Previously on WiDi in House.

There he is hope you can come out of it.

Then I was resilient, tenacity.

I didn't give up, even though people say, you're never gonna be this, You're never gonna be that, even your own family.

You're gonna always be down.

Once a drug addict, always a drug addict.

And again I fell.

I feel I fell.

And it just seemed like everything that everybody said, You're gonna always be a homeless You're gonna always ain't.

Nobody gonna do this and this and that and this and that.

And here I am to prove I'm wrong, that I'm here, and I'm alive, and I'm living in Germany with a wonderful life and just thank God that I'm here.

Welcome back to weed the in House.

I'm your host, Theo Henderson.

We have a lot to cover this week, and most of it is going to be alarming, but I feel a duty to inform our listeners about the impending struggles that unhoused people are going to face in the months to come.

Let's get into unhoused news.

Our first story begins in Los Angeles, California, with the public announcement a council Person Unices Hernandez running for re election.

She has received big endorsements from Councilperson Nitthi Oraman, council Person Hugo Soda Maya Controller Kenneth Mahea, and Councilperson Harris Marquise Thawson.

It is important to note that her council district has the second highest rate of displacement of unhoused people, most notably MacArthur Park and Chinatown.

Moving on.

On Tuesday, May thirteenth, twenty twenty five, Republicans are meeting and planning to get rid of Medicaid and SNAP benefits in order to give tax breaks to billionaires.

For outsiders who are unaware of how important SNAP Benefits and Medicaid is for the unhoused community, it is essential for them to feed themselves as best they can.

Where the price of eggs is astronomical.

As you can imagine, the unhouse are going to need assistant to offset these increasing grossery costs for a single person.

An unhoused person can receive one hundred and ninety four dollars a month for SNAP benefits and general relief two hundred twenty one dollars not receiving those funds can portend chaos and calamity for vulnerable people that are in dire need of that support.

As for medicaid, many unhoused people suffer from illnesses and disabilities, and if they are unable to have their expenses covered, this could cause fervor medical crises.

Moving on, due to the Los Angeles budget crisis, the Care Plus program, which is a glorified title for sweeping the unhoused with increased police presence, is expected to be decreased due to further financial trouble.

It is no surprise that LASA, the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority, and the Los Angeles Sanitation Department have spoken against these budgetary constraints.

BABO state that the Unhouse will fall through the cracks.

The delays will also prevent the und House to be document ready and will delay city Council's outreach request.

Our next story, Governor Newsom is putting pressure on California cities with admonitions such as there are no more excuses.

Governor Newsom is pushing for more bands of unhoused survival means such as tent camps on sidewalks, bike paths, and other types of public property.

The governor has created a template to outlaw encampments and remove existing ones.

And our last story.

More than three hundred thousand people in America live in permanent support of housing.

Many are chronically unhoused, veterans and disabled.

President Trump's plans are to increase funds to emergency shelters, but in the aid to permanent housing, this will force evictions for vose it currently helps.

One particular programming will affect is the Continuum of Care program and housing opportunities for persons with AIDS.

The proposal aims to cut five hundred and thirty two million dollars.

When we come back, we will continue on Housed News and synthesize what these stories mean and then speak with our first international guests.

Welcome back to Weedy in House.

I'm THEO Henderson.

As you heard in un Housed News, things are not looking good for the unhoused community and anyone that is suffering from housing insecurity or food insecurity, or is teetering between houselessness and medical crisis.

I want to point out in particular how this cascade of events can result in an explosion of houselessness.

Too often.

Our state, city and government leaders have been leading the conversation that unhoused people implied are not are resistant to services, abuse substances, and have mental challenges that prevent them from receiving services.

What has unfortunately become a byproduct of understanding the matter has been news outlets advancing this narrative.

Can it difficult to break through the wall of ignorance.

The truth of the matter is that houselessness is affecting people due to policies our government leaders are using the cause more houselessness.

Let's look no further than President Trump's recent aim to end support of housing for unhoused people, in addition to comments from Governor Newsom in California becoming much more punitive against unhoused people.

It trickles down to.

