2022 Cliff Edom New America Award

Los Angeles, CA - March 13, 2020: Valerie Zeller, 52, bows her head in tears of joy following her first ever wedding dress fitting by the side of her tent during sunset hour in Echo Park lake, March 13, 2021. Heather Yoo, a seamstress with Royal Brides, donated a dress for Valerie and performed a ‘pinning session” a week before the wedding to be sure the size alterations would be ready for her special day. I barely knew Valerie when she invited me to her wedding but she was so open and welcoming about it that I felt honored to attend. After all, the city had spent the past year in the gripes of a pandemic so having the opportunity to gather for. A happy occasion was something to look forward to. I asked Valerie how Henry had proposed to her and she set me straight saying that it was her that proposed to him “ I just went into the tent … and said I want to marry you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. He looked down and then he looked up at me and I knew he took me seriously because he looked at me and I could see tears in his eyes and he said yes. And that was it” (Photo By Barbara Davidson)

Los Angeles, CA, May 24, 2020:Echo Park Lake, once a location for movies dating back to the silent-film era, has been the site of conflict between nearby homeowners and one of L.A.’s largest encampments of unhoused people. The scenic park is part of what was once a working-class neighborhood. The area has been gentrifying for years and now, with a median house price of more than $1 million, wealthier homeowners want unhoused people evicted from the park. In March, police cleared the encampment, causing massive protests, and closed the park for improvements. It reopens on May 26.

Los Angeles, CA, May 20 2020: On the morning of his wedding day, Henry calls out to Valerie from his tent for a disposable razor. “I need a razor. Where is the razor?” He laughed and looked at me saying, “How do we only have one razor?” Henry, 63, is a Gulf War Veteran diagnosed with PTSD. He spent 22 years in prison and was granted early release in March 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Henry said Los Angeles in lockdown looked like a science fiction movie. He told me he was going to take Valerie’s name, Zeller, because “she asked me to marry her.” Henry and Valerie met at Union Station where he was living outside in a tent in November 2020. Valerie was with her dog, Redd, and had just left her boyfriend. She was planning to get on a bus back to Las Vegas but the station was locked down. She decided to stay when Henry offered to let her sleep in his tent by herself. Henry thought to himself that it was no place for a woman and a dog so he brought her to Echo Park Lake. “It was more peaceful there. There were public toilets and access to water and in the beginning no one would steal your stuff.” (Photo by Barbara Davidson)

Los Angeles, CA, May 20 2020: Amie Roe, (R) helps Valerie Zeller, 52, out of her wheelchair as Heather Yoo (L) holds up Valerie’s wedding dress to protect it from the mud as she gets ready for her wedding ceremony outside the tent where she lives. Valerie suffers from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a rare neurologic pain disorder that has been nicknamed the “suicide disease” because of its unrelenting chronic pain and lack of effective treatments. I too suffer from CRPS and know how debilitating the pain is when left untreated. A week or so before her wedding, Valerie was beaten up by a couple which triggered her CRPS and caused her ankle to swell making it painful to walk. Yoo, Roe and Pastor Billy Roe, of Wilderness International Church, an outreach church that serves the unhoused, hosted the wedding.(Photo by Barbara Davidson)

MARCH 20, 2021. LOS ANGELES.CA Los Angeles, CA - March 20, 2020: Valerie Zeller, 52, looks into a broken mirror to primp her hair next to her tent on her wedding day in Echo Park Lake. I never heard her complain about not having access to a shower or a make up room to get ready for her wedding. Instead, she stoically carried on and gave herself a sponge bath under her blue tarp and sat in her wheelchair while her Pastor's wife, Amie Roe, did her makeup for her. I asked Valerie, who has three siblings who live in Florida, if any of her family would be attending and she said no. “My Mom died of a rare form of cancer - Liposarcoma - she looked like she was like nine months pregnant with tumors when she died. They tried to get them out of her but it came right back - it was really sad -I moved (to Florida) back from Vegas to take care of my Mother -and Father- before she died. Valerie then starts to cry softly and adds, “I wanted to get married on her birthday but we decided to make it Redd’s (her dog) birthday instead. I miss her a lot but I know she is in heaven watching over me so it’s all good. My Father doesn’t know I got married - I was going to call him from my Pastor's phone but my Dad’s got a form of Altizmers so he’s not all there - sometimes he thinks my Mom is still alive.” (Photo By Barbara Davidson)

Valerie Zeller and her husband, Henry, face the audience after taking their vows at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles. The couple are part of the unhoused community that had lived in the park.

May 24, 2020: After Valerie spoke to reporters, she went into her tent to change into the wedding dress she had been married in four days earlier. I asked her why she put on her wedding dress: “I want people to know the good that happened in this park a few days ago. My honeymoon is over and it’s time to fight. We (the unhoused) should be treated like humans, like everyone else.” (Photo by Barbara Davidson)

Valerie Zeller, 52, faced a throng of journalists during a press conference organized by housing advocates to stop the eviction of some 200 unhoused residents living inside Echo Park Lake on March 24, 2021. Valerie told me she had experienced housing insecurity many times as a child. "I was homeless as a child. I was really young. All I know is we had an apartment and then we didn't and we were out on the streets with all our belongings. It was cold. I remember we were living in a condemned apartment. We were homeless and I remember going to 16 different schools as a fifth-grader. I remember I had lice at school so they sent me home and I had no way to get home. I was sitting in the hallway by the detention and I was only like nine or 10 years old. I remember them saying, "that's the homeless girl," and I remember crying and wondering where my mom was." Los Angeles passed an ordinance recently criminalizing homelessness by banning sitting, lying down, and sleeping on sidewalks that will launch on Sept. 3, 2021, in most of the city districts.

