Jared Klickstein
Appearances
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Well, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
So they introduced me to methamphetamine, and within about three weeks, I was kicked out of my house and kicked out of school and completely lost my mind. Meth really screwed me up very quickly.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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 schoolwork. It's not crazy. I mean, you do fall asleep a lot. Meth is the exact opposite.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
So you take a hit of meth and, you know, especially when you first start using it, you start hearing voices, you know, of like your neighbors or like 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, you know, what do you like? What's that word for it? You're like diabolically like elevated.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I mean, it's evil, you know, and it's 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. The guy that I was with took everything out of my pockets, drove me to the hospital, threw me out of his car. They revived me.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, that's fentanyl. So that's like heroin times 100.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Well, they laid me off. I don't know what they did.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Well, this was a very low level. They were just connected to the cartel.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, but...
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah. I get, yeah, I get kicked out of my house because I'm the aunt and uncle. No, no. I'm living in like college housing and I'm just going wild and you know, my roommates find drugs and everything. So whatever. So, um, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
We enabled your parents for 10 years.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
This is my dad's brother and sister. I mean, no, this is my dad's sister.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
So they're like, we're done. We've seen this story before. You're going to go on your journey. Come back when you're serious. my mom's brother who lives in LA said, I'll give you one shot. You know, I'll help you get into rehab. If you mess that up, you know, I'm, I'm never talking to you again until you, until you show that you've, you've cleaned up. So, uh, he gave me that shot.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I went to that rehab. Uh, I got high, you know, pretty, you know, somewhere in the middle of it eventually got kicked out. And, um, you know, he was serious. He said, you're not coming to my house, you know? So, uh, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, the Los Angeles chapter of it, which was actually right next to Skid Row.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I lived there for about a month until they tore that up, and then I had to migrate on to Skid Row. And... 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, because of the way I look. I'm, and then I sort of proved to them that I was an asset and, um, and, and they took me under their wing. That's what they did. And they, they taught me how to live on Skid Row.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, you know, I was proud of myself. And I was youngster, Chinolo, shadow boxer and smiley. And they took me in and they call me Oakland.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
That's what they gave me. That was the street name. I mean, they call me white boy at first and then I gained their respect. They call 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. Um, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
And then there was a lot of people that were mentally ill as a result of their drug addiction. Um, 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, um,
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
People have these stories in their head of, oh, I lost a job. Well, why did you lose the job? Were you smoking crack? That's a lot of it. Now, people do become homeless because they lose their job, or 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. And when you see a guy running around at McDonald's with his pants down screaming, I mean, that guy didn't lose his accounting job. You know, that guy's on drugs.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I think that people in charge of California, the government, are kind of playing it by ear. They're playing a lot of things by ear. They're really concerned with just getting to the next election. 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, the budgets. For example, San Francisco had a budget of $1.1 billion in 2023 to address homelessness, and the vast majority of that was not handled by the state.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
It was pushed and given to nonprofits. that don't have a lot of oversight, that 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's really it.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
One City Rising is an example of one.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, so they're getting investigated, I believe, by the feds right now. So things are starting to happen, you know.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Well, I think they have assets, like 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?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
So you said of the 24 billion. 16 billion went to five entities.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
The Midnight Mission is a fabulous program in Los Angeles. Not really anymore because Gavin Newsom passed SB 1380. That is State Bill 1380 that said that any organization receiving funding from the state cannot have sobriety.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, it's great. Yeah, yeah. It's a great place.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
midnight mission is a is a non-profit uh... you know if it's a non-profit for homeless people you move in you know for a long time yet spin around for like a hundred years and uh... you know mister t would come down there and uh... dick van dyke i mean all the celebrities are coming in it was like a staple of los angeles i mean it was a good program uh... after sb thirteen eighty past uh... in order to receive state funding you can't have you can't i sobriety requirements to housing
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
for the homeless people. So Midnight Mission can no longer require sobriety to live within its premises in order to still receive state funding.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, yeah. You had to be sober. I went to that program, and I had to be sober.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
You know, they said they're going to we're going to follow up with with support. They don't follow up with support because that requires work and no one wants to work.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
In my opinion, it would be setting up long-term treatment centers.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I mean, I support housing these people, but I support housing them in treatment centers and mandating them to these treatment centers 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Including people that I've gotten sober with and everything?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
It's over 50. That died? Yeah, probably 75.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
No, up until now still. I mean, people are still dying.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. Then I ended up in New York at one point. I mean, you know, so I, you know, maybe people I personally know, probably, probably 10 to 20.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. Yeah. But after SB, I mean, after Prop 47 passed, which essentially decriminalized shoplifting, I was making, you know, $300 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
And we had fences, you know, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Fences, yeah. That's like an old school term for someone that deals in stolen property.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