City council leaders like the DSA indoors Unites Hernandez, who has the second largest rate of sweeps of unhoused people in Los Angeles.

The main idea is to alert our listeners that progressives and the right wings are in total blockstep in addressing the unhoused crisis by punishment and criminalization.

There is no variation in the way that unhoused people are treated by them.

As you just heard in simpler terms, Suppose, if you will, an unhoused person has received a notice that their SNAP benefits have been reduced or eradicated.

They are now forced with an immediate survival quandary to find food.

Let's add to that that they have medical conditions that they cannot eat certain foods because it will cause medical complications.

After that, in order to recuperate, they go to a park to lie down in their tenth But now, thanks to Governor Newsom, a democratic governor, cities such as Presdo and Los Angeles are being pushed to arrest persons through policies like forty one eighteen and the Grant's passed Supreme Court decision.

As a side notes, suppose this person was in Tennessee, where it is a six year felony to be unhoused on public land.

By some miracle, they meet a case manager that's trying to help them get out of houselessness, but there's only funding for emergency shelters and not permitive support of houses.

Thanks to President Donald Trump, I ask of my listeners what options do the unhoused have?

In some these are very dark times for poor people and particularly unhoused people.

The question is how bad is it going to get before more people speak out against these injustices and net is un housed news.

And now a little bit about our guest today.

I feel honored to have Grantor, who is in house in the UK, come onto our show as our first international guest.

She was brave and assistant to be on this show.

After hearing the stories on William Howes of residents in this country, I felt it was necessary for us to know her struggles of houselessness as well as other struggles she faced overseas.

Without further ado, here's our guest, Greta.

I am excited for our new guest.

It has been my hope to reach out across the pond or across the country to meet other people that have experienced a displacement houselessness in their prospective area.

Today we have.

A new one and we're going to have them introduce themselves and we're going to get their story, and I think their story is really important and I really am so honored that they decided to come on the show and talk to us a little bit.

So, without further ado, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about how did you get in the spiral of houselessness.

Hello.

Hi, my name is Greta.

I'm speaking to you from London, England.

I'm Bautier and I have experienced all different types of homelessness, unfortunately street homelessness, so for surfing, women's refuge, all kinds, and I've been homeless in many different countries as well.

So I have complex mental health and I've also gone through a lot of domestic violence, and I think there's very often like a triangle of mental health, domestic violence and homelessness that go together.

The way that I've first became homeless was due to my mental health and domestic violence that was going on in the home and with my children.

My children were removed in the courts for two charges, so there was no charge of neglect or care on my part.

In fact, the opposite The charge was the children witnessing the abuse happening to me, which I absolutely agree that is terrible and I stand by that decision.

The second one I was charged was something called parental alienation.

What's that?

So if you report domestic violence but you're mentally unwell, you are then charged with parentalization that you were trying to turn the children against the father.

So the person is abusing you, and if you file a report you get punished for it.

That's what it sounds like.

Correct, correct, And it was actually debunked officially from the British courts in December twenty twenty four.

It was in the British courts for about ten years.

Oh my goodness.

And it's basically pseudo science.

You know your because your mental health is official, so your mental health is their defense.

Don't believe her, she's crazy.

You know, your mental health, which was possibly there before you met the perpetrator, but certainly the abuse made it worse.

So I was in receipt of government benefits which paid my rent on my private rented accommodation with my children, and that was immediately removed and I had no grounds to any further help as a single adult.

So although I was deemed so mentally ill I can't look after my children, I then would make an application saying I'm vulnerable, I need help, and that was just completely dismissed.

Originally the children were placed with my parents and then sadly two of them were placed with the perpetrator.

But my dad actually in a meeting said, you know, our daughter is homeless.

You know, because I was not allowed to stay with my children, be in place with my parents, which is a good thing, but it meant I couldn't stay with them, you know.

In fact, my parents had to sign a contract that they would cut contact with me, so then I'm not eligible for help as a single adult.

And I did go into the cycle that so many women and men do, where I returned to the perpetrator.

And at that time I was really broken, distraught, you know, I had a mental breakdown, and I actually thought I deserved violence, you know, and I even had horrible, kind of twisted logic that if I was murdered, I would be martyred.

