Pasadena People: Raquel Calderon Helps the Homeless by Handing Out Frozen Water Bottles

When sweltering heat bakes Pasadena — like this weekend, predicted to top 110 degrees on Saturday and Sunday — Pasadena resident Raquel Calderon, 25,  thinks about those in need. She thinks about the homeless, or, as she prefers to call them, the unhoused.

“I think about someone having to sleep, sit, and do everything outside, exposed to the elements, the judgment of the public, and criminalization,” said Calderon on Thursday. “It’s not only painful to think about, but it’s incredible the way homelessness is sometimes perceived and how we as a society have chosen to (or not to) address it.”

Calderon hands out necessities to her unhoused neighbors. Mostly, this includes snacks and waters, sometimes other necessities. On hot weekends, like this one, she hands out frozen water bottles to the homeless. She isn’t a part of a non-profit organization, nor does she get paid to do this. This is simply what she wants to do.

Calderon has done this twice already. The first time, she enlisted four other people to help her pass out supplies on the weekend. The next time, only one more person showed up to help.

“Initially, I was just inviting my inner circle, like friends and co-workers,” she said.

Realizing this wasn’t enough, she went to the Reddit community to find more help. “Posting on the r/Pasadena subreddit was a great way to get more people involved.”

Calderon said she will be distributing water throughout downtown Pasadena on Saturday, Sept. 5, starting at 9:00 am. So far, she’s expecting five volunteers to join her, the most yet. Starting at the “Einstein and Beyond” Public Art Display at the Pasadena Senior Center, the group plans to walk seven blocks around Pasadena, ending at Central Park.

This isn’t just a weekend hobby for Calderon, this is something she wants to turn into a regular thing, potentially evolving the effort into a recognized organization with weekly events.

“I think I would want to model it off of Ktown For All and form committees that are focused on different sub-areas like politics and education, media, and outreach,” she said.  “I would want regular outreach to happen that provides more supplies to more people. I would want to get some kind of regular meeting going, establish a communication method using Slack or Discord and a social media presence so that we can recruit and raise awareness. I might want to limit it to Pasadena and get involved in commenting on and advocating for LA County laws and policy that addresses homelessness, social services, and affordable housing.”

Her passion for outreach started when she volunteered for Ktown For All, a grassroots organization in Los Angeles that helps the unhoused. She only volunteered for a month, but that was enough to make her want to do more for the community.

On a hot summer day, like on Saturday, Calderon doesn’t think about her next opportunity to jump in a pool, she thinks about what she’s seen in the encampments at Ktown, and of her friends, some of whom have college degrees and can barely afford to house.

 “I think about all this, and to me, it seems that, for most of us, the line between being housed and being unhoused is much thinner than we’d like to think,” she said.

“I think about the narrative we buy into about getting a good job and living on your own and being a good, productive member of society and I think about how that breaks down when you start to factor in the realities of life — like disabilities, abusive family and partners, mental illness, what jobs are profitable enough to give you a life and which aren’t and the lack of affordable housing.”

These are all factors that contribute to homelessness, according to Calderon and others.

On top of that, businesses install anti-homeless architecture to avert the unhoused. Some businesses are putting spikes on open areas, while cities build benches with arms in the middle. According to Calderon, it’s because homelessness is perceived as an inconvenience to the housed rather than a humanitarian crisis.

“People who balk at the sight of trash around a homeless person’s encampment, or smell, I ask that they stop and think for a second where that person is supposed to go when the LA county shelters don’t have enough beds for anyone and mobility is limited?” she said.

As a result of this disgust, the problem is pushed to the police. Thus, the narrative switches from a humanitarian crisis to poverty becoming a crime. Unfortunately, calling the police on an unhoused individual doesn’t solve any problems, according to Calderon.

“I see all this and I think the least I could do is provide some frozen water to them on hot days so they don’t die of heatstroke,” said Raquel. “I urge everyone to ask what our values are, and do our voting and action as a community actually reflect that. To me, right now, it reflects that we think homeless people should just be elsewhere and, at worst, that when you’re on the street, your life has less value.”

The pandemic has complicated Calderon’s work. She and her volunteers have been following some of the best practices, which she adopted from Ktown.

“All volunteers are asked to wear masks and I provide gloves, hand sanitizer, and a sanitizing solution,” she said. “Generally, we just hand water and snacks into folks’ hands or place it on the ground near them and back away.”

“Pasadena residents could help by freezing water and handing it out to unhoused neighbors on hot days,” she suggested. “They can also get involved with me and we can work on setting up more routes that cover more area in Pasadena. Right now we just have one small route. They can also read up on the affordable housing situation in Los Angeles county and advocate for homeless people by supporting shelters, services, safe parking laws. They can change the narrative around how we perceive homelessness when they talk about it with their friends and family.”

If you are interested in helping Raquel or joining her on her morning walk to pass out frozen water, email her at calderon.rocky@gmail.com.

For more information on how you can help the homeless community, follow Ktown For All on Follow Ktown For All on Twitter and/or Instagram to keep up on news about homelessness in the greater Pasadena area.