Aisha Owens and Kristen Kelley

00:02 Hi everyone. I'm Aisha Owens. I'm age.

00:08 36 I think I've been lying so long. I forgot I have today's date is February 7th 2020 almost Valentine's Day and I'm here at La Casa noches in Chicago, Illinois, and I'm here with Kristen and she is my housing Advocate and we going to have an awesome interview and get to know one another a little better.

00:30 I am Kristen Kelley. I am 27 today is February 7th 2020. I'm here at La Casa Norte in Chicago, Illinois. And I'm here with Aisha Owens who is one of my clients.

00:44 So Asia, can you talk a little bit about how La Casa Norte and our services have impacted you?

00:54 La Casa Lopez been helping me has been helping me since I want to say 99. No, I want to say early 2000 maybe 2002 in the company has actually expanded when I came there were bare minimum Services. They were only that help only so much other days Help Housing food the clothing room. I just anything that you need to get on your feet and be more productive and do what you need to do to accomplish goals.

01:28 And can you talk a little bit about like recently the services that we've been doing how that's impacted your your housing situation because of the services that I recently received in the 2018 year. I found stable permanent housing. I found a doctor's visits doctors offices that we're close to the home. I might help with diapers sanitary napkins bus cards just everything that I needed to make sure that I'm good good to go and don't need further help in that I can make it on my own and can you talk a little bit about what it means to you? It's the best. I don't want my I don't want my case to close. I was going to actually ask for a continuance and see if I can file some type of appeal to say that my case is stay open another year that I need more supervision and possible help from you about the birthday.

02:26 Can you talk a little bit about you know, maybe like what you were experiencing when you came to our services and how that impacted you.

02:37 Well, when I came to the casa Norte I had a open and active DCFS case so and I just really received my son receive my son back full-time and full custody. And only thing that I needed was a housing to close out the case and don't have an active open DCFS case and when I was living with Kristen en la casa Norte music a little bit of time because of my bad credit so find a place but we stuck in there and Kristen so many times I want to give up I sent you. Did you like a million texts? Like I quit I give up you just text me and told me I can have the place. It was a lot of ups and downs, but I don't think I could have did it without the help from driving around and I was pregnant with my daughter. So Kristen really did go above and beyond. I wish that it was something that I could do more. She doesn't accept gifts or anything like that. I can't sleep when I have to stop acting like this you want coffee.

03:37 Get it cuz you would say no, but it really couldn't I couldn't accomplish what I accomplished now without Kristen more than just housing personal things stopped at the store to get the baby something and I'm hungry. I'm craving cuz the baby wants to eat and I don't think she don't think that's in my job description to make sure that the client stopped at McDonald's to get a 245. So the cost of milk that has helped me this experience. Will it cost a note that has been helpful from the front to the back from the top to the bottom and I don't think that you know, I think our services are important but through the whole time all of our ups and downs and everything that we experienced you are so like perseverant and like dedicated to finding housing and that's you know, after I fixed up and said that I give up and property I was staying in the shelter. I was bounced around from a couple of shelters.

04:37 One shelter because I wasn't following the curfew rules to be in at 7, but it was kind of like a double-edged sword because I have to be in at 7, but my son was in daycare because doing those daycare. I was like, I remember you I was going to have you have to probably call they wanted me to take my son out of daycare to be back there at 5 for dinner time cut out the job hunt and the house on the so much don't hit this hard to be there for dinner time at 5 and I wasn't willing to do that. So I got kicked out of there because I want to see I didn't pay $100 co-payment for my son that child care so I could be out looking for a job and looking for an apartment to only have him there for 4 hours a day to be back to you know meal time when it's I can feed him out.

05:24 So then the last shelter that I was in Madonna house to Catholic Charities. It was a much better help it was much more stable and I really believe that that agency and that shelter hopes more homeless people that are in probably level then probably 80% of the shelters in Chicago. So it was a real hard battle an uphill climb for me considering when I started it to where I am now and I couldn't do that without Kristen. You never gave up. It was just you know, when I say, I'll be okay next week look at some new location.

06:11 How do you think the like from your experiences? How do you think shelters in Chicago could operate better? Like what do you feel? Like there was very rares that you face to face while you were in the shelter that I was living in on the Northside. It was like a double-edged sword and I was showing them emails that I have job interviews. So I have one job interview in the evening at 4, but it coincided with the daycare fine because I don't have to get Cameron until 6. I have to get my phone to say so I was good to go for the interview day was telling me they don't care about the interview or the job partner. I'm not working now. So that's the only reason that I can miss curfew as if as if I'm working now and I'll have you know, I get my son from daycare at 6. I wouldn't do the curfew was 7 the travel time was an hour and 42 minutes from where I was at.

