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

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

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Patrick Bet-David?

  I lived in California for a long time and it breaks my heart when I see the percentage of homelessness increasing.

• 0:14Speaker 01

  I met smart people out there.

• 0:19Speaker 01

  I met talented people out there.

• 0:22Speaker 01

  They are not being helped. They are only being hindered by policy at this point.

• 0:29Speaker 01

  He's in charge of the fifth largest economy in the world. He's quoted as saying, "The biggest damn mistakes this country's ever made." It's crazy. People will do what you let them do.

• 0:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Because I wanted to find out, how did you end up here?

• 0:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:42Patrick Bet-David?

  That's what I wanted to know. Do you remember the first time you used heroin?

• 0:45Speaker 01

  I remember putting the straw to my lips and smoking it and, you know, knowing my mom died from this.

• 0:52Speaker 01

  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.

• 1:06Patrick Bet-David?

  What percentage do you think finally make it back into society and live regular lives?

• 1:12Speaker 01

  I'd say less than 10%.

• 1:14Patrick Bet-David?

  You not only have the moral authority to speak on this, you don't see yourself as a victim. I'm so proud of you and happy the fact that there's an example of somebody like you that witnessed that. It's great to have you on.

• 1:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:30Patrick Bet-David?

  Jared Klickstein.

• 1:33Patrick Bet-David?

  Let me tell you why I did this podcast here today. I'm 46 years old. Of the 46 years of my life, I lived almost 11 years in Iran, 18 months in Germany, four years in Florida, five years in Texas, two and a half years in the military between Kentucky, Tennessee and South Carolina, but I lived 24 years of my life in California. I love California. Let me say that one more time. I love California. Incredible state. Incredible environment. Magical place. To live and die in LA. Tupac, music. The Hills from San Francisco. One of my wife and I loved going to San Francisco. Absolutely loved going to San Francisco. I have so, it's the only place in the world that I can drive

• 2:18Patrick Bet-David?

  any freeway without even thinking about it, I know where I'm gonna end up. And it breaks my heart to see what's happened in California with homelessness. The last fifteen years, specifically the last four, 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 gonna get you to see, because I'm so curious on what the problem with homelessness is. He was on Skid Row for almost seven years. He was there talking about Prop 47 destroying California when it was no longer a felony. And he stole a thousand dollars of stuff from stores.

• 3:01Patrick Bet-David?

  And he broke down what stores he would go to to steal a thousand dollars. He said, I did it three, four hundred times because he would steal it for a thousand dollars. And go sell it to, what did he call it, fencers? Fencers for price point. And then I said, what caused people to get into Skid Row and become homeless in California? What caused people to get out? What charities of the 24 billion dollars the last five years? Who did it go to? He gave the charities name, one by one by one, we went through three charities. That he explained what worked, what didn't work. He broke down a charity that Robert Downey Jr. was a part of. Uh, that he tells how he was also part of it, how it changed his life. That's how he got off of heroin. Meth. Uh, uh, uh, what else can I tell you? Fentanyl, he tried everything.

• 3:47Patrick Bet-David?

  The stuff that he shared with me, I could not even believe. My interest is, how do we stop them 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 of years ago about being sober. I, 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,

• 4:31Patrick Bet-David?

  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 Klickstein with his story. It could possibly change many people's lives.

• 5:15Patrick Bet-David?

  How you doing, man?

• 5:16Speaker 01

  I'm doing great. I'm honored to be here.

• 5:18Patrick Bet-David?

  It's great to have you on.

• 5:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Jared Klickstein, you know, for me, I lived in California for a long time, and it breaks my heart when I see the percentage of homelessness increasing. We have 770,000 homeless people living in America. Okay, and these are statistics for 2024, an increase by 18.1%.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  18%.

• 5:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Out of the 771, 181 is from California. So this is the number that concerns me now. You know, one of the reasons why we have you on here. So California is 11.6% of the US population total. 38 million people on 340 million. Makes it around 11.6%. But our homeless population in America, in the great state of California, 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

• 6:21Patrick Bet-David?

  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 ten years, if I'm not mistaken, in the streets of L.A., in Skid Row, addicted to drugs, crack, heroin, Oxy- I think you talk about everything, even cocaine, LSD, if I'm not mistaken, all of it, which your upbringing that you have. And I figured with all this homelessness issues that we're having, if we go talk to anybody, writers 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?

• 7:04Patrick Bet-David?

  Is it better to be a for-profit, nonprofit, part of the government, independent? What is it? And that's one of the reasons why I was compelled to say, I want to have you on the podcast. So I appreciate you for coming out.

• 7:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I appreciate you having me on. I mean, I'm not an expert on many things, but on these subjects, I know a lot. You know, I know how someone ends up on Skid Row, I know how you get off, and I know all the problems that are happening.

• 7:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Would you mind starting with your story? Maybe share with the audience your story.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, sure. I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. My parents were both heroin addicts. I still had like a relatively okay childhood, but around the age of like eight or nine, they started smoking crack. And crack is very unmanageable, you know, things got very dark very quickly. And fortunately, I have extended family. I was adopted when I was twelve and I moved to Oakland, California.

• 7:53Speaker 01

  So I lived with my aunt and uncle in Oakland, who are 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. And, you know, I landed at college and OxyContin was really big. You know, this is like two thousand seven, two thousand eight.

• 8:14Patrick Bet-David?

  How old are you, by the way? Just out of curiosity.

• 8:15Speaker 01

  Right now, I'm thirty-five.

• 8:17Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, thirty-five years old.

• 8:17Speaker 01

  Thirty-five, yeah.

• 8:19Patrick Bet-David?

  So OxyContin's big in, you said two thousand eight, two thousand nine?

• 8:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, two thousand seven, two thousand eight, OxyContin's everywhere. First of all, heroin's everywhere. Heroin's on the campus. Like, my friends are doing heroin.

• 8:31Patrick Bet-David?

  And this is what school?

• 8:32Speaker 01

  This is UC Santa Cruz.

• 8:33Patrick Bet-David?

  UC Santa Cruz, they're doing heroin.

• 8:36Speaker 01

  People were doing heroin, yeah. I was in the art dorm. I don't recommend it.

• 8:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Now, let's go, let's go back, if you're talking about like at the beginning stages, so. So, parents both did heroin, right? And I read somewhere that the first time they got arrested is when you were 12 years old?

• 8:54Speaker 01

  That's not the first time they got arrested. CPS was involved in my childhood. That my mom got arrested throughout my childhood for, you know, possession of heroin. CPS would come. Um, I, in my opinion, I should have been taken away a lot earlier, but, um, not, you know, the state didn't get very involved.

• 9:10Patrick Bet-David?

  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?

• 9:22Speaker 01

  No, they, they were pretty good. My, my dad was a, a union carpenter. He held a job, basically up until the last few months, he held a job. And, uh, you know, they hit it pretty well. And, um, you know, they told me, hey, this person's gonna 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. They're gonna ask you questions like that. And, um, and I'd exaggerate and I would lie and, you know, convince CPS that my parents were doing a good job. And they were doing a pretty good job, but, um, but once they started smoking crack, it was, um, 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, uh, I basically was fending for myself from, from about age seven to 12.

• 10:07Patrick Bet-David?

  And what does that mean, fending for myself? Food, taking carriers, everything?

• 10:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, like, uh, a- any kind of like, um, decision of like, okay, are you gonna go to school? Like, I decided to go to school most of the time.

• 10:19Patrick Bet-David?

  It wasn't like, you better have good grades, you better wake up and go to school? That's not the norm for you?

• 10:24Speaker 01

  There wasn't a lot of that, but, um, my parents also were involved in drug trafficking. So, there, there was money. There was like boxes of cash in my basement and, and, you know, they would just hand me money, basically. And just say, you're doing the food shopping, you know, go get food. And, and if you're nine years old, you're gonna buy pizza and Coca-Cola, you know, you, you know? So, I just lived on that and, uh...

• 10:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Any siblings or just you?

• 10:45Speaker 01

  No siblings.

• 10:46Patrick Bet-David?

  Just you?

• 10:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:47Patrick Bet-David?

  And you, those are your biological parents?

• 10:49Speaker 01

  Those are my biological parents, yeah.

• 10:51Patrick Bet-David?

  And who, who, didn't you, did, did your mom, how old was your mom when, uh, how old were you when she passed away?

• 10:57Speaker 01

  I was fourteen years old.

• 10:58Patrick Bet-David?

  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?

• 11:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was somewhat expected. I mean, I had been adopted when I was twelve with the plan of, okay, we're gonna send both of them to rehab. It turns out you can leave rehab.

• 11:16Patrick Bet-David?

  And when you say adopted, it's important for the audience to know your aunt adopted you.

• 11:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, my aunt in Oakland adopted me and their plan for my parents was to send them to rehab. They both left, voluntarily left rehab. And basically just got high and they had six hundred grand in the basement when I got taken away.

• 11:34Patrick Bet-David?

  Are you kidding?

• 11:35Speaker 01

  No, no, they had six hundred grand.

• 11:38Patrick Bet-David?

  From the trafficking?

• 11:39Speaker 01

  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 that ended though, once they got arrested and I was taken away.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  You know, they put up bail or whatever, they got out, the agreement was to go to rehab. They sort of shuffled in and out, they voluntarily left and just got a probation deal, basically. And somehow 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 six hundred grand.

• 12:14Patrick Bet-David?

  In a year and a half?

• 12:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, about a year and a half.

• 12:17Patrick Bet-David?

  What was the phone call you got when you knew your mom's no longer with you?

• 12:21Speaker 01

  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. Cause they're too, they're just too codependent, you know, and they're just, they're just operating like they've always operated for many years, so.

• 12:52Speaker 01

  You know, my mom, my mom did pass, but you know, my dad eventually got it together, so. I don't know if he would have been able to do that without, without the wake-up call, basically.

• 13:02Patrick Bet-David?

  So he's still, he's still fine today?

• 13:05Speaker 01

  No, he passed last year, but he was sober since, or he got off drugs in twenty eleven.

• 13:11Patrick Bet-David?

  Wow, so he, so he got off drugs in 2011, dies last year, cause, was it a, what was the cause?

• 13:20Speaker 01

  He was, um, not in the greatest shape from, from abusing drug, I mean, he, he used heroin on and off for like forty-five years. And then the crack and the alcohol, he, it was just, you know, he was seventy-one and he just had a rough life.

• 13:35Patrick Bet-David?

  Well, you guys had a relationship.

• 13:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, we, oh, yeah, yeah, we, we had a great relationship. I was flying out here all the ti- he, he actually lived here.

• 13:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Fort Lauderdale.

• 13:42Speaker 01

  Fort Lauderdale, yeah.

• 13:43Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, very cool. Yeah, sorry for your loss. That's like, yeah, that's tough. It's a year ago, but at least you were able to rekindle that relationship and, you know, kind of have some stories and connections outside of the memories you had from back in the days with what he and your mom were going through.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah. No, listen, he, he was a great man and, um, 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, and could come and, and actually take care of him when he was in need.

• 14:15Patrick Bet-David?

  How old were you the first time you started using?

• 14:18Speaker 01

  Uh, heroin specifically?

• 14:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Anything.

• 14:20Speaker 01

  Uh, probably ten, smoked weed.

• 14:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 14:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:23Patrick Bet-David?

  What else?

• 14:25Speaker 01

  Started drinking probably around thirteen, fourteen and, uh, you know, didn't abuse it, but, well, I, I guess I did abuse it. I mean, I drank heavily in high school. Every, every weekend, blacking out.

• 14:38Patrick Bet-David?

  Every weekend blacking out?

• 14:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, pretty much, yeah.

• 14:40Patrick Bet-David?

  This is in Northern California now?

• 14:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, Northern California.

• 14:43Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 14:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:44Patrick Bet-David?

  And, and then how about the hard stuff? When, when do the hard things, hard stuff show up?

• 14:49Speaker 01

  I'd say freshman year of college, everyone was doing, all my friends were experimenting with heroin. My, 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 eighteen, I tried an OxyContin. It, it was the greatest feeling I ever felt. And, um, 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, um, I did some Google, some Google research. I realized OxyContin is essentially heroin. And it's a lot cheaper and it's a lot more powerful, so I, I made the switch to heroin.

• 15:32Patrick Bet-David?

  When that happened, do you remember the moment where you're like, I'm gonna start, even though you know and you saw what happened to your parents? Do you remember the first time you used heroin?

• 15:40Speaker 01

  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.

• 16:07Patrick Bet-David?

  For you?

• 16:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:09Patrick Bet-David?

  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?

• 16:19Speaker 01

  Yeah. 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 break up bags of dope and then break them into smaller quantities and hire drivers to drive them around and deliver them. So I took that job. And a requirement of that job, if you were a heroin addict, was that you had to use methamphetamine so you wouldn't fall asleep when you drove. Because heroin addicts fall asleep when they drive. So they introduced me to methamphetamine and within about three weeks, I was like, you

• 17:04Speaker 01

  know, kicked out of my house and kicked out of school and completely lost my mind. Meth really, you know, it really screwed me up very quickly.

• 17:16Patrick Bet-David?

  How different was that experience for you?

• 17:19Speaker 01

  Heroin is very boring and it's very tranquil and it's very manageable if you have enough of it. At first, your first few years of addiction, you can go to work, you can do your school work. It's not crazy. I mean, you do fall asleep a lot. Meth is the exact opposite, so you take a hit of meth and, 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.