There was a period of about two years where I was partly sleeping on the streets.

Sometimes was able to get into hostels.

But hostels, as you know in the UK, they're no different from America that they're often very dangerous places, lots of drug addiction, lots of people fresh out of prison.

My mental health was really really poor at this time, you know, and I was found hostels quite unsafe places.

I actually preferred to be sleeping in the park or so.

I didn't have a network of friends, you know, the circumstance of domestic violence after so many years, any single friend you had before you met the person has either been told to stay away or given up on you, you know.

So at that point I literally didn't know anybody in the world except for my parents and my children, who I was not allowed contact with.

Unfortunately, quite a lot of my family believed the charges against me and cut contact with me.

So, you know, I was really on my own.

And eventually, after a couple of years, I managed to get into a women's refuge because I was still being harassed.

You know, I would leave him and get away, he would pull me back.

I would try and get help.

The help was not available, and they brought in a new law a few years ago called coercive control actually is a criminal offense in the UK now.

So I was able to get help in a refuge under that.

But the refuge, which was run by a private company, was horrible.

It was really unsafe.

It was essentially private rent under another name.

You know, it's supposedly a place of safety.

Each woman was charged one thousand pounds a month for a room.

At that time, rooms went for about seven to eight hundred pounds.

The extra two hundred pounds was supposedly because you had a support worker, a support worker who you met the day you arrived and never saw again.

Basically, there was fifteen rooms in the building and it was all women who'd gone through violence, and so everyone was quite disturbed, quite frightened, quite on edge.

I was dealing with PTSD as well, huge.

And most of the women had their children there, you know, so there would be a lot of fights among the women.

There would be a lot of men coming and going, Supposedly they were not supposed to be there.

And we were charged twenty pounds a month for cleaning products as part of our contract to live there.

And we were like, we don't need this, we you know, why do we have to do it?

And it was it was really really suspicious.

You know, there was obviously some contracts with the cleaning firm, and you know, there was a lot of draconian rules.

You know, you didn't know your address because you had taken there in secrecy.

When you live in a refuge, you're not allowed to know your address.

So you're in the process of trying to rebuild your life, but you don't have an address.

One night, someone actually gave birth.

I am a doula so I've experienced of helping.

Years ago.

I actually volunteered with a group of homeless women who were pregnant and supported them when I was housed, and so I had the skills as well as being my myself.

I delivered a baby in the refuge.

I'm on the phone to the paramedics as you call them, and I didn't have an address because we went allowed to know the address, you know, and I basically had to describe, Oh, you turned left past the apple tree and there's a shop on the corner, and you know how I knew where we lived.

And I actually filed a complaint and I said, it's really dangerous.

You know.

The mother and baby were okay, in part thanks to me being there and knowing what to do.

I said, surely there's exceptions that the police and they were like, no, no one is ever allowed to know this address.

It was dangerous because of course perpetrators could come and find us.

You know, staff were only there nine to five.

Eventually I was filing papers to the government for emergency housing.

Well, I didn't know at the time if you're in a women's refuge in the UK, you were classed officially homeless.

Even though you have housing because it's emergency.

Housing, transition temporary.

Exactly, and so you are the top of the list for government housing.

But they didn't tell me that.

So I made an application and I had something.

It's quite sad, but it's quite important for the context when you are seen at risk.

They do something called MARAP meetings, which is multi agency meetings, so it would involve the police, social workers, doctors about vulnerable people.

And they did a risk because my ex husband was constantly trying to come and find me.

There was twenty questions.

You scored one point for each question and the outcome decision was the likelihood of this person being murdered, and I scored seventeen out of twenty.

Wow.

But when you're homeless, a really devastating document makes you happy because you think, well, now I have some really good evidence I can give that will get me housing and help me get back on my feet and be reunited with my children, you know.

And I was turned down and I was told, no, you're not vulnerable at all, you don't need any help.

You're not entitled to any help at all.

You're not entitled to anything.

And I said the main words that the multi agency meeting used about me was vulnerable.

You know, this person speaking to you before today is not who I was at that time.

I was, you know, terrified constantly, you know, understandably exactly, And they said, I will always remember this.