For two nights, March 24 and 25th 2021, police clashed with protestors over the shutdown of Echo Park Lake, in Los Angeles, homeless encampments, and the LAPD made 182 arrests. Homeless advocates say some 70,000 people were living in the streets of Los Angeles - nearly 20,000 more than lasts years count at this time. Los Angeles passed an ordinance recently criminalizing homelessness by banning sitting, lying down, and sleeping on sidewalks that will launch on Sept. 3, 2021, in most of the city districts.

City officials fenced off the perimeter of the park overnight on March 25, 2021, in Los Angeles, while Los Angeles police officers clashed with protesters who were demanding the unhoused be able to stay in the park. Henry called me at 5 a.m. to tell me the park and surrounding streets had been cut off to the public and that hundreds of officers were patrolling the area. When I saw Valerie, from the other side of the fence, she looked fragile and disorientated and said she hadn’t slept or eaten in a long time. I told her Henry was on his way. Los Angeles passed an ordinance recently criminalizing homelessness by banning sitting, lying down, and sleeping on sidewalks that will launch on Sept. 3, 2021, in most of the city districts.

Sanitation workers collected more than 35 tons of trash while cleaning the closed Echo Park Lake and reopened months later after $1 million in repairs and clearing of homeless encampments.

March 25, 2020-Henry and Valerie had the largest patch of land in the park with three large tents, filled with their belongings and treasures, covered with blue tarps. They made a living as night hunters, selling what they found in garbage bins or along sidewalks and alleyways. Valerie refuses to throw things out, so there is little room in the tents for her and Henry. Her belongings spill out onto the ground around the tents. As the standoff wore on, outreach workers gently encouraged Valerie to accept the offer of temporary housing. Knowing the deadline of having to be out of the park by 10:30 PM was looming, Valerie would start packing her clothes frantically only to feel overwhelmed by the task and fall into despair. “I’m not leaving. I don’t care. They will have to drag me out of here … I’m tying myself to a tree." (Photo by Barbara Davidson)

Surrounded by Los Angeles police officers Henry pleads with Valerie to leave the park on March 25, 2021. Henry, who has spent time in prison, refuses to stay with her. Valerie is wearing her wedding veil. Los Angeles passed an ordinance recently criminalizing homelessness by banning sitting, lying down, and sleeping on sidewalks that will launch on Sept. 3, 2021, in most of the city districts.

March 25, 2020-Valerie stands at the park entry telling a Los Angeles police officer that she has every right to stay in the park. While some 800 LAPD clashed with protesters outside the park, those inside the park were kind and sympathetic to the unhoused people who were reluctant to leave. When the standoff finally ended, I asked Valerie what she thought of it all. “I felt like I was being evicted from my home … and that’s exactly how I felt and that’s exactly how it was. They were evicting me from my home … it’s as clear as day that’s what happened. I mean I know it’s a park but I wasn’t going to stay there forever. We need to fix this (homelessness) as a society … They walled us in (with a fence) and then told us we could fill up two bags of our stuff.”

The following morning, after the park shutdown, I went looking for Valerie and Henry. As I drove around my neighborhood looking at different homeless encampments, it was obvious how many “Valerie’s” and “Henry’s” there are in Los Angeles. There are 70,000 homeless people living on the streets of Los Angeles at the moment and those numbers will rise once the COVID-19 eviction moratorium expires. I found Henry and Valerie about two blocks from the park. They had spent the night sleeping in an alley behind Mitch O’Farrell’s office. O’Farrell is the 13th district city council member who ordered the park shut down for a $500,000 renovation. Valerie was pouring a bottle of water over her head and Henry was sleeping in her wheelchair.

Valerie and Henry had their rent paid for two months inside a rundown rat infested hotel not too far from the Park.Valerie and Henry are survivors. I don’t know how they worked it out but they found several supporters to pay for a weekly room a few miles from Echo Park Lake in a one-star motel on Santa Monica Blvd.

May 09, 2021 - May 09, 2021 - After spending three days sleeping in the street in Echo Park, Valerie returns to Henry and passes out immediately after lying down. Henry teases her over it. (Photo by Barbara Davidson)

May 08, 2021- Henry shows me a photo of Valerie on his cracked phone. He tells me he loves her. (Photo by Barbara Davidson)

April 22, 2021 - Valerie and Henry are survivors. I don’t know how they worked it out but they found several supporters to pay for a weekly room a few miles from Echo Park Lake in a one-star motel on Santa Monica Blvd. They stayed in a small room using a shared shower and toilet. Valerie said the room had rats in it but she added her personal decorating touch to it and so it worked for the newly married couple for almost two months. (Photo by Barbara Davidson)

May 07, 2020 - Tired of the constant fighting with Henry and the rats in the motel room, Valerie heads to Echo Park to sell her trinkets along Sunset Blvd. She stayed on the streets there for three days. Valerie has moved so many times in her life. After her mother died, she moved back to Las Vegas. “… After that, I re-established myself in Vegas for a while but everything had changed … that’s when I met my girls in Vegas and when I started partying really hard. I started partying after my Mom died. But I wasn’t a, like, drug addict … I was doing my job at work. I looked good. I had a really nice apartment, a beautiful car — a Honda Prelude.” (Photo by Barbara Davidson)

Los Angeles, CA May 11 2020 -Valerie breaks down in tears, crying on the phone to her pastor that no one is helping her move. She feels abandoned and overwhelmed by the constant fighting with Henry. Valerie told me she was once given a “5150” after she “lost it” while waiting for a friend to get help at a hospital. A 5150 is a temporary, involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. “I was so pissed off. I told them if they keep me here another minute I’m going to kill myself.” She says jokingly. Valerie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder there and prescribed medication. I asked her if the medication made her feel better. She said: “No, I feel worse. I feel jittery. I feel sluggish. It made me feel numb to the world. I didn’t care about nothing and I would sleep 18 hours a day.” (Photo by Barbara Davidson)

May 15, 2021 - I spotted Henry begging for money at the side of the road and stopped to see how he was doing. He asked me for a ride to the motel but I suggested we first go see Valerie, who was back on Sunset Blvd. selling things. When we arrived, she was in tears because Redd had been hit by a car. My heart sunk and Valerie and Henry got into a fight right on the street while Redd sat shaking on the sidewalk. Valerie said she left Redd on the sidewalk while she went “hunting” in the alleyway around the corner. Redd was covered in clothes and a shopkeeper told Henry that he fell off the sidewalk and a driver, trying to park, ran over his leg. I took her and Redd to the veterinarian where we waited 10 hours to have Redd examined. Valerie asked me to take care of Redd if anything ever happened to her. (Photo by Barbara Davidson)

May 8th, 2021-Henry knows Valerie doesn’t want to come back to the motel room because of the rats so he reaches out to supporters for help in getting a room in a new motel. The couple couldn’t get their packing organized so they continued to stay at the seedy motel after all. (Photo by Barbara Davidson)

May 16, 2021 - Valerie hugs Henry upon receiving a donated van while the motel manager and his family look on from the window. She says, “This is our new home, Henry.” The van, which has a lot of miles on it, was donated by a coalition of neighborhood organizers including Streetwatch LA and the Peoples City Council. (Photo by Barbara Davidson)

Tyson Delaney, 8, cries after the Indy Steelers' 8u team's overtime loss in the championship game against the City Colts on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2018. "You played your hearts out, keep those heads up," said coach Donnell Hamilton. The game was moved from Arsenal Tech High School to Frederick Douglass Park due to a fight between parents where gunshots were fired. The team will continue on in the spring with a new season. Hamilton started the Indy Steelers in 2005 with the aim to keep kids in the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood on a positive path. Hamilton, who graduated from Broad Ripple High School, lost his full-ride college scholarship to Western Kentucky after getting caught up in an incident with his friends where guns were in the car. Hamilton, who was coming into his junior year as a team captain, had to serve time in prison. He would not graduate. "I done been through what you been through. Your struggle is familiar for me," he said, relating to the kids on his team. "So, going through my struggle, getting out of my struggle and becoming more positive in my life, that's what turned me into what I am today. A beautiful struggle."

Kevin Rhodes Jr., an Indy Steelers football player, plays soccer with his cousin at his new home in Indianapolis on Wednesday, May 1, 2019. Rhodes Jr.'s father, Kevin Sr., moved him and his sister, Ke'Asia, to the new home after multiple robberies at their home on Herschell Avenue in Indianapolis. "Our house got broken into when I was out trick-or-treating with my kids," said Kevin Sr. "They came in Ke'Asia's window so she wouldn't sleep in her room anymore." Kevin Sr. raises his two children alone. The children would see their birth mother, Jannie, almost every day before her death.

Antonio O'Neil, 10, an Indy Steelers football player known to his teammates as Mouthpiece, plays with WWE figurines in his room Monday, April 15, 2019. "I had John Cena but somebody stoled him," he said. "I'll just have to gets another one." O'Neil got his nickname because he always loses his mouthpiece. "I have bought Antonio, I don't know, 12 or 13 mouthpieces and he never knows where they're at," said Robert O'Neil, Antonio's father. "He probably doesn't know where it is right now."

Robert O'Neil tells his daughter, Mary, 8, to go over to the church parking lot across from their home to pick up the toys she and her three siblings took over. "This is my day, Monday through Sunday," he said. "Come home (from work), come in the house, make dinner, do bed, go to work." O'Neil, a veteran, works as a third-shift custodian at the Richard Roudebush VA Medical Center to provide for his family. O'Neil says he sleeps two to three hours a day and credits his military background for keeping him going.

Takkara Delaney (right) walks on an uncleared sidewalk along 38th Street in Indianapolis with her children Friday, Feb. 1, 2019, after shopping for Super Bowl party food at Family Dollar for a party she's throwing for her sons. Dai Reid, 14, (middle left) who Delaney adopted, and Tyree Delaney (left) struggle to push Tytus Delaney, 10 months, in the stroller. "The boys are always helpful," said Takkara. "They go above and beyond to make sure I'm OK when it should be the other way around. Their hearts are so big." Tyler Delaney, 11, carries two bags filled with the family's favorite snacking chips. Three of Delaney's boys play for the Indy Steelers.

Kevin Rhodes takes an opportunity to fold clothes as his daughter, Ke'Asia, who is ill, sleeps on the couch on Wednesday, May 1, 2019. "Them is all socks," said Kevin. "In fact these are all old socks we've been wearing for I don't know how long. I'm going to get all brand new socks."

Kevin Rhodes Jr. and his sister, Ke'Asia, go through bouts of sadness and grief the morning they found out their mother, Jannie, died due to a drug overdose. The two sit on the couch inside their grandmother's house on Monday, Feb. 25, 2019. "I had to get them up, get thems clothes on and drop them off over here," said their father, Kevin Rhodes Sr. "They called me and said she might be dead or something. I went over there and she was laying on the floor in the hallway. They said they couldn't bring her back, she was gone. There was nothing they could do."

Kevin Rhodes Sr. places his hand on the casket of his ex-wife, Jannie, and says 'I love you' as son, Kevin Jr. cries, and daughter, Ke'Asia, stands close Thursday, March 7, 2019. Jannie died of an overdose. Kevin Jr. could barely stand near the casket that holds his mother throughout the viewing and funeral ceremony, held at Stuart Mortuary in Indianapolis. "Ke'Asia didn't cry at the funeral," Kevin Sr. said. "But, she'll look at her mom's picture, she'll kiss the picture and hollar 'I want my momma.'" Though Rhodes Sr. and Jannie were no longer married, he said he still loved her. He made sure, whether in person or by phone, that his children talked to their mother every day. "It's been really hard on Junior," he said. "They had a really special bond. I can't really explain it. It's a bond that a mother and son have."

Coach Donnell Hamilton comforts an Indy Steelers player after an 8u team loss at Frederick Douglass Park. "I didn't know when I was in college that I would be a coach," he said. "I think I'm a very passionate coach, I want to teach them everything I know. That's what drives me."

The Indy Steelers practice as the sun sets at Tarkington Park, where the team's practice field is located, in Indianapolis. "Tarkington side, you can go right around the corner and it'll be shootings, robberies, you'll hear police sirens," said Donnell Hamilton, who grew up in the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood and founded the Indy Steelers 15-years ago. "It's a bit more of a struggling side. Some people wouldn't understand what some of these kids are going through. Some people are really hungry out here. It's a lot going on out here, it's a lot." Former Indy Steeler player Jay Roberts, who now plays for a local high school team, says the program needs to stay around as long as it can. "They're not just at home bored, they're not seeing what's going on in their environment," he said. "They get a chance to take two hours out of their lives to have fun."

Kevin Rhodes Jr.,11, blows a bubble after shopping for his school uniform, alongside his father, Kevin, and his sister Ke'Asia, at School Zone, located on Keystone Ave., on Wednesday, July 24, 2019. "I got y'alls school clothes now," said Kevin Sr. "Glad we got that out the way."

Kevin Rhodes holds up a skirt to get his daughter Ke'Asia's opinion while shopping for school uniforms at School Zone on Wednesday, July 24, 2019. "You like this one, momma?" he asked. "Or, you want a dark color?" Ke'Asia would pick the light color skirt.

Antonio O'Neil, known by his teammates as Mouthpiece, plays music on the phone belonging to his neighborhood friend, Santana McKinney, 9, on Thursday, May 9, 2019. "No hoop? No problem," McKinney said, as he flips down to the ground after climbing a basketball goal that's missing its rim. "Still fun."

A woman, who asked to only be identified as Sky, reaches in her purse to gather $3 to give to Tyler Delaney, 11, Tyson Delaney, 8, and Dai Reid, 15, after the boys offered to load her groceries for her at Family Dollar on 38th Street in Indianapolis on Friday, Feb. 1, 2019. "They didn't have to offer that and they did," she said. "There are still some good young men out here."

Tyree Delaney, 12, feeds his youngest brother Tytus, 10 months, during a Kingish meeting at Martin Luther King Center in Indianapolis on Wednesday, May 1, 2019.

Indy Steelers 10u running back Chloe Williams, known to her teammates as the First Lady and is the first female football player in the 15-year history of the Steelers, prepares to take the handoff during practice at Tarkington Park. The park, located just off Illinois and 38th Street, is typically busy with hundreds of people on summer nights. And though the kids are playing football to stay out of trouble, according to Lacie Nix, mother of two Steelers players, "sometimes the trouble finds them." During a practice at Tarkington Park gunshots rang out. "When you hear gunshots your natural reaction is to run, so trying to explain to an 8 or 9-year-old kid, it's like we don't want you to run you have to get down. It's not something that you want to explain to a kid," said coach Donnell Hamilton. Nix remembers asking kids if they were OK after the incident. "Several of them looked at me and said, 'Oh, that's normal,'" said Nix, "That's not normal. That shouldn't be normal for them."

Indy Steelers coach Chris Meriweather lines two 8u players up to face off during a drill at practice at Tarkington Park on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018.

The Indy Steelers 8u team lines up across from their opponents at Watkins Park on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018.

Cam Harden holds a balloon and listens as family and friends remember former Indy Steelers football player DeShaun Swanson during a balloon release in his honor at Watkins Park on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019. Swanson, 10, was murdered in a drive-by shooting in the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood in 2015, not far from the team's practice field. The case remains unsolved. "I definitely miss him every day," said coach Donnell Hamilton. "He was probably the littlest guy on the field with the biggest heart. He played for two years and the year that happened was in September and it crushed us." The team gathers yearly to honor Swanson with a balloon release and football games. "His memory certainly lives on. Each of the kids there has a story about him or a story about his life and you realize with DeShaun, right down the street from the park, that's a reality for these kids and that's what I think normalizes it. They see that stuff, what is the solution?"

Antonio O'Neil, 11, known to his teammates as Mouthpiece, dances to Lil Nas X/s "Old town Road," alongside neighborhood friend Santana McKinney, 9, on Thursday, May 9, 2019.

Takkara Delaney, a single mother of five, leaves the Martin Luther King Community Center, alongside her sons, Tyree, 12, and Tyson, 8, after a Kingish session. "Kingish is our non-profit organization that we started just based on being in the neighborhood and realizing there was a lot of trauma was going on with the kids," she said. "The boys are involved and they actually helped me come up with this idea. They're not too young to make a difference." Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Delaney lead the small group of teens from the neighborhood to speak openly about issues they face. Topics included race, gun violence, and abuse – issues that they can forget about on the football field.

Fresno County Sheriff’s officers stand outside a house with guns drawn as they prepare to serve an eviction order while a dog named Princess looks on, on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 in Fresno, California.
SUMMARY:
The Valenzuela’s were already living pay check to pay check when eviction notices started appearing on their door, addressed to somebody else. They were sure there was a mistake. All over the state people like the Valenzuela’s are in danger of losing their homes. In Fresno County, more than 650 families have been forced out of their homes since the coronavirus took hold, despite a federal eviction moratorium. Finally one morning the sheriff’s arrived and kicked the Valenzuela's out.
Bre-Anna, who goes by Bre watched as her family had nowhere to go. At only 10-years old she understood her family’s fragility — how they had been teetering on the edge of crisis for years and how the eviction could upend them. Her mother Danetta was sick, terminally ill with kidney disease and congestive heart failure. Her grandmother, Sharon, who lived a few miles away often stayed with them, watching Bre while Danetta was on dialysis. Bre’s father Brian was unable to work after a bad car accident. He fixed up bikes for cash and they lived off of his unemployment.
The stress of the eviction shattered the family. After a week at a Motel 6 they had run out of money. Brian and Bre were staying with her grandmother Sharon and Danetta was staying with extended family. With options dwindling Danetta decided they would move to Alabama where her mother lived. When Danetta told Brian she wanted to move he refused. He didn’t want to leave Fresno and worried that Danetta would die on the road. She had already missed several dialysis appointments. Bre watched as her parents began to argue and then separate. She was left with the difficult decision of which parent to go with. The fighting escalated when Danetta’s mother showed up to bring Bre back to Alabama. Bre told her mother she wasn’t leaving. Danetta went alone, figuring they'd follow shortly after. But two days into the road trip to Alabama Danetta died of a heart attack. Bre and Brian's future is uncertain.

Bre-Anna Valenzuela,10, looks out from the front door of her grandmother’s home as her family fights with one another just days after Bre-Anna’s family was evicted from their home on Thursday, April 1, 2021 in Fresno, California.

The Valenzuela’s were already living pay check to pay check when eviction notices started appearing on their door, addressed to somebody else. They were sure there was a mistake. All over the state people like the Valenzuela’s are in danger of losing their homes. In Fresno County, more than 650 families have been forced out of their homes since the coronavirus took hold, despite a federal eviction moratorium. Finally one morning the sheriff’s arrived and kicked the Valenzuela's out.
Bre-Anna, who goes by Bre watched as her family had nowhere to go. At only 10-years old she understood her family’s fragility — how they had been teetering on the edge of crisis for years and how the eviction could upend them. Her mother Danetta was sick, terminally ill with kidney disease and congestive heart failure. Her grandmother, Sharon, who lived a few miles away often stayed with them, watching Bre while Danetta was on dialysis. Bre’s father Brian was unable to work after a bad car accident. He fixed up bikes for cash and they lived off of his unemployment.
The stress of the eviction shattered the family. After a week at a Motel 6 they had run out of money. Brian and Bre were staying with her grandmother Sharon and Danetta was staying with extended family. With options dwindling Danetta decided they would move to Alabama where her mother lived. When Danetta told Brian she wanted to move he refused. He didn’t want to leave Fresno and worried that Danetta would die on the road. She had already missed several dialysis appointments. Bre watched as her parents began to argue and then separate. She was left with the difficult decision of which parent to go with. The fighting escalated when Danetta’s mother showed up to bring Bre back to Alabama. Bre told her mother she wasn’t leaving. Danetta went alone, figuring they'd follow shortly after. But two days into the road trip to Alabama Danetta died of a heart attack. Bre and Brian's future is uncertain.

“Grandma, look at my house! I’m gonna make it look pretty”, Bre-Anna Valenzuela,10, exclaimed after building a “house” out of U-Haul boxes in front of her grandmothers house days after being evicted from her home on Thursday, April 8, 2021 in Fresno, California. Despite a moratorium on evictions due to the coronavirus many evictions are still occurring throughout the state. The Valenzuela’s received eviction notices but not under their name and they say they thought it was a mistake. The owner of the house, Louise Traxler, sold it to a real estate company who plans to flip the house.

Bre-Anna Valenzuela, 10, climbs into a window as her grandmother Sharon Valenzuela (left) guides her and mother Danetta Valenzuela sits on the porch the morning after being evicted from their home on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 in Fresno, California. Bre-Anna snuck back into the house through an open window to grab cereal for breakfast. Her mother Danetta sat outside all morning because she needed her oxygen to be connected to a power source. Danetta suffers from dialysis and other heart complications.

Bre-Anna Valenzuela, 10, looks through a box of her “stuffies” after being evicted from her home a day earlier on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 in Fresno, California. Bre-Anna had snuck back into the house through an open window to collect a few of her favorite belongings.

The Valenzuela's dog named Little Mama is fenced into the back yard of their grandmother's home in Fresno, California on April 6, 2021. The dog who was only 1-years-old was confused by its new surroundings and constantly trying to escape.

Danetta Valenzuela breaks down in tears after realizing her husband gave her the wrong key to the storage unit where she was trying to recover some of her belongings on Monday, April 12, 2021 in Fresno, California.

Brian Valenzuela takes a cigarette break on the U-Haul truck after retrieving belongings from the house he was evicted from with his family on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 in Fresno, California. The Valenzuela’s received eviction notices but not under their name and they say they thought it was a mistake. In reality, the owner of the house sold it to a real estate company who plans to flip the house.

