PBD Podcast - "Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

Patrick Bet-David sits down with former Skid Row addict Jared Klickstein, who shares his harrowing journey through nearly a decade of homelessness, drug addiction, and crime in California. Jared reveals how policies like Prop 47 and billions in wasted funds enabled theft rings and deepened the state’s homeless crisis. He details his time working with cartel-linked drug operations, stealing $1,000 worth of goods daily, and the nonprofit corruption fueling the homeless industrial complex. Jared’s firsthand account exposes the dark realities behind California's growing addiction epidemic and offers bold solutions to break the cycle of homelessness and crime. —— 👕 GET THE LATEST VT MERCH: ⁠https://bit.ly/3BZbD6l⁠ 📕 PBD'S BOOK "THE ACADEMY": ⁠https://bit.ly/41rtEV4⁠ 📰 VTNEWS.AI: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3OExClZ⁠ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON SPOTIFY: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g57zR2⁠ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ITUNES: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g1bXAh⁠ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ALL PLATFORMS: ⁠https://bit.ly/4eXQl6A⁠ 📱 CONNECT ON MINNECT: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC⁠ 👔 BET-DAVID CONSULTING: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3ZjWhB7⁠ 🎓 VALUETAINMENT UNIVERSITY: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3BfA5Qw⁠ 📺 JOIN THE CHANNEL: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g5C6Or⁠ 💬 TEXT US: Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time! ABOUT US: Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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Visit FlyPorter.com and actually enjoy economy. I lived in California for a long time and it breaks my heart when I see the percentage of homelessness increasing. I met smart people out there. I met talented people out there. I met talented people out there. They are not being helped. They are only being hindered by policy at this point. He's in charge of the fifth largest economy in the world. He's quoted as saying, Clean and sober is one of the biggest damn mistakes this country has ever made.

It's crazy. People will do what you let them do. Because I wanted to find out how did you end up here. Yeah. That's what I People will do what you let them do. Because I wanted to find that, how did you end up here? Yeah. That's what I wanted to know. Do you remember the first time you used heroin? I remember putting the straw to my lips and smoking it and, you know, knowing my mom died from this. A heroin addict will risk his life for heroin. A meth addict will just risk his life for anything. You're like diabolically elevated.

I mean, it's evil. What percentage do you think finally make it back into society and live regular lives? I'd say less than 10%. You not only have the moral authority to speak on this, you don't see yourself as a victim. I'm so proud of you and happy the fact that there's an example of somebody like you that witnessed that.

It's great to have you on. Jared Klickstein. Let me tell you why I did this podcast here today. I'm 46 years old. Of the 46 years of my life, I lived almost 11 years in Iran, 18 months in Germany, four years in Florida, five years in Texas, two and a half years in the military between Kentucky, Tennessee, and South Carolina,

but I lived 24 years of my life in California. I love California. Let me say that one more time. I love California. Incredible state, incredible environment, magical place to live and die in LA. Tupac music, the hills from San Francisco, my wife and I loved going to San Francisco. Absolutely loved going to San Francisco. It's the only place in the world that I can drive any freeway without even thinking about it. I know where i'm going to end up And it breaks my heart to see what's happened

in california with homelessness the last 15 years specifically the last four four or five years and today Jarrett here you may say I don't know who this man is you probably don't He's not a famous person. His story is gonna get you to see because I'm so curious on what the problem

with homelessness is. He was on Skid Row for almost seven years. He was there talking about Prop 47 destroying California when it was no longer a felony and he stole $1,000 of stuff from stores and he broke down what stores he would go to to steal a thousand dollars he said I did it three four hundred times because he would steal it for a thousand dollars and go sell it to what did he call it fencers fencers for price point and then I said what caused people to get

into skid row and become homeless in California what caused people to get into Skid Row and become homeless in California? What caused people to get out? What charities of the $24 billion the last five years, who did it go to? He gave the charities name one by one by one. We went through three charities that he explained what worked, what didn't work. He broke down a charity that Robert Downey Jr. was a part of that he tells how he was also part of it, how it changed his life. That's how he got off of heroin, meth, what else can I tell you, fentanyl. He tried everything.

The stuff that he shared with me, I could not even believe. My interest is how do we stop him from getting in? And for the people that get in, how do we stop him from getting back and living normal lives? And what policies. He shared a clip with what Gavin Newsom said a couple years ago about being sober. Most of you probably have never seen this clip before, but if you love America, which I do, if you live in California or you love California, which I do, I highly urge you

to watch this thing from the beginning to the end and share it with anybody and everybody you know that is directly or indirectly being impacted by homelessness that's taking place in the state of California as well as in New York and Illinois because these policies are interchangeable in any state we talk about. Having said that, I'm truly honored to introduce to you Jared Klickstein with his story. It could possibly change many people's lives. Did you ever think you would make it? I feel I'm so good, it's like a taste for you, but you know this life meant for me. Adam, what's your point?

The future looks bright. That day, my handshake is better than anything I ever saw. It's right here. You are a one-on-one? My son's right, man. I don't think I've ever said this before. I'm the one. How you doing, man?

I'm doing great. I'm honored to be here. It's great to have you on. Yeah. Jared Klickstein, you know for me I lived in California for a long time and it breaks my heart when I see the percentage of homelessness increasing. We have 770,000 homeless people living in America okay and these are statistics for 2024 and increased by 18.1%. 18% Out of the 770, 181 is from California.

So this is the number that concerns me now. You know, one of the reasons why we have you on here. So California is 11.6% of the US population total. 38 million people on 340 million makes it around 11.6%. But our homeless population in America, in the great state of California, 38 million people on 340 million, makes it around 11.6%. But our homeless population in America, in the great state of California, they have 23.5% of the entire homeless population.

And the reason why I was so intrigued by your story, you DM me, I think, right? You DM me on Twitter and on X and we spoke, but I had seen you before, because you've been interviewed all over the place. You wrote a book called, I wanna read the whole I'm gonna give the entire title cricket smile what it took to escape a decade of homelessness addiction and crime and when I went into your story even deeper The fact that you were homeless for almost 10 years if I'm not mistaken in the streets of LA in skid row

addicted to drugs, crack, heroin, oxycodone, I think you talk about everything, even cocaine, LSD if I'm not mistaken, all of it, which are upbringing that you have. And I figured with all these homelessness issues that we're having, if we go talk to anybody, everyone else can have opinions, but what is it like to be there? Who goes there? How does somebody end up being there? How does somebody leave there? Who succeeded to leave? What programs

helps you get off and not get off? Is it better to be a for-profit, nonprofit, part of the government, independent? What is it? And that's one of the reasons why I was compelled to say I want to have you on the podcast so I appreciate you for coming out. Yeah I appreciate you having me on. I mean I'm not an expert on many things but on these subjects I know a lot you, I know how someone ends up on skitter I know how do you get off and I know all the problems that are happening Would you mind starting with your story? Let me maybe share with the audience your story. Yeah, sure I was born in Boston, Massachusetts

My parents were both heroin addicts I still had like a relatively okay childhood, but Around the age of like eight or nine, they started smoking crack. And crack is very unmanageable. Things got very dark very quickly. And fortunately, I have extended family. I was adopted when I was 12 and I moved to Oakland, California. So I lived with my aunt and uncle in Oakland who weren't drug addicts.

So I had a pretty normal middle school, high school, but probably had a propensity for some kind of abuse, alcohol, drugs. I drank a lot in high school and I landed at college and OxyContin was really big. This is like 2007, 2008. How old are you by the way? Right now I'm 35. Okay, 35 years old.

35, yeah. So OxyContin's big in, you said 2008, 2009? Yeah, 2007, 2008, OxyContin's everywhere. First of all, heroin's everywhere. Heroin's on the campus. Like, my friends are doing heroin. And this is what school? This is UC Santa Cruz.

UC Santa Cruz, they're doing heroin. People are doing heroin, yeah. I was in the art dorm, I don't recommend it. Now let's go back, if you're talking about at the beginning stages. So parents both did heroin, right? And I read somewhere that the first time they got arrested is when you were 12 years old?

