There are videos of religious sermons, dancing events and band performances. They show faith-based groups and nonprofit organizations distributing meals, a barber cutting people’s hair and people making protest signs. There are also dozens of videos capturing life at the house. I got hardwood floors y’all didn’t see that part.” I have a microwave, I have a little oven, I have emergency food, I got water and a toaster. “I got everything people can come and cook. I asked and prayed for one and I got two.” “I teach with one and use the other for myself,” Williams tells the women. In another, two women notice her two sewing machines. “This is like an apartment,” one man says in a video. Williams documented the development of the white house on her Facebook account, posting dozens of videos, including tours of the site and interactions with people who had stopped to check out the interior. “I’ve seen so many people receive help in that corner alone.” “She was telling me all her plans and how she wanted to turn it into a resource center, and, you know, that’s what she ended up doing,” he said. She was already receiving donations from church groups and nonprofit organizations and distributing them to residents.ĭemetrius Stigar, founder of Hungry Mouths, a nonprofit that serves the needy, donated two canopies to Williams shortly after meeting her that year. In the spring of 2019, Williams had an idea for a resource center. She considered herself a Los Angeles Police Department watchdog, holding officers accountable if she thought they were violating people’s rights. The killing motivated her to become more active in the community. Williams, a fashion designer, said she volunteered to alter clothes for people in the area.Įventually she made her way to 5th and San Pedro streets, where she said she witnessed the 2015 fatal police shooting of 43-year-old Charly “Africa” Leundeu Keunang, a homeless man. Until that moment she didn’t know much about skid row, but people there offered her a wheelchair and helped her get around. She said she had a broken right leg from excessive police force. Williams has lived on skid row since 2013, when she arrived at the Greyhound bus station from Indianapolis. Stern did not respond to additional questions about the cleanup. Previous lawsuits have barred the city from discarding the personal items of unhoused people. “Even if they claim it’s oversize, they don’t have the right to destroy it.” “They were destroying personal property like it was the thing to do when they know they have to store that property,” White said. The “White House” was demolished, food and goods slated for the community were thrown away, /QvKNRZHB56- LA CAN February 14, 2023 1/2 Stephanie Williams, a community institution, caregiver, provider, and soldier, was targeted by sanitation and the LAPD.
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