• 18:03Speaker 01

  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.

• 18:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Out of everything you've used, that's the darkest drug.

• 18:17Speaker 01

  Oh, my god, meth is, yeah. I mean, a heroin addict will risk his life for heroin. A meth addict will just risk his life for anything. I mean, a meth addict will risk his life for a cool stick that he finds on the ground. I mean, he'll, you know, you lose your mind, you know, it is dark. And you essentially find a deadly situation on a near daily basis, whether it be violence or, you know, jumping off of a, you know, walkway or something because you thought someone was chasing you, you know, these kinds of things. That's what we're seeing in the streets, you know, when you see people wild in the streets, they're probably on methamphetamine.

• 18:57Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, there was a clip, Rob, you showed about in Philadelphia. Was that, what was that, the one you showed?

• 19:05Speaker 01

  Kensington, we believe it was fentanyl is what everybody's on. I'll find the clip.

• 19:09Patrick Bet-David?

  Did you, did you ever flirt with fentanyl? Did you experience that as well?

• 19:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, I did. I came out here in 2016 to get sober. My dad was out of sober living. I came and moved in and I ended up relapsing. I went to Overtown in Miami. I'd never heard of fentanyl, but I went to go buy heroin and I shot a $10 bag of heroin and woke up in the hospital. They had revived, you know, the guy that I was with took everything out of my pockets, drove me to the hospital, threw me out of his car, they revived me.

• 19:37Patrick Bet-David?

  And this is, this is, Rob, you're saying what you're showing here is fentanyl?

• 19:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's fentanyl. So that's like heroin times a hundred.

• 19:45Patrick Bet-David?

  The number of people dying on fentanyl, it's a whole different story. So now, okay.

• 19:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:49Patrick Bet-David?

  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 can't do heroin when you're driving, you can do meth, you do meth, three weeks later, you're done. What happens next?

• 20:06Speaker 01

  Well, they told me I was only allowed to snort meth and I, 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 and.

• 20:17Patrick Bet-David?

  The cartel fired you?

• 20:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:20Patrick Bet-David?

  How often do people get to say, I was fired by the cartel?

• 20:22Speaker 01

  Well, they laid me off. I don't know what they did, but yeah.

• 20:25Patrick Bet-David?

  I didn't know cartel lays people off, but okay.

• 20:28Speaker 01

  Well, this was a very low level. They were just connected to the cartel.

• 20:32Patrick Bet-David?

  So they're not there where they kill you to fire you. They just lay you off.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, they had guns and stuff, but I think they were, yeah, no, listen, I'm blessed. You know, they could have just shot me in the head, but.

• 20:44Patrick Bet-David?

  So now you lose that job?

• 20:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. I get, yeah, I get kicked out of my house.

• 20:49Patrick Bet-David?

  From the aunt and uncle?

• 20:50Speaker 01

  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. You, we did this with your parents. We enabled your parents for 10 years.

• 21:09Patrick Bet-David?

  By the way, aunt and uncle, whose brother or sister are this? Are your dad or your mom?

• 21:12Speaker 01

  This is my dad's brother and sister. I mean, no, this is my dad's sister. Sorry.

• 21:16Patrick Bet-David?

  Your dad's sister?

• 21:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, got it.

• 21:19Speaker 01

  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 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 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 you know, he was serious. He said, you're not coming to my house, you know? So I asked everyone, you know, 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,

• 22:01Speaker 01

  that's where you go. So I went down to Skid Row and as I'm going there, I pass Occupy Wall Street. There was a big, this was 2011. And I figured, um, 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, uh, which was actually right next to Skid Row. I lived there for about a month until they tore that up and then I, then I had to migrate on to Skid Row. And, um, and the, and the way that I did that is when I arrived, I, um, I was sort of adopted by a group of ex-Mexican gang members

• 22:44Speaker 01

  who had been kicked out of their gang for getting too addicted to meth and they ended up homeless downtown. And I made friends with them at Occupy LA and, and, um, 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 it to-

• 23:02Patrick Bet-David?

  From them?

• 23:03Speaker 01

  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, because of the way I look. I, 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.

• 23:27Patrick Bet-David?

  What was that experience like?

• 23:29Speaker 01

  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 I was Youngster, Chinola, Shadow, Boxer and Smiley. And they, they took me in and, um, they called me Oakland. That's, that was my, that's what they gave me. That, 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, um, 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.

• 24:08Patrick Bet-David?

  So help me while you're in it.

• 24:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:11Patrick Bet-David?

  Help me maybe under, 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 North Ridge 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, you know, 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?

• 24:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:37Patrick Bet-David?

  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 form of professionals? Was it due to drugs? Was it due to finances? When I do the data here and we pull it up and we 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.

• 25:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:03Patrick Bet-David?

  What did you experience?

• 25:05Speaker 01

  I'm just gonna 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, um, because I'm a meth head and a heroin addict. So, um, you know, people have these stories in their head of, you know, oh, I lost a job. Well, why did you lose the job?

• 25:50Speaker 01

  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, um, you know, they, maybe they get sick or something. Now, 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, um, when you see a guy running around a McDonald's with his pants down screaming, I mean, that guy didn't lose his accounting job. You know, that guy's on drugs. And we have to stop lying to ourselves that like, you know, the vast majority of the visible homeless people are there because of some kind of economic circumstance.

• 26:32Speaker 01

  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.

• 26:39Patrick Bet-David?

  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?

• 26:51Speaker 01

  I think that people are, people in charge of California, the government, are kind of playing it by ear, you know, they're playing a lot of things by ear, they're really concerned with just getting to the next election, they do not, solving the problem is going to require a lot of work and they don't want to work, you know, they've outsourced this to nonprofits entirely, in, 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

• 27:22Patrick Bet-David?

  What do you mean by that?

• 27:23Speaker 01

  Meaning, uh, the handling of homelessness and, and addiction services, uh, you know, the budgets, like San Francisco, for example, San Francisco had a budget of 1.1 billion dollars in 2023 to address homelessness, and the vast majority of that was not handled by the state, it was out, it was pushed and given to nonprofits that don't have a lot of oversight, that are, uh, they're, 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, um, yeah, you know, that, that, that's really it, and

• 27:57Patrick Bet-David?

  Wait, so what you're saying is, so almost like when you talk about the homeless industrial complex?

• 28:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 28:02Patrick Bet-David?

  It's a corny phrase, uh, 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?

• 28:12Speaker 01

  One City Rising is, is an example of one in

• 28:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Can you type in One City Rising? So, One City Rising?

• 28:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, so they're, they're getting investigated, I believe, by the feds right now, so things are starting to happen, you know?

• 28:24Patrick Bet-David?

  So, One City Rising?

• 28:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:27Patrick Bet-David?