That's not the first time they got arrested. CPS was involved in my childhood. My mom got arrested throughout my childhood. For possession of heroin, CPS would come. In my opinion, I should have been taken away a lot earlier, but the state didn't get very involved. And when they did, what was it like? Maybe even your parents, were they trying to protect you and say, hey, don't tell anybody

we're using this? Or was it in the open where you would come home and you would see mom and dad pass that, what was that like? No, they were pretty good. My dad was a union carpenter, he held a job, basically up until the last few months, he held a job. And they hit it pretty well. And they told me, hey, this person's gonna come

talk to you, tell them that we make you breakfast and that we make you wear a helmet when you ride your bike and stuff like that. They're gonna ask you tell them that we make you breakfast and that we you know make you wear a helmet when you ride your bike and stuff like that they're gonna ask you questions like that and And I'd exaggerate and I would lie and you know convince CPS that my parents are doing a good job And they were doing a pretty good job, but um But once they started smoking crack it was You know they both lost a significant amount of weight. They were hallucinating

they were thinking that the CIA was surrounding the house all the time and I basically was fending for myself from about age seven to 12. And what does that mean, fending for myself? Food, taking care of everything. Yeah, like any kind of like decision of like, okay, are you gonna go to school? Like I decided to go to school most of the time.

It wasn't like, you better have good grades, you better wake up and go to school. That's not the norm for you. There wasn't a lot of that, but my parents also were involved in drug trafficking. So there was money, there was like boxes of cash in my basement. And they would just hand me money basically,

and just say, you're doing the food shopping, go get food. And if you're nine years old, you're gonna buy pizza and Coca-Cola. So I just lived on that. Any siblings or just you? No siblings. Just you, and those are your biological parents.

Those are my biological parents. And did your mom, how old was your mom when, how old were you when she passed away? I was 14 years old. And what was that experience like for you at that age? Were you like I know this is coming every day you're worried about the day you hear that your mom's no longer here Yeah, it was somewhat expected. I mean I had been adopted when I was 12 with the plan of okay We're gonna send both of them to rehab

It turns out you can leave rehab when you say that it's important for the audience to know your aunt adopted you. Yeah. My aunt in Oakland adopted me, and their plan for my parents was to send them to rehab. They both voluntarily left rehab, and basically just got high, and they had 600 grand in the basement when I got taken away.

Are you kidding? No, they had 600 grand. From the trafficking. Yeah, from mid-level, just people come pick up a box, they leave, you know. My dad grew up in like a neighborhood, had some connections, and that ended though. Once they got arrested and I was taken away, you know, they put up bail or whatever, they got out.

The agreement was to go to rehab. They sort of shuffled in and out. They voluntarily left and just got a probation deal, basically, and somehow were beating the drug test and just kept getting high, and after, I don't know, about a year and a half, they ran out of that 600 grand. In a year and a half? Yeah, about a year and a half.

Yeah. What was the phone call you got when you knew your mom's no longer with you? It was the day that I graduated eighth grade. It was actually the day before I graduated eighth grade. I, we did like a mock graduation to practice. I came home. I looked at my aunt. I just knew, I don't know, my aunt, you know, she was crying. I knew what she was about to tell me. And family members prior to that had said, you know, one of them might have to die to save the other one. Because they're two just

they're just too codependent. You know, and they're just they're just operating like they've always operated for many years. So you know, my mom, my mom did pass, but you know, my dad eventually got together. So I don't know if he would have been able to do that without the wake-up call, basically. So he's still fine today? No, he passed last year, but he was sober since, he got off drugs in 2011. Wow, so he got off drugs in 2011, dies last year, cause was it a What was the cause he was?

Not in the greatest shape from from abusing drug I mean he used heroin on and off for like 45 years and then the crack and the alcohol He it was just you know he was 71 and he just had a rough life. Well you guys had a relationship Yeah, we well yeah, yeah, we had a great relationship. I was flying out here all the time. He actually lived here. Fort Lauderdale. Oh very cool. Sorry for your loss.

Oh thank you. Yeah, that's tough. It's a year ago. But at least you were able to rekindle that relationship and, you know, kind of have some stories and connections outside of the memories you had from back in the days with what he and your mom were going through. Oh yeah, yeah, no listen, he was a great man and he sobered up and I saw him a lot.

And I spent a lot, I was there when he died. I was here to take care of him and he was just honored that his son got sober and could come and actually take care of him when he was in need. How old were you the first time you started using? Heroin specifically. Anything? Probably 10, smoked weed.

Okay. Yeah. What else? Started drinking probably around 13, 14. And, you know, didn't abuse it, but well, I guess I did abuse it. I mean, I drank heavily in high school. Every weekend, blacking out. Every weekend, blacking out?

Yeah, pretty much, yeah. This is in Northern California now? weekend, blacking out. Every weekend, blacking out? Yeah, pretty much, yeah. This is in Northern California now? Yeah, Northern California. Okay. Yeah. And then how about the hard stuff? When do the hard things, hard stuff show up?

I'd say freshman year of college, everyone was doing, all my friends were experimenting with heroin. My parents were heroin addicts, so I was like super against that. But Oxycontin was floating around, so. You know, at some, so I was like super against that but oxycontin was floating around so You know some at some point when I was 18. I tried an oxycontin. It was the greatest feeling I ever felt and Slowly over the next over sophomore year. I sort of replaced drinking with oxycontin and started selling oxycontin got very addicted started using it every day and

I and got very addicted, started using it every day. And I did some Google research, I realized OxyContin is essentially heroin, and it's a lot cheaper, and it's a lot more powerful, so I made the switch to heroin. When that happened, do you remember the moment where you're like, I'm gonna start, even though you know and you saw what happened to your parents, do you remember the first time you used heroin? Yeah I do

I smoked it on tin foil the summer before sophomore year with a friend and he never got really addicted to it but he was sort of you know messing around with it and I remember putting you know the straw to my lips and and smoking it and you know knowing my mom died from this but I couldn't you know it was over I was already addicted to opiates and but it was sort of a monumental moment for you yeah so what were the events leading you to living on the streets and ended up in Skid Row if you want to kind of go through that story well I got I got pretty wildly addicted to heroin by sophomore year of college. I made it to senior year

but I was getting bad grades. I eventually took a job with, now I say the cartel, but it was really just like a subsidiary of the cartel. You know drivers that would drive around and you know break up bags of dope and then break them into smaller quantities and hire drivers to drive them around and deliver them. So I took that job. And a requirement of that job if you were a heroin addict was that you had to use methamphetamine so you wouldn't fall asleep when you drove because heroin addicts fall asleep when they drive. So they introduced me to methamphetamine and within about three weeks I was like you know kicked out of

my house and kicked out of school and completely lost my mind. Meth really you know it really screwed me up very quickly. How different was that experience for you? Heroin is very boring and it's very tranquil and it's very manageable. If you have enough of it, at first, your first few years of addiction, you can go to work, you can do your school work. It's not crazy. I mean you do fall asleep a lot. Meth is the exact opposite. So you take a hit of meth, and especially when you first start using it, you start hearing voices of your neighbors or your friends.

You start seeing shadows, people in the shadows, and you stay up for three or four days. And you get, it's like an ego-driven sort of, like what's that word for it? You're like diabolically elevated. I mean, it's evil. And you think you almost have like a power, like you're in touch with a dark energy

that you weren't in touch with before. I mean, it is the darkest drug. Out of everything you've used, that's the darkest drug. Oh my God, meth is, yeah. I mean, a heroin addict will risk his life for heroin, a meth addict will just risk his life for anything. I mean a meth addict will risk his life for a cool stick that he finds on the ground. I mean he'll you know you lose your mind you know it is dark and you essentially find a deadly situation on a near daily basis, whether it be violence

or jumping off of a walkway or something because you thought someone was chasing you, these kinds of things. That's what we're seeing in the streets. When you see people wild in the streets, they're probably on methamphetamine. Yeah, there was a clip- Rob, you showed about in Philadelphia. What was that the one you showed?