07:11 My son's daycare was at and that will help also reduce property and hard times of the shelter's can bend the rules and be more flexible and you know, what caused people need to provide proof of things that doing cuz a lot of people lie and take advantage. But if I'm providing you poop and I'm showing this email this job interviews and I have my housing Advocate calling you saying hey, we're going to be looking at places at 2 and 3 and 4 and she's not you know, then I just should have been lenient. I was put out of the shelter because of that. I had no chance to explain to anyone anything I had to go and then I wasn't able to go to the Salvation Army and stay there until they found me a permanent place. I had to bounce from place to place on the home with my son because of this show because of the shelter I was in wasn't lenient on the curfew side with me because of the goals that I was trying to accomplish.

08:05 And can you talk a little bit about like what do you think causes poverty? And what does that look like in Chicago? Like what what are people's experiences were living in poverty and like how to people and I wish I wish that we could like doing interview on the car because I see people Christmas been in my neighborhood a million times. So on this lot on 63rd right before we hit the big street is the lady in the tent and she sleeping in a tent in the winter and people are bringing the food. She's riding a bear. Oh, I'm bringing the food all the time. So like for Thanksgiving I packed up templates and I don't know I think I asked you for a wagon but it was way back when you guys come across the way I can so I can pull the food homelessness and poverty is no joke. There's no joke. I'm a lot of people are falling ill

08:54 And I even dying from not having adequate living adequate Food and Health Care and it's not as easy as he's commercial Seymour go to DHS and they'll help you and things like that is not as easy as that cuz I stated I got pulled out of that one. I got put out of the shelter and I cannot go back to the Salvation Army and staying in facilities for 30 days. I had to get placed in a shelter from outside Salvation Army, which means I basically had to call go to DHS DHS office DHS takes you to the Salvation Army in the Salvation Army places you I had to basically go to DHS sit there for 10 hours possibly not get Place only to have to find somewhere for me and my son to go at the end of the night because they couldn't Place me and I'm on a thirty-day restriction from going back to the Salvation Army and sleeping there in Charlestown permanent shelter because I got put out everywhere. We were Googling when I was when I got

09:54 Dial number to Crime and you know it. You know, I kept saying make it make sense. It doesn't make sense. If I have a job interview at 4. My curfew is at 7. I have a job interview at for dinner. If they have this big industrial quick kitchen with all this equipment that I cannot use a can I touch that isn't Sunday supposed to be out for yourself, but you can only eat cereal because you can use the self so you can microwave stuff hot dogs or whatever, but you couldn't make a good home-cooked meal. I was wondering how that even I have pictures and I still do have these pictures that will mold in the shower. I send them to you. I think I don't know that mold in the showers. That was a outside garbage in the living area. It was just it was just really bad shelter and it's not it's always as easy as it seemed for people to get up and to get help. It's always

10:47 It's always obstacles and you have to have this documentation and you have to have

10:54 Do You Feel Like I Do the feel like it would be possible would like the amount of people who are experiencing homelessness in Chicago to have shelters that are like better run like when they let you know when they have such a high demand for for shelters that a lot of the times there's you know, not enough beds like you I like how could they better run shelters and just like almost everything I don't how fast houses around the buildings around the corner from my house that I will buy and put homeless people win to me the homeless rate shouldn't be so hot I really don't understand why the family is around the corner from my house are even out there the funds are there the funds are available they're here to help us everything in the car shuts off after we having to say, yes, it's hard to like, you know think about homelessness and you know solutions to it when you drive.

11:54 There's so many vacant buildings and it's like there's more vacant buildings in Chicago than there is people experiencing homelessness and that are out there and I just feel like you're not being utilized, you know, I voted for the governor and the new governor that we have and JB pritzker and I did not know that he was going to hit us with all these tax hikes near the bridge a gap in a deficit that I don't even you know, understand why we have you know, I know it's more to it and it's Logistics that I don't know about and I don't fully understand what I just really feel like there are resources out there to help more people and eight more homeless people and make more shelters in buildings for shelter. I was reading an article on the same time.

12:41 A new deal was just done. I will stay on the southwest side. I will call it or I've been like Kedzie and Homan over there to build to build to be a new housing that they were hoping to be up by September 2020 and they haven't even started the work. So it's not going to be up at September 20-21 work hasn't even started this supposed to be this big multi complex thing. And then I see the deal with the 76 million dollars and and you doing it with this guy when you can go to Home Depot and get Miguel and get Raul and a couple more people and picked up these abandoned buildings for half the cost that you are Contracting these contractors to do when we were looking for on the westside neighborhood. Paul Park in Logan Square cuz you had lived there for part of you know, if your life and just like having a lot of conversations about how those neighborhoods are so gentrified and there's all these condos coming up there. So people can't afford to live there who have grown up there.