They said, we have our own definition of the word vulnerable, and it just was like, I can't but but I kind of naivey thought that in decision making, the police saying someone's vulnerable would out trump the housing officer at the local council.

But see, it's one of the things that I think we haven't comment from overseas to hear that this is the belief system that the system is going to work once you just become honest and tell them what is going on exactly.

Because a lot of.

The nimbi's, a lot of the anti and house community always love the tractors out there's help out there.

They just don't want help and they don't understand the hurdles.

And it sounds like you guys have your own set of hurdles exactly that is giving the same results that it is over here.

It's fascinating and they also following on from that, if you do come under having multi needs so domestic violence and mental health.

They won't speak to each other, you know.

So when I would go to the doctors and ask for medication and to be put on waiting this for therapy, they would say I was too complex.

I had this written all over my notes, so the doctor would referm me for treatment for my complex PTSD, you know, because I was having such bad nightmares, I wasn't sleeping.

You know, I'd gone through quite a lot of quite a lot of extreme violence, sexual and physical, yes, and I was ultimately left disturbed and I was not entitled to get any help because I was too complicated.

So, you know, years on I could laugh about it sadly, but the doctor made a complaint on my behalf, and it said, you know, you cannot leave this woman with nothing.

You know, it's not a matter that she's too complicated, it's that you need to find her the right help.

But he got no reply.

Even the doctor got no reply.

If you are someone who's complex and you have homelessness and domestic violence and mental health, you're then almost like written off because it's too complicated.

But then it makes you question, well, who are the people that they're helping, Because anyone who's vulnerable is going to be complex.

And it definitely deals with your meal help.

Even if you did not have the challenges that you faced.

Being house is a mental It takes a toll on you mentally and physically.

I mean I was on house over eight years and I'm telling you, you always and hair's breath, you're on the you know, tip toying because you never know and the cops are going to raid you, or you don't know if you're going to get attacked by somebody out and it, or you don't know exactly if you're going to have your place move Like right now, we got this legislations called the Grants Pass of Ordinance that is running around all across the country running up on hun house people and raiding them and threatening them with arrest or if they like for example, in San Jose, they got a mayor saying if you refuse shelter, you're going to jail.

They're going to arrest you for refusing shelter.

Yeah, you definitely feel like you're harassed all the time.

I mean, coming from a woman's perspective, is nearly all of the places where you could get some food or get your clothes washed will run by and used by just men.

So I would hear about somewhere I would go because you know, you get to know there's one place that's open on a Tuesday, one place on a Thursday, so go.

Yeah, And basically I found them as a survivor of domestic violence, walking into a room full of men and I met maybe those men hadn't seen a woman in a long time, but you just feel all these eyes on you when you walk in there, and then you try to just do something like put your headphones on or you fiddle with your keys or something, and then there's five people talking to you, asking your name, and you know, and I actually stopped going.

There was a period where I found it easier to not eat than be harassed.

You know, yeah, you know I was going to on that very same point, there was like I interviewed earlier on in my show.

Her name was Laura.

That's her fictitious name.

But Laura was telling me about similar, similar things, like, for example, why she got a big dog because there were men coming up off the street at night trying to and she was fleeing domestic abuse as well, domestic violence, and you know, they were trying to force themselves on it, and when she started to get a bigger dog to guard her and to avoid the places where a lot of men were and things like that, that's just a new dimension where many women have to face or they enter.

What she was telling me too, was like a situationship that you knew someone, you're not romantically linked, but you connect with them in order for safety.

Reasons exactly, because if they see that.

You're with someone or a man that you're with, they're less likely to just try to jump you or attack you because you have that or a big dog.

So yeah, I had.

There was one guy, he was really tall, and he would kind of be in the include place at the same time as me, and he kind of offered that service.

But then I found that he did want something in the town, you know kind of thing, So then I had to stop going around there, and you know, and it's a whole other thing.

Yeah.

Also, with the PTSD, my judgment of what was safe from what wasn't safe was completely skewed.

I either kind of saw danger everywhere or nowhere.

It was like quite extreme.

