25.840 it's actually a Sapatista inspired cultural center, an activist hub. 263 00:16:26.400 --> 00:16:30.360 We set up the east Side Cafe maybe eighteen years ago. 264 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:34.680 Is a space that developed out of the inspiration from 265 00:16:34.880 --> 00:16:40.320 the Sapatistas to create sustainable structures so that the communities 266 00:16:40.400 --> 00:16:44.400 can be much more involved in constructing their own future. 267 00:16:45.880 --> 00:16:49.240 Roberto himself was a Caltrans tenant who had been forced 268 00:16:49.240 --> 00:16:53.160 out by the rent increases. He and other organizers were 269 00:16:53.160 --> 00:16:56.040 holding workshops at the east Side Cafe to help their 270 00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:00.520 neighbors with the affordable rent applications. Roberto told me that 271 00:17:00.720 --> 00:17:03.960 just a few months before Michelle's mom started receiving these notices. 272 00:17:04.520 --> 00:17:08.840 Caltrans was being audited for possible mismanagement of public money 273 00:17:09.280 --> 00:17:12.280 after a tenant noticed an invoice for a roof repair 274 00:17:12.680 --> 00:17:17.719 that cost one hundred and three thousand dollars. The audit 275 00:17:17.840 --> 00:17:21.119 found that Caltrans was mismanaging the money spent on repairs. 276 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:25.520 They were spending almost ten million more dollars in maintaining 277 00:17:25.560 --> 00:17:28.320 the homes than they were actually collecting in rent. 278 00:17:28.680 --> 00:17:33.800 There was obvious corruption going on in the Caltrans' maintenance structure. 279 00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:37.280 On top of that, they hadn't verified the income of 280 00:17:37.320 --> 00:17:41.439 the tenants on the affordable rent program in years, but 281 00:17:41.560 --> 00:17:44.520 Caltrans put the burden of the lost revenue on the 282 00:17:44.560 --> 00:17:49.879 tenants by making residents continually reapply for the affordable rent program. 283 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:54.680 If their application was denied, Caltrans would increase their rent. 284 00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:59.720 They made things so complicated that their own agents didn't 285 00:17:59.760 --> 00:18:01.720 know how how to fill out these forums or help 286 00:18:01.760 --> 00:18:04.840 people out, and so there were years of delays where 287 00:18:04.840 --> 00:18:10.000 people were forced to pay market rents when they should 288 00:18:10.040 --> 00:18:13.199 be paying affordable and market rents that were going up 289 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:16.560 at ten percent every six months. All these things piled 290 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:21.960 up and led to people leaving an evictions It. 291 00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:25.119 Was clear to Roberto that Caltrans was trying to force 292 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:29.760 people out, But the question was what incentive did Caltrans 293 00:18:29.800 --> 00:18:33.119 have to vacate the properties? When I asked him, he 294 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:36.119 told me that Caltrans never wanted to be landlords, and 295 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:38.320 their end goal was to demolish the houses. 296 00:18:39.160 --> 00:18:43.320 They were going to prepare the corridor for a freeway, 297 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:49.760 so they preferred to deal with empty houses than with 298 00:18:49.920 --> 00:18:57.040 tenants that were increasingly demanding rights. 299 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:02.440 Years past and more and more Caltrans tenants began to 300 00:19:02.520 --> 00:19:06.000 leave their homes because of the rent hikes. At this point, 301 00:19:06.200 --> 00:19:09.840 Caltrans was still fighting to build the extension. Then, in 302 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:13.680 November of twenty eighteen, after a sixty year legal battle, 303 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:18.240 the state of California finally ruled that Caltrans couldn't build 304 00:19:18.280 --> 00:19:18.800 the freeway. 305 00:19:20.320 --> 00:19:23.880 It was a major milestone today in the now defunct 306 00:19:23.960 --> 00:19:27.320 plan to extend the seven to ten freeway. Caltrans just 307 00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:30.480 sold the first of hundreds of homes that were purchased 308 00:19:30.520 --> 00:19:33.800 decades ago in preparation for the project, which is now 309 00:19:33.960 --> 00:19:35.400 never going to see the light of day. 310 00:19:35.760 --> 00:19:38.560 Now the Caltrans wasn't going to build the freeway, the 311 00:19:38.600 --> 00:19:41.240 agency said they would begin to sell the homes. 312 00:19:41.400 --> 00:19:45.600 They still made empty promises. They started making it seem like, 313 00:19:45.760 --> 00:19:48.200 in the next two years, all these houses will be 314 00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:51.399 song and you, residents who've been living in them for 315 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:54.080 more than two years, you get first DIBs. 316 00:19:54.480 --> 00:19:57.879 The promise that Michelle's family and many others in INCIDENTA 317 00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:02.200 were given was actually more a promise. Back in nineteen 318 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:05.960 seventy nine, the California legislature passed a bill known as 319 00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:09.679 the ROBERTI Law. It found that highway construction contributed to 320 00:20:09.720 --> 00:20:13.080 a shortage of affordable housing, so when a state agency 321 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:16.520 like Caltrans no longer planned to use the homes for construction, 322 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:20.000 it legally had to offer the property to low and 323 00:20:20.080 --> 00:20:24.600 moderate income tenants at an affordable price. In theory, this 324 00:20:24.680 --> 00:20:27.600 meant that Michelle's mom could actually purchase the home that 325 00:20:27.640 --> 00:20:29.000 she'd lived in for decades. 326 00:20:29.760 --> 00:20:31.800 My mom's like, Wow, I'm a little nervous, you know, 327 00:20:32.080 --> 00:20:35.119 I hoping I'll be able to purchase this house because 328 00:20:35.160 --> 00:20:36.320 we've never been a homeowner. 329 00:20:36.600 --> 00:20:39.080 The problem was that in order to one day buy 330 00:20:39.119 --> 00:20:42.159 your house, you had to stay in your house. But 331 00:20:42.320 --> 00:20:46.800 residents were being forced out by rent hikes and complicated applications, 332 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:52.120 and even tenants who could pay their rent weren't receiving 333 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:53.680 sale offers from the agency. 334 00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:57.520 There are one hundred and three vacant homes in Elserino, 335 00:20:57.680 --> 00:21:01.719 Pasadena and South Pasadena, as the need for affordable housing 336 00:21:01.720 --> 00:21:06.399 in LA is on the rise, ACCOUNTRANS representative said homes 337 00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:09.760 have remained vacant partly because the cost to maintain and 338 00:21:09.840 --> 00:21:13.000 rent them would have cost more than the revenue collected. 339 00:21:13.800 --> 00:21:17.200 When tenants moved out or passed away, the houses were 340 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:21.600 boarded up. Today, there are dozens of homes on Sheffield 341 00:21:21.640 --> 00:21:27.840 Avenue with signs that read warning state property trespassing, loitering 342 00:21:28.080 --> 00:21:29.120 forbidden by law. 343 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:32.840 When I would go home every year, I mean, you 344 00:21:32.840 --> 00:21:36.440 could go down my mom's block and maybe ten properties 345 00:21:36.760 --> 00:21:40.080 on her block alone are vacant. This is just one 346 00:21:40.480 --> 00:21:41.800 piece of Sheffield. 347 00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:47.359 Michelle's childhood neighborhood was becoming a ghost town. 348 00:21:51.520 --> 00:21:54.520 I didn't realize what my parents went through until I 349 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:58.560 started fighting for them. Until my dad was just getting 350 00:21:58.600 --> 00:22:01.879 too sick and he's like I'm done, you know, I 351 00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:05.280 just I can't, and my mom was busy taking care 352 00:22:05.320 --> 00:22:05.720 of him. 353 00:22:06.200 --> 00:22:09.720 Michelle's dad had been having health complications for years, and 354 00:22:09.760 --> 00:22:14.399 then in twenty eighteen, he passed away at a moment. 