13:41 Their whole lives bedroom closet two bedrooms off the closet space and he told me it was eleven hundred bucks a full bed can fit into one in the other one could only fit a twin bed and it was $1,100 1100 bucks. And I just feel like that was way too steep. I feel like it was a $800 apartment. And if you want to push it may be 9 but 1100 was way too much of everything is coming up. You have all these contractors doing this construction with these high-rises and a percentage or a portion of those apartments are supposed to be running to low-income families in Chicago or people and it's not being done. You got so many high-rises downtown. That's was at that got these apartments are also Office Buildings, but those apartments are empty. What are we doing with those Illinois has given all these tax break helping all these big corporations in these big giant with these tax breaks in the

14:41 The people the poor people get nothing. You have to get out there and Claw and scratch. I had to get it out the mud. I had to climb from the bottom do the choices. I made my life was in the bed space do the choices. I made my mother died. I didn't handle it. Well, I didn't grieve the way I should and I just made a whole lot of bad choices and start drinking really heavily. So I'm the reason why I was in the position that I was in when I was ready to get out the mud. It was hard for the city to throw me a rope a rope down there and help you climb out the mud we can help you with this and we can help you with that.

15:18 Well, yeah, I mean you went through a life crisis and you know having an emotional response to that's completely understandable. But you know, we talked a little bit about your experience growing up and everything and you've been like, you know, you're familiar with his kind of the situation of growing up in facing some hardship and everything. So like having come from that background and it kind of puts you in a place where like if you have a situation where you know, a family member dies or something really significant and impactful happens in your life. It's a lot harder to like be on your feet. Do you know where get back on your feet after that situation?

15:58 Very hard when you don't have a proportionate is very hard when you don't have a support system and you're doing it on your own and you don't have people to help you or the people that help you only help you. So I have something to talk about in a down talk you it's very hard and I feel like people should be able to rely on the city or City to help them more and be better equipped and more understanding and sympathetic to the hardship into the

16:28 Sympathetic to The Plight that someone is going through you know, you have you have a lot of issues in the DHS office. They act like it's their money when you apply for stamps, they give you such a bad attitude and they don't have any understanding. I had a big fall out at the Salvation Army with one of the leaders is one of the ladies that supposed to be like the third in charge of the 4th and charged she was so I wish I could remember her name right now to go back to Salvation Army. I would never forget a face though. She was she was so mean and she was so nasty and you know what the thing about it is when you're homeless and you remove it from Chelsea Chelsea Plaza shelter, you have to go back and you didn't the shelter so many Ciara so many people so many people that I bumped into said that the lady was nasty and so mean to them and you may even if people don't want to go deal with that people don't when it was time for me to go. My 30-day Mark was up and I can go back at a friend's house after 2 weeks thinking about having to go back and deal with this lady that's going to give me attitude because I

17:28 What attitude because I'm homeless because I'm sad now I'm mad and upset that I'm homeless and I told her that I thought you don't know what I just been through and I could have just left the man that was dragging me through the streets and I come up the hill here looking for help and a child get in a better position and I can't even do that.

17:44 Because I have to deal with attitudes like this compassion and caring, you know, just everybody look out for the fellow man and everybody helps everybody. You know, I don't when I cook too much. I don't do all the way I go and give it to the homeless I go out and I'll pass it out to the homeless when I was in Madonna house. I have Aftercare I go back every month for aftercare last month. I went back. They had these Ziploc bags with the care packages with the mini toothpaste and a toothbrush and I grabbed 10 of those just to give those out to people in need. I grabbed two cokes that I don't need from there and I put them in the drive at Jewels for the basket. It's just all about not forgetting the hardship that I went through and what I've been through and also understand that other people are going through the same hardship as well. Yeah.

18:35 How does where you come from a fact you're changing your chances of experiencing poverty. Do you think you can talk about that person? You're generally like how like how does where you come from in like the situation that you're born into affect your experiences of property?

