This episode is brought to you by Curry's Business. Whether you run a bustling cafe, a busy office, or an inspiring classroom, Curry's business has the tech for your 2025 business plans. Upgrade with their January epic deals with up to 40% off hundreds of products. From laptops to TVs, connected mobile to coffee machines. Shop at business.curries.co.uk, visit your local hub, or call their UK-based specialist business centre. Curry's Business, powering your business in 2025.
Adobe Express makes it quick and easy to create everything I need for my business. From social posts, TikToks and flyers, all in just a few clicks. Get Adobe Express for free. Search for Adobe Express to find out more. 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've 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. Because I wanted to find out 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... Witness that. It's great to have you on. Yeah. 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 L.A.
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 or five years.
And today, Jared 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 going to 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 $1,000. He said, I did it 300, 400 times because he would steal it for $1,000 and go sell it to, what did he call it, fencers? Fencers for a price point. And then I said, 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 charity is named 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 them 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 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 Klikstein with his story. It could possibly change. many people's lives.
Adam, what's your point? The future looks bright. My handshake is better than anything I ever signed, right? You are a one-on-one. My son's right. I don't think I've ever said this before. 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. And these are statistics for 2024, an increase by 18.1%. Out of the 770, 181 is from California. So this is the number that concerns me. One of the reasons why we have you on here. So California is 11.6% of the U.S. 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, 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 want to read the whole, I want to 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 L.A., in Skid Row. addicted to drugs, crack, heroin, OxyContin. 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 this homelessness issues that we're having,
If we go talk to anybody, everybody 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, non-profit, 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'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? 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 uh very unmanageable you know things got very dark very quickly and uh 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, you know, alcohol, drugs. You know, I drank a lot in high school.
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. 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 were doing heroin. Yeah. I was in the art dorm. I don't recommend it. Now, let's go back. If you're talking about like 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 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.
You know, the state didn't get very involved. And when they did, what was it like? And 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, 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 make you wear a helmet when you ride your bike and stuff like that. They're going to ask you questions like that. And I'd exaggerate and I would lie.
you know, convince CPS that my parents are doing a good job. And they were doing a pretty good job. 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 7 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 going to 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, 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 going to buy pizza. Coca-Cola. So I just lived on that. Any siblings or just you? No siblings. Those are your biological parents? Those are my biological parents. Did your mom...
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 going to send both of them to rehab.
It turns out you can leave rehab. When you say adopted, 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 $600,000 in the basement when I got taken away. Are you kidding? No, they had $600,000. From the 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
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 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. 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. We did like a mock graduation to practice. I came home. I looked at my aunt. I just knew. I don't know. 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 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 without. The wake up call, basically. So he's still he's still fine today. No, he passed last year, but he was sober since he got off drugs in 2011. Wow. So he 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 abusing drugs. I mean, he used heroin on and off for like 45 years. And then the crack and the alcohol. He was 71, and he just had a rough life. Well, you guys had a relationship. 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. That's tough. It's a year ago. But at least you were able to rekindle that relationship. 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 you know i was i was here to take care of him and uh 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 Uh, heroin specifically. Anything. Uh, probably 10 smoked weed. Okay. Yeah. What else? Started drinking probably around 13, 14 and, uh, 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. 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 uh 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 um Slowly, over sophomore year, I sort of replaced drinking with Oxycontin. Started selling Oxycontin. Got very addicted. Started using it every day. 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 going to 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 tinfoil the summer before sophomore year with a friend. 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. 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 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.
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 uh kicked out of school and um 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 schoolwork. It's not... I mean, you do fall asleep a lot. Meth is the exact opposite. 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's that word for it? you're like diabolically like elevated. 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.
Out of everything, you've used us 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, you lose your mind. 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. 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. And this is Rob. You're saying what you're showing here is fentanyl? Yeah, that's fentanyl. So that's like heroin times 100. The number of people dying on fentanyl is a whole different story. Okay. Yeah. So, 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. 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 fired by the cartel?
Well, they laid me off. I don't know what they did. I didn't know the 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 where they kill you to fire you. They just lay you off. Yeah. I mean, they had guns and stuff, but, um, I think they were, yeah, no, listen, I'm blessed. You know, they could have just shot me in the head, but, um, they just, so now you lose that job. Yeah. I get, 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. And, you know, 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.
You know, 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 they? Is it 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?