Kensington, we believe it was fentanyl, is what everybody's on. I'll find the clip. Did you ever flirt with fentanyl? Did you experience that as well? Yeah, I did. I came out here in 2016 to get sober. My dad was at a sober living.

I came and moved in. And I ended up relapsing. I went to Overtown in Miami. I'd never heard of fentanyl, but I went to go buy heroin and I shot a $10 bag of heroin and woke up in the hospital. They had revived, you know, the guy that I was with took everything out of my pocket, drove me to the hospital, threw me out of his car. They revived me. And this is Rob, you're saying what you're showing here is fentanyl? Yeah, that's fentanyl. So that's like heroin times a hundred.

The number of people dying on fentanyl, it's a whole different story. So now, okay. Jared, so you're going through this, let's go back to the stage where you're driving forward the cartel or division of the cartel. They tell you you can't do heroin when you're driving forward the cartel or division of the cartel, they tell you you can't do heroin when you're driving, you can do meth, you do meth, three weeks later, you're done. What happens next? Well, they told me I was only allowed to snort meth, and they said I can't smoke it. And I broke that rule very quickly, I started smoking it,

I went insane, they fired me. Now I have no more income. The cartel fired you? Yeah. How often do people get to say I was. And the cartel fired you. Yeah. How often do people get to say I was fired by the cartel? Well, they laid me off. I don't know what they did, but yeah. I didn't know cartel lays people off, but okay.

Well, this was a very low level. They were just connected to the cartel. So they're not there when they kill you to fire you. They just lay you off. Yeah. I mean, they had guns and stuff, but I think they were. Yeah, no, listen, I'm blessed. They could have just shot me in the head.

So now you lose that job. Yeah, I get kicked out of my house. From the aunt and uncle. No, no, I'm living in like college housing and I'm just going wild. My roommates find drugs and everything, so whatever. So my family gets wind, my aunt and uncle get wind of this and they basically say we're done with you. We're not going to talk to you. We did this

with your parents. We enabled your parents for 10 years. By the way, aunt and uncle, whose brother or sister are these? Your dad or your mom? This is my dad's brother and sister. I mean no, this is my dad's sister. Sorry. Your dad's sister. Yeah. Got it. got it. So they're like, we're done. We've seen this story before.

You're gonna go on your journey, come back when you're serious. And my mom's brother who lives in LA said, I'll give you one shot. I'll help you get into rehab. If you mess that up, I'm never talking to you again until you show that you've cleaned up. So he gave me that shot, I went to that rehab.

I got high, pretty, somewhere in the middle of it. Eventually got kicked out and he was serious. He said, you're not coming to my house. So I asked everyone, I didn't know Los Angeles that well, but they said, hey, when you're homeless in Los Angeles, you go downtown, you go to Skid Row. That's where you go. So I went down to Skid Row, and as I'm going there,

I pass Occupy Wall Street. This was 2011. And I figured, okay, I'll just live at Occupy Wall Street. I walked right in, someone gave me a tent, someone gave me a meal, someone gave me all these supplies, and I sort of lived at Occupy Wall Street. I walked right in, someone gave me a tent, someone gave me a meal, someone gave me all these supplies, and I sort of lived at Occupy Wall Street, the Los Angeles chapter of it, which was actually right next to Skid Row.

I lived there for about a month until they tore that up, and then I had to migrate on to Skid Row. And the way that I did that is when I arrived, I was sort of adopted by a group of ex-Mexican gang members who had been kicked out of their gang for getting too addicted to meth, and they ended up homeless downtown. And I made friends with them at Occupy LA,

and obviously they didn't want me to join their crew. I was like a 22-year-old white kid, but I stole some socks, and I stole some supplies and stuff. And I gave it to them. No, no, no, from like stores and gave it to them as a gift. And I was like, look, I can, you know, they had face tattoos and they looked rugged. And I said, you know, I can do things

that you guys can't do. I can get into stores that you guys, I can steal things that you guys can't steal because of the way I look. And then I sort of proved to them that I was an asset. And they took me under their wing. That's what they did. And they taught me how to live on Skid Row.

What was that experience like? It was amazing. I mean, I felt more powerful than, I mean, I felt like I find, you know, I was like, you know, I'm not that big of a guy. I'm not that intimidating. But the fact that I garnered respect from these guys that were incredibly scary made me feel, I was proud of myself. And I was youngster, chanola, shadow, boxer, and smiley.

And they took me in and they called me Oakland. That's what they gave me, that was the street name. I mean, they called me white boy at first, and then I gained their respect, they called me Oakland. And we did it, we did it on Skid Row for like, that run was probably like six, seven months. I did like a six, seven month run on Skid Row. So help me while you're in it. Yeah.

Help me maybe, because I used to go to Skid Row every year for about 10 years, eight years I went to Skid Row, every Christmas morning, December 25th at 4.30, we would get together in Northridge or Granada Hills and we'd get 40, 50, 100 cars and we'd go to Skid Row. We'd give away blankets, Bibles, we'd go to the local McDonald's buy 200 cheeseburgers and we'd come back and give some things out and I would talk to them because I wanted to find out how did you end up here.

That's what I wanted to know. From the people that you met, profiling wise,iling wise if you were so I met this one guy That was this was it any form of professionals was it due to drugs was it due to finances? When I do the data here, and we pull it up, and we we find out how do people become homeless? Six reasons lack of affordable housing unemployment or low wages family conflict or domestic violence mental health issues Substance abuse natural disasters why people come become homeless. What did you experience? I'm just going to be honest and base it off my experience. The vast majority of people I encountered, and I encountered maybe thousands of people, drugs and or mental illness, was

the vast majority And that doesn't mean that you know there were people down there that were mentally ill that weren't drug addicts But there was a lot of people that were just drug addicts and then there was a lot of people that were mentally ill as a result of their drug addiction But when you're down there and you're homeless like if you were to ask me in 2011 why are you homeless I would have said well My family doesn't care about me. That's what I would have said. I wouldn't have said I'm, because I'm a meth head and a heroin addict. So, you know, people have these stories in their head

of, you know, oh, I lost a job. Well, why did you lose the job? Were you smoking crack? You know, that is a lot of, you know, that's a lot of it. Now, people do become homeless because they lose their job or, you know, maybe they get sick or something. A lot of these people end up living in their cars or they end up living on a couch of a friend or a family member and they get back on their feet.

There are a lot of resources for these sorts of people. There's not enough, but these are the easiest kinds of homeless people to help. When you see a guy running around a McDonald's with his pants down screaming, I mean, that guy didn't lose his accounting job. You know, that guy's on drugs. And we have to stop lying to ourselves that, like, you know, the vast majority of the visible homeless people are there because of some kind of economic circumstance. I'm not saying that there aren't economic circumstances that cause people to become homeless, but

this is the harsh reality of it. And what, so, you're saying it in a way, why do you think they don't wanna address that? Why do you think they wanna say, well, because it's economic and it's challenged and all this other stuff. Why do you think that is? I think that people in charge of California,

the government, are kind of playing it by ear. You know, they're playing a lot of things by ear. They're really concerned with just getting to the next election. They do not... solving the problem is going to require a lot of work and they don't want to work. You know, they've outsourced this to nonprofits entirely. In my history of becoming homeless from 2011 to when I got off the streets in 2018, by the end it was completely outsourced to nonprofits. What do you mean by that? Meaning the handling of homelessness and addiction services, you know, the budgets like, for example, San Francisco had a budget of 1.1 billion

dollars in 2023 to address homelessness and the vast majority of that was not handled by the state. It was pushed and given to nonprofits that don't have a lot of oversight that are there the incentives are wrong I mean their incentive is to get more money from the state. I mean their incentive isn't to solve homelessness so Yeah, you know that that's really it and wait So what you're saying is so almost like when you talk about the homeless industrial complex Yeah, exactly. It's a coin you phrase Okay, so these nonprofits are you saying like give me one to nonprofit names that gets the money

Do you have any of the nonprofits one city rising is an example of one. Can you type in one city rising? So one city rising. Yeah, so they're getting investigated. I believe by the feds right now So things are starting to happen, you know, so one city rising. Yeah When they get the money, what do they claim that they do with the money? Well, they they I think they have assets like property assets that they convert into some sort of homeless housing And then they do a lot of like harm reduction property assets that they convert into some sort of homeless housing and then they do a lot of harm reduction, outreach and things like that. Are they at all effective?