So the fences stand out on Los Angeles and 6th, you know, Los Angeles the street. And you develop relationships with one of them usually. Is it 50%?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
No, they have sort of set prices, and it's a free market. You know, there's multiple fences, and prices sort of naturally form.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Oh, that was over $1,000.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Maybe one-third. About one-third.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Once in a while, you would... Well, this was 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. Um, there were security guards that would stop us sometimes. So I wouldn't call that caught, but I'd get stopped.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Uh, they'd call the police, but I managed to, uh, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Oh, I don't, I never paid it. I don't even remember.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Maybe three.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
um, over, over three, over three or 400 times.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Every day.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
We'd rotate, you know, sometimes if, uh, you know, we'd even take the bus all the way down to Malibu, you know, we, we knew, you know, the ones that were really hip in the hip to what we were doing and the ones that weren't, um, what signs did you look for? What size?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah. So this is, this is very, yeah. So the policy, the policy, the broken policies incentivize bad behavior because they don't punish bad behavior. Um, like I told you in 2011, I didn't shoplift cause there was a felony. Uh, you know, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
So that's just one policy. But, um, you know, I just was allowed to use drugs openly wherever I wanted. Uh, I was allowed to act out antisocially in public spaces and restaurants. I was allowed to not pay my fare for the subway or the bus. Um, and I was allowed to sleep outside any, anywhere I wanted. And, um, You know, these sorts of things, you know, people will do what you let them do.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
You know, 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. You know, it's very obvious, you know, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
And at one point, by the end, I actually wanted to go to jail, and I couldn't. And I got blessed. You know, I prayed, and I said, you know, send me to jail. You know, get me—I need— a nonviolent felony or something like that, I need to sit in jail for like six months. Like that is what's going to help me.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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 did, uh, I was facing two years in prison. Uh, I got mugged at a, in a Panda Express and, uh, someone stole, I had an Obama phone. That's like a free phone.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, uh, I went to jail and I, I fought a case for six months and got off heroin.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Seriously? Yeah. Oh yeah. There's a lot of people that, there's a lot of people that know how to make a living in there, but can't make a living out here, you know, 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 can support their family.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. Like if you want to get high, it's like $100 and your family has to wire money to their family.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. But I had a great time in jail. It was one of the best experiences of my life.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. You know? And had a pretty damn good time.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Well, that's the thing. Jail separated me from drugs, but I'm a drug addict. And 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. Do you want to get high after this?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
And you just can't say no. I mean, it is just within your... uh, it's completely within your soul at that point that you, you're just a drug addict. So, um, so I went and got high and, um, I never got strung out on heroin ever again, but I did get high about maybe three or four times. And, um, uh, heroin crack and meth. And, um,
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Fortunately, I had like, you know, I would call them absolutely horrific spiritual consequences, you know, during each one of those relapses. And one of them I actually ended up, you know, waking up and missing part of my face. I'd done some kind of meth and heroin and blacked out. I'd been sober for like four months and relapsed with an old friend and blacked out and woke up in Chinatown.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I'd broken into a boarding house or something and was in the bathroom, and they were waking me up. They were 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I was missing a pretty decent portion of my face and they had to, you know, I, fortunately I wound up at a hospital and, uh, there was a plastic surgery training department and they, they, they performed plastic surgery on my face. Where was it? What part? It was my lip. My, my whole mouth was, was, uh, removed down, like up down to here.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
And they, they sort of pulled some things and they, you know, built me and my lips fake, my bottom lips fake. They rebuilt it from flesh from within behind my, uh, upper lip. And, um, they saved my life, you know? Oh my God. Wow. And they were students, you know, and they, they, uh, they said, are you okay with people? They said, we've never seen this before.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
You know, are you willing to let people practice on you? And, and, uh, they said they saved me. So, um, so that whipped me into shape. You know, I was like, Holy, you know, this is crazy. I'm, you know, I, this is, I've done something completely demonic, something that, you know, I'm not a crazy guy. You know, I, I, uh, I come off pretty normal and everything.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
No, I had some kind of tools, like some nail clippers and stuff, and I basically damaged my toe really badly, and they had to cut my toe off. 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. When was the last time you used? August 10th, 2018.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
No, nothing. And it's because I wound up at a nonprofit 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
They gave me the housing for three months that was tied to sobriety though. You know, they gave me housing that required me to be, to remain sober.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
And, uh, you know, I saved up three or four grand and I, and with three or four grand in 2018, you know, you could, you know, go find a room to rent and you, you know, and, and, and I'm not here to promote AA or anything, but I did AA, you know, and I, which is some people would call spiritual solution. That's great. Good for you. Yeah. Yeah.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
That's 18.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Have you heard good things about them? If I've heard about them, it's probably that they're bad.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I've probably heard bad things.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, I've heard of that.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I've heard bad things about that one.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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 Whitcomb. 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
That's 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I believe that's linked to the SIP shelter in place program.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
No, no. The city's lost a lot of money by losing lawsuits to these hotels that they took over. Every hotel got damaged. Hotel Whitcomb got the most damage, but every hotel got damaged.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Well, I'll tell you something, and it might take me like a minute to explain this, but I told you about Occupy Wall Street. So Occupy Wall Street hits in 2008 and you have, or no, yeah, 2000, later than that, 2010. I was the greatest graduating, I was the biggest graduating college class in history up until that point, 2011.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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 nonprofit sphere.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, here's some needles. We don't want you to spread HIV, but if you need a detox, we can help you get in the detox.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. And so slowly the nonprofit sphere gets filled with all these college grads that that are leaning towards socialists. They're very liberal. They're very progressive.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
And 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 rate rose 64%.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
So the state just starts throwing billions at this nonprofit because it's like a jobs program for disgruntled people. 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
They believe capitalism is a 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, and I sold them for drugs.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah. 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
But, you know, selling your... little homeless housing section eight thing for a, for a pimp to, to rent out, you know, that's pretty bad because there's security and stuff at this home, but you slip 20 bucks to a security guard, you know, anyone's coming in.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I think through the Midnight Mission, I know probably 40 people. Just from Midnight Mission? Just from Midnight Mission.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Well, I eventually landed at a place called Cry Help, and I've known probably close to 100 people that turned their life around at Cry Help.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I'm doing great. I'm honored to be here.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
And then there's a lot of corruption and they can, you know, there's cases 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, but I'd imagine that he probably owes his life to that place.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
First of all, it was long-term. So most rehabs are 28 days. When I first went to Cry Help, it was 6 to 12 months. It was incredibly strict. No talking to the other sex. You know, you got men with men, women with women. Chores. You know, this is your house. You're going to live here for six to 12 months. You're going to mop the floor. And if you break rules, there's consequences. Such as what?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Like you need to get a routine, you know? So the fancy rehabs in the Hills, they don't do that because they don't want you to leave. Cause if you leave, they stop getting paid. So cry out, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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 going to help you get a job and we're going to tie you into programs where you can get free tools. you know, if you have, if you already have a trade, you know, I already had a trade. So I got tools, I got work boots. They helped me get all that.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, and they would help me with a bank.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, uh, You know, to just get in the routine of like, hey, you got to 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
You know, it was it was decent money and making four or five grand a month. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. And 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. Because then you're still connected. You're still right there.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
You're in a halfway house with people that you just went through the program with. There's still some sort of, you know, oversight going on. But you have the freedom, you know, to go live your life and everything. And then I'll just, you know, 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?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Well, I mean, AA, some people would call it faith-based. I mean, to me it's faith-based.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I think so, too. But 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, Jack Bernstein founded it, and he was a heroin addict, and he started it with a guy from Three Dog Night, the band Three Dog Night. No way. I've seen him perform. Oh, wow. Yeah, so just great guys. They were junkies back in the day, and they bought a plot of land for cheap in North Hollywood, and they just formed this... this place. And it was, it was designed to be a long-term program.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
So he's a hero, you know, and he's a faithful man. And, uh, but that's besides the point, you know, like, you know, but the people don't, people hate faith, you know, Salvation Army, you know, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Well, yeah, because a lot of places in California are very anti. They hear the word faith, and that's it. They're throwing it out the window.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Well, I know that privately he's a very faithful man. So I would say that, yes, there is some connection to that.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Well... At this point, since the drugs have changed so much, so like the meth is just not what it was 10 years ago. Fentanyl is a new drug. The last five years, it's really come on the scene. And you're just seeing 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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%. Yeah.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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 nation. I mean, this is a huge issue that is so visible, and it's magnified by news outlets and independent media.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
And everyone, when you think of California 40 years ago, you thought about surfers and the ocean. And when you think about California now, you think about a crazy homeless guy. I mean, that's it. And maybe that's exaggerated, but whatever. That is the image that comes up in your head. So if he tries to run... That's what people in Kansas are going to think.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, start rounding people up that are homeless and, and,
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
like have triage tents and everything and just try to figure out are you know what group are you in are you just a drug addict are you purely mentally ill or is it economic reasons and if it and then that's 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 well
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Something like that. Hey, you're here for six months, and we're going to bring in professionals. We're going to bring in economic experts that know where the economy is going to be in five to ten years and what needs we have, what kind of job needs we have. We're going to start training people.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
The greatest thing for people getting sober is to develop a sense of self-worth and self-esteem and purpose. And, you know, a lot a lot a really good way to do that is to get a job, a job that pays you a decent wage for hard work. You know, but you could you could help build, you know, Biden passed this infrastructure bill. We could be training people to build bridges, repair bridges, welding.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