Yeah. Got it. So they're like, we're done, you know, come, we've seen this story before, you know, you're going to go on your journey, come back when you're serious. And, um, 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 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, you know, pretty, you know, 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. You know, 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, 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...
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. obviously they didn't they didn't want me to join their crew i was like a you know a 22 year old white kid but um i stole some socks and i stole some supplies and stuff and i gave 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 a 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 i was proud of myself
And it was Youngster, Chinola, Shadow, Boxer, and Smiley. And they took me in, and they called me Oakland. That was my story. 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 uh that run was probably like like uh 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
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 go to the local McDonald's by 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, if you were to say, well, I met this one guy that was this, was it any former professionals? Was it due to drugs? Was it due to finances? When I do the data here and we pull it up and 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 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.
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, you know, of a friend or a family member. And they get back on their feet.
You know, and 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. 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 um this is this is the harsh reality of it and and what so you're saying it in a way why Why do you think they don't want to address that? Why do you think they want to 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 are 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 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, you know, and 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 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 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.
Yeah, that's really it. Wait, so what you're saying is almost like when you talk about the homeless industrial complex. Yeah, exactly. It's a corny phrase. Okay, so these nonprofits, are you saying... Like, give me one of the 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.
So one city rising, when they get the money, what do they claim that they do with the money? 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? These non-profits are somewhat... 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. That's a lot of money for a nonprofit. $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 is State Bill 1380. That said that any...
organization receiving funding from the state cannot have sobriety. Oh, wait a minute. Midnight Mission is right on Skid Road. This is where we used to going. Yeah, I've been here. Yeah, it's great. Yeah, yeah. It's a great place. So tell me about Midnight Mission. Midnight Mission is a nonprofit. You know, it's a nonprofit for homeless people. You move in. It's been around for a long time. Yeah, it's been around for like 100 years. And, you know, Mr. T would come down there.
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 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. 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 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 wanted to 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, 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 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.
Explain work. So that requires work. What is the actual work? In my opinion, it would be setting up long-term treatment centers. 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, they need to be housed permanently in some sort of facility.
Nowadays, more than ever, the brand you wear reflects and represents who you are. So for us, if you wear a future looks bright hat. or a value-taming gear, you're telling the world, I'm optimistic, I'm excited about what's going to be happening, but you're a free thinker, you question things, you like debate. And by the way, last year, 120,000 people got a piece of Future Looks.
Bright Gear with Valuetainment. We have so many new things. The cufflinks are here. New future looks bright. This is my favorite, the green one. Just yesterday, somebody placed an order for a hundred of these. If you watch the PBD podcast, you got a bunch to choose. from white ones, black ones. If you smoke cigars and you come to our cigar lounge, we have this high quality lighter cutter and a holder for the cigars. We got sweaters.
With the Valuetainment logo on it, we got mugs. We got a bunch of different things. But if you believe the future looks bright, if you follow our content and what we represent with Valuetainment, with PBD Podcast, Go to vtmerch.com. And by the way, if you order right now, there's going to be a special VT gift inside just for you. So again, go to vtmerch.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 on Skid Row. How many died? How many numbers of stories do you have of people dying? Oh, Johnny's no longer here with us. Oh, dozens. Dozens? Yeah. Okay. So it's not in the hundreds that you heard. 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 probably 75 75 that died yeah over that 2011 to 2018 mark No, up until now still. I mean, people are still dying. 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. 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. Probably 10 to 20. Okay, so let's stay on this topic. While you're 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.
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, 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.
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 rogue 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, you know, Los Angeles, the street. And, um,
You make a relationship, you develop relationships with one of them usually. Is it 50%? Like if it's you steal $300, they pay 50% of what you steal. Is it like 150? What would the breakdown be? 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. But for the most part, if you stole $300, what are you going to get in cash? Oh, that was over $1,000. Oh, so if you stole $1,000, what are you getting in cash? Maybe one-third. About one-third. Oh, wow. Okay. So that's massive. So you're making $300 on the $1,000 of stolen? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. 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 call the police, but I managed to get away almost every time. I did get arrested a few times, but they just write you a ticket. Legally, they can't arrest you for it. And how much was a ticket? Oh, I never paid it. I don't even remember. How many tickets you got? Maybe three. Okay. And how many times did you steal $1,000 worth of stuff from stores? Over 300 or 400 times. Wait a minute. Did you say over 300 or 400 times? Yeah.