These non-profits are somewhat of... Okay, so of the $24 billion that California has spent on homelessness in the last five years, 16 billion of it went to five entities, only two of which were after a deep analysis were viewed as cost-effective. So some of them are doing something. What are the three that were not? I don't know the names off the top of my head. Okay so you said of the 24 billion. 16 billion went to five entities. For California. That's a lot of money for a non-profit. For sure. 16 billion went to five entities. Yeah.

I'm curious to know what these entities are. Which one of them did you have an experience with where you said, those guys actually helped me out, or they didn't? The Midnight Mission. The Midnight Mission is a fabulous program in Los Angeles. Not really anymore because Gavin Newsom passed SB 1380 that state bill 1380 that said that any

Organization receiving funding from the state cannot have a way to midnight mission is it right on skid road? This is this is where we was used to going that yeah, I've been here. Yeah, it's great. Yeah. Yeah, it's great place So tell me about midnight mission midnight mission is a is a nonprofit You know, it is a nonprofit, it's a nonprofit for homeless people. You move in. You've been around for a long time. Yeah, it's been around for like 100 years and Mr. T would come down there and Dick Van Dyke,

I mean all these celebrities would come. I mean it was like a staple of Los Angeles. I mean it was a good program. But after SB 1380 passed, in order to receive state funding, you can't have, you can't tie sobriety requirements to housing for the homeless people. So Midnight Mission can no longer require sobriety to live within its premises in order to still receive state funding. So which means what? It essentially mandates a housing first approach, meaning individuals

experiencing homelessness Can access permanent housing without needing to demonstrate sobriety or complete a treatment program first? The focus is on getting people housed quickly and then providing support so versus before they had a standard Yeah, yeah, you had to be so I went to that program and I had to be sober and if you weren't that kick you out Yeah, they kick you out now They might let you back in a few weeks later if you show promise and you say, hey, I want a second chance, but it's been basically turned into

like a glorified crack house. I mean, this is, we're providing housing to thousands of people and they are doing fentanyl in the housing and smoking crack in the housing and they're not following up. You know, they said they're gonna, we're gonna follow up with support. They don't follow up with support because that requires work and no one not following up. They said we're gonna follow up with support, they don't follow up with support.

Because that requires work and no one wants the work. Explain work, so that requires work. What is the actual work? In my opinion, it would be setting up long-term treatment centers. I mean, I support housing these people, but I support housing them in treatment centers and mandating to them, I mean, mandating them to these treatment centers when they have, when they commit crimes to support their habits, when they are displaying antisocial behavior

that's affecting the civil liberties of citizens that pay a lot of taxes to live in places like Los Angeles. I think these people should be mandated at some point to long-term treatment centers that do job training for those that are capable of one day being self-sufficient and for those that aren't that are just permanently mentally ill That they need to be housed permanently in some sort of facility Nowadays more than ever the brand you wear reflects and represent who you are So for us if you wear a future looks bright hat or a Valuetainment gear, you're telling the world, I'm optimistic, I'm excited about what's going to be happening, but you're a

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again, go to VTMerch.com,com place your order tell the world that you believe the future looks bright. That's the part of coming in and what happens there now let's go of the getting out the people that you saw who succeeded and got out how many did you see you said you met thousands of people in Skid Row how many died how many numbers of stories do you have of people dying? Look, oh, Johnny's no longer here with us. Bobby's not? Oh, dozens.

Dozens? Yeah. Okay, so it's not in the hundreds that you heard. It's dozens, and when you say dozens, less than 50? Including people that I've gotten sober with and everything? Yes. It's over 50. That died?

Yeah, yeah, probably 75. 75 That died? Yeah, probably 75. 75 that died? Yeah. Over that 2011 to 2018 mark? No, up until now still. I mean, people are still dying, yeah. Right, but I'm talking while you were there in Skid Row and you were experiencing this,

how many people died while you were there in Skid Row? Oh, I mean, well, this is the thing. I'd go on Skid Row and then I'd come off and then I'd end up homeless in San Francisco and then I'd go back to Skid Row and then I'd come off and then I'd end up homeless in San Francisco and then I'd go back to Skid Row then I ended up in New York at one point. I mean, you know, so, you know, maybe, people I personally know, probably 10 to 20.

Probably 10 to 20, okay, so let's stay on this topic. While you were there, how are you making money? I read somewhere that because of the California laws, you were able to make some days $300 a day because of stealing and, give me that business model. Yeah, so Prop 47 passed in 2014, so prior to that I would like beg for change at the train station and do things like that

and little pesky crimes. But after SB, I mean after Prop 47 passed, which essentially decriminalized shoplifting, I was making three to $400 a day shoplifting. And I'd go with a partner, we'd go into like a CVS or a Walgreens or a Target. And we had fences, people that would professionally purchase stolen goods and they'd give us like grocery lists

or just say, hey, I really need teeth whitening today and rogaine. You called it fences? Fences, yeah. That's like an old school term for someone that deals in stolen property. Fences, okay. So the fences stand out on Los Angeles and Sixth,

Los Angeles the street, and you develop relationships with one of them usually. Is it 50%, like if you steal $300, they pay 50% of what you steal? Is it like 150? What would the breakdown be? No they they have sort of set prices and and it's a it's a free market You know, there's multiple fences and prices sort of naturally form and but on for most part if you stole $300 What are you gonna get in cash? Oh, that was over a thousand dollars. Oh, so if you stole a thousand dollars

What are you getting in cash? Maybe one-third. Oh about. Oh wow, okay. So that's massive. So you're making 300 bucks on the thousand dollars of stolen, okay. So now you're stealing and then you're going there and while you're doing this, how often are you getting caught? Once in a while you would, well this is back in 2015, 2016.

The staff of these stores still cared. I mean, because there was some hope in society back then, and it was like, okay, I'm going to try to stop this person from stealing. There were security guards that would stop us sometimes. So I wouldn't call that caught, but I'd get stopped. Never got arrested? They'd call the police, but I managed to get away almost every time I did get arrested a few times that they just write you a ticket

You know legally they can't arrest you for it, and how much was a ticket? Oh, I don't I never paid it I don't even remember how many tickets you got maybe three okay? Yeah, and how many times did you steal a thousand dollars worth of stuff from stores? Over over three over three or four hundred times wait a minute did you say over three or four hundred times. Wait a minute, did you say over three or four hundred times? Yeah, every day. And it's a thousand dollars, and was there specific places you were going or you guys would rotate? We'd rotate, sometimes if, we'd even take the bus

all the way down to Malibu, we knew the ones that were really hip to what we were doing and the ones that weren't. What signs did you look for? What signs? Signs. Oh, signs. Upper scale areas that maybe were less concerned with shoplifting, so maybe less security, less locking things up. Anything close to downtown was pretty much untouchable.

They had everything locked up already. So, you know, I didn't really go to the Valley, but, you know, we'd hit Culver City, Malibu, Palisades, things like that. Fox Hills Mall, like you'd go to the Fox Hills Mall, or was it more like... No, not the mall, like drugstores. Okay. And so, three to four hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff you shoplifted, never got arrested, you got tickets, never paid for it, three times you got tickets, three or four times

you got tickets. So, what other bad policies in the state of California almost influenced negative behavior that kept happening? Yeah, so this is very, yeah, so the policy, the broken policies incentivize bad behavior because they don't punish bad behavior. Like I told you in 2011, I didn't shoplift because there was a felony, you would get a felony

if you got caught shoplifting, so I didn't do that. Once it was removed, the incentive was there to start shoplifting, so that's just one policy. But I just was allowed to use drugs openly, wherever I wanted. I was allowed to act out anti-socially in public spaces and restaurants. I was allowed to not pay my fare for the subway or the bus.