And then two, you know, one of the things that I noticed because I got stabbed out a few years ago out on the street.

And the thing with it is that sometimes your paranoia or your PTSD will strike at the most inopportune times.

Absolutely, I had to really relearn because like average people that I was friends with will come up or maybe grab my shoulder or things like that, and I had to curb myself from not doing a violent act or punching them or because of that.

It's like, because your whole equal liberty on your whole mental health is out of whack because of that, and you're living on the street.

It doesn't make it better, but it was like it really opened my eye of how difficult being on house and trying to stay safe and stay healthy as well as stay a step ahead of the law enforcement or whatever the laws that's going on in the country.

Exactly in order for you to get out.

And two on top of that, tried to get housing, which is another pain in the ass.

And absolutely, as you was saying at the beginning about Nimby saying about if you just do this, if you just do that, I've been stabbed myself and vibe the perpetrator.

But I had a moment of sort of clarity when I escaped.

I didn't care about myself.

I thought, oh, he's he's a really dangerous person.

I'm going to go straight to the police.

I went straight to the police.

I had been stabbed twenty times, so I was bleeding quite heavily, and the police like almost a cartoon Western.

They had their feet on the table.

They were smoking, they were chewing gum.

I was walked in.

I'm dripping blood.

I'm quite hysterical.

I'm giving them the name and the address of where he is.

And I said, he's passed out drunk.

You go now, you know, he won't wake up for another hour or two.

And they refused.

And they just refused, and they said, no, he's in his house.

It's his rights.

We can't do this.

And I was like, I was in shop, you know, I was in shock.

Unfortunately, during abuse, one of the things that abuses always say to their victims is no one will believe you, no one will listen.

And when you do finally get free and you do report it and you're not believed, you can hear their voice in your head, you know, and you just and then you try and with your housing, and you don't get housing, or you're trying with your help and you can't get help.

And how I felt at that time was that I was shrinking, and I really was, because I have very few photos from that time, and I was very skinny.

I only wore black clothes, and I usually like color.

I quite often dye my hair, but I had black hair.

I was actually literally disappearing.

I had a strong sense that nobody cared and that if I disappeared, it wouldn't make any difference.

But I think that's a common feeling.

Yes, yes, yes, stay with us.

We'll be back with Greta after this, Prince, welcome back.

This is theal Hitter saying with Widian House.

Let's jump back into my conversation with Greta.

And also, I know that after you've been needing help for so many years, you become absolutely brilliant at filling informs.

You can help other people feel informed, you know the right wording to say, you know how to do the forms, and you still don't succeed, you know.

So my current situation sort of ten years on from that time.

I've now got government housing, you know, it's secure and everything.

But I was reunited with one of my children a couple of years ago, and there was an opportunity for us to live together.

But I needed to move because I only had one bedroom, and I went through a assessment process of a year of checks and all of this.

Yep, you passed all the checks, and yes you're entitled.

But on the other hand, I'm in a list and I'm positioned six hundred out of a thousand every week.

That's like our section eight.

Like I when I got stabbed and I had I was in ICU for several months and they were helping me.

What they have here is called section eight and Section eight is like it's a ten year waiting list.

They had opened it up for a lottery, so I wanted a lottery to be on the list, and which is still insane crazy, like Okay, why are you opening the lottery so I can just stay on another ten year list, Like that's not exactly helpy.

If you were going to open it up to get me expeditious housing, that's one thing.

But I was on the list to be on, which like who's going to be able to survive or to last, especially with the increasing criminalization of unhoused people, you know too, Like they were trying to release me from the hospital after the surgery, and like dude, I'm.

Out on the street.

I can't clean these wounds.

And like I'm you know, and at the time, my inside you know, out and they had to, you know, to close.

So I'm like, there's no way I would be dead within the week because I would have kept sepsis or infection and you know, and it's just like they will only I will say that.

They seem to try to get away with as much as possible when you're in a vulnerable state, if you don't speak up, or if you don't make a stink.

Absolutely absolutely, And.

I can truly say that because if I had not said, I'm like, there's no way I can clean a wound as deep as as as you open up my stomach.

You reattach things to be out on the street, yes, to be able to clean the way you do two times a day, out in the street and open air.

