PBS American Portrait

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No peace! No peace! Police! Fight, fight, fight! They have the nerve to post "Black lives matter." If Black lives matter, why the

bleep

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are we out here? Arms up! - Arms up! For every member of the encampment, arms up, fists spread. These are the kind of homes that just sit vacant in our city while 43,000 people are on the waiting list for housing. Homes like this. They just sit empty. So they can call us whatever criminals they want. It's criminals that have empty public housing units sit around while people don't have a place to live. Back in, um, 2015, the Philadelphia Housing Authority seized 3,330 properties by deeming the neighborhood as blighted and then replacing them with, like, housing that won't be public housing. So due to their own intentional neglect, Black homeowners, business owners, long-term people in the neighborhood, were forced to move. Here in Philadelphia, when the city says "Black lives matter," they do not mean Black homeless people. It got worse when the pandemic really kicked in because the shelters had to cut capacity to adhere to social distancing guidelines. So on June 28th, a group of residents and myself decided to make an encampment across the street from the Philadelphia Housing Authority's $45-million new headquarters to pressure them to come to the table. So here we are, um, coming up on the encampment. This is Gerald. Say hi, Gerald. So this is Camp Teddy that we helped to organize. And--and it's just, like, now, all these people having a place to go that is in these encampments. Ultimately, like, what you guys want the city to-- - The--the--yes. The ultimate goal is for the Housing Authority to license use of their long-term vacant, boarded-up properties that they're gonna sell off to developers anyway for them to be put into use as a community land trust. We just wanna use the houses that the government has already designated to be used for low-income housing for low-income housing. It's really pretty simple when you think about it. Mom! Could you help me? Uh, something that I don't talk about much since I found my way out is that I was, um, homeless myself between 2003 and 2010. I-I know what it's like to be so thirsty that you can hear somebody cracking their soda from across the street. I know what it's like to lay on the concrete, and your bones hurt, and you're being kicked awake by the police. This issue is really close to me. It's because I-I know what it's like. Police chopper circling. I don't know what they up to, but... circling very low right here. Our city officials always love to boast about how Black lives matter and they stand in solidarity, yet here I am,

up at 5

00 a.m., preparing for... the eviction of homeless people here at Camp Teddy. Homelessness is a Black Lives Matter issue. At least 85% of those people are Black people. Wondering what tomorrow will bring. We know the police presence will be heavy. Their answer is the use of force-- eviction, police brutality-- not to work with people to see how they could deal with the issues. I-I know what it's like to build friendships with people based o-on this--this-- this struggle that you're in together.

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Happy birthday to you There's this unity, and everybody just kind of comes together, and people that I slept outside with are, like, still my friends today. I mean, they're-- they're a family. They're not gonna stay lit 'cause of the wind.

laughs

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Yeah, they are. We're out here sleeping under the stars um... so we can be here if they move there earlier than they're supposed to. Yeah. Good night.

scattered applause

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All right, how everybody doing this morning? Good. We want to just come in and have an opportunity to talk with the residents. Law enforcement will stay outside. Could you give us the opportunity to bring the ministry coalition in and just let everybody know? No, you guys are-- you guys are working with the city. If-if the ministry coalition cares about homeless people, then you would urge the city to allow use of all the boarded-up properties for people to live in. There-there's nowhere for people to go. How can you help them by working with the city to remove them from the only community that they have? These people won't disappear after they leave here. They're living, breathing human beings. Where are they gonna go? Scattered around the city, wandering aimlessly while everything is closed due to COVID-19? Where are they gonna go? We need to just keep up, um, with this fight while we have this momentum and-and really-- it's--it's really time. 'Cause it's really reasonable to ask for government houses that have been vacant for 5, 10, 15, and 20 years to go into a community land trust for people to live in. It's not that

bleep

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radical. I mean, come on now. Like, seriously. But I just want people to really, um, get that no matter what happens today, th-this fight doesn't end. I wanna say bye to Camp Teddy too. Um, I'm happy that all of us stuck together and now we all are getting housing. And then we'll have our very own community land trust that we'll rent and maintain together that will be permanent low-income housing in our neighborhood. So we did it. Yay! -

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So we began helping families move into vacant PHA units. Oh, this is Needles the cat, who lived with his owner at Camp Teddy, scratching his way into his new home.

warbling music

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Water running. Um... Three bedroom. This needs to be a little cleaned up and painting. This is Needles and his mom in their new home. Fight back! - Stand up! Fight back! I know what it's like to carry everything that you own on your back.

No justice... all

No peace! No justice... No peace. Knowing firsthand how these systems work, and I know how we're treated. That's why this is really important to me. So I continue to fight.

dramatic orchestral music

No justice... all