And I was allowed to sleep outside anywhere I wanted. These sorts of things, people will do what you let them do. It's a pretty basic concept of human psychology that for some reason the people that are in charge of making policy, they just won't listen to me. It's very obvious, you will do what you, and then another thing is that I wanted treatment. I wanted detox, I wanted treatment.

There was incredibly few resources to achieve that. And at one point by the end, I actually wanted to go to jail and I couldn't. And I got blessed, I prayed and I said, send me to jail, I need a nonviolent felony or something like that. I need to sit in jail for like six months. That is what's gonna help me. So now you're looking for a nonviolent felony or something like that, I need to sit in jail for like six months. Like that is what's gonna help me. So now you're looking for a nonviolent felony to get.

Yeah, to figure out how I can get into jail. And I mean, I swear to God, I prayed and within 12 hours, I was facing a violent felony and ended up in jail. And I was facing two years in prison. I got mugged in a Panda Express and someone stole, I had an Obama phone, that's like a free phone, and he took my phone and I took out a knife and asked him for the, you know,

said give me my phone back and there was security, they stopped both of us and I went to jail. And I fought a case for six months and got off heroin. So six months you were in jail. Yeah. How many times guys who were on Skid Row Homeless were thinking the same way, saying if I go to jail, I got a bed, I get a meal, and I get health insurance.

Somebody at least I can go see to see what health issues I'm having. Was that part of a common strategy or no? Oh yeah, there's plenty of guys that make a living going to jail. I mean, they'll get arrested on purpose or they'll violate probation with drugs like inside them and then go in there and, you know, make 20 grand.

Wait, seriously? Yeah. Oh yeah, there's a lot of people that know how to make a living in there but can't make a living out here. Or like they run, they're a bookie, they run like a sports book or something in jail, they make a lot of money, they do tattoos, they can make money, they run up their bookie. They run like a sports book or something in jail. They make a lot of money They do tattoos. They can make money. They can support their family. You know if you if you like Traffic drugs into jail, you're going to make a lot of money

So people will routinely do that So you go to jail for six months during this six months Do you have access to drugs or there is no access to drugs for you to use? during this six months, do you have access to drugs or there is no access to drugs for you to use? There's access to drugs, but really, like the shot callers get access and then people with money, and I had no money, and drugs are maybe 20 times more expensive in jail. So you need to have your family literally wire money

to their family. Scarce, so you're, yeah. Like if you wanna get high, it's like 100 bucks, and your family has to wire money to their family And then they get the call that the money came through and then they'll give you the drugs So I didn't have any money Yeah, and but I had a great time in jail. It was it was one of the best experiences of my life and Because of your circumstances and where you were at so meeting Outside of jail for you was so bad that jail gave you the only fighting chance

to clean yourself up. Yeah, like I got in shape, I developed a community. It wasn't a good community, but I had friends and I got off drugs. And had a pretty damn good time. So now you get out, you get out of jail, after the six months that you're there, what's next for you? Well that's the thing you know

you jail separated me from drugs but I'm a drug addict and you for many drug addicts it requires more than just the separation from drugs for a period of time so I get out with the intention of not doing drugs again and I'm in the holding cell to get released and I know somebody in the holding cell and they're like, hey, I got 40 bucks. Like, do you wanna get high after this? And you just can't say no.

I mean, it's just within your, it's completely within your soul at that point that you're just a drug addict. So I went and got high. And I never got strung out on heroin ever again, but I did get high about maybe three or four times. On what?

On heroin, crack, and meth. Fortunately I had, I would call them absolutely horrific spiritual consequences during each one of those relapses and one of them I actually ended up, you know, waking up and missing part of my face. You know, I'd done some kind of meth and heroin and blacked out and, you know, I'd been sober for like four months and relapsed with an old friend and blacked out and woke up in Chinatown. I'd broken into like a boarding house or something

and was in the bathroom and they were waking me up. They were like banging on the door and I was missing part of my face. I had gotten into some kind of altercation while I was blacked out and I actually started biting at the wound. I got sliced or something in my face and I was missing a pretty decent portion of my face and they had to, you know, I got sliced or something in my face and I was missing a pretty decent portion of my face and they had to, you know,

fortunately I wound up at a hospital and there was a plastic surgery training department and they performed plastic surgery on my face. Where was it? What part? It was my lip. My whole mouth was removed, like up down to here and they sort of pulled some things and they built me and my bottom lip's fake. They rebuilt it from flesh from within behind my upper lip and they saved my life. Oh my God, wow.

And they were students and they said, are you okay with people? They said, we've never seen this before. Are you willing to let people practice on you? And they saved me. So that whipped me into shape. I was like, holy, this is crazy. I've done something completely demonic, something that, I'm not a crazy guy.

I come off pretty normal and everything. And I did something like this to myself on drugs. So I did relapse one more time, and the same thing happened. I woke up missing my toe. I had removed my toe somehow while I was on these drugs. Which toe? Half of my big toe on my right foot. And I'm sorry, I know this is gruesome and everything, but I was blacked out. I don't know what happened.

Till today you have no idea what happened no I had some kind of tools like some nail clippers and stuff and and they they you know my I basically damaged my toe really badly and they had to cut my toe off so I sorry I phrased that wrong I didn't wake up missing my toe I woke up with my toe incredibly damaged they had to cut it off and from that point I've never gotten high ever again. I went- What was the last time you used? August 10th, 2018. Nothing since then.

No, nothing. And it's because I wound up at a non-profit, long-term treatment center, and they let me live there for three months, and then they let me live at a sober living for three months. They helped me build a resume, they helped me get work boots, they helped me get tools, they helped me go out on job interviews, I got a construction job.

They gave me the housing for three months that was tied to sobriety though. They gave me housing that required me to remain sober. I saved up three or four grand. With three or four grand in 2018, you could go find a room to rent, and I'm not here to promote AA or anything, but I did AA, which is some people call spiritual solutions. Yeah, it's great, good for you. Yeah. Okay, so so far, I'm glad you're good, man.

Six and a half years, that's 18, yeah, six and a half years almost, right? 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, yeah, six and a half years. August, yeah. So, so far, here's what I've learned. 24 billion of which 16 billion went to six, of which five, of which two did good, the other three wasted the money.

Rob, I wanna know who those three are because right now so far we've pulled, these are not a part of them, right Rob? The ones that we have a Project Home Key or No Place Like Home Program. Have you heard of No Place Like Home? I've heard of both of those. Have you heard good things about them or?

If I've heard about them, it's probably that they're bad. Okay. Probably heard bad things. Okay, and then there's another one, Project Room Key. Yeah, I've heard of that. What do you know about that one? I've heard bad things about that one. About Project Room Key.

Yeah. So Project Room Key says, launched in April 2020, this program was federally funded by FEMA to provide temporary shelter for homeless individuals during COVID-19 pandemic. As of March 4th of 2021, approximately 59 million otters had been spent on the project, that's four years ago.

Project Home Key, Rob, if you can pull up Room Key a little bit more, I wanna know what's going on with Room Key. I can tell you what happened. Go for it. So when COVID hit, they had shelter in place. So they had this project where they would overtake hotels. The state forced hotels

to rent their rooms, or not rent their rooms, but give their rooms to homeless people. So for one example, there was Hotel Whitcomb. Whitcomb? Whitcomb. How do you spell it? W-H-I-T-C-O-M-B. They let 400 homeless people live at Hotel Whitcomb and they just sued the city because they reported $25 million in damage done to their building during that period by 400 homeless people,

18 of which died in Hotel Wickham. So in a short period of time, they housed 400 people and they settled for $19.5 million in damages. But you know, these people- That was a failed idea. That's one. That was a really bad idea, and that is housing first in a nutshell, like right there.