  E, e, when they get the money, what do they claim that they do with the money?

• 28:32Speaker 01

  Well, they, they, I think they have assets, like property assets, that they convert into some sort of homeless housing, and then they do a lot of like harm reduction, uh, outreach and things like that, and, uh, I mean, if

• 28:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Are they at all effective?

• 28:46Speaker 01

  Um, th, th, these nonprofits are somewhat of, okay, so, of the 24 billion dollars that, that California has spent on homelessness in the last five years, 16 billion of it went to five entities, two of which, only two of which were, uh, after a deep analysis, were viewed as cost effective, so, some of them are doing something.

• 29:05Patrick Bet-David?

  What are the three that were not?

• 29:07Speaker 01

  I, I don't know the names off the top of my head.

• 29:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so you said of the 24 billion?

• 29:11Speaker 01

  16 billion went to five entities.

• 29:15Speaker 01

  That's a lot of money for a nonprofit, you know.

• 29:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Sixteen billion went to five entities.

• 29:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:25Patrick Bet-David?

  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?

• 29:32Speaker 01

  The Midnight Mission. The Midnight Mission is a fabulous program in Los Angeles. It not really anymore because Gavin Newsom passed SB 1380. That state bill 1380 that said that any organization receiving funding from the state cannot have sobriety.

• 29:48Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, wait a minute. Midnight Mission is right on Skid Row. This is where we was used to go and that, uh, yeah, I've been here.

• 29:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's great.

• 29:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 29:53Speaker 01

  It's a great place.

• 29:54Patrick Bet-David?

  So, tell me about Midnight Mission.

• 29:56Speaker 01

  Midnight Mission is a nonprofit, uh, you know, it's a nonprofit for homeless people. You move in.

• 30:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Been around for a long time.

• 30:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's been around for like a hundred years and, uh, you know, Mr. T would come down there and, um, 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. Um, but after SB 1380 passed, uh, in order to receive state funding, you can't have, you can't tie sobriety requirements to housing for the homeless people. So Midnight Mission can no longer require sobriety to live within its premises in order to still receive state funding. So it's...

• 30:34Patrick Bet-David?

  Which means what? It essentially mandates a housing-first approach, meaning individuals experiencing homelessness can access permanent housing without needing to demonstrate sobriety or complete a treatment program first. The focus is on getting people housed quickly and then providing support. So versus before, they had a standard.

• 30:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. You had to be so... I went to that program and I had to be sober.

• 30:56Patrick Bet-David?

  And if you weren't, they'd kick you out.

• 30:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, they'd 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, um, it's been basically turned into like a glorified crack house. I mean, this is, we're providing housing to thousands of people and they are doing fentanyl in the housing and smoking crack in the housing. And they're not following up. You know, they said they're gonna, "We're gonna follow up with, with support." They don't follow up with support because that requires work and no one wants to work.

• 31:26Patrick Bet-David?

  Explain work. So that requires work. What is the actual work?

• 31:31Speaker 01

  In my opinion, it would be setting up long-term treatment centers. I mean, I support housing these people, but I support housing them in treatment centers and mandating to them, I mean mandating them to these treatment centers when they have, uh, 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. Uh, they need to be housed permanently in some sort of facility.

• 32:10Patrick Bet-David?

  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 ValueTainment gear, you're telling the world, "I'm optimistic. I'm excited about what's gonna 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 cuff links are here. New Future Looks Bright. This is my favorite, the green one. Just yesterday, somebody placed an order for 100 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,

• 32:54Patrick Bet-David?

  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 gonna 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. Uh, the getting out, the people that you saw who succeeded and got out. How many did you see? You said you met thousands of people in Skid Row. How many died?

• 33:38Patrick Bet-David?

  How many numbers of stories do you have of people dying? Look, oh, Johnny's no longer here with us.

• 33:42Speaker 01

  Oh, dozens.

• 33:43Patrick Bet-David?

  Dozens?

• 33:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so it's not in the hundreds that you heard. It's the, and when you say dozens, less than fifty?

• 33:51Speaker 01

  Including people that I've gotten sober with and everything?

• 33:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Yes.

• 33:55Speaker 01

  It's over fifty.

• 33:56Patrick Bet-David?

  That died?

• 33:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, probably, probably seventy-five.

• 33:59Patrick Bet-David?

  Seventy-five that died?

• 34:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:01Patrick Bet-David?

  Over that two thousand eleven to two thousand eighteen mark?

• 34:05Speaker 01

  No, up until now, still. I mean, people are still dying, yeah.

• 34:07Patrick Bet-David?

  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?

• 34:13Speaker 01

  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 ten to twenty.

• 34:28Patrick Bet-David?

  Probably ten to twenty. Okay, so let, let's stay on this topic. While you're there, how are you making money? Uh, I read somewhere that because of the California laws, you were able to make some days three hundred dollars a day because of stealing and, and uh, uh, give me that business model.

• 34:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, so Prop forty-seven passed in twenty fourteen, so prior to that, I would like beg for change at the train station and do things like that and little pesky crimes. Um, but after SB, I mean, after Prop forty-seven passed, which essentially decriminalized shoplifting, um, I was making, you know, three to four hundred dollars a day shoplifting and, uh, I'd go with a partner. We'd go into like a CVS or a Walgreens or a Target and, um, 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.

• 35:17Patrick Bet-David?

  You called it fences?

• 35:19Speaker 01

  Fences, yeah. Uh, that's like an old school term for someone that deals in stolen property.

• 35:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Fences, okay.

• 35:25Speaker 01

  So, um, the fences stand out on Los Angeles and Sixth, you know, Los Angeles, the street and, um, You make a rela- you you develop relationships with one of them usually.

• 35:34Patrick Bet-David?

  Is it fifty percent like if it's you steal three hundred dollars, they pay fifty percent of what you steal? Is it like one fifty? What would the breakdown be?

• 35:40Speaker 01

  No, they they have sort of set prices and and it's a it's a free market. You know, there's multiple fences and prices sort of naturally form.

• 35:47Patrick Bet-David?

  But on for most part, if you stole three hundred dollars, what are you gonna get in cash?

• 35:51Speaker 01

  Oh, that was over a thousand dollars.

• 35:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, so if you stole a thousand dollars, what are you getting in cash?

• 35:55Speaker 01

  Maybe one third.

• 35:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh.

• 35:56Speaker 01

  About one third.

• 35:57Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, wow.

• 35:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:58Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 35:58Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:59Patrick Bet-David?

  So that's massive. So you're getting so you're making three hundred bucks on the thousand dollars of stolen? Okay.

• 36:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:04Patrick Bet-David?

  So now you're stealing and then you're going there. And while you're doing this, how often are you getting caught?

