Jetty Etty: The next homelessness roundtable should include those with lived experience

Presenter: Political candidate Monique DeSpain held an invitation-only roundtable on homelessness in Eugene. Advocate Jetty Etty says homeless people should have been invited.

Jetty Etty: I’m working on this reporting system so I can start putting all these reports somewhere of the harassment at the park. And I’ve been working on that. And it’s like, how—what? In two months, I’ve encountered 20 separate police officers, multiple times, some of them. Like, what the hell?

People are losing their jobs like crazy here right now. There’s absolutely no way that folks can try to go earn $500, do all the things they have to do to survive while not being able to sleep or eat, because EPD is constantly out f—ing with anyone who’s doing so.

You know? They just spent $45,000 on three giant letters. That’s a lot of breakfasts. So the city has you know, all these fancy events happening with the athletes over in the arena or whatever it’s called. So we know the sweeps are going to come in hard. 

So this whole situation leads into Monique, right? Monique serves at Neighbors Feeding Neighbors once every two weeks. She does coffee for a couple hours. And now she’s running for Congress. And so Tim (Lewis, PictureEugene) starts diving into, like: Who is Monique? What is she? What are her values?

And it’s bad. It’s bad. She loves drones and she loves law enforcement. And she licks the boots and, in fact, these are the people who are rounding the unhoused people up into concentration camps. There’s one in Salt Lake where they’re forcing people to go to these camps—prisons.

So she’s not helping the folks out here. She’s not good.

She also invited us to this text thread, and we’re just asking Monique simple things like, ‘Who are the panelists? Are there any unhoused people sitting on your panel?’

‘Oh, it’s a private event.’

That’s kind of weird. I mean, I’m blunt. And if I hear bulls—, I’m going to call it out, basically. And I did, I heard bulls— and so I called it out. 

And then I left that chat because I don’t have time for that s—. I’m cop-watching, I’m a gonzo journalist for PictureEugene now. And then I’m doing court support and just learning who people are.  I give them a lot of respect because that’s what they need.

I’m at the park and I’m told, ‘Oh, Monique’s on her way.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh no, what?’

And I’m like, ‘Yo, this lady’s coming here and she’s running for Congress. She’s going to come here and she’s going to be nice to you.’

And I’m just, ‘Ask her. Ask her if she thinks that people deserve a house if they’re not sober. Just ask her. You’ll find out real quick, she’s not for you. She’s a bad lady.’

So I’m just, like, telling everybody this, and then all of a sudden, Monique’s there. So she’s pretty much surrounded. Folks got questions now. And then I went over there because I’m their advocate and she just, like, starts in on this confrontation.

‘Oh, you’re the one that was being confrontational in the text messages.’

‘I was just saying it how it is.’ 

And just listening to the way that she is speaking to folks, she wouldn’t answer these questions. You know, she was just real s—ty. They were all just asking like, ‘How are you about us? Why are you using us as a photo op?’

This all could have been prevented. I wanted to have a serious conversation. This is on your campaign that you’re, you know, trying to fix the homeless-mentally-ill-and-addiction crisis (whatever that is).

And I have a lot of experience—lived experience—because I’m the person that goes and stays in these camps. I don’t know any other advocate in this town that does that, you know?

Eric Jackson, but he’s gone. Candice King, but she’s gone. I don’t know anybody else that does it now. And so it’s like, I promised I’d be a megaphone for these folks. And that’s what I will always be, you know?

And so it could have been prevented had she just said, ‘Hey, let’s have a conversation. I’ll call you. We can talk for 20 minutes.’

I’m a busy lady too, but I can spare 20 minutes to chat real quick about why what you’re doing is weird. And if you want to be helpful, here’s some suggestions.

I’d say: ‘Hey, listen, these are human beings and so treat them as such. Don’t treat them like they’re sad little dogs, first of all.’

I don’t know, it’s just the way that I watch people who don’t frequently hang out with the unhoused, I feel like they think they’re scary or they’re yucky or they’re puppies or, like, they get treated real weird and it’s very uncomfortable.

So just treat them like people. They’re people. They’re just struggling. 

I’d say, ‘The police have been coming here and really messing with them hard. And I would invite you to come out one of these days and just watch, because what’s happening here is weird and it’s harassment.’

That’s where she should start, though. She needs to listen to the folks who are struggling and listen to the people who have lived experience. They can tell you a lot. You can learn a lot about how to help them and what they need if you just spend time with them or listen to the people who do.

And just remember, they’re human beings. They’re human beings. They’re people’s moms or people’s dads or their kids, like, I don’t know, just: They’re people, man. They’re just people who’ve lived through some really hard things.

And if you don’t understand it, that’s a privilege. And you should recognize that and be grateful for it and not judge people who don’t have that privilege. These people all have a lot of a lot of f—ing trauma. Let’s get them some housing. 

But she showed her true colors that day. And she said some s—ty things like, ‘Oh, you’re not doing a good job as being a spokesperson.’

Like, bro, I’m not, (a) I’m not being anyone’s spokesperson. It’s megaphone. Get it right.

And also I’m an advocate for this guy. But how dare you say that I’m not a good advocate? I go to this guy’s, every one of his court dates. Every time I see him, I stop, I check in, I’ve brought him medication to the park. Like when he went to court, I got a donation so I bought him lunch.

You know, we hang out. He hangs out, as soon as he sees me in the park, he goes around with me. He’s got my back. Like, I love that kid. He’s a good person, you know?

There’s some really freaking creative folks out there, people who do work hard. They work hard as hell. And if they just didn’t have to be outside surviving, they could work. A lot of them could.

Some of them will never be able to work. But I think it should be by, like, you know, let’s look into how this person’s circumstances are.

I just feel bad for the folks out there. And Monique was like, ‘Do you think everyone deserves a free house?’ 

I just thought, ‘Yeah, I do, actually.’ Ask Sharon Prager. I was at Candice’s eviction defense for 96 days. Like, yeah, I believe in free housing.

I didn’t say that. I just thought it. I didn’t get a chance to. She wouldn’t let me talk. 

I’m so proud of the folks out there, though, because they’re going up and they’re just trying. I said, ‘I’ll stand with you guys and we can record it or whatever if you want.’ 

And so that was the plan. I was just standing up there with them. I’m their advocate, you know. And that’s all I was doing. And she just wasn’t having it, so—

We’re going to move on. Hopefully we can realize that we just want to do the best thing we can for the folks that we love out here. And let’s just get back to whooping out for them, you know, like being there for them, taking care of them.

Presenter: Jetty Etty has some lived experience to share, but says those voices were not heard, as she was told that Monique DeSpain’s homelessness roundtable was ‘a private event.’

Image courtesy Monique DeSpain campaign video on social media.