I don't have a place where I can do this, and you know this is impossible.

I would need to be in some kind of place of care.

So there was one occasion when I needed to have an operation.

I was in a hostel, but I was not allowed to have it unless I had someone afterwards because the aftercare so the only thing that I could work out to do was that my mum pretended to the children she was going away with some friends, but into the cheapest bed and breakfast for me and her for one night, so that she could sign the papers with me for the afterwards I would be allowed to come out.

She stayed with me for one night and then she had to leave, you know.

But then I was as soon as she went, I was back to the hostel in a dormitory, you know, and I was still post operations, still unwell, and there was people having a party and singing, and I'm trying to sleep, but I didn't get my rest.

True, I definitely understand, especially when you tried to.

When I'm in the hospital, you can't get any rest because every two hours they're.

Waking you up for the cleaning.

I did your pressure, you know, all of Oh man, it was I was so I was like, man, I can't believe I'm laying in the bed.

I am so exhausted because as soon as I close my eyes, he comes someone knocking on the door.

I got to go through physical therapy.

I gotta go, I gotta do everything, have thing within this place but sleep.

So I so yes, I agree, it's and you know, you have to go into these convalescent places and they're busy with different types of people and their personalities and it's not always the safe and so it's or it becomes so traconian.

Yeah, and it's like I got to get out of here, you know, get get cabin fevers.

So and there's a lot now we have a lot of institutions being privatized more and more.

So like for example, my daughter who to care, she was in private puster care.

Now she was with someone nice, she's happy, you know, she visits see her a lot.

But ultimately, if you look at the system in black and white, there isn't the funding for us to live together, but there's the funding for three times as much money to pay someone privately.

You know.

That's crazy, that's crazy.

Yeah, you mentioned you were and housing other places, you know, and obviously you know some of the common thread was dealing with the domestic violence things.

How did those things come about when you were in other places?

What was going on there?

So?

Well, it was the symptom of my mental health that when I would become unwell, I would want to run away.

And you know, you got someone new, So I would kind of run away to France or somewhere, and I would do a scheme where you do like some cleaning in exchange for a bed and some food, and I'd kind of do that for like a week or two and then move on to somewhere else.

But I was doing it with a violent person, so you know, there'd be moments of peace for sort of a few days, and then there would be a violent incident and I would run away.

But I was in a hundred times worse than before because now I'm somewhere where they don't speak English, I don't have any money, you know, and I'm in a worse situation.

And sometimes some of the places where he spoke the language and I didn't, so I would go and use some broken Spanish or something, you know, to the police and he would come along and say, oh, she's you know, crazy, you.

Know kind of thing.

So, you know, I mean, I don't really want to say I made things worse for myself, because it's at a time that I was really really unwell, but I definitely did not help myself, you know kind of thing.

But I felt that I wanted to stay away from England, where my children were I kind of I had an idea that I could kind of cure my heart break, you know, but I was allowed to write them letters, and I wrote these fantasy letters because I didn't want them to know the truth.

So I would say I'm in the circus, or you know, I'm traveling the world doing this, and I would do sort of like illustrations and things.

And then eventually the violence, as very often happens, got increasingly worse and worse, and I was on several times almost getting killed but not quite.

I basically had to sort of wake up call after the second time I got stabbed by him, and I realized what he was going to do was drive me crazy and then I would never see my children again.

So I kind of had a wake up call.

I had ten euros, which I think is about fifteen dollars, and I took a bus from Paris to London with the clothes on my back.

And when the the bus had a break in Belgium, and we stopped outside of bat Sea Hotel and I combed my hair down, went in and sat down and had breakfast and walked out, you know, the buffet breakfast, one of the old tricks, and I just started my life again, you know.

And that was when I was able to get into the women's refuge and you know things.

And then I went on a long journey of private rented accommodation, which I really wish there was more understanding of women coming out of refugees not being entitled to any supported accommodation as a single female.

A lot of landlords.

I have had, multiple landlords asked me for services in exchange to reduce the.

Rent, or like sexual services.

Yes, yes, if I needed something fixed, they would, you know, kind of thing.

