By: Natalie Godinez

Fight, fight, fight! Housing is a human right! Fight, fight, fight! Housing is a human right! This is the rallying cry we repeatedly chanted in the streets, in front of city buildings, outside homes set for evictions. This past year, 2021, we continued fighting for tenants’ right to housing, as businesses, restaurants, movie theaters, and art spaces opened up, while low-income tenants faced evictions, landlord harassment, and uncertainty for their future. We contributed to the longstanding fight across Los Angeles led by tenant organizers and were part of new spaces born out of the pandemic’s needs. SHG hosted several art building events in our space, to create banners, posters, and other visuals used in marches, rallies, and protests.  We also saw a dream for the youth of Los Angeles come to fruition and witnessed the power of young people can have in changing our world. 

Youth Artivism Interns & Youth Committee 

A new program we began in 2020, the Youth Artivism Internship, concluded its first term in 2021. The Youth Artivism Internship provides participants with the experience of using art as a tool for social action and addresses issues set by the Eastside LEADS Coalition. The interns work closely with SHG’s Community Engagement Manager and Eastside LEADS’ Coalition Manager to inform and help develop art projects, activations, and/or exhibitions responding to the issues of displacement and gentrification. This year the Artivists, Priscilla Hernández, Sophia García, and Vanya Navarrete, supported by creating a tenant right’s zine, met with tenants affected by a fire in 2020 and held two fundraisers to support them and other families. The first pop-up event happened in May 2021 at Latinx with Plants, who kindly hosted it in their parking lot. The fundraiser included music by a local DJ, and we sold merchandise designed and printed by the Artivists. The Artivists hosted a second fundraiser during the Self Help Graphics annual Día de los Muertos celebration on October 30. Lastly, the Artivists worked with SHG’s Beyond the Press Artist-in-Residence, Pável Acevedo, to create a largescale linocut print including images of tenants part of the Eastside LEADS campaign. The finished prints are still in progress and will be wheat-pasted throughout the community and featured in a mural.  

Another SHG Youth project created this year was a collaboration between the SHG Youth Committee and the Youth Artivists, with guidance from emerging filmmaker Amara Higuera Hopping. The SHG Youth recorded a series of interviews with local organizers, artists, and community members related to housing justice and resisting displacement. The video series is in the process of being edited, and we will release it in early 2022. 

Stay Housed LA

This past year we continued our participation in Stay Housed LA with Eastside LEADS, a collaboration between LA County-based community organizations and legal aid service providers, to offer education and legal support to low-income tenants. We hosted a series of tenant rights workshops, including one in partnership with the office of LA County District 1 Supervisor Hilda Solis in February. Eastside LEADS also started hosting clinics to help people apply for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program through the State and City. These clinics are held in tandem with support for the tenants, usually facing other issues related to housing. 

Through these clinics, we found out about several cases in a downtown building called the Tokyo Hotel, where tenants were facing evictions and poor living conditions. We supported four families in the building from a Sherrif’s lockout by setting up an eviction defense station in collaboration with Eastside LEADS, Community Power Collective, and the Fidecomiso Communitario Tierra Libre (Community Land Trust). Members of all organizations stationed themselves for two weeks outside tenants' residences facing eviction while receiving legal assistance from lawyers at Public Counsel and Eviction Defense Network. The combination of direct action and legal help supported the tenants and helped them feel safe in their homes.

Invest in Youth

The Invest in Youth Coalition accomplished something huge this year. During the press conference, ‘Youth Investment Ain’t No Joke,’ LA’s Mayor, Eric Garcetti, announced that he would include $1.1 million in his budget to fund the City’s first Youth Development Department (YDD). The announcement came after seven years of advocacy from the coalition, which SHG has been part of since its inception. The YDD was officially approved through a motion by LA’s City Council in June. The coalition’s work continues by advocating that the department is equitable and uplifts the needs and wants of the City’s youth above all. 

Our work will continue in 2022 through our newest cohort of SHG Youth who will carry on the mission of using the arts and advocacy as a tool to change our communities. We will also continue fighting for people’s right to be housed and for the needs of those most vulnerable to be met first. You can continue to learn more about our work by following @shgyouth and @shg1970 on Instagram. 

Natalie M Godinez is an artist, mother, educator, and Self Help Graphics & Art’s Community Engagement Manager.