BONUS: How Growing Up in the Projects Shaped My Views on Poverty

Liam: 00:00:16

Hello, and welcome to this little bit of bonus content we recently published. What are the projects? And I'm delighted that our guest for that episode, Becky of Equinox, is hanging on to do this little extra bit for us.

Thank you, Becky.

Becky: 00:00:31

Yeah, happy to be here for the bonus content.

Liam: 00:00:34

Yeah. I've really enjoyed recording this podcast with you. There's a lot of things that we discuss in this podcast that I have a basic understanding of.

The projects is not one of them. So this has been an education for me and I'm sure for our listeners as well. One thing that we.

We just didn't have time to cover, though, that I want to just, like, jump straight into is, you know, the fact that we are recording this at a time when we're not that far away from the presidential election. Who knows what way it's going to go?

Right now, I think between Harris and Trump, I mean, there's two very, very different directions that, you know, the sort of national political agenda could be taken.

But it feels to me like homelessness should be one of those issues that just reaches across the aisle that is sort of universally accepted as something that needs to be solved. From your kind of work, reaching out to donors and, you know, funding agencies of all sorts, do you find that.

Or do you find that different parties have a different sort of approach to this?

Becky: 00:01:40

Yes, there's definitely different approaches. I think everyone can agree that homelessness is an issue that needs to be solved. So I do think that there is consensus there. The approaches, yeah.

Are vastly different, and I think that is related to why we believe someone to be homeless. So I think there are some in the camp that make it a very.

This is your fault that you're homeless, and therefore, why should I, as a citizen, a neighbor, be felt to help you get out of it? Or, like, why should I pay? Why should I anything? Right. Because you feel like it's such an individual choice.

And I would say those of us who are in the homeless services look at.

I think look at it more holistically, that maybe there are individual choices in there that led down a path, but there's also a lot of external forces that lead to that path, as well, as we talked about in the main episode about, like, exiting from foster care and not having the support that you need to navigate housing, not being able to afford housing in cities like Los Angeles, maybe struggling with your mental health, and therefore you can't hold down a job. Maybe like, just a number of things on top of, like, discrimination of all sorts.

So LGBTQ individuals Like being forced out of their homes and, or discriminated against for certain jobs. So there's just a lot that can lead to homelessness.

And I think those who believe that it is a very individual issue feel a different way with how it should be supported. So there are some in the camp that are like, you know, let's take these homeless people and put them somewhere else.

Like if property is too expensive in Los Angeles, like, let's send them all to Bakersfield, like middle of nowhere California, because land is cheaper, surely it's more affordable to build out there. And if housing is the issue, let's just send them somewhere else.

And I can see why, like, for some that might fiscally make sense, but then you're asking to like ship people who have a community base, let's say in la, to somewhere they have like no connection and no knowledge of the land. And also, I'm not sure that we should be looking at shipping people off as a solution to anything, really.

Liam: 00:04:09

Yeah, I think historically Americans trying to relocate communities hasn't really landed very well, is it?

Becky: 00:04:16

Yeah, we've seen it before.

Liam: 00:04:18

Yeah, yeah. But I think this idea of being self made is such an American value. Right.

And you can kind of see that in just how divisive things like the Affordable Care act is and things that kind of create this sort of national scheme to sort of support everyone, which just isn't as much of a barrier over here in the uk. As soon as you start to do stuff like that in America, people start shouting about communism and socialism and it's just mad.

And like, do you find that there is a real kind of public kind of PR exercise that needs to be done here to sort of get that buy in for projects like this?

Becky: 00:05:00

Yes, it's going back to what we were talking about too, about like poverty and how we look at poverty and the influences of poverty and the impacts. Like, is it causal? Is it like, what, where does it start, where does it end?

And it is that whole, I think, that pick yourself up by your bootstraps mentality that is ingrained, where it's like, if you haven't managed to do that, well, that's just your own fault.

And that's really hard because that's just not always the case for everyone for a variety of reasons, as we know, racism being one of them, sexism being another, transphobia, homophobia, all the phobias.

And I think it's really hard for some people to buy into that like, that homelessness is a lot more systemic than individualized Because I think some people are looking at it well, like, you choose to do this, you choose to sleep on the streets because you don't want to hold down a job, or you choose to indulge in vices that lead to this. And we're not looking at why a person might be struggling with these. And I think that is what splits the issue.

Liam: 00:06:11

Yeah, yeah, that. That makes sense. And I'm.

I'm actually really keen to just touch on something that you mentioned in the podcast, because you talked about taking your husband to the housing estate where you. You grew up and sort of staying in your old home. I mean, what. What was that experience like for? Because I'm.

I'm a white British man, and your husband is a white British man. So I've just. I'm really intrigued to sort of understand that experience for him.

Becky: 00:06:48

Yeah, I mean, I have such a big smile on my face because I still. I still laugh at all of the exchanges now. I mean, he's in no danger because he, like, as a white British man, just comes off as, like, no threat.

So, like, even as I took him in there, I was like, you're not a target. No one's gonna come talk to you at all. You're least threatening person. So I think that, you know, we talked about stigmas in the podcast, like the.