• 36:12Speaker 01

  Once in a while, you would well, well, this was back in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. The staff of these stores still cared. I mean, because they there was some hope in society back then and and it was like, okay, I'm gonna try to stop this person from stealing.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  There were security guards that would stop us sometimes. So I wouldn't call that caught, but I'd get stopped.

• 36:35Patrick Bet-David?

  Never got arrested?

• 36:36Speaker 01

  Uh, they called 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. You know, legally, they can't arrest you for it.

• 36:45Patrick Bet-David?

  And how much was a ticket?

• 36:46Speaker 01

  Oh, I don't I never paid it. I don't even remember.

• 36:48Patrick Bet-David?

  How many tickets you got?

• 36:49Speaker 01

  Maybe three.

• 36:50Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 36:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:51Patrick Bet-David?

  And how many times did you steal a thousand dollars worth of stuff from stores?

• 36:55Speaker 01

  Um, over over three, over three or four hundred times.

• 37:01Patrick Bet-David?

  Wait a minute. Did you say over three or four hundred times?

• 37:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, every day.

• 37:06Patrick Bet-David?

  And it's a thousand dollars. And was there specific places you were going or you guys you guys would rotate?

• 37:11Speaker 01

  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 and the hip to what we were doing and the ones that weren't.

• 37:21Patrick Bet-David?

  What signs did you look for?

• 37:24Speaker 01

  What size?

• 37:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Signs.

• 37:25Speaker 01

  Oh, signs. Upper scale areas that maybe were less concerned with shoplifting, so maybe less security, less locking things up.

• 37:35Speaker 01

  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.

• 37:47Patrick Bet-David?

  Fox Hills Mall, like you'd go to the Fox Hills Mall, or was it more like?

• 37:51Speaker 01

  No, not the mall, like drugstores.

• 37:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 37:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:54Patrick Bet-David?

  And so, three to four hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff you shoplifted, never got arrested, you got tickets, never paid for it, three times you got tickets, three or four times you got tickets.

• 38:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:04Patrick Bet-David?

  So, what other bad policies in the state of California almost influenced negative behavior that kept happening?

• 38:13Speaker 01

  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. 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, you know, I just was allowed to use drugs openly wherever I wanted. 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, and I was allowed to sleep outside any,

• 38:56Speaker 01

  anywhere I wanted, and, 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 gonna help me.

• 39:40Patrick Bet-David?

  So now you're looking for a nonviolent felony to get?

• 39:43Speaker 01

  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.

• 40:17Patrick Bet-David?

  So six months you're in jail?

• 40:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:19Patrick Bet-David?

  How many times guys who were on Skid Row homeless were thinking the same way, saying, if I go to jail, I got a bed, I get a meal, and I get health insurance. Somebody at least I can go see to, see what health issues I'm having. Was that part of a common strategy or no?

• 40:34Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, there's plenty of guys that make a living going to jail. I mean, they'll, 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.

• 40:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Wait. Seriously?

• 40:47Speaker 01

  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. You know, if you, if you like traffic drugs into jail, you're gonna make a lot of money. So people will routinely do that.

• 41:13Patrick Bet-David?

  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?

• 41:20Speaker 01

  There's access to drugs, but really like the shock collars 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, yeah.

• 41:35Patrick Bet-David?

  Right.

• 41:35Speaker 01

  Like if you want to get high, it's like 100 bucks and your family has to wire money to their family. And then they get the call that the money came through and then they'll give you the drugs. So I didn't have any money.

• 41:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh shit.

• 41:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, and but I had a great time in jail. It was it was one of the best experiences of my life and.

• 41:53Patrick Bet-David?

  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.

• 42:02Speaker 01

  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.

• 42:16Patrick Bet-David?

  So now you get out. You get out of jail after the six months that you're there. What's next for you?

• 42:24Speaker 01

  Well, that's the thing, you know, jail separated me from drugs, but I'm a drug addict and. You. For many drug addicts, it requires more than just the separation from drugs for a period of time. So I get out with the intention of not doing drugs again and. I'm in the holding cell to get released and I know somebody in the holding cell and they're like, hey, I got forty bucks. Like, do you want to get high after this? And you just can't say no. I mean, it's just within your. Uh, it's completely. Within your soul at that point that you're just a drug addict. So. So I went and got high and I never got strung out on heroin ever again, but I did get high. About maybe three or four times. And.

• 43:04Patrick Bet-David?

  Off of what?

• 43:06Speaker 01

  Uh, 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 and. One of them, I actually ended up, you know, waking up and missing part of my face. You know, I'd done some kind of meth. And heroin and blacked out and. You know, I'd been sober for like four months and relapsed. With a 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.

• 43:47Speaker 01

  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. 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 there was a plastic surgery training department and they, they performed plastic surgery on my face.

• 44:10Patrick Bet-David?

  Where was it, what part?

• 44:11Speaker 01

  It was my lip, my, 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 lip's fake, my bottom lip's fake. They rebuilt it from flesh from within, behind my, uh, upper lip and, um, they saved my life, you know?

• 44:29Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh my god, wow.

• 44:30Speaker 01

  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, you know, are you willing to let people practice on you and, and, uh, they, 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, 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 and, and I did something like this to myself on, 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, these drugs.

• 45:05Patrick Bet-David?

  Which toe?

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Half of my big toe on my right foot. And, um, I'm, 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...

• 45:17Patrick Bet-David?

  Till today, you have no idea what happened?

• 45:19Speaker 01

  No, I had some kind of tools, like some nail clippers and stuff and, and they, they, you know, my, I basically damaged my toe really badly and they had to cut my toe off. So I, sorry, I phrased that wrong, I didn't wake up missing my toe, I woke up with my toe incredibly damaged, they had to cut it off. Uh, and, uh, from that point, I've never gotten high ever again. I, uh...

• 45:40Patrick Bet-David?

  When was the last time you used?

• 45:42Speaker 01

  Uh, August 10th, 2018.

• 45:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Nothing since then?

• 45:45Speaker 01

  No, nothing. And, uh, it's because I wound up at a nonprofit, long-term treatment center and, uh, they let me live there for, uh, 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, uh, 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 be, 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, and I, which is some people would call

• 46:27Patrick Bet-David?

  Good for you.

• 46:27Speaker 01

  Spiritual solution.

• 46:28Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, it's great. Good for you.

• 46:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so so far, um, I'm glad you're good, man.

• 46:35Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 46:35Patrick Bet-David?

  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.

• 46:44Patrick Bet-David?

  So so far, here's what I've learned.

• 46:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:47Patrick Bet-David?

  24 billion, of which 16 billion went to six, of which

• 46:55Speaker 01

  No, five.

• 46:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Five, of which two did good. The other three wasted the money.

• 47:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:01Patrick Bet-David?

  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, a Project Home Key, uh, uh, or No Place Like Home program. Have you heard of No Place Like

• 47:13Speaker 01

  I've heard of both of those.