(L-r) Bre-Anna Valenzuela,10, her mom Danetta Valenzuela and brother PJ Valenzuela, 14, walk to the bus stop after visiting with PJ’s newborn baby on Thursday, April 1, 2021 in Fresno, California. Bre's 14-year-old brother PJ had a baby the same morning they were evicted from their home.

Larry Meza, a good friend of Brian Valenzuela's (not pictured) lays on the couch in the home the Valenzuela's were evicted from after sneaking in with Brian to grab a few belongings on April 7, 2021. Larry desperately wanted to help Brian stay in his home but didn't know what he could do

A bouquet of dried roses that Brian Valenzuela gave to his wife Danetta Valenzuela on their thirteenth wedding anniversary sit on cabinet before they are removed from the home along with their other possessions after they were evicted on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 in Fresno, California.

A view of the palm trees from East Princeton Avenue, directly outside the home the Valenzuela's were evicted from on March 31, 2021. Bre would walk to the fence in her front yard to watch the sunset. She loved to watch the three palm trees down the street against the warm spray of colors in the sky. Before the sky went dark, a seam of yellow glistened on the horizon. Bre liked to think it was the sun arriving in other places.

Bre Valenzuela sleeps in a bed at Motel 6 as the television is still on, on April 1, 2021. They were only able to stay at the motel for about a week before they ran out of money.

The home that the Valenzuela’s were evicted from is seen a week after they removed their belongings on Monday, April 12, 2021 in Fresno, California. Since being evicted from their home, the Valenzuela family has been fractured.

(L-r) Bre-Anna Valenzuela, 10, sits on the front of her mother Danetta Valenzuela’s wheelchair while her grandmother Sharon Valenzuela trails behind as they leave the Motel 6 to grab breakfast on Thursday, March 25, 2021 in Fresno, California. The Valenzuela’s were evicted from their home a few days prior and barely had enough money to stay at the motel. They had to return a DVD player to stay that evening.

Bre-Anna Valenzuela, 10, plays with her dolls at a Motel 6 the day after being evicted from her home on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 in Fresno, California. Despite a moratorium on evictions due to the coronavirus many evictions are still occurring throughout the state. The Valenzuela’s received eviction notices but not under their name and they say they thought it was a mistake. In reality, the owner of the house sold it to a real estate company who plans to flip the house.

Danetta Valenzuela is helped by emergency medical professionals as she makes her way from her room at the Motel 6 to the hospital because she was having trouble breathing on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 in Fresno, California. Danetta suffers from kidney disease and congestive heart failure and has missed many dialysis appointments since being evicted from her home.

Sharon Valenzuela wraps her arms around granddaughter Bre-Anna Valenzuela, 10, as they spend time outside the home they had been evicted from a day earlier on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 in Fresno, California. Bre-Anna loved watching the sunset from the front yard of her home. She said her favorite memory was having a picnic with her mom Danetta on the lawn and watching the sunset.

(L-r) Bre-Anna Valenzuela,10, and her grandmother Sharon Valenzuela retreat from the kitchen as a mouse scrambles under the sink at her grandmothers house on Monday, April 5, 2021 in Fresno, California. Bre-Anna has been living with her grandmother since her family was evicted from their home. Despite a moratorium on evictions due to the coronavirus many evictions are still occurring throughout the state. The Valenzuela’s received eviction notices but not under their name and they say they thought it was a mistake. In reality, the owner of the house sold it to a real estate company who plans to flip the house.

Brian Valenzuela begins to yell at his in-laws as they ask where his daughter Bre-Anna (not pictured) is in hopes to have her come with them to Alabama after the Valenzuela’s were evicted from their home on Sunday, April 11, 2021 in Fresno, California. Since being evicted from their home, the immediate family has been fractured. Danetta wants to move to Alabama to be with the rest of her family and Brian wants to stay in Fresno. Bre-Anna was left with the difficult decision of whether to choose to go with her mother or stay with her father.

After being evicted from her home, Fresno Officer T.Miller (right) checks in on Bre-Anna Valenzuela, 10, as her parents fight for her custody outside her grandmother’s home on Sunday, April 11, 2021 in Fresno, California. Since being evicted from their home, the Valenzuela family has been fractured. Bre-Anna’s mother Danetta wants her to move with her to Alabama but she doesn’t want to leave Fresno without her father Brian.

Despite a moratorium on evictions due to the coronavirus many evictions are still occurring throughout the state. The Valenzuela’s received eviction notices but not under their name and they say they thought it was a mistake. The owner of the house, Louise Traxler, sold it to a real estate company who plans to flip the house.

Mother Danetta Valenzuela (left) and grandmother Pat Hopkins (center) try to convince Bre-Anna Valenzuela to move with them to Alabama after the Valenzuela’s were evicted from their home on Sunday, April 11, 2021 in Fresno, California. Since being evicted from their home, the immediate family has been fractured. Bre-Anna’s mother Danetta wants her to move with her to Alabama but she doesn’t want to leave Fresno without her father.

Danetta Valenzuela hunches over unable to breathe properly after getting snacks for her road trip to Alabama on Monday, April 12, 2021 in Fresno, California. Since being evicted from their home, the Valenzuela family has been fractured. Danetta wanted the family to move to Alabama but her husband Brian refused to go because he did not think Danetta was in good enough health to survive the trip. Danetta ended up leaving Bre-Anna and her husband Brian behind in hopes of a more stable life. Two days into the trip, Danetta suffered a heart attack and died.