And it's so limited now, but the violence that you end up, you know, do see in these spaces, it's still. It's very targeted. It's very affiliated with, like, what's going on with the gangs and turf wars.

It's very, very rarely just random attacks, if any attacks at all. That's just not how gangs work.

Liam: 00:07:34

I think that's a big misperception, though, isn't it?

That kind of get so misunderstood in the media is that you go into these areas and people are just, like, standing there just firing guns off, you know?

Becky: 00:07:46

Yeah, I mean, exactly. I think you. You know, I feel like when.

When Will and I are in Los Angeles, we're more likely to be assaulted outside of the projects than inside because it tends not to, like, be community on community situation. So.

Yeah, I mean, it's funny because, you know, he goes in his, like, European short shorts, which is also just so different from the Angeleno male dress code for the most part. And, yeah, it was a new experience altogether because you just see people with a lot of needs.

Like, he thought he was going to enjoy a bowl of cereal outside in the sunshine in our backyard. But as I mentioned, because it's all like, Open backyards of its.

There was, you know, this person at the park that I was talking about that was just spewing up his guts at like 9 in the morning. And just like that was very normal to me.

It's just people kind of expressing themselves as they needed to and just Will grew up, as I mentioned, in rural Suffolk, so that is very, very different. And it's just very, very loud as well, whether you're hearing helicopters at night or gunshots or traffic or anything like that.

I mean, the thing that always makes me laugh when I go back there now and I take Ubers till I get to a place and come back is I have to warn them about these speed bumps as they're dropping me off in the car park. And the speed bumps were put in in the 90s to curtail drive bys and speedway exits. So they're literally there.

They are so fierce that I have to tell an Uber driver like, ooh, just mind the bumps, even if you're going slow. Like, you will basically bounce as if you're on hydraulics.

And I mean, just to watch the lingering legacies of that time in the 90s, which is just so tumultuous when it comes to like racial frictions in the city and police brutality. And again, I mentioned the war on drugs, which is very targeted for those communities.

So a very, very different time in small ways, but a very different time to where we are now.

Liam: 00:10:02

Yeah, and I think there's, there's just so much sort of adjacent to what we've just been discussing that we can kind of unpack from this and just so many, so many kind of political and sort of social issues that are intrinsically tied to these communities and that I think we need to definitely explore more in the podcast and. But to sort of wrap up this conversation, I'm going to put you on the spot a bit here.

How do you think that growing up in the projects has shaped you as a person?

Becky: 00:10:39

Yeah, I think it's made me really sensitive to all the ways that poverty can impact families and individuals and how it, you know, leads to other needs that you don't realize. And just everybody has a different story and different circumstances and there's a lot of success stories that come from the projects as well.

I know again, the stigma everybody's thinking about and I keep talking about like the violence of the 90s, but there's still so many families and individuals that thrive once they're given those opportunities. So this is why I'm always going to be a proponent of affirmative action and financial aid.

Because once, you know, we talk about once money and opportunity is kind of fed into a population and a community, like, there can be thriving. And I really firmly believe that because I witness all sides of the projects.

I witness, like, yes, there's violence and yes, there's need and yes, there's poverty, but there's also resilience and empowerment and people who want to be supportive and people who will give everything they have, which in most cases for these communities is nothing. And they will be there to support. I mean, they will give more than people that have in abundance. And I've seen them do it.

And that is where I want to show up as I continue my work in the charity sector as well, is to keep giving.

Because I think it is a matter of luck that I managed to live the life that I'm leading now, and a lot of people just believing in me and giving me a chance to share my stories, to speak, to have a space to take up space.

And I think if we gave more residents and even for our unhoused neighbors that we see in our communities, that there can be a lot of success and thriving stories. So I think it fills me with a lot of compassion.

Liam: 00:12:38

Yeah. Yeah. And that's awesome. And I think you're right.

You know, there probably is a lot of luck involved, but I think that's true for absolutely anyone in any walk of life. You've still got to be in the right place at the right time for certain opportunities to present themselves.

But I think the fact that there are organizations like Safe Place for Youth and many others in the US that are trying to level the playing field and make sure that those opportunities do present themselves, I think is amazing. And I can't commend the work that you do enough and organizations like that. So we'll make sure that we plug it in the show notes.

And for anyone listening to this, if you haven't already listened to the full episode, please do and go and check out Safe Place for Youth and some of the other stuff that we're going to link to sort of explore this further. But for now, I'm going to wrap this up. Thank you so much, Becky, for hanging on and for recording the podcast.

Really appreciate it and do remind people where they can connect with you.

Becky: 00:13:37

Yeah. Thank you, Liam. So I am on LinkedIn at Becky Avila Knox, and you can also find me on Instagram. It's Dr.

Bobbi Lenox and my little bio is a brown girl from the projects. So if you see that that's me.

Liam: 00:13:50

Amazing. Yeah. Thank you so much, Becky, and thank you for listening. Do go check out the podcast right now. Thank you and goodbye.