FEBRUARY 6, 2026 COMMUNITY RESOURCES YOUTUBE from page 4 testifying, and would not want the experience to be broadcast. Buddy 4 stated, “I don’t agree with that at all, I didn’t know that [they broadcast on YouTube]. It is public knowledge, the public has a right to know about criminals, but with that said it doesn’t mean I want to be on YouTube. It wasn’t meant to be the way people use it.” Buddy 5 said it’s the “age we live in, it's the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), it's the age of social media.” Buddy 6 said it “shows what kind of fraud they is, all the system is is money.” Buddy 7 said, “It’s the First Amendment and Fifth Amendment, its FOIA. I see it as content, but with that said I wouldn’t want to be on YouTube court. YouTube is how a lot of people get their news now. After they get a thousand subscribers they monetize it.” Buddy 8: “Zoom court has saved my life, but it shouldn’t be something that anybody can access and monetize, there should be oversight.” Buddy 9: “Typically I think it's horrible. This guy was having a horrible time and people were laughing, it's not funny. It speaks to the popularity of true crime. If I was in court and I wanted my support system to be there but couldn’t be there physically, it could have a function.” Buddy 10: “I think the court system HOMES from page 8 generational change that impacts the outcomes for people around them, too. It’s incredibly powerful when you’re able to change the trajectory for someone’s life by simply giving them what they need at the time they need it most.” We know that housing ends homelessness, but the scale of the problem is daunting. More than 122,000 Australians are without a home each night, and another 1.26 million households are living in housing stress — spending more than 30 per cent of their income on rent or mortgage payments. And with a critical shortfall of social housing, there are 640,000 households on the waiting list for an affordable home. Longo believes that it will take the combined efforts of many motivated, connected movements to make a lasting impact, and Homes for Homes is taking the long view: seeking enduring rather than quick-fix solutions, and new brick-and-mortar sanctuaries rather than emergency triage options. Longo outlined the need for a “healthy ecosystem,” with housing options existing on a continuum. “You’ve got social housing, affordable housing, private rental and then private ownership,” she said. “It’s really critical should be abolished. I’m not comfortable with it [YouTube court]. I think they play to the camera.” Buddy 11: “Law teacher at school uses it. They show the live courtroom to the students to show how the court system works.” Buddy 12: “It’s f***ed-up, they [the police] profiled me off of that. ‘We know what you are in court for,’ because I got in trouble. It's supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, now it's guilty until proven guilty.” Buddy 13: “COVID brought it to light when everything went virtual … YouTube is broadly used in a way to embarrass people and I don’t like it. I don't like all the viral, stressful, emotional, hard on public display for entertainment ... different people have different comfortability … people have a right to view … using it as entertainment I am personally in disagreement with … there are sensitive issues, people are going through things ... using their plight for entertainment.” Buddy 14: “I don’t think you should be allowed to put a very private, intimate, life-altering experience out for display like reality TV … mental shame and anguish … people haven’t even been given due process. It robs them of a sense of justice that they can participate in justice fairly.” Buddy 15 clarified they didn’t know they were being broadcast. It’s “21st century modern times and everything that those sectors are in harmony, and that those most vulnerable are given an opportunity to move through the system when they’re financially positioned to do so.” The dream for Homes for Homes, as it ticks past its first decade, is to see the recipients of its projects grow into a position where they might give back themselves, signing up to pay 0.1 per cent forward — good housing karma incarnate! “In time, I would hope to see that,” Longo said. “In the next 10 years, I’d love for [Homes for Homes] to get to the point when it’s just understood to be part of the buying and selling process in Australia, in the same way we talk about safety measures like wearing a seatbelt or a helmet.” “With my background, I think from a very early age, I realized the power that advocacy actually has,” Aristea said. By the end of September, she will be admitted as a solicitor, working in criminal law — using the “talent for self-advocacy” that she discovered through securing her family that studio, and applying it for the benefit of others. Empowered by her own experience of finding the right housing at the right time, she can speak to the cracks that she’s seen in the