Bre-Anna Valenzuela, 10, hugs her father Brian Valenzuela during a tense moment at her grandparents home where she has been staying on Sunday, April 11, 2021 in Fresno, California. Bre-Anna’s mother Danetta wanted her to move with her to Alabama but she didn’t want to leave Fresno without her father Brian. Danetta decided to leave regardless and ended up dying on the road of a heart attack. Bre-Anna and Brian are still grieving her loss. They plan to scatter her ashes next year.

Story Summary:

Caption: Brooklyn Lang, 8 of Flint at center, dances with Amethyst, an elite dance company, while marching in one of two Juneteenth parades on Saturday, June 19, 2021 along Saginaw Street in downtown Flint. Juneteenth has been honored in the city since the 1970s, one of the earliest cities to adopt the annual celebration through insight into Black culture and its significance both locally and nationally.

Flint Poet Laureate Semaj Brown feels her natural hair after reciting her poem titled ÒWhere Am I From?Ó on Tuesday, June 22, 2021 at the Flint Institute of Arts. Brown wrote this poem last fall as a part of a project that focused on the intersection of environmental injustice or ecological problems and racial and social problems, organized by Kent State University in collaboration with Columbia University and EarthEthics.org. ÒIn the poem, IÕm talking about all these racial problems intersecting with environmental problems with the earth and the survival of the earth,Ó Brown said. ÒIÕm trying to effect some kind of fundamental change and I know art and poetry can change lives and thatÕs what IÕm trying to do to make futures possible."

Eeshyia King attaches "Black Women Matter" and "Justice for Breonna Taylor" pins to dozens of red roses left at the entrance to the Flint Police Department by 50 demonstrators marching to honor Breonna Taylor on the one-year anniversary of her death on Saturday, March 13, 2021 in downtown Flint. ÒThe most important thing is that Breonna TaylorÕs death is not in vain,Ó said King, one of the organizers for the solidarity march. ÒWe want to see actual actions from what happened and we want to see consequences and we want to see these laws changed.Ó Taylor, 26, a Black emergency medical technician, was shot and killed by Louisville police on March 13, 2020. She was a native of Grand Rapids.

Caranna Askew, 8, smiles as she watches hundreds of classic cars drive by along the bricks of Saginaw Street as her grandmother Laurie De La Garza, of Redford, puts on her makeup in the passenger seat of the family's 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle 300 during the 2021 Back to the Bricks main event on Saturday, August 21, 2021 in downtown Flint. De La Garza said her granddaughter is a "little cruiser." She attends all the car shows with her and her husband K.C. De La Garza, pointing out make, model and year of the top of her head. "Classic cars are so cool," Askew said. "In the early morning, it's really pretty to see the cars go by."

The Hutchinson sisters -- from left, Kaniya, 8, Kamari, 7, and Kanila, 9, stand together confidently as they join family and friends to celebrate the life of Alexis Aaron on Saturday, May 22, 2021 at Richfield Early Learning Center. The teen was shot and killed in July 2020 at the age of 17. She would have turned 18, Thursday, May 20, 2021 and celebrated her graduation shortly after. The trio stands strong in honor of their family friend Aaron.

Rere Thomas, 18 at center, smiles as she connects with Jaireese Woodall, 17, while sitting at a desk with a COVID-protective shield as classmate Jeremy Purcell, 19, waits in the back before the commencement ceremony on Wednesday, June 2, 2021 in the gymnasium at Flint Southwestern Classical Academy. More than 50 Flint Community Schools graduates walked across the stage for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic excluded in-person ceremonies.

Levi, 9, lays in his dad's lap as Shon Hart, center, rests his eyes while connecting with his wife Leah after a long day on Wednesday, June 16, 2021 at his home in Grand Blanc. His daughter Sydni, 17, browses her phone in the back while waiting for a second round of energy for game night. Hart wants to be the best father to his children and for his family possible. When he was younger, Hart was unsure at times if his father loved him because his father didnÕt know how to express it. Hart added he didnÕt know how to express he was seeking more from his father and as a result from the lacking relationship he developed issues such as low self-esteem. "I didnÕt have him there to power me," Hart said. "My mother was there and was very present, but it was different coming from a mother. I wanted my father."

The sun rises over the top of General Motors Flint Assembly Plant on Oct. 11, 2021 in Flint. The city is the birthplace of General Motors, and while Flint has seen more financially flourishing days before GM's large departure in the 1980s, the remaining plants still provide grants and funding, as well as hundreds of jobs, that continue to keep Flint thriving in today's climate.

A woman hangs her hand out of the window to catch some sun as hundreds of car enthusiasts watch and drive along Saginaw Street during the second night of Back to the Bricks rolling cruises on Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021 in Flint. Back the the Bricks celebrates the city's extensive automotive history and footprint on the nation, while calling all classic car lovers to the city.

Nikell Johnson of Flint sings with Eclipse Band on the porch in front of dozens, bring life through music to Caniff Street during Porchfest on Saturday, July 31, 2021 on Flint's north side. Porchfest was a new event created in 2020 as a way for Flint residents to safely get out of their homes during the pandemic to enjoy live musical performances.

Hamady seniors Amena Hutchison, from left to right, Simiyah Moore and Tamera Thames pose together in matching NBA jerseys turned dresses in high fashion during the 2021 Senior Soiree, a last school dance held in place of a traditional prom on Saturday, May 15, 2021 at Westwood Heights Hamady High School in Mt. Morris Township just north of Flint, Michigan. The students wore masks and it was held in the parking lot outside to stay safe amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stepfather Nolan Randolph holds a set of balloons, one with endearing and heartfelt words scribed in marker before releasing them to the sky to honor Devaroe O'Neil Davis during a candlelight vigil on Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021 at Eagle Ridge Square Apartments on Flint's north side. Davis, 33, was shot and killed in the parking lot of the apartment complex, and was one of 67 homicide victims in the city in 2021.