So you know, I was able to just kind of firmly say no and kind of hold my own.

But I then felt really uncomfortable living there, and that's my landlord, you know.

And I was in that situation for about eight years, and then I was finally able to get onto government housing, which I'm in now.

But of course you have the positive of your rent is affordable and your tendency is secure, but the condition of your housing.

Is quite poor.

I can relate to that.

There's a trade.

There's a trade, you know.

Asking for things to be repaired is a joke, you know kind of thing.

So I'm on a wait list to get moved, you know, to two bedroom.

So I have my children come and visit at the weekends, you know, but they're on the sofa, you know.

Well, it's good that you have a reunification thing.

How did that come about?

Yes, So I've got four children, two of them I was reunited by Social Service.

Is basically they looked at the case again and said, you were not the problem.

The problem was around you.

Now that's been removed to you, and that was really good.

And one of my children, unfortunately, she was abused herself, so that was the reunification with her and one of my other children I'm still waiting for.

So you know, he's in my we write letters.

So there's that, you know.

And I was going to ask the abuser is he in jail or what's going on with him?

Are you?

How are you able to put distance from them?

So there's two different men, there's two different abusers.

One of them has never been charged with anything, both myself and other women he's been arrested for, but always after twenty four hours let go.

And the other one was jailed for a short time, for a very short time, and then he was But there's no danger anymore.

They're absolutely gone.

But yeah, I think I had to do a lot of and still am doing a lot of ongoing therapy because I was always told in the court that it never happened, and that I, you know, this thing, that I made it up, and that you know, kind of things.

So and obviously, as I said, because I got stabbed, I had literal scars on my body as well as the scars in my mind.

Although being amongst other women who've gone through some of the things I've gone through is always very sad, I did actually find it a kind of twisted comfort in meeting other people, because you know, it's not just you, you know, Yeah, And also then seeing other people's success stories, you know, when they get their first flat and they invite you around and you celebrate with them, and you know, and people who've had live taken from them are really grateful for a nice new mug that's got a picture of a cat on or you know, sense of normalcy exactly exactly.

Well.

I also I wanted to ask, because I'm getting people from overseas, like I got a fan that's over from the Netherlands, how did you hear about Weedian House?

Because Weedian.

Howse is you know really what I've been doing the show across the country.

I started off where I was living out on the streets.

So how did you hear about it?

I'm trying to think.

So.

I think there's a podcast that I really love called ear Hustle, and I think on one of their advert breaks there was an advert for Weedly on house.

Ah, Okay, okay, that's good here.

I think, so.

Yeah, And I think, I mean, I find the whole I don't know what's called it, subject area of houses, you know, really really interesting because I think it's so autumn, and I think you often find like like the things like the spikes they put down they're doing architectures, yeah, and that they're doing it all over the world, you know.

So I think, coming from a British perspective, I'm very mindful when everyone always wants to point the finger at America because obviously under Trump it's really really bad.

But I think it's quite a dangerous game because it makes other countries get away with it, you know, like we have police brutality here, we have all the kind of terrible things go on here, you know, and many people might say we're the ones who taught America were you know, all the worst things.

Yes, So I think it's quite important to be aware of what's going on.

But also I really love the podcast because I find there's actually quite a lot of joy in your interviews.

Yeah, and I think, you know, like there's a lot of raw honesty, but I think you know people are they'll pet in the story a moment of happiness and some kindness or something, and usually someone else who's in housed.

Yes, yes, yes is the kindness.

Yes, absolutely, And I try to get much diverse people that are living on the streets in different situations, because one person's houselessness story is very different than another's, and I really wanted to uplift that, and I'm really glad to hear that.

You hopefully get.

More people to out over there and over there to hear it as well, to show the common link, because this is my dream to try to do a kind of an offshoot of Overseas how Wittie in House and get more stories and to show the links and you know, the solidarity as well, because we are going through it even though Trump is president and it's horrible, I'm not disputing that, but a house we've been battered for way before he was in and with the laws, with the creating you can't have in some places a pillow or a blanket out on the street.

If they catch you with a pill of blanket, you can be arrested.