18:52 When I my family I was born into a dysfunctional family. So I made the choice for years ago to cut off all family haven't spoken for my family and for years because it was so dysfunctional. It was toxic fighting. I just verbally abusing each other mean to each other you got some family members that would steal from you and Rob you you know, so when you look at things like that,

19:17 Those people that want to change your life and get in better positions if it's always going to be a chance that you slide back down into privacy or that you fall on hard times because you no longer have someone you can call on for help you no longer have anybody that you can go and stay with because you know going to stay with them will bring you back to the old you and now you're vulgar all the time you're nasty and you're mean and you're not taking care of the kids how you supposed to because you got this person in your ear so

19:44 Dependent property has a lot to do with how you were raised how how your family how tight-knit your family is? And will they help you and support you and be there for you throughout your life. Like I feel like family should be always that support each other and I always there to help each other but a lot of families are not like that and unfortunately that's a big factor and fallen on hard times and homelessness and needing a big help the level of crisis with their experience if they have a support system is usually a lot easier to manage than you know, or like just the kind of urgency of the situation is a lot different if they have that like family support system or friends or whoever their chosen family is, how do you think Mary Lightfoot can help reduce poverty in Chicago?

20:39 First things first Miss Lightfoot, you need to scrap all the contract that rhyme had before he went into office to need to scrap those because of that contract that I said about the eye is on the Rahm Emanuel. He did that before he left the Chicago Sun-Times already is 476 million dollars if anybody wants to read it may or may life what you know exactly what I'm talking about. You need to scrap that and take that money from him immediately and said somebody that serious doing business with a guy that has a FBI case and had to testify for somebody else and now we waiting on him to be a building that he was supposed to start on last year. The first thing first c h a fun than that Rahm Emanuel put into play in government funding that Ronald do you put in to play before he left he needs to find a way to scrap that and start all over from the driveway. I know it's another task. You probably don't want to have to do because that was set into place as far as helping property and building more housing for us scrap. It may apply for scrap it and start.

21:39 Because those buildings supposed to be up within the next seven months and they they haven't even broke ground. There's no excavators on a land help with property by getting contractors that are not affiliated with FBI have cases going on testified that the good contractors that truly generally. I was just get contacts from the neighborhood that maybe grew up in the neighborhood and care about that neighborhood not going to put up your buildings and make sure things are safe for the community. That's how she could start to play Fireside public house ncha and things like that and start all over because we still waiting on the apartments on Audrey to be built that was supposed to be started in last year. Is there any questions that you want to ask me?

22:30 What paperwork do I need to file to keep my case over for another year to ask during an interview? Is there anything that you think that other case managers could do because I know everybody doesn't do what you do. Don't do the things that you do and go above and beyond do you think there's anything else that case managers can do to help clients that you would suggest make it to your boss something that could be added like we were talking I said you guys need some type of an me a life what you can also do that as well give these agencies like these cars and vans like DHS has the bands to pick up the homeless from the police station in the hospital. They need to give you guys some Vans because I know you put a lot of wear and tear on your car. But are you that we were apartment hunting so that's one thing you could do Afroman live for more funding for agencies that I actually helping people accomplish that goes and find housing in finding jobs. What do you think you could do?

23:30 I think in terms of like a saint. Des case manager is I think that we actually have a really like empressive staff here who's like really concerned with the clients and like really prioritizes helping people but part of this job is that we also work with likes DCFS caseworkers another case workers from other programs like shelters, whatever that may be and I think that, you know, a lot of times, you know, I think that finding ways to empower people instead of making decisions about their lives is really important. I think that's like working with DCFS. There's a big like disconnect between, you know, they want to protect the kids. But also I think that it's important to be able to do that to advocate for the parents and sometimes we don't see that and so I think that's a very important a lot of times you don't see it because I had a caseworker when it first started the very first court day. She wasn't forthcoming about facts and information that she knew that wouldn't get me they would make me look like as such a bad light and she didn't come.

24:30 She can offer those that she knew that what I was there anybody that goes to court and in that situation knows that in the beginning when everybody wasn't ever there to get you and try to make you look bad and you know things about the situation that you don't have very much to say your lawyer speaks for you and she had information that she could have told the incident that happened that has my case open and she didn't volunteer if she didn't offer it up now she didn't advocate for me at all. Not at all. You know, like everybody's coming from somewhere everybody's in this situation for like maybe not just the one reason that's obvious. So trying to understand like what people have experience in that like a lot of these issues are like systemic right? Like a lot of people, you know, like

25:18 Having an open DCFS case because somebody's living in poverty like addressing poverty is a better way than to like punish the parents for example, things like that. I think is important. I have one last question for you. So we talked about, you know, we talked about your life, which is very interesting and you talk about wanting to write a book. So is that still something that you're interested in doing reading a book on your on your typewriter? I'm still interested in it right now because it's so hard to write for long periods of time with the new baby and she's not in daycare. So even though my son is in school. I still got this full-time baby that takes these little mini Cat naps for 30 minutes of thinking more of a podcast podcast right now, forget that I feel like we'll be partying and funny. I really want to write about a lot of experience and all the things I went to I'm feeling touch one of my first names will be