Robert Lee of Beecher leaps to grab a rebound during the Gus Macker Basketball Tournament on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021 at the Flat Lot in downtown Flint. This is the first time the tournament has been played in Flint in nearly 20 years. ÒItÕs a dream come true. Anytime you have a dream, you have a vision and you work hard, and God put it in your heart, itÕs going to happen,Ó said Linnell Jones-McKenney, program director at Sylvester Broome Empowerment Village. ÒThey came from California. They came from Las Vegas. They came from Ohio. They are coming from Illinois Ñ all over the country because Flint is the mecca of sports. We produce more professional athletes than any city in America. And here we are, weÕre back.

Rashawnda Littles, 48, holds onto her father Michael Thompson, 69 at left, at home on Feb. 4, 2021, after being released from prison by the state government after more than two decades. Thompson survived life in prison, but behind prison walls he was grappling with the obstacles that came with having no freedom. Thompson was sentenced to 42 to 62 years on three drug charges – possession with intent to sell; conspiracy to possess with intent to sell; and selling marijuana – as well as two weapons charges. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer commuted his sentence, and he was released on Jan. 28, 2021 from the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center in Jackson. One of the things that Thompson missed out on while he was incarcerated was the growth of his family. One the day of his release, the Flint native met one of his granddaughters for the first time. He has yet to meet the eight other grandchildren who were born since while imprisoned.

Flint boxer Claressa Shields makes an entrance as she prepares to enter the ring before boxing Marie-Eve Dicaire on Friday, March 5, 2021 in Flint. Shields defeated Dicaire by unanimous decision to become the first boxer in history, male or female, to win undisputed championships in two weight divisions. Setting the stage in Flint, she has inspired city residents throughout the community. When she grocery shops, she said, kids will come up to meet her, or simply anywhere in the community, she said. ItÕs about making connections and giving back while inspiring others to be the best versions of themselves and chase their dreams. "A lot of kids, teenagers and adults look up to me. I am changing lives every day. IÕm changing the narrative. You can be from Flint and you can be successful. You can grow up poor and make some money. You can go through being molested and being raped and still be a great person. You donÕt have to let those moments define you and destroy you."

Artechia Howard, mother, wears a face mask with a photo of her late son DeMareius Antonio "Dee" Howard as she copes with his death on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 outside of the apartment building where he was shot killed in late January near the intersection of 12th Street and Fenton Road in Flint. Growing up, DaMareius Howard was slender but athletic, his mother said. He loved to play basketball and football. He was an ÒoutdoorsÓ kid. He was sharp. As an adult, DaMareius Howard put his children and his loved oneÕs children before anything else, his mother said. But he would put any of his family before himself, she added. He was a father, a godfather, a brother, a son and a grandson. ÒPeople out here, they do these senseless killings and all they know is the person in the street,Ó she said. ÒThey donÕt know what type of family dynamic they have. You donÕt know the type of impact they have on their kids, their community, their extended family, their friends.Ó

A heavy fog fills the air along Saginaw Street near the Flint River on Friday morning, May 7. 2021 in downtown Flint. The downtown arches proudly display the city's nickname "Vehicle City," which represents its greater roots as an auto manufacturing mecca throughout the 1900s.

Ira "Bootleg" Dorsey of the Dayton Family performs as hundreds attend Glizzy Fest on Saturday, July 31, 2021 on First Street in downtown Flint. Glizzy Fest is a new festival featuring a diverse lineup of talent. It showcased more than a dozen Flint artists and musicians. "It was so amazing looking out and seeing the sea of my people at a peaceful event. No fighting, no nothing. It was so dope," Dorsey said after minutes after his set. "And seeing all the local the local talent. To bring this all together for our hometown, it was just amazing. IÕm still in shock. ... The talent in Flint is impeccable. It surpasses everything. We have the dopest artists in the world right here in Flint, and all we have to do is get back to supporting each other, lifting each other up and not pushing each other down. When we come together and support each other, we are unstoppable. We can compete with any city, any state in the country. Flint is it, man. Flint, Flint, Flint. This is it."

Flint resident Tracy Palmer shows off her Juneteenth-inspired nails during one of two parades celebrating the holiday on Saturday, June 19, 2021 along Saginaw Street in downtown Flint. Despite the adversity black women have faced, Palmer said, when they uplift and highlight each other, they make magic. "For a long time, no one gave us the opportunity to recognize our talents because we weren't allowed to be ourselves," Palmer said. "There is so much beauty, talent and culture in black women and now we realize that we have this huge voice. We deserve to be heard and we deserve to be seen. We deserve a chance to put ourselves out there."

Sisters Shatarra and Shitiara Holcolm hug their brother Treyvon Holcolm, center, to congratulate him as one of a dozen inmates graduating from the IGNITE inmate education program on June 9, 2021 at the Genesee County Jail in downtown Flint. When they enter jail, nine out of 10 inmates suffer from addiction, said Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson. He said the sheriffÕs office and Mt. Morris Consolidated Schools joined efforts to make a positive impact, changing culture and give people a second chance. He added itÕs about changing mindsets around the jail system and understanding the need for education to end a cycle of incarceration. "When you give people the opportunity to validate themselves, to get a second chance at dignity, to restore broken dreams, thatÕs how you reduce crime," Swanson said. "ThatÕs how you keep people from coming back."