Like we had all these homeless people, COVID hits, we gave them housing, we gave them studio apartments and hotels, and they destroyed the hotel and 18 of them died. TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands

for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Okay, so what do you know about Project HomeKey? I believe that's linked to the SIP, Shelter-in-Pplace program. Here's Home Key, an extension of Project Room Key. Oh, good call, you're right. An extension of Project Room Key, a Project Home Key focused on converting hotels, motels, and other buildings into permanent housing for homeless individuals. By early 2024,

the program had created 15,000 housing units utilizing a total allocation of three and a half billion dollars. Yeah. And you've also not heard good things about them. No, no. What happened? The city's lost a lot of money by losing lawsuits to these hotels that they took over.

Every hotel got damaged. Hotel Wickham got the most damage, but every hotel got damaged. What makes them think this is a good idea? Well, I'll tell you something, and it might take me like a minute to explain this but um, I told you about occupy Wall Street Uh-huh. So occupy Wall Street hits in 2008 and you have or no yet to 2000 later than that 2010 I was the greatest graduating. I was the biggest graduating college class in history up until that point 2011 You have all these kids coming out with liberal arts degrees with no jobs, there's no job market,

the job market's terrible. During the 2010s, a lot of these people that think they deserve some kind of managerial position because they got a liberal arts degree, they shift into the non-profit sphere. So the harm reduction stuff like the needle exchanges, those used to be run by ex-junkies and they would help you get clean. They would say, like the needle exchanges, those used to be run by ex junkies and they would help you get clean.

They would say, here's some needles, we don't want you to spread HIV, but if you need a detox, we can help you get into detox. Over the 2010s, this gets replaced by disgruntled people with liberal arts degrees that have no job path because they got a degree in English or something. I got a degree in history. I'm the same. So slowly the non-profit sphere gets filled with all these college grads that are leaning towards socialists.

They're very liberal. They're very progressive. At the same time, California passes some of the most progressive criminal justice reform, things like Prop 47, and some of the most liberal homeless reform in the form of SB 1380, and they start spending a lot more money. Now, for example, from 2016 to 2021, San Francisco, the homeless budget rose 500%. And that's five years. At the same time, homelessness rose 64%.

So the state just starts throwing billions at this, because it's like a jobs program for disgruntled liberal arts majors at that point. So I do think that ties into everything. And they have a certain ideology, it's ideological. And I've talked to these people and they believe that capitalism is the source of addiction. And homelessness.

Do you believe capitalism is the source of addiction? Because they believe capitalism is the source of homelessness and addiction is a result of homelessness, not the other way around. So when you see those people flopped over on Fentanyl, they think that these people became homeless because of economic situations due to unfettered capitalism.

And once they were on the street, then they got addicted to fentanyl. And these people are in control of billions of dollars. And they think that. Well, I mean, that's super problematic. And let me go to the last one here to get your thoughts on this last one Which is no place like home Rob Can you pull up these three charities and homeberto on the back and just see if there's any kind of lawsuits or investigation stuff That's going on with these guys. No place like home program dedicates up to two billion dollars and bond proceeds to develop permanent supportive housing for individuals in need of mental health services who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness and

in need of mental health services who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. And these were the top three funded programs. I could not find it, but it doesn't add up to 16 billion. So I'd be curious to know what those three organizations are. This is, here's what I've learned so far from you. And I wanna continue, because I think there's more you can share with us. Number one, if there's not an expectation

of you doing the first part of being sober, you can't stay here if you're not sober. And I was the one chair that you talked with that I've been to multiple times, mission something, mission. Midnight mission, yeah. Midnight mission, right? If you don't have that, you don't get to get in.

I'll never forget when one time my friend and I, Guy and I, got into a big debate. Him and I used to work at Burger King together back in 94. And a good friend of mine lived at his place for 18 days. He knows who he is, but I don't want to disclose his political leanings. We got into a debate. I said, listen, anybody that we give welfare food stamps to, we have to drug test them. You can't do that. What do you mean you can't do that? Who's giving it to them? Taxpayers. We have to drug test anybody that's getting food stamps and is getting what do you call it, welfare or section 8. No, that's not for that discrimination. I said, I was in the army for almost three years. You know what we did every other Monday morning

formation? If your social security's last four starts with number four, step forward. And then seven people would step forward. You're being tested. Go ahead and pee, we're watching you. And you'd go pee and somebody's watching you pee. Okay? Great. Hey, you tested for weed, you get demoted from an E4 to an E1. No shit. Yeah. You went from making $1,400 a month, you're down to $680 a month now. So there was a level of accountability for that. So I like the fact that there is this idea of if you're not going to stay sober, we're

out. What else did you see the success ratio of people getting off? Because two weeks ago we were talking about this topic and I said what I'm interested in is this, which we talked about a part of it here today I want to know one okay, if this is a funnel and You know you're going through the funnel. I want to find out before somebody becomes homeless. How did they end up here? Okay, so in your example Parents heroin you start testing you start drinking it goes from alcohol to this to this to this and then boom you end up here that's the one area I'm interested in and you said you met thousands of people on skid row and

You hate to say this but it wasn't economic conditions why people ended up there Almost everybody was drugs and due to drugs that mental issues. Yeah. Okay. The next part I'm interested in let's take this chart and now this person's homeless and they're in skid row How do we get them off to become good citizens? What do you think is the system that works? Did you get food stamps? Did you get welfare? Yeah, yeah, and I sold them for drugs.

You sold them for drugs? Oh yeah. I know people that have sold housing for drugs. I mean, they get housing and then they'll rent out their unit for pimps. Stop it. I swear to God. I swear.

I rented a room in a Section 8 apartment in Harlem where I paid $600 for a room in a three-bedroom Section 8 apartment. And I paid the whole rent, but it was still the cheapest room in town. That's not that bad, but selling your little homeless housing section eight thing for a pimp to rent out, that's pretty bad.

Because there's security and stuff at this home, but you slip 20 bucks to a security guard, anyone's coming in. Hey, let this guy just go handle his business, here's 20 bucks to you. Yeah, yeah. But what work, what work for people to get off? And by the way, out of all the people that you saw,

how many people did you see leave and get back to normal life, getting a job, getting their act together? How many success stories have you seen over the years? I think through the Midnight Mission, I know probably 40 people. Just from Midnight Mission? Just from Midnight Mission. How about outside of that? Well I eventually landed at a place called Cry Help and I've known probably close to a hundred people that turned their

life around at Cry Help. And how bad were they before they came to Cry Help? Were they full-on addicted destroyed their streets Yeah, cry help is a state rehab. It's not fancy at all And it's actually where Robert Downey jr. Ended up So it's the place that Robert Downey jr. Got sober at and he had tried fancy rehabs and all that But he ended up at like a state, you know Crappy rehab and those are the best the best ones are the crappy ones why? Because it's really hard to get off drugs when you're at a fancy rehab in the Hollywood Hills

And there's hot tubs and there's no incentive for you to go through a hard time The company is incentivized to just keep you at the rehab and then there's a lot of corruption and they can you know? There's cases where where rehabs will give you money to relapse so then you can come back and they can milk your insurance for another 30 days. I mean, it gets really dark. Yeah, I see this here that Downey encouraged his following on social media, Twitter and Facebook to support Cry Help. Yeah, yeah. So he's donated a lot of money there. He got us new vans, or before I got there, but we had a whole fleet of vans that he, you know, he...

I don't want to speak for him, fleet of vans that he you know he I Don't want to speak for him, but I'd imagine that he He probably owes his life to that place in 2014 vanity fair interviewed Robert Downey jr. Read the article that for over 50 years cry help is Of the belief that addiction is treatable disease we provide programs and treatment education prevention counseling rebuild job one is Get out of the cave a lot of people to of people do get out, but don't change. So the thing is to get out and recognize the significance of that aggressive denial of your fate,

come through the crucible forged into a stronger metal. Robert Downey Jr. So some strong words. Oh yeah. So why did they have a high success rate there? What did they do that caused them to be successful? First of all, it was long term. So most rehabs are 28 days.

Cry Help, when I first went to Cry Help, it was six to 12 months. It was incredibly strict. No talking to the other sex. You got men with men, women with women. Chores, this is your house. You're gonna live here for six to 12 months. You're gonna mop the floor. You're not, and if you break rules, women with women, chores, this is your house. You're gonna live here for six to 12 months.