• 47:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Have you heard good things about them or?

• 47:17Speaker 01

  If I've heard about them, it's probably that they're bad.

• 47:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 47:20Speaker 01

  Probably heard bad things.

• 47:21Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, and then there's another, Project Room Key.

• 47:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've heard of that.

• 47:25Patrick Bet-David?

  What do you know about that one?

• 47:26Speaker 01

  Uh, I've, I've heard bad things about that one.

• 47:28Patrick Bet-David?

  About Project Room Key?

• 47:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:29Patrick Bet-David?

  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 dollars had been spent on the project." That's four years ago. Project Home Key, uh, Rob, if you can pull up Room Key a little bit more, I want to know what's going on with Room Key.

• 47:51Speaker 01

  I, I can tell you what happened.

• 47:52Patrick Bet-David?

  Go for it.

• 47:52Speaker 01

  So when COVID hit, they had shelter in place.

• 47:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 47:55Speaker 01

  So they had this project where they would overtake hotels. The state forced hotels to rent their room, or not rent their rooms, but give their rooms to homeless people. So for one example, there was Hotel Whitcomb.

• 48:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Whitcomb?

• 48:08Speaker 01

  Whitcomb.

• 48:09Patrick Bet-David?

  How do you spell it?

• 48:09Speaker 01

  Uh, W H I T C O M B. They let 400 homeless people live in, 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 within Hotel Whitcomb.

• 48:29Speaker 01

  So in a short period of time, they housed 400 people and they they settled for 19.5 million in damages, but you know, these people-

• 48:37Patrick Bet-David?

  So that was a failed idea?

• 48:38Speaker 01

  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.

• 48:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so what do you know about Project Home Key?

• 48:58Speaker 01

  I believe that's linked to the S I P Shelter in Place program.

• 49:01Patrick Bet-David?

  Here's Home Key, an extension of Project Room Key, oh, good call, you're right. An extension of Project Room Key, uh, Project Home Key focused on converting hotels-

• 49:09Speaker 01

  Oh, I'm glad I got that right.

• 49:11Patrick Bet-David?

  -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 dollars.

• 49:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:24Patrick Bet-David?

  And you've also not heard good things about them?

• 49:26Speaker 01

  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 Wickham got the most damage, but every hotel got got damaged.

• 49:37Patrick Bet-David?

  What makes them think this is a good idea?

• 49:40Speaker 01

  Well, I'll tell you something, and it might take me like a minute to explain this, but um, I told you about Occupy Wall Street.

• 49:47Patrick Bet-David?

  Uh huh.

• 49:47Speaker 01

  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 nonprofit sphere. So the the harm reduction stuff, like, you know, 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 into detox.

• 50:30Speaker 01

  Over the 2010s, this gets replaced by people, by disgruntled people with liberal arts degrees that have no job, um, 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. 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.

• 51:13Speaker 01

  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%. 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.

• 51:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Do they believe capitalism is a source of addiction?

• 51:48Speaker 01

  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.

• 52:13Patrick Bet-David?

  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 on Humberto on the back and just see if there's any kind of lawsuits or investigation stuff that's going on with these guys? No Place Like Home program dedicates up to $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, here's what I've learned so far from you, and I want to continue, because I think

• 52:57Patrick Bet-David?

  there's more you can share with us. Number one.

• 53:01Patrick Bet-David?

  If there's not an expectation of you doing the first part of being sober, you can't stay here if you're not sober. And I was the one chair that you talked with that I've been to multiple times. Mission something, Mission.

• 53:13Speaker 01

  Midnight Mission, yeah.

• 53:14Patrick Bet-David?

  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 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, uh, uh, what do you call it? Uh, uh, welfare or Section 8. No, that's not for that discrimination." I said, "I was in the Army for almost three years. You know what we did every other Monday morning formation?

• 53:58Patrick Bet-David?

  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 bucks a month, you're down to 680 a month now.

• 54:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:22Patrick Bet-David?

  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.

• 54:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:30Patrick Bet-David?

  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 did they end up here?" Okay, so in your example, parents, heroin, you start testing, you start drinking, it goes from alcohol to this, to this, to this, and then boom, you end up here. That's the one area I'm interested in. And you said you met thousands of people on Skid Row? And you hate to say this, but it wasn't economic conditions why people ended up there? Almost everybody was drugs, and due to drugs, they had mental issues.

• 55:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:13Patrick Bet-David?

  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?

• 55:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:22Patrick Bet-David?

  What do you think is the system that works? Did you get food stamps? Did you get welfare?

• 55:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, and I sold them for drugs.

• 55:29Patrick Bet-David?

  You sold them for drugs?

• 55:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, oh yeah. I know people that have sold housing for drugs. I mean, they get-

• 55:35Patrick Bet-David?

  Section 8?

• 55:36Speaker 01

  They get housing, and then they'll rent out their unit for pimps.

• 55:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Stop it.

• 55:40Speaker 01

  I swear to God. I swear. I lived in a se- 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, I, that, I paid the whole rent. But it was still the cheapest room in town. That's not that bad, but, you know, selling your little homeless housing Section 8 thing for a, for a pimp to, to rent out, you know, that's pretty bad. Because there's security and stuff at these homeless, but each, you slip 20 bucks to a security guard, you know, anyone's coming in.

• 56:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Hey, let this guy just go handle his business, here's 20 bucks to you.

• 56:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 56:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Wow.

• 56:20Speaker 01

  So, um-

• 56:21Patrick Bet-David?

  But what work, what work for people to get off? And by the way, out of all the people that you saw, how many people do you, 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?

• 56:37Speaker 01

  I think through the Midnight Mission, I know, I know probably 40 people.

• 56:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Just from Midnight Mission?

• 56:45Speaker 01

  Just from Midnight Mission.

• 56:46Patrick Bet-David?

  How about outside of that?

• 56:49Speaker 01

  Well, I eventually landed at a place called Cry Help and I've known probably close to a hundred people that turned their life around at Cry Help.

• 56:57Patrick Bet-David?

  And how bad were they before they came to Cry Help? Were they full on addicted, destroyed their lives, streets?

• 57:03Speaker 01

  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.

• 57:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Why?

• 57:20Speaker 01

  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 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.

• 57:43Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, I see this here that Downey encouraged his following on social media, Twitter and Facebook, to support Cry Help.

• 57:52Speaker 01

  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.

• 58:06Patrick Bet-David?

  In 2014 Vanity Fair interviewed Robert Downey Jr., read the article that for over 50 years Cry Help is of the belief that addiction is treatable disease. We provide programs and treatment, education, prevention, counseling, and rehab. 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 faith. Come through the crucible forged into a stronger metal. Robert Downey Jr. So some strong words.

• 58:36Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 58:36Patrick Bet-David?

  So what, why did they have a high success rate there? What did they do that caused them to be successful?