system. so to some extent things are recorded. What I couldn't imagine in a million years is that it would be taken into a public domain so quickly and publicly. It’s a lucrative content-making opportunity off of parading people around like legal Jerry Springer, and unlike talk shows, real outcomes with real cases, real lives affected forever. The bottom line is there is money to be made from this content and as long as that’s the case we will keep seeing these types of exploitative practices. Like with everything, the internet could be used for good or bad. It streamlines bottlenecks that have long been there, but there is a cost to people’s safety and privacy.” Post-pandemic court COVID-19 launched a permanent shift to rely more heavily on internet access to court business. However, concerns remain about how current practices balance constitutional rights. At this time courts rely heavily on State Court Administrator Office’s 2020 guidelines and standards. While the guidelines explicitly state Zoom and YouTube are not the only acceptable platforms, the directions do explain how to utilize them. In 2023 the MJC recommended SCAO add updates to the standards and guidelines for live-streaming settings to decrease trauma. A recent review of Washtenaw “A lot of people who end up in front of the criminal justice system were victims first, who often didn’t have the adequate support that they needed when they were younger,” she reports, “and the rates of criminalization in people who have experienced domestic violence as youth are sky high.” Aristea said that her family’s humble Kids Under Cover studio felt way bigger on the inside, providing her with a place to study, decompress or escape — without actually having to leave the family and face an uncertain future alone. “It’s that step towards independence that’s actually prolonging childhood,” Aristea said of the young people who are granted their own studio spaces, “and it’s keeping them at home for longer.” Today, she is a fierce critic of governmental neglect of public housing. “The reality is that there’s no viable alternative. You’re converting a system that helps working-class families, that supports migrants and domestic violence victims, and a lot of those people who would be appropriately placed in public housing are going to end up homeless.” Longo feels the same, claiming that in a perfect world, her role at Homes for Homes would not exist. “But the reality is that there’s been under-investment GROUNDCOVER NEWS 15 County judges listed on the MiCOURT Virtual Courtroom directory suggests not all Washtenaw County courtrooms currently have a working YouTube link, nor do all judges with a working link have the 1000-subscriber threshold for monetization. The judges without a YouTube link and those with fewer subscribers appear to handle a larger load of cases relating to protected and vulnerable populations such as juveniles, families, personal protection orders and specialty courts. However, an inspection of the MiCOURT Virtual Courtroom Directory and washtenaw. org indicates that both state and county information about courtrooms and judges sometimes need updating. At this time, a FOIA request is in progress, with the goal of gaining clarification surrounding whether courtrooms have monetized livestreaming and how the revenue is being utilized. According to a Michigan Courts News Release from November 6, 2025, written by John Nevin, titled "A New Era for Michigan’s Trial Courts: Transformative Funding Model Proposed," efforts are underway to change court funding aiming to “eliminate financial conflicts of interest, ensure fair and stable funding, and expand equitable access to justice for all Michiganders.” In the release is a summary see YOUTUBE page 16 in social, affordable housing for multiple years, and it can’t be solved by one organization, one government. There has to be multiple levers and strategies, and Homes for Homes is one of those.” Ten years in, the scope and impact of Homes for Homes continues to evolve, with renters now involved in the process, too — donating 0.1 per cent of their monthly rent. So too, the sale or lease of offices, retail outlets and factories. With a number of projects in the works, one of the closest to Longo’s heart is The Cornelia Program, which gives at-risk women in Victoria the accommodation and specialized help to stay with their newborn babies. It sounds a million miles away from some kind soul selling their pile of bricks — but it’s not, Longo said. “We’re looking at how the entire community can be part of the solution, how we’re all able to link arms in support of this cause. “It’s allowing us to grant funds across a diverse variety of different organizations. We want to tackle long-term outcomes for people who need housing. It’s seamless and it’s simple, but it goes a long way to making a difference for people on the margins.” Courtesy of The Big Issue Australia / INSP.ngo
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