Every day. And it's $1,000. And was there specific places you were going or you guys would rotate? We'd rotate. Sometimes 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 size? Signs. Oh, signs. Upper scale areas that maybe were less concerned with shoplifting, so maybe less security, less locking things up. You know, anything close to downtown was pretty much untouchable.
You know, 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. Fox Hills Mall, like you'd go to the Fox Hills Mall or was it more like... No, not the mall. Drugstores. Okay. Yeah. And so $300,000 to $400,000 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. Yeah.
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 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. 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.
You know, these sorts of things, you know, people will do what you let them do. 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.
And 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. 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 did, 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're 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 too.
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 inside them and then go in there and 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 they're a bookie. They run 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. If you 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? 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 a hundred 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. But I had a great time in jail. It was one of the best experiences of my life.
because of your circumstances and where you were at. So meaning 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, you know, I developed a community. It wasn't a good community, but I, you know, I had friends and I, you know, got off drugs, you know, and had a pretty, 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. Jail separated me from drugs, but I'm a drug addict. 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.
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 you do you want to get high after this 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 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
Heroin, crack, and meth. And fortunately, I had like, you know, I would call them absolutely horrific spiritual consequences, you know, during each one of those relapses. 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. 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 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 whole mouth was was uh
removed down like up down to here 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 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. 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, um, I'm sorry. I know this is, you know, gruesome and everything, but, um, I was blacked out. I don't know what happened. And, uh, till today you have no idea what happened. 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. Nothing since then? 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. They gave me the housing for three months that was tied to sobriety, though. You know, they gave me housing that required me to remain sober. And, 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 it spiritual solution. That'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. Yeah. 24 billion. of which $16 billion went to six, of which— No, five. Five, of which two did good. The other three wasted the money. Yeah.
Rob, I want to 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, 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.
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 want to 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. Okay. 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 dollars in damage done to their building during that period by 400 homeless people, 18 of which died within 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... So that was a failed idea. That's why. It 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. Okay, so what do you know about Project Home Key?
I believe that's linked to the SIP shelter-in-place program. Here's home key. An extension of Project Room Key. Oh, good call. You're right. An extension of Project Room Key. Project Homekey 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 $3.5 billion. Yeah. And you've also not heard good things about them. 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 damage. 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.
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.
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 like 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.
You know, 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. Over the 2010s, this gets replaced by people, by disgruntled people with liberal arts degrees that have no job. path you know because they got a you know 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 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 rate rose 64 percent. So the state just starts throwing billions at this nonprofit 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.
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. 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 Humberto on the back and 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 $2 billion in bond proceeds to develop permanent supportive housing for individuals.
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 a, here's what I've learned so far from you. And I want to 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 charity you talked about that I've been to multiple times, mission something, mission, 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 death 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. Yeah. 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. Yeah. What else did you see the success ratio of people getting off? Because two weeks ago, we're 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 do 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 had mental issues. Okay. The next part I'm interested in is 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? Yeah. 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? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I know people that have sold housing for drugs. Section 8? 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 8 thing for a pimp to rent out, that's pretty bad.
Because there's security and stuff at this homeless. But you slip 20 bucks to a security guard, you know, anyone's coming in. Hey, let this guy just go handle his business. Here's 20 bucks to you. Yeah. Wow. But what worked? What worked 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 100 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 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 uh he had tried fancy rehabs and all that but he ended up at like a state you know a 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 year that the 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 when i 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. 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 on treatment, education, prevention, counseling, rebuild. Job one is get out of the cave. A lot 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. When I first went to Cry Health, it was six 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? 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. Yeah. Are you serious? Yeah. Yeah. It whipped us into shape.
I mean, you need it's like the military. 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 because they don't want you to leave. Because if you leave, they stop getting paid. So CryHelp, you know, now listen, I'm not against all nonprofits. CryHelp 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 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. 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 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 got to pay something, you know, it's not, I didn't, I had a meager paycheck, but, uh, well, it wasn't that meager. I was doing construction, you know, it was, it was decent money and, um, you're making four or five grand a month. Yeah. Something like that. Yeah. And, um,
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. 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? Well, I mean, AA, some people would call it faith-based. I mean, to me, it's faith-based. I think AA is faith-based, but would you say Cry Help is faith-based? No, but...