People that are trying to feed or give a water or feed out house people, they can be arrested in some parts of the city.

It's such a point where that now, like for example, in Tennessee, it is a felony that you can go to prison for like six years for being on housed on a public space.

So that's yeah, it's and that's it's not openly talked about in i won't say polite conversation or in general conversation.

And that's why I've really been on the I won't say the war path, but I've been on my mantle, my soapbox, to make sure that people know this is not going away.

Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist, and it doesn't mean that we cannot not say anything about it.

We have to speak about it because exactly, you know, we just had a big fire here in Los Angeles, and then we have newly displaced people and these laws are in place, They're going to be following victim to those laws because no one said anything or no one made an effort to change these laws.

So yeah, we have some laws like that there as well.

I'm afraid.

Yeah, it's awful.

Wanted the acts.

Did I miss anything, Dory, would you like to add anything?

I think just that, Like, I think it is a purposeful part of the system that information is not given out.

When I was when I was officially homeless in a women's refuge that I didn't know until two years later, or when you someone said to me, when you're in that refuge, you were homeless, and I was like, so I didn't put it on my phone because I didn't know.

And that was very purposeful.

And I think that's very much part of the system, you know, because what if they say knowledge is power.

Yes, you know, I agreed.

I'll add one more thing too, it's like two.

It also is that for me, it was like a mental shift for me to learn the realities of being in the house.

I remember the first night I became a house and I was so highly wired, yes, and I couldn't sleep even if I wanted to.

I walked.

I mean I walked so far and I walked into my legs started hurting him my feet.

That I went to the hospital and I sat in the waiting room and just fell asleep because I guess because it was the first time.

It was like I didn't know where to go.

I didn't know the resources, and I wanted to make sure that I well, you know, I want to be a who wants to be attacked out there.

But I also didn't know the laws.

I didn't know the thinking, I didn't know the neighborhoods.

So it's like that reminds me when I speak to people, like, you know what the mindset.

The first thing is how you transition or preparing your mind to deal with this new reality because I'm used to living before that, living in a place like everyone else, you don't think about certain things, like you know, when you lay down, you have to make sure all your belonging together, you know, or you have to be able to be a light sleeper, you know, and maybe you're so exhausted you can't be a light sleeper because you're tired.

And if you fall asleep and you wake up, all your stuff's going and now you're also dealing with that trauma of losing things and then trying to recoup all of that and then find and find places where to do it, and then to try to find a new place to sleep exactly, and then the game starts all over again.

And so that is like, that's the reality that I think if I could think about it over again or tell people who have never been in the house, that's the beginning of it.

That's the reality of losing everything and having to start over multiple times, and then having to deal with the mental stress of that and the physical stress.

And I think even now like sort of I'm like eight years on that, like I'm still finding it hard to fully relax.

That's the long term thing, how much it stays with you, and.

I think too, like to me, with me, I became even more words of pack rack because of trauma.

And I'm like trying to share the idea of having to have all this stuff because I don't know if I'm going to need it.

If you know, someone's going to come and take all my stuff, at least I have extra, you know.

So that's it's driving me crazy, like I don't need to do this, but it's like piecemeal.

I'm like I've gotten to the point where like I got to slowly, you know, get out of it.

But it's it's an adjustment becoming on house, and then it's an adjustment becoming housed again and dealing with the realities of being housed.

And you always in that kind of ongoing struggle with your your two selves, if you will, if I believe you know what I'm saying, So I definitely agree.

Definitely, So Greta, I have to thank you very much for being gracious enough to come in and speak with me, and I hope to have you on my show again.

Thank you.

Thank you very much to Greta for her courageous story.

If you have a story you'd like to share that's local or international, please reach out to me at weediat House at gmail dot com or Weedianhouse on Instagram.

Thank you all for listening and let's meet again in the light of understanding.

Whedian Howes is a production of iHeartRadio.

It is written, hosted, and created by me Theo Henderson.

Our producers Jamie Loftus, Hailey Fager, Katie Fischel, and Lyra Smith.

Our editor is Adam Want, Our engineer is Joel Jerome and Our local.

Art is also by Katiefiicial.

Thank you for listening.