The author. Source: Tieira Ryder
Editor’s note: If housing has been a tool of oppression and segregation, it can also be a force of empowerment and belonging. This Black History Month, we highlight local Black leaders and their journeys to Housing For All.
I’m a progressive housing advocate that is committed to land, reparations, and housing justice for community members that have been impacted by housing violence as it relates to “race” and class. “How” I got started in housing advocacy is a bit complex, but I’ll give you a little bit of background. The pandemic had started and I began reading stories about all the different types of residents that were struggling with housing insecurity in CA and other parts of the U.S. I read a story about college students struggling with housing insecurity at the same school that I briefly attended 10 years ago, from which I dropped out due to my own housing affordability issues. Not only was I reading stories about the housing crisis but I could visibly see so many residents outside, in cars, and some of my own friends were dealing with housing insecurity issues as well.
The pandemic forced me to step into housing advocacy, and the truth is I should’ve started sooner, like 10 years sooner, when I attended the college where students today are still dealing with homelessness. But nonetheless, my deep dive into housing advocacy began in the pandemic. I started a blog called How The West Was Saved that focuses specifically on systematic housing violence, solutions to the crisis, & other social issues that are impacting our communities.
As I was creating the blog, I received an email from an ancestry website that I had taken a DNA test from a few years prior. Now, this part of the story is a bit tricky but I’ll try to write it as clearly as I can. I personally DO believe that human origin began in Africa. I do believe that we are all descendants of the original dark skin people on the continent. I have some knowledge about the history of dark skin people in parts of Asia, Europe, and I know that one of the first people in Ireland was dark skin. For me, there is only ONE human race and possibly 3-4 so-called created races, and from those 3-4 races we have beautiful bi-lateral people that are a combination of usually two but sometimes all of those so-called races. We’ve created cultures and identities based on our locations, how we look, & other things like that but I do believe that we have lineage to each other based on the principle of ONE race being the human race.
Anyway, back to this story about the ancestry website: I logged in to see what was sent to me 3 years after I had signed up and it was connecting me to relatives from Europe that has immigrated to the U.S. Now, from time to time that side of my family would pop into my head but for the most part, I assumed that there wasn’t or possibly wasn’t any real relation. I was even a part of discussions in groups created for the ADOS (African Descendants of Survivors) and there were many people saying that they didn’t buy into the whole DNA testing on ancestry websites and I was wondering myself about its legitimacy. With that being said though, I do remember as a child going to see my great-grandmother who not only showed me pictures of the family from Europe but also verbally told me that part of our family came from Europe.
Source: Tieira Ryder.
Flash forward, I’m creating HTWWS and that email along with the results triggered this thought in my head about systematic violence at the hand of the state, about generational violence & housing displacement. It triggered thoughts about things, places, names, dates, housing, history, etc., that could be stolen from a person’s identity.
The ancestry site showed me names of the family that were direct descendants (children & grandchildren) of the family that came from Europe, names that I knew already or could’ve found on my own. It didn’t/doesn’t show me what their parent’s names were, the names of the family that immigrated into the U.S from Europe, and let’s be specific, from Germany!
During that time period in Europe there was a war going on, an awful awful war & aren’t they all awful? So here I was, thinking about generational violence & housing displacement and I was wondering if that side of the family had come into the U.S because of the war? Because their lives had been stolen by systematic violence? I searched their names on some online historical sources & that family name does come up. That email has me thinking that it’s possible that on both sides of my family, that there is proof of systematic violence, violence so heavy that it has impacted the later generations.
That email got me to think about my great great grandmother on the other side of my family, the ADOS side, who was one of the first Black women to drive in Alabama, it got me to thinking about how she had to leave because of the violence she was facing from being one of the first Black women to drive in a very racist southern state. The email got me to think about the town over from me growing up in the 90’s, some racist white people in the town decided to burn a cross in a mixed-race couples yard. That email triggered a response that let me know that it was time to really get to the ROOT of the problems that we are seeing in today’s society!
Now look, regarding the family that came from Europe, it’s possible that they weren’t dealing with anything related to the war and maybe they just wanted to come into the U.S. That is possible and it’s something that I’m still uncovering as I continue to write this story about systematic generational housing violence. But for the ADOS side of my family (possibly some Native Ancestry as well on that side), I can prove that we have been dealing with systematic racial violence for generations now. It has impacted our health, it has impacted our housing, it has impacted our education, and so many other areas of our lives. So what is the solution?
As I dig deeper into my ancestry that has been stolen from me, I begin to uncover why it might be necessary to create new communities that have a multicultural lens. Communities that are always affordable for residents that are from and moving into the community. I start to realize that 40% of the homeless population in LA being Black residents isn’t by accident, as we only make up about 13% of the total population. I realize that while a little over half of California’s students are Latino (can be any race), they are 70% of all our homeless students, and that can’t be by accident either. I see so many from the millennial generation working 2 sometimes 3 jobs to get by and I know that cannot be normal!
Tieira is currently advocating for the closing of the Santa Monica Airport (not in use) and Penmar Golf Course (city-owned) and replacing them with affordable housing and public green space. This picture is a rendering of potential improvements produced by Tieira. Head to htwws.org to learn more and sign onto her petition.
So to sum this all up, I’m doing this to get to the root of the problem so none of us ever have to beg the system, the state, localities, etc. etc. for housing that we NEED in order to have a stable, safe, and healthy life! It doesn’t matter what any of us think about what someone does or doesn’t do for work, where they did or didn’t go to school, none of those things should impact whether or not someone can access safe, clean, and affordable housing. Furthermore, nobody should have to deal with racial housing violence and/or unaddressed trauma from the past that is currently impacting ALL of our lives because of collective neglect & refusal to fix the problem at the root. Furthermore, I want to examine if it’s possible for communities that have been dealing with generational housing violence to divest and create new “tribes”, where they are protected from ongoing racial violence. When a wrong is committed, as a collective country, we should be committed to righting the wrong and make sure that it never happens again. We have not done that!
My journey is for more than affordable housing, it’s for quality & affordable healthcare, it’s for quality education for everyone. It’s for critically needed investments in mental, behavioral, & rehabilitation healthcare, & so much more. Even though this story starts somewhat with my own experiences in dealing with generational housing violence, I’m doing this for the best interest of EVERYONE. In the future when it’s asked how the west was saved, the story will be that the people of the west saved themselves from ongoing systematic violence. There’s a reason that we are STAR TREK in this housing story, we are committed to progress and, in the words of Commander Benjamin Sisko, we are committed to saving the next generation no matter what it takes!
Visit Tieira’s blog at htwws.org