It's 12-step based, so it's indirectly. Faith-based. Indirectly, yeah. 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, and he was a heroin addict, and he started it with a guy from Three Dog Night, the band Three Dog Night. No way. No way. I've seen him perform. Oh, wow. Yeah, so... you know just great guys you know they were junkies back in the day and um they bought a plot of land and you know for cheap in north hollywood and they just formed this
this place and it was it was designed to be a long-term program jack bernstein yeah yeah 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. It might be the only successful program in San Francisco right now. You know?
But where are you going with that? Because you said faith. Is it because it's linked to faith-based? 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. 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 what, to me, I'm interested in getting fewer people. to even get on the streets, right? To prevent that from happening. Yeah. 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 themselves.
If you, because 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? Yeah. It's just a system's fault. It's not my fault. And then eventually. You took responsibility. Today we had another person I interviewed in the morning. His name is Chase Hughes, and he was a 20-year military guy. He did some spy warfare stuff.
He's a human intelligence. He trains 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. Either people would say, well, you know, I got kids, and when they're sick, I get sick, and, you know.
It's just probably when I see other people, they touch 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 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 of the luck of the draw. It's not my fault. It's somebody else, right? So I can see that part. 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 10 years ago. Fentanyl is, you know, 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. 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%. Okay. And... So that's 45% leaving 55%. Are you saying 55% is one that could, but it's 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 percent. What other ideas that you have? That if you, let's just say you had a meeting with Newsom, right? Yeah. 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 up Florida. And I said, you know, question for Newsom, all the fires that's going on in L.A. right now. I said, Florida has hurricanes, natural disasters. California has wildfires. And according to PBS, 95% are man-made, 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. That's an eight-year run we're talking about. So total.
We're talking 14 years, right? Yeah. 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 nation. I mean, this is a huge issue that is so visible. And it's magnified by news outlets and independent media. 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, you know, and maybe that's exaggerated, you know, 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. 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, 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 you're just 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. The greatest thing for people getting sober is to have...
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... bill you know biden passed this infrastructure bill we could be training people to build bridges repair bridges welding you know we can uh train people to
become industrial plumbers i mean if if they're you know 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 um 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 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 some guidance and some oversight? Or do you need to be in a hospital for the rest of your life? This is the dark truth. I mean, this is 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. Um, yeah, that's, that's, you know, he, he had, he has, uh, he, I think, 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. Quote it on video. And, you know, this is a country that I love America, but, you know, we had slavery. You know, 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. 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?
I've got to find it. That's eight minutes. Let me find an actual version of it. 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. It costs 900 grand to build one of these little homeless units. I mean, they're...
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, 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. 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 bullshitting Iran just, you know, saying the message is lip service and doesn't think this is fixable? 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. 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.'s not going to play around. No, no. I mean, personally, I think Newsom has no chance if J.D. Vance runs.
Yeah, I think he doesn't have a chance with a handful of people if they run on the opposite side. 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. Yeah. I love 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.
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 went 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, you know, drug dealers and pregnant girl at 14 years old and all this stuff. And one of the girls, one day I'm like, so 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, 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 of all this stuff of each other, not her. They're still being protected.
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. This girl was 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 in the room 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 the entire, 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 want to be a good citizen. You want to 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, you know, you know, 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 gave. 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 some questions that maybe I didn't ask, because I definitely think.
someone in California who's 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 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 us in California and say, this is a problem for those that love California that don't want to leave, and I want to 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. 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.
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, you know, and there is a way we can help them. And we are sort of just setting money on fire. 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. I want to see the great country of America do better.
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. 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 if, Rob, you've ever heard me say something like that when I do podcasts. No. Share 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 represents who you are. So for us, if you wear a future looks bright hat, or a value taming gear, you're telling the world, I'm optimistic.
I'm excited about what's going to be happening. But you're a free thinker. You question things. You like debate. And by the way, last year, 120,000 people got a piece of Future Looks Bright gear with Valuetainment. We have so many new things. The cufflinks are here. here new future looks bright this is my favorite the green one just yesterday somebody placed an order for a hundred of these if you watch the pbd podcast you got a bunch to choose from white ones black ones if you if you
If you smoke cigars and you come to our cigar lounge, we have this high-quality lighter cutter and a holder for the cigars. We got sweaters with the Valuetainment logo on it. We got mugs. We got a bunch of different things. But if you believe the future looks bright, if you follow our content and what we represent with Valuetainment, with PBD Podcast,
Go to vtmerch.com. And by the way, if you order right now, there's going to be a special VT gift inside just for you. So again, go to vtmerch.com. Place your order. Tell the world that you believe the future looks bright.