• 58:42Speaker 01

  First of all, it was long term. So most rehabs are 28 days. Cry Help, when I first went to Cry Help, it was six to 12 months. It was incredibly strict. No talking to the other sex. You know, you got to, men with men, women with women. Chores. You know, this is your house. You're gonna live here for six to 12 months. You're gonna mop the floor, you're, you know, you're not, and if you break rules, there's consequences.

• 59:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Such as what?

• 59:09Speaker 01

  Um, like if you wear a hat downstairs. You weren't allowed to wear a hat.

• 59:13Patrick Bet-David?

  Why?

• 59:14Speaker 01

  Because it's rude to wear a hat in the cafeteria.

• 59:16Patrick Bet-David?

  I love that.

• 59:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 59:17Patrick Bet-David?

  Are you serious?

• 59:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. It whipped us into shape. I mean, you need, it's like the military, like you need a little bit of that. You know, you need, you've been doing whatever you wanted to do on the street for years. Like, you need to get a routine, you know, so. The fancy rehabs in the hills, they don't do that. Cause they don't want you to leave. Cause if you leave, they stop getting paid. So Cry Help, you know. Now, listen, I'm not against all nonprofits. Cry Help is a nonprofit. But it was ran by actual ex-junkies. It was ran by people that got off heroin in like the seventies. You know, they opened it up, completely nonprofit. And, uh, and not only that, you know, after like a few months, it's time to get a job. And we're gonna help you get a job.

• 1:00:01Speaker 01

  And we're gonna 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, and they would help me with a, they helped me start a bank account. And now I'm putting the money in the bank account and I'd give them, I think, one-fourth of my paycheck. You know, to just get in the routine of like, hey, you gotta pay something, you know? It's not, I didn't, I had a meager paycheck, but, uh, well, it wasn't that meager. I was doing construction, you know, it was, it was decent money and, um.

• 1:00:44Patrick Bet-David?

  You're making four or five grand a month.

• 1:00:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, something like that. Yeah. And, um, so then when you graduate, they say, don't, 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'm not, I don't wanna promote the 12 steps or anything, but it's very 12-step heavy. Uh, it's very community oriented.

• 1:01:21Patrick Bet-David?

  Is it faith-based or no?

• 1:01:23Speaker 01

  It is, well, I, I mean, AA, some people would call it faith-based. I mean, to me, it's faith-based, but you know.

• 1:01:28Patrick Bet-David?

  I think AA is faith-based, but would you say Cry Help is faith-based?

• 1:01:30Speaker 01

  No, but it's 12-step based, so it's indirectly.

• 1:01:34Patrick Bet-David?

  Faith-based.

• 1:01:35Speaker 01

  Indirectly, yeah, yeah.

• 1:01:36Patrick Bet-David?

  And OG guys that started in 70s from being addicted to heroin, what was their stories? Do you remember the story of a founder of like?

• 1:01:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, Jack Bernstein founded it and um, he was a heroin addict and um, he started it with a guy from Three Dog Night, the band.

• 1:01:49Patrick Bet-David?

  No way, no, I've seen him perform. Oh, wow.

• 1:01:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, so um, 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.

• 1:02:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, Jack Bernstein, yeah.

• 1:02:08Speaker 01

  So he, 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, 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. You know, and uh.

• 1:02:28Patrick Bet-David?

  Where are you going with that? Cause you said faith. Is it because it's linked to faith-based?

• 1:02:31Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, cause the place, a lot of places in California are very anti, they hear the word faith and that's it, you know? They're throwing it out the window.

• 1:02:41Patrick Bet-David?

  Good for these guys that they use their story. But Jack Bernstein, you're saying has nothing to do with faith? The, the vision of it and what he did wasn't a faith-based company?

• 1:02:49Speaker 01

  Well, I know that privately, he's a very faithful man, so uh, I would say that yes. There, there is some, some connection to that.

• 1:02:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so, so, so, so let me, 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.

• 1:03:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:12Patrick Bet-David?

  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?

• 1:03:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:36Patrick Bet-David?

  It's just a system's fault, it's not my fault. And 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 and he's a human intelligence. He trained CIA and DIA, is what he does. Very interesting guy. Body language guy. And he says when they were interviewing jurors to find out, he was training lawyers on what questions to ask jurors to see which way they lean to replace them or keep them. He said, "We asked one question. How does one get a flu?" And he says, "Normally, we would get one of two answers. 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 the, when I see other people, they touch my hands and

• 1:04:20Patrick Bet-David?

  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."

• 1:04:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:42Patrick Bet-David?

  I can see that part, but what percentage of people that got in and they were in Skid Row, never got out and you don't think ever will get out? Because they just don't want to help themselves?

• 1:04:55Speaker 01

  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's a new drug. The last five years, it's really come on the scene. And you're just seeing so, such high levels of, 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.

• 1:05:28Patrick Bet-David?

  So 35%, there's nothing that can be done about it?

• 1:05:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:32Patrick Bet-David?

  And the other ones, what percentage do you think finally make it back into society and live regular lives?

• 1:05:42Speaker 01

  I'd say less than 10%.

• 1:05:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 1:05:47Patrick Bet-David?

  And so that's 45% leaving 55%. Are you saying 55% is one that could, but is just not willing? And they keep relapsing?

• 1:05:56Speaker 01

  Well, it's not that they're not willing, it's that this every single policy is enabling them to keep getting high. I mean, they have, they are just taking the path of least resistance. I mean, of course, they need to take response, we need to put responsibility on the individual here, but um, they are not being helped, they are only being hindered by policy at this point. So yeah, about 55%.

• 1:06:16Patrick Bet-David?

  What other ideas that you have? That if you, let's just say you had a meeting with Newsom, right?

• 1:06:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:06:22Patrick Bet-David?

  I looked up these numbers yesterday, I put a, post a tweet out because of all the fire that's taking place. And you know, him and uh, uh, DeSantis had a debate and he always calls out Florida. And I said, you know, question for Newsom, all the fires that's going on in LA right now, I said, Florida has hurricanes, natural disasters. California has wildfires. And according to PBS, 95% are man-made. Meaning people are causing the 95% of fires.

• 1:06:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:06:49Patrick Bet-David?

  It's not natural disasters. So what's been your plan on fixing this as a governor 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.

• 1:07:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Homelessness. In the state of California, he's been governor since 2019.

• 1:07:15Patrick Bet-David?

  2025, six years. He was lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2019.

• 1:07:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:21Patrick Bet-David?

  That's an eight-year run we're talking about. So total, we're talking 14 years, right?

• 1:07:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:29Patrick Bet-David?

  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?

• 1:07:41Speaker 01

  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.

• 1:07:50Patrick Bet-David?

  Tell me why.