You know, we can train people to become industrial plumbers. I mean, if they're you know, if their mindset is geared towards something like that or maybe some people are more geared towards I.T. 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I mean, I'm sure you've broken a few laws doing that, but... he needs to declare a state of emergency. And, uh, 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?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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 the, the, this is the dark truth. I mean, we, it's going to cost a lot of money. But we just burned $24 billion.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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 it out for recovery. He's quoted as saying, sobriety is the biggest damn mistake this country ever made. Quoted on video. This is a country that, I love America, but we had slavery. We've had a few mistakes.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. 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?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, so he just has it out for recovery. Because, you know, 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? It takes like 800 or 900 days. you know, it costs 900 grand to build one of these little homeless units.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I mean, there is a lot of grift. There's a lot of money laundering. There's a lot of just straight up theft going on. Yeah, I remember this clip.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Clean and sober. Yeah. He's in charge of the fifth largest economy in the world. It's crazy.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I met smart 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 ever made. It's crazy. People will do what you let them do.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I think he's flying by the seam of his pants or 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 going to have a really hard time going up against J.D. Vance, especially on this issue. J.D.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
is not going to play around. No, no. I mean, personally, I think Newsom has no chance against J.D. if J.D. Vance runs.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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. I know how someone ends up on Skid Row. I know how you get off, and I know all the problems that are happening. Would you mind starting with your story?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, you nailed it. I mean, listen, I love America. I love California. These people out on the street, they're people. They're Americans. And there is a way we can help them. And we're 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. I'm really looking for a solution. I just want to see the great state of California do better.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, sure. I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. My parents were both heroin addicts. I still had a relatively okay childhood, but... Around the age of eight or nine, they started smoking crack. Crack is very unmanageable. Things got very dark very quickly. Fortunately, I have extended family. I was adopted when I was 12, and I moved to Oakland, California.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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 You know, I landed at college and OxyContin was really big. You know, this is like 2007, 2008. How old are you, by the way? Right now I'm 35. Okay, 35 years old. 35, yeah.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
This is UC Santa Cruz. UC Santa Cruz, they're doing heroin. People were doing heroin, yeah. I was in the art dorm. I don't recommend it.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
That's not the first time they got it. 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, you know, they hit it pretty well. And, you know, they told me, hey, this person's going to come talk to 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
They're going to ask you questions like that. 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... 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
And I basically was fending for myself from about age 7 to 12.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, like any kind of like decision of like, okay, are you going to go to school? Like I decided to go to school most of the time.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, you know, 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
I was 14 years old.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, it was somewhat expected. I mean, I had been adopted when I was 12 with the plan of, okay, we're going to send both of them to rehab. it turns out you can leave rehab.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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, uh, basically just got high and they had 600 grand in the basement when, when I got taken away.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
No, no, they had 600 grand, uh, from trafficking. Yeah. From, you know, like, like 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, um, they, that ended though. Once I, once they got arrested and I was taken away, um, you know, they, they put up bail or whatever. They got out. The agreement was to go to rehab.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
They sort of shuffled in and out. They, they voluntarily left and just got a probation deal basically. And somehow we're 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah. About a year and a half. Yeah.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
It was the day that I graduated eighth grade. It was actually the day before I graduated eighth grade. We did like a mock graduation to practice. I came home. I looked at my aunt. I just knew. I don't 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
because they're just too codependent. They're just operating like they've always operated for many years. My mom did pass, but my dad eventually got it together. I don't know if he would have been able to do that without the wake-up call, basically.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
No, he passed last year, but he got off drugs in 2011.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Cause, was it a, what was the cause? He was not in the greatest shape from abusing drugs. I mean, he used heroin on and off for like 45 years, and then the crack and the alcohol. It was just, you know, he was 71, and he just had a rough life.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. We had a great relationship. I was flying out here all the time. He actually lived here.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Fort Lauderdale. Oh, very cool.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, listen, he was a great man and and he sobered up and I saw him a lot and I spent a lot. I was there when he died. You know, I was I was here to take care of him. And, you know, he was just honored that, you know, 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 him? Heroin specifically?
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Probably 10 smoked weed.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, pretty much, yeah.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, Northern California.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
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 point when I was 18, I tried an OxyContin. It was the greatest feeling I ever felt.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
And slowly over the next... Over sophomore year, I sort of replaced drinking with OxyContin. Started selling OxyContin. 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.
PBD Podcast
"Stole $1,000 A Day" - Ex-Skid Row Addict EXPOSES California's Homeless & Drug CRISIS! | PBD Podcast | Ep. 534
Yeah, I do. I smoked it on tinfoil the summer before sophomore year with a friend. And he never got really addicted to it, but he was sort of messing around with it. And I remember putting the straw to my lips and smoking it and knowing my mom died from this. But I couldn't, you know, it was over. I was already addicted to opiates. But it was sort of a monumental moment. For you. Yeah.