You're gonna mop the floor. And if you break rules, there's consequences. Such as what? Like if you wear a hat downstairs, you weren't allowed to wear a hat. Why? Because it's rude to wear a hat in the cafeteria. I love that.

Are you serious? Yeah, yeah. It whipped us into shape. I mean, you need, it's like the military, like you need a little bit of that. You know, you need, you've been doing whatever you wanted to do on the street for years. Like you need to get a routine, you know?

So the fancy rehabs in the hills, they don't do that. Cause they don't want you to leave. Cause if you leave, they stop getting paid. So cry help, you know, now listen, I'm not against all nonprofits. Cry Help is a nonprofit. But it was ran by actual ex junkies. It was ran by people that got off heroin in like the 70s. You know, they opened it up, completely nonprofit.

And not only that, you know, after like a few months, it's time to get a job. And we're gonna help you get a job. And we're gonna tie you into programs where you can get free tools, if you already have a trade. I already had a trade, so I got tools, I got work boots. They helped me get all that.

They helped me get the job interviews. They gave me clothes to look well for my job interview. They let me go get the job. Then I started working at the job and I could still live there while I was doing the job, so that means I'm getting a check and they would help me with a bank, they helped me start a bank account.

And now I'm putting the money in the bank account and I'd give them, I think, one fourth of my paycheck, you know, to just get in the routine of like, hey, you gotta pay something, you know, it's not, I didn't, I had a meager paycheck, but well, it wasn't that meager, I was doing construction, you know, it was decent money and- a meager paycheck, but well, it wasn't that meager, I was doing construction, you know, it was decent money. You're making four or five grand a month.

Yeah, something like that, yeah. So then when you graduate, they say don't leave, we have a place up the street for you, it's a halfway house. They really, really try to get you to go to that halfway house. Why? Because then you're still connected, you're still right there, you're in a halfway house with people that you just went through the

program with, there's still some sort of oversight going on, but you have the freedom to go live your life and everything. And then I'll just, I don't want to promote the 12 Steps or anything, but it's very 12 step heavy. It's very community oriented. Is it faith based or no? but it's very 12-step heavy. It's very community oriented. Is it faith-based or no? Well, I mean, AA, some people would call it faith-based.

I mean, to me it's faith-based, but you know. I think AA is faith-based. I think so too. Would you say Cry Help is faith-based? No, but it's 12-step based, so it's indirectly. Faith-based. Indirectly, yeah. Got it. And OG guys that started in the 70s

from being addicted to heroin, what was their stories? Do you remember the story of a founder? Yeah, Jack Bernstein founded it. He was a heroin addict and he started it with a guy from Three Dog Night. No way! I've seen him perform. Oh wow! Yeah, so just great guys. There were junkies back in the day and they bought a plot of land for cheap in North Hollywood

and they just formed this place and it was designed to be a long-term program. Jack Bernstein, yeah. Yeah, so he's a hero and he's a faithful man, but that's besides the point. People hate faith. Salvation Army gets a bad rap. It's one of the most successful programs in San, it might be the only successful program in San Francisco right now.

You know? And, uh. But where are you going with that? Because you said faith. Is it because it's linked to faith-based? Well, yeah, because the place, a lot of places in California are very anti, they hear the word faith and that's it.

You know? They're throwing it out the window. Good for these guys that they use their story. But Jack Bernstein, you're saying, has nothing to do with faith. The vision of it and what he did wasn't a faith-based company. Well, I know that privately he's a very faithful man.

So I would say that yes, there is some connection to that. Okay, so let me kind of backtrack and go in the middle, because this is kind of backtrack and go in the middle, because this is kind of what, to me, I'm interested in getting fewer people to even get on the streets, right? To prevent that from happening. Better parenting, raising the standards

of the right parents to be heroes, where we're recognizing them, all of that stuff. But let's go to the percentage of people that you saw that never left because they just weren't willing to help themself. If you, cause you're straight up, now you used to say 2011 when people ask you how'd you end up in the streets?

Well, you know, it's not fair with my parents, my job, my career, whatever, right? It's just a systems fault, it's not my fault. And then eventually you took responsibility. Today we had another person I interview in the morning His name is chase Hughes and he was a 20-year military guy. He did some spy warfare stuff And he's a human intelligence. He trained CIA and DIA is what he does very interesting guy body language guy And he says when they were interviewing jurors

To find out he was training lawyers on what questions to ask jurors to see which way they lean to replace them or keep them. He said, we asked one question, how does one get a flu? And he says, normally we would get one of two answers. The people would say, well, you know, I got kids and when they're sick, I get sick and you know, it's just probably the when I see other people, they touch my hands and I get sick and those were people that my hands and I get sick. And those were people that blamed others

for them getting sick. And then the other group would say, well I got sick because I'm no longer exercising. I haven't had orange juice. I don't need to take my vitamin C like I used to. So you could immediately see one person is saying, I'm not taking care of myself. And the other one is saying,

no, it's because the luck of the draw. It's not my fault, it's somebody else's, right? So I can see that part, but what percentage of people that got in and they were in Skid Row never got out and you don't think ever will get out? Because they just don't want to help themselves. Well, at this point, since the drugs have changed so much, so like the meth is just not what it was ten years ago

Fentanyl is not you know fentanyl is a new drug the last five years. It's really come on the scene and You're just seeing so such high levels of mental illness and permanent mental illness from this new meth, so I would guess 35% of people that have no chance due to mental illness. So 35% there's nothing that can be done about it. And the other ones, what percentage do you think finally make it back into society and live regular lives? I'd say less than 10%. to society and live regular lives? I'd say less than 10%.

Okay. And so that's 45% leaving 55%. Are you saying 55% is one that could, but is just not willing? And they keep relapsing? Well, it's not that they're not willing, it's that every single policy is enabling them to keep getting high. I mean, they are just taking the path of least resistance. I mean, of course, we

need to put responsibility on the individual here, but they are not being helped. They are only being hindered by policy at this point. So yeah, about 55%. What other ideas that you have that if you, let's just say you had a meeting with Newsom, right? I looked up these numbers yesterday, I posted a tweet out because of all the fire that's taking place and you know him and DeSantis had a debate and he always calls out Florida.

And I said, you know, question for Newsome, all the fires that's going on in LA right now. I said, Florida has hurricanes, natural disasters. California has wildfires and according to PBS, 95% are manmade, meaning people are causing the 95% of fires. It's not natural disasters. So what's been your plan on fixing this

as a governor the last six years? Where's the urgency? 2024, 8,000 wildfires, million acres. Your state is filled with some of the brightest minds in America, why don't you call an emergency meeting to unite the entire state and prevent this from continuously happening? So I pose this question, homelessness in the state of California, he's been governor since 2019, 2025, six years. He was lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2019. Yeah. an eight year run we're talking about.

So total, we're talking 14 years, right? That he's been at it. If Newsom is sitting and wanting to actually talk to somebody that successfully made it out, what ideas and policies would you give to a guy like that? Or is he not even part of the solution? Well, if he wants to be president one day, he better be part of the solution.

I mean, that's his only chance, I think, of becoming president is if he fixes this problem specifically. Tell me why. Because this is the blight of the na- I mean, this is a huge issue that is so visible, and it's magnified by news outlets and independent media. When you think of California 40 years ago, you thought about surfers and the ocean.

When you think about California now, you think about a crazy homeless guy. That's it. Maybe that's exaggerated, but whatever. That is the image that comes up in your head. If he tries to run, that's what people in Kansas are going to think and that's what people in Pennsylvania are going to think. They're going to think about that homeless guy. So I'd love to talk to him. I don't know if he'd be willing, but I think at some point he's got to be. And I would say I would work with the federal government

and I would get FEMA involved and I would basically set up camps in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco and start corralling I would basically set up camps in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco and start corralling, start rounding people up that are homeless and like have triage tents and everything and just try to figure out, you know, what group are you in? Are you just a drug addict? Are you purely mentally ill? Or is it economic reasons? And then those are the three main categories. And shoot people out into those three different categories.