• 1:07:52Speaker 01

  Because this is the blight of the na- I mean, this is a huge issue that is so visible, and it's magnified by, you know, 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.

• 1:08:32Speaker 01

  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 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. Something like that.

• 1:09:13Speaker 01

  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 are, that know where the economy is going to be in five to 10 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, you know, 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, you know? We can train people to become industrial plumbers.

• 1:09:55Speaker 01

  I mean, 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. So, now, I don't know if that breaks any constitutional laws rounding people up and putting them on Alcatraz. I mean, I'm sure you've broken a few laws doing that, but he needs to declare a state of emergency. And then the people that are mentally ill, we need to house them. We need to, we need to gauge each one, each individual on what level of permanent care do you need? Now, is this a problem that we can just fix and we can just give you medication and we can put you in some supportive housing and with, you know, some guidance and some oversight? Or do you need to be in like a hospital for

• 1:10:38Speaker 01

  the rest of your life? You know, this is just the, this is the dark truth. I mean, it's gonna cost a lot of money, you know, but we just burned 24 billion dollars. So the money is there if we just stop burning the money that we've been burning. Yeah, that's, that's, you know, he, he has, 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. Quoted 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

• 1:11:22Speaker 01

  we ever did. Clean and sober is the biggest damn mistake this country ever made.

• 1:11:28Patrick Bet-David?

  I remember that.

• 1:11:29Speaker 01

  What, what, you know, I don't know what that means. So this is when the problem increased tenfold.

• 1:11:37Patrick Bet-David?

  Rob, can you play that clip of him saying that?

• 1:11:49Patrick Bet-David?

  You gotta find it.

• 1:11:50Speaker 02

  At eight minutes, let me find an actual version of it.

• 1:11:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, so he, he just has it out for recovery. And 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? Takes like eight or nine hundred days, you know. It costs nine hundred grand to build one of these little homeless units. I mean, there, there is a lot of grift. There is a lot of money laundering. There's a lot of just straight up theft going on.

• 1:12:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, I remember this clip. If you want to play it, Rob.

• 1:12:24Speaker 03

  Cleaning 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. Uh, we all need to self-medicate periodically. Cleaning so.

• 1:12:41Speaker 01

  Yeah. He's in charge of the fifth largest economy in the world. It's crazy.

• 1:12:48Patrick Bet-David?

  That's the example.

• 1:12:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:50Patrick Bet-David?

  So do you think deep down inside, he believes this issue can be fixed? Or do you think he's just bullshitting around just, you know, saying the message is lip service and doesn't think this is fixable?

• 1:12:59Speaker 01

  I think he's flying at the, 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, 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.

• 1:13:22Patrick Bet-David?

  J D's not going to play around.

• 1:13:24Speaker 01

  No, no, he, I, I mean, personally, I think Newsom has, has no chance against J D, if J D Vance runs.

• 1:13:30Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah. I, I think he doesn't have a chance with a handful of people.

• 1:13:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:33Patrick Bet-David?

  They run on the opposite side.

• 1:13:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:35Patrick Bet-David?

  Um, Jared, I am so glad you reached out.

• 1:13:39Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:13:40Patrick Bet-David?

  And I love the fact that you, you not only have the moral authority to speak on this, you, 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.

• 1:14:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:07Patrick Bet-David?

  I loved math and my life was too rough around, yeah, I had too many issues in my personal life where I just kind of wanted to get the hell out of, and go to the military. But I came out and ended up doing okay for myself. So they invited me back to go to the school. I spoke in the auditorium to 650 people and then I went to. Sandra Bays, I want Sandra something, I think it was Sandra Bay. 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, "What? 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

• 1:14:51Patrick Bet-David?

  pregnant girl like 14 years old and all this stuff. And one of the, 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, going through, going through it. And one by one by one, they're like, "Well, here's what I went through. You know, I went through this, I went through that." And one kid runs out, doesn't want to tell the story. Comes back and I said, "Look, you don't have to share it if you don't want to. Only if you're comfortable. If you don't, we're totally fine." "I don't want to share it." "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 protective. She finally says, "I want to share with you guys." "Great. What happened?" I'll never forget this. She said, "One day I came home," and she's breaking, she doesn't know how to say the story. So one day I came home.

• 1:15:35Patrick Bet-David?

  This girl's 14, 13, 14, 15 years old. I came home and my, my mom, my mom found my dad with a needle and him dead. And after finding out, she took the needle and shot herself and she died. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, "Oh." Everybody in the room, everybody in the room is like, "Oh my God, I'm sitting here bitching about my problems." And, you know. And then I, while you're talking, it happened the first like 10 minutes when you're telling your story and I'm reading through this whole thing, 12, 14 years old. I think about.

• 1:16:20Patrick Bet-David?

  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, uh, uh, 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.

• 1:17:03Patrick Bet-David?

  So you gotta stay disciplined, stay in a good community, stay around where you don't think you're untouchable. But, uh, I appreciate you for sharing your testimony. And I love the ideas you give. I got smarter to understand what that really looks like, what gets people to get in, what gets people to get out. And I look forward to more people inviting you to share the story, to ask some questions that maybe I didn't ask. Because I definitely think someone in California is watching this, that gets inspired by this and goes and reads your book, Crooked Smile, which we're gonna put the link below. And by the way, whether you're gonna buy it or to read it for yourself or not, I recommend you buy it and support it and give it to somebody. Because I'd love to see us support Jared here for the story that he has. But I hope the right people watch this in California and say, this is a problem for

• 1:17:48Patrick Bet-David?

  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.

• 1:17:58Speaker 01

  Thank you so much, Patrick.

• 1:17:59Patrick Bet-David?

  Incredible. I'll give you the last thoughts and then we'll wrap up.

• 1:18:01Speaker 01

  I'm incredibly honored at everything you just said. I'm, uh, really grateful that you had me on and, um, yeah, you nailed it. I mean, listen, I, I, I love America. I love California. These people out on the street, they're, they're people. They're Americans, you know? And, um, there is a way we can help them. And we are sort of just setting money on fire and doing the opposite of what we need to do. And I, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to attack anybody or, you know, I'm really looking for a solution. I just want to see the great state of California do better. I want to see the great country of America do better. And, um, listen, I lived it and, um, Not many people get to live, live that and get out and still sort of be able to talk a little bit and, and explain what, what was really going on and, and how we solved

• 1:18:46Speaker 01

  these problems. So, um, I'm just honored at, at, at the fact that you gave me this platform. Thank you.

• 1:18:52Patrick Bet-David?

  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 a podcast.

• 1:19:05Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:19:05Patrick Bet-David?

  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 value tainment. We have so many new things. The cuff links 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

• 1:19:48Patrick Bet-David?

  the PBD podcast, you got a bunch to choose from. White ones, black ones. I, 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 value tainment 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 value tainment, with, 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.