Tracy Rosenthal, from L.A. Tenants Union, discusses homelessness policy implications and dehumanization of unhoused individuals. Highlights harm caused by policies serving housed people, eviction without tenant rights, and lack of basic rights.
Homelessness policies benefit housed individuals and politicians by visually clearing spaces instead of addressing the needs of the unhoused.
Forced interim housing contracts strip unhoused individuals of tenant rights, categorizing them as participants subject to eviction without due process.
Deep dives
Effects of Homelessness Policies
Homelessness policies often result in destabilization, banishment, containment, and even death for unhoused individuals. The speaker highlights that these policies, wrapped in euphemistic terms, actually benefit housed people and politicians, clearing spaces visually rather than addressing the needs of homeless individuals. The policies create a sense of safety and security for homeowners, emphasizing perception over the well-being of the unhoused, leading to a dehumanizing environment.
Legal Implications and Rights Stripping
Unhoused individuals forced into interim housing must sign contracts denying any tenancy rights and are classified as participants rather than tenants. This legal distinction strips them of traditional tenant rights and subjects them to eviction without due process. The emphasis on being a participant rather than a tenant automates violence and reinforces the rightlessness experienced by unhoused individuals, both indoors and outdoors, with discriminatory laws limiting their basic rights in public spaces.
Subscribe on Patreon and hear this week's full patron-exclusive episode here: www.patreon.com/posts/67101110
Beatrice speaks with Tracy Rosenthal about the policy frameworks that create and police houselessness and their recent piece in the New Republic, "Inside LA’s Homeless Industrial Complex."
Tracy Rosenthal is a co-founder of the L.A. Tenants Union. Their first book, Abolish Rent, written with Leonardo Vilchis, is forthcoming from Verso. Follow them @two__evils
Pre-orders are now live for Bea and Artie's book, Health Communism, out October 18th from Verso Books. Pre-order Health Communism here: bit.ly/3Af2YaJ
Runtime 1:08:58, 30 May 2022
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