And if you're a drug addict, we need to take out, like, we need to take Treasure Island or Alcatraz and just convert it into a long-term treatment center. Something like that. And you're just, hey, you're here for six months, you know. And we're going to bring in professionals, we're going to bring in economic experts that know where the economy's gonna be in five to 10 years and what needs we have, what kind of job needs we have. We're gonna start training people.

The greatest thing for people getting sober is to develop a sense of self-worth and self-esteem and purpose. And a really good way to do that is to get a job. A job that pays you a decent wage for hard work. But you could help build, Biden passed this infrastructure bill, we could be training people to build bridges,

repair bridges, welding. We can train people to become industrial plumbers. I mean, if their mindset is geared towards something like that, or maybe some people are more geared towards IT. I mean, listen, I met smart people out there. I met talented people out there. So, now I don't know if that breaks any constitutional laws, rounding people up and putting them on Alcatraz.

I mean, I'm sure you've broken a few laws doing that, but he needs to declare a state of emergency. And then the people that are mentally ill, we need to house them We need to we need to gauge each one each individual on what level of permanent care Do you need now is this a problem that we can just fix and we can just give you medication and we can put you in some supportive housing and With you know some guidance and some oversight or do you need to be in like a hospital for the rest of your life?

You know it this is just that This is just the dark truth. I mean, it's going to cost a lot of money. But we just burned $24 billion. So the money is there if we just stop burning the money that we've been burning. I believe he went to rehab because he had a sex scandal. And he has some kind of, he has it out for recovery. I mean, he's quoted as saying sobriety is the biggest damn mistake this country ever made.

Quoted on video. And this is a country that, I love America, but we had slavery. We've had a few mistakes. I don't think sobriety is the biggest damn mistake we ever did Clean and sober is the biggest damn mistake this country ever made I Remember that what what you know I don't know what that means So this is when the problem

Increased tenfold Rob. Can you play that clip of him saying that? We gotta find it. Let me find an actual version of it. Yeah, so he just has it out for recovery because the current system wasn't working incredibly well, so he tried the opposite approach, which is anti-recovery, housing first. I mean, you know how long it takes to pull a permit in California to build a structure? Takes like eight or 900 days.

It costs 900 grand to build one of these little homeless units. I mean, there is a lot of grift, there is a lot of money laundering, there is a lot of just straight-up theft going on. Yeah, I remember this clip. If you want to play it, Rob. Clean and sober is one of the biggest damn mistakes this country's ever made. I know it's a hold your hand idealistic point of view that somehow magically, I mean, God bless some of you.

If you're like me, I've been known to have a glass of wine at night watching some of the nightly news. We all need to self-medicate periodically. Clean and sober. Yeah, he's in charge of the fifth largest economy in the world. We all need to self-medicate periodically. Clean and sober. Yeah. He's in charge of the fifth largest economy in the world. It's crazy. That's the example. Yeah.

So do you think deep down inside he believes this issue can be fixed, or do you think he's just Polshin and Garand just, you know, saying the message is lip service and doesn't think this is fixable? I think he's flying by the seat of his pants, and he is just trying to make it to 2028 and get the hell out of California and get into the White House. I don't know if, I think he just thinks it can be managed

until he gets to evacuate and become president. And he's gonna have a really hard time going up against JD Vance, especially on this issue. JD's not gonna play around. No, no, I mean personally I think Newsom has no chance against JD Vance, if JD Vance runs. Yeah, I mean I think he doesn't have chance with a handful of people.

Yeah. If they run on the opposite side. Yeah. Jared, I am so glad you reached out. Thank you. And I love the fact that you, you not only have the moral authority to speak on this, because you lived a life that,

I was 25 years old, 26 years old, I wanted to find a way to get back to my high school that I went to. I had a 1.8 GPA, nothing special about me. Class of a thousand, I was graduating class number eight something, but I graduated. I loved math and my life was too rough around, yeah, I had too many issues in my personal life

where I just kind of wanted to get the hell out of it and go to the military. But I came out and ended up doing okay for myself, so they invited me back to go to the school. I spoke in the auditorium to 650 people and then I went to Sandra Bayes. I want to Sandra something. I think it was Sandra Bayes.

The director of psychology for Glendale High School. I said, look, I want to help. How can I help? She says, well, you think you can help? I'll watch you. I said, give me your worst students. And she gave me her worst, you know when I say worst, kids that have challenges,

drug addicts, drug dealers, and pregnant girl at 14 years old and all this stuff. And one of the girls one day, I'm like, why don't you share with us your challenge? And everybody's kind of going through it, going through it, going through it. And one by one by one, they're like, well don't you share with us your challenge and everybody's kind of going through going through going through it and one by one by one they're like well here's what I went through you know I went through this I went through that and one kid runs out doesn't want to tell the story comes

back and I said look you don't have to share it if you don't want to only if you're comfortable if you don't we're totally fine I don't want to share no problem don't even worry about it so we're kind of going through it people are making fun all this stuff of each other not her. They're still being protective She finally says I want to share with you guys great what happened? I'll never forget this She said one day I came home and she's breaking. She doesn't know how to say the story. So one day I came home Scrolls 14 13 14 15 years old I came home and

my This girl is 14, 13, 14, 15 years old. I came home and my mom found my dad with a needle in him dead. And after finding out, she took the needle and shot herself and she died. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, oh. Everybody in the room, everybody in the room is like, oh my God, I'm sitting here bitching about my problems. And you know, and then I, while you're talking, it happened the first like 10 minutes when you're telling your story and I'm reading through this whole thing,

12, 14 years old. I think about, I'm so proud of you and happy the fact that there's an example of somebody like you that Witnessed that you don't see yourself as a victim You don't see yourself as somebody to feel sorry for you. Don't want any sympathy. You're not asking for any sympathy and You love America you're proud to be an American, you wanna be a good citizen, you wanna contribute, you're not here just trashing everybody, you're being very reasonable, you give credit to Cry Help, you give credit to the Mission Charity in Skid Row,

and you seem like a reasonable guy. And I think a story like that, it's necessary for people to hear more. Obviously, when you're dealing with that something like that at any point things can turn around so you got to stay disciplined, stay in a good community, stay around where you don't think you're untouchable. But I appreciate you for sharing your testimony and I love the ideas you give. I got smarter to understand what that really looks like, what gets people to get in, what gets people to get out and I

look forward to more people inviting you to share the story to ask ask some questions that maybe I didn't ask. Because I definitely think someone in California is watching this that gets inspired by this and goes and reads your book Cricket Smile, which we're going to put the link below. And by the way, whether you're going to buy it or to read it for yourself or not, I recommend you buy it and support it and give it to somebody. Because I'd love to see us support Jared here for the story that he has, but I hope the right people watch this in California and say this is a problem for those that love California

that don't wanna leave and I wanna do something about it. And I hope they do. And for that I think today with your message, I hope you inspire a lot of different people. But I appreciate you for coming out, Jared. Incredible. Thank you so much, Patrick. I'll give you the last thoughts and then we'll wrap up. I'm incredibly honored at everything. You just said I'm really grateful that you had me on and Yeah, you nailed it. I mean listen. I I love America. I love California these people out on the street. They're people they're Americans

you know and There is a way we can help them and we are sort of just setting money on fire and Doing the opposite of what we need to do and I'm not trying to attack anybody or you know I'm really looking for a solution I just want to see the great state of California do better I want to see the great country of America do better and listen I lived it and not many people get to live that and get out and still sort of be able to talk a little bit and explain what was really going on and how we solved these problems.

So I'm just honored at the fact that you gave me this platform. Thank you. Anytime. I think everybody won today. I appreciate you. Take care everybody. God bless. Share this message with as many people as possible. I rarely, if ever, say this to you. I don't even know even know if Rob you've ever heard me say something like that when I do podcast No shared this message, especially if you live in California To find out how we can address this because he definitely shared a lot of insight with us. God bless. Bye. Bye Nowadays more than ever the brand you wear reflects and represent who you are So for us if you wear a Future Looks Bright hat or a

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