JARED KLICKSTEIN-CROOKED SMILE

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Jerry Klickstein was born in Boston, Massachusetts, too at best, challenging circumstances that led him to a journey that led him to writing about his journey in his new book called Crooked Smiles. What Sorry, Crooked Smile. What it Took to escape a decade of homelessness, addiction, and crime. Jared Klickstein, Welcome.

Hey, how's it going.

So your childhood? Is that a fair assessment? It was challenging.

Yeah, I mean, listen, my parents were heroin addicts and they eventually started using crack cocaine, and you know, I listen, I'm still lucky that I came from like a two parent household, I guess and all that.

But yeah, there was challenges.

And at what point, I mean, were they homeless as well? When you were that? When when you were young, did you struggle with having a place to live?

No? I mean, my dad had had a pretty good union carpenter job and it was sort of okay, and things worked out, and you know, it did get worse and worse, and eventually, you know, by the time I was twelve, it was probably heading in that direction. But fortunately I had an aunt and uncle in Oakland, California that that came and adopted me, and we tried to put my parents in rehab, but that sort of just floundered for years, but eventually took hold of my dad.

At what point did you strike out on your own? Jared Klickstein as the author of Crooked Smile.

Pretty quickly.

I mean I started doing heroin around nineteen and nineteen twenty, and by the time I was twenty two, I was homeless. And it's you know, it's pretty pretty simple. You just you run out of money and run out of friends, and you run out of family, and no one will really put up with your horrific behavior. So it was it wasn't that that complicated for me to become homeless.

At the time. Were you aware that a lot of this was because of influence of your parents or were there other reasons?

Uh? No, I didn't really think it was because of them, and I still don't know if it really they had anything to do with it. I think it was just, you know, I really got addicted to oxyconton really quickly, and I didn't know that ox con was essentially heroin, and and.

You know, just listen to the stuff is super physically and mentally addictive. And and I you know, whether my parents were heroin acts or not, I.

If I had done that much oxycon and heroin, no matter what kind of background it came from, I think I really would have wound up addicted. But but then again, I think I did become addicted to suppressed pain of growing up in those circumstances.

Jared Klechstein is with us a crooked smile what it took to escape a decade of homelessness, addiction, and crime. Do you remember that first night you spent when you were homeless?

Yeah, the first the first night, I actually I still had a car, so I slept in a car, and that's sort of cheating. I don't know, it's sort of like a it's like being homeless with like a life vest on. Yeah, you know, it's not that bad, but you know, I obviously eventually you you lose the car and then you're sleeping outside and that is very frightening.

Did you find yourself in homeless camps at some point?

Yeah? Yeah, you know, I wound up homeless in Los Angeles and naturally gravitated towards skid row where homeless people gravitate to.

And yeah, you're kind of you eventually.

Make friends, I mean, you make enemies, and if you're I mean, if you're lucky enough, you make some good friends and.

You end up in a camp. Then you sort of protect each other.

But at the same time, you're all homeless and on drugs, so someone will doublecross you for five dollars. Yeah, so that's it's not like, you know, it's not like you're you're in the foxhole with someone that's honorable or anything.

Talking to Jared Klickstein that crooked smile. At what point did you decide to write this book?

About six years ago, I wound up in a situation where I was living with some people that were sober and they were trying to help me get sober, and I just started writing it and I thought that, you know, I didn't really want to live anymore, and I started started writing this like poetic, you know.

Self obsessed suicide letter.

And it kind of just turned into this book eventually, I you know, it turned into a draft.

At least.

Most of your homelessness was in Los Angeles or was it between Los Angeles and Oakland.

Most of it was in Los Angeles, but I was homeless also in Oakland and San Francisco.

But but yeah, the majority of it was in Los Angeles.

And of those three cities, which one was the best to be homeless in?

I'd say Los Angeles because Los Angeles has skid row, which is essentially like its own city of homelessness, And.

You know, it's adventurous, and there are some resources.

They're not resources to really there's not a lot of resources to help you get out of homelessness, but there are a lot of resources to sort of help you maintain your homelessness, for lack of a better way of describing it. But yeah, and the drugs are better in Los Angeles than they are in They're just higher quality where they were.

You know.

Yeah, Crooked Smile is the name of the book. And you can hear this is kind of it's kind of dark humor, isn't it.

Yeah, Well, you know, homelessness and addiction are are extremely dark.

But unfortunately, or or maybe fortunately, you get.

Yourself in some pretty funny situations because when you are under the spell of addiction, you sort of don't act in your best interest and end up in crazy, crazy situations that that are humorous if you after the fact, they're humorous.

Yeah. Can you give us an anecdote of one of those instances?

Yeah? Sure.

I mean, you you really sacrifice your safety when you're on drugs, so you'll get your you'll start hanging out with people that that you know, you risk your life basically on a daily basis. And you know, there's all kinds of things that I've gotten myself into. I've you know, I ended up getting held hostage in a suitcase naked by people that were attempting to sell me.

To a human trafficker.

And and that was really scary in the moment, but but after I realized, you know it is it is pretty funny that, you know, these people tried to sell me and and I wasn't very attractive because I was on drugs, so I was and they, you know, they beat the hell out of me. So I was like covered in blood, and they were trying to take pictures of me to send to this potential human trafficker, and I wasn't looking very sexy. So so fortunately, uh no one, the guy wouldn't buy me, I, uh, what do you like?

Yeah, I mean it does doesn't do much for the self for the self image, does it. You couldn't even be sold to human traffickers?

No? I mean perhaps now I could, But yeah, in the moment, Uh you know.

I was all I was on meth and heroin.

Just that's a no one wants the babysit a meth or heroin addict.

I mean, I don't know.

That seems like the least fun person to hold captive.

It's Jared click Stein and he is the author of Crooked Smile What it Took to Escape a decade of homelessness, addiction, and crime. Have you come to any conclusions as to what we need to do as a nation to better homelessness nationwide?

Yeah, I mean I think that there's a lot of issues. I'd almost use the words spiritually. I mean, we just have a lot of vision in this country and a lot of leaders that aren't really concerned with achieving anything more just attacking the other side, and we just keep sending money to other countries, and it's like, you know, we just have.

Thousands upon thousands.

Of homeless people, and a lot of them are addicted to drugs, and we have to give these people hope, and we have to stop enacting policies that sort of just maintain their homelessness and enable their homelessness and maintain their addictions, and you know, set these people up for a life worth living with long term nonprofit treatment and specifically a job change.

Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation