Sade Kammen distributing water to Skid Row residents.
(
Noé Montes
/
LAist
)
Today in How To LA:
Meet the volunteers providing services to the unhoused in a special How To LA series. Plus: The importance of citrus farming in Southern California and find out how you can get your name on a ballot.
Top Story: Mutual aid isn’t a new idea, but it’s definitely becoming a bigger factor in how we interact with communities in need. It’s a model that became especially popular during the COVID-19 pandemic and, in recent years in Los Angeles, there’s been a rise in mutual aid groups assisting unhoused communities, providing everything from clean needles and antiseptic wipes to water and new backpacks.
Over the next few weeks, our How To LA podcast will bring attention to this work and explore important related questions.
Today’s intro is written by How To LA podcast host, Brian De Los Santos:
Aid in L.A.
Mutual aid isn’t a new idea, but it’s definitely becoming a bigger factor in how we interact with communities in need.
I remember my first introduction to mutual aid was when I was a kid in church — the congregation would raise resources to support a family in need and donate money, clothes, food. It’s all about one group of people looking out for another; neighbors helping neighbors.
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It’s a model that became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic and, in recent years in Los Angeles, there’s been a rise in mutual aid groups assisting unhoused communities, providing everything from clean needles and antiseptic wipes to water and new backpacks.
Over the next few weeks, How To LA will bring attention to this work and explore these questions:
What do mutual aid groups actually look like in practice? What do they provide for unhoused people?
Why is mutual aid still necessary in Los Angeles? If it's supposed to be this bandage solution, why is the bandage still on after so many years?
So what kind of things can we do, big and small, to help our unhoused neighbors?
Up first, we follow two volunteer-run groups. One called PUMA (Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid), which provides harm reduction supplies like Narcan and clean needles to unhoused people living in encampments, and Water Drop LA, which provides drinking water to folks living in Skid Row.
“We realized that it was a huge gap in services,” said Aria Cataño, who cofounded Water Drop during the summer of 2020 while a student at USC. “A lot of people didn't realize that unsheltered people in L.A. don't have access to water.”
*At LAist we will always bring you the news freely, but occasionally we do include links to other publications that may be behind a paywall. Thank you for understanding!
A voter drops their ballot at an official L.A. County ballot drop box for the November 3, 2020 election.
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Libby Denkmann/KPCC and LAist
)
Did you know Tuesdays at LAist are all about civics and democracy (also known as Civics Tuesday)?
Today, we’ll learn about how to get your name on a ballot. Yep, you read that right.
One of my favorite things during voting season is reading candidate statements in my voter pamphlet. And that’s because there are always a few people running that make me think, “How in the heck did they get this very inappropriate statement in?” But also, “How did they get a space and … can I also do it?”
This week is the deadline for getting candidates on the ballot, and according to my colleague Brianna Lee, if you live in L.A., there are going to be a lot of names on your ballot.
She breaks down the process, and there’s a part of me that’s tempted to try it… just kidding. But you can read all about it here.
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