355 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:17.080 When Michelle's mom was grieving the loss of her husband, 356 00:22:17.600 --> 00:22:20.640 she also started receiving notices that she had to once 357 00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:24.600 again reapply for the Affordable rent program. Michelle's mom went 358 00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:27.000 to one of the United caltrans Tendants workshops at the 359 00:22:27.040 --> 00:22:29.280 east Side Cafe where she met Roberto. 360 00:22:29.640 --> 00:22:33.760 I remember miss Montoya coming in after her husband had 361 00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:36.359 passed and asking us for help. 362 00:22:36.920 --> 00:22:40.560 Roerto helped Michelle's mom properly fill out the application, but 363 00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:42.280 the same scenario played out. 364 00:22:42.600 --> 00:22:45.520 He sent it in and they said they didn't get it, 365 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:50.960 sent it in again, said they never received it. Months later, 366 00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:54.240 they said that my mom's rent was being raised again 367 00:22:54.560 --> 00:22:58.480 and if she wanted to try and get affordable rent, 368 00:22:58.480 --> 00:22:59.960 that she had to fill out an application. 369 00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:04.640 After decades of fighting to stay in their home, Michelle 370 00:23:04.680 --> 00:23:07.280 started to convince her mom to move out and live 371 00:23:07.320 --> 00:23:08.360 with her brother Jamie. 372 00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:11.320 We started telling her, I don't think it's safe for 373 00:23:11.400 --> 00:23:15.040 you to stay in this house the way they're treating you, 374 00:23:15.040 --> 00:23:17.159 the way they're always losing the paperwork, you know, for 375 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:20.720 the affordable rent, and my mom it was very difficult 376 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:25.520 for her because she feels my dad's spirit in that home. 377 00:23:27.640 --> 00:23:30.520 She started crying because she's like, you know, he's not 378 00:23:30.560 --> 00:23:33.040 going to leave this house, and we're like, mom, he's 379 00:23:33.080 --> 00:23:34.960 going to be wherever you are. 380 00:23:36.800 --> 00:23:40.199 Finally, Michelle's mom agreed, and Michelle went back to her 381 00:23:40.280 --> 00:23:42.600 childhood home to help her mother move out. 382 00:23:43.960 --> 00:23:48.280 So my mom sat in the empty living room and 383 00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:51.960 she started crying, and then we all started crying, you know. 384 00:23:52.280 --> 00:23:57.640 And my brother, he's a jokester, and he's like, look, mom, 385 00:23:57.720 --> 00:24:01.520 and he opened a fresh apple pie and my dad 386 00:24:01.560 --> 00:24:05.639 loved fresh shapple pie, and he's like, okay, Fred, in 387 00:24:05.760 --> 00:24:07.640 order for you to have a piece of this apple pie, 388 00:24:07.640 --> 00:24:08.880 you got to come with us. 389 00:24:09.400 --> 00:24:09.560 You know. 390 00:24:09.600 --> 00:24:11.440 We were just all cried and hugged her. 391 00:24:21.920 --> 00:24:26.240 After thirty four years on Sheffield Avenue, Michelle's mom left 392 00:24:26.280 --> 00:24:29.840 the Caltrans house, giving up her dream of one day 393 00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:30.639 owning a home. 394 00:24:31.320 --> 00:24:31.480 You know. 395 00:24:31.520 --> 00:24:34.439 It just went through the house one last time and 396 00:24:34.480 --> 00:24:38.160 we took one last picture on the porch. My mom 397 00:24:38.240 --> 00:24:40.520 used to be a feisty little lady back in her day. 398 00:24:41.400 --> 00:24:44.080 She's like, fuck you, Caltrans, you know, and like flip 399 00:24:44.160 --> 00:24:45.480 the camera. 400 00:24:47.680 --> 00:24:51.160 In February of twenty twenty, the house that Michelle grew 401 00:24:51.240 --> 00:24:54.919