It was supposed to be about protecting their civil rights…they now have the rights to furthering ruin their lives and the lives around them such as local business owners and regular citizens
I'm a recovering meth addict and what got me out of it, was I stopped being a victim and started facing my dragons one at a time. Yes, I had childhood trauma, but I realized that as an adult, I had control over my behavior. What happened to me was affecting me and my ability to respond instead of react to situations. I finally realized what was behind my reactions and started slowing down & responding to situations. I still have difficulty sometimes when I don't realize I've been triggered, but I'm able to deal with issues more quickly. Any fellow addicts/alcoholics out there: the power is within you & you are worth it!
Not anywhere near as bad as meth,but I have a severe nicotine addiction and go through a 50 mg bottle of juice in a couple days.Its really an everyday struggle,even the people who are sober are still addicts deep down and work everyday to make the right choice.Good on ya for breaking your habits,ill be right there with ya soon✊
One of my close friends and former boss was a narcotics detective in California. He told me that you can try everything under the sun but the likelihood of a 45 year old man who is addicted to meth changing his ways is basically zero. However, the likelihood of stopping a 16 year old kid from ever picking up drugs by providing sports, Education and mentorship is far greater. Unfortunately, the most effective way is to improve the next generation and he started a free non profit boxing program that provided HW tutoring, mentorship and training. Solutions exist. Fund them.
Ironically, CTE from multiple concussions makes those kids more likely to develop a substance habit. I grew up boxing… I love the sport… but you aren’t helping kids by getting them to competitively hurt each other. Instilling discipline and structure is a farce fabricated by karate gyms that want people to bring their kids. It’s ridiculous to think you’re decreasing the likelihood of violence by teaching kids how to fight. Every competitive athlete has a desire to hurt people.
This guest is a self promoting Propaganda artist. Almost as bad as MSM legacy. His bullshit isn't fact at all. Us Bayarea Natives know how this shit got started and why it continues.
just because someone isn't legacy media doesn't mean they're telling the truth. this guy is a liar and the fact that you would believe him without doing any research says a lot about you.
I was a homeless couch surfing, non drug using college student in San Francisco. There is zero help if you are normal. I couldn't even get food stamps. I was told to get pregnant. Insane city.
Yeah, thats the craziest part to me. That the people in charge instead of trying to change the fucked up policies, they just try to convince you to cheat the system and rely on them. It's fucked.
@@skellington2000 It's less than $600, so definitely not enough to pay rent, you would be on the street, drug habit or not. Also, SSI if you are disabled is less than a $1000 and won't even rent you a room in SF.
I was a homeless addict until the age of 29. Allowing these "tent cities" discourages homeless people going to the shelters. The shelters have resources (or access to resources) available that are vital to their health, well being and potentially their recovery. The things that go unnoticed in these tented areas are often tragic. There's no one to look over the more vulnerable. The environment that cultivates in these places is detrimental to everyone involved.
I also was a homeless addict and I agree with what you are saying. Once I came out of that lifestyle, I have come to believe that the more enablement of homeless drug addicts the worse off things are going to be. Do we need resources for people to get help and use funds for that yes, but you will not help people by allowing them to live in squalor doing whatever they want.
My son is seriously mentally ill with psychosis and a disabled vet so he receives money and thank god I am his guardian and conservator, but the homeless befriended him since he was so lonely and has addictive behaviors so they destroyed his home along with him of course. He is now addicted to meth or anything to smoke. I moved him out to our ranch, but he has once again befriend more druggies. I have him living in a RV on our property and I am torn as to whether I should confront these drug people and tell them to stay away or I will call the sheriff or just call the sheriff. He is being treated for his mental health, but that isn't making progress since he is using. Any thoughts?
@@nickparis7 I can only speak for the two cities I was homeless in. Baltimore for instance is allowing tents to be placed just about anywhere. There is room in shelters in that case for instance. There was plenty of shelter in Harrisburg, PA but the rules were pretty strict. There is a huge problem in LA (which is a city I wasn't technically homeless in). There are thousands if empty shelter beds each night in LA. It's certainly a nuanced issue. For instance, many of their shelters are ran poorly, not sanitary and potentially even have rat infestations. The city is throwing plenty of money at it, but oversight is really shitty.
Many, many people have had difficult childhoods. It's no excuse to destroy yourself and others. It is a blessing to hold people, adults, accountable for their actions and help them get free, healthy and whole. Aiding them to slowly kill themselves isn't compassion, it's cruelty. God bless~
My mother has been a drug & alcohol counselor for 30+ years, and believes one of the biggest problems with addiction in the US is the quality of treatment available here. Treatment for the poor is notoriously bad and usually run for-profit with contracts with the state, and most of the companies running rehabs are trying to cram as many people in as legally allowable while providing the lowest-cost treatment they can. Most are 28-30 days, which is usually not adequate for someone with a serious addiction to opiates or amphetamines. My mother has also worked in self-pay rehabs that are outrageously expensive ($10,000+ a month), but provide far better care, longer stays, healthy meals, specialized classes in yoga, meditation, tailored addiction philosophies, etc. Those who can afford these places have much better outcomes. Unfortunately, if we want to reduce the drug epidemic in this country, we need to shift our entire health care system - and that doesn't seem to be anywhere close to happening. I personally worked in mental health as an intensive case manager for people with the most severe mental illness, and can attest to the difficulty of keeping many of these folks housed. In a lot of cases they were simply too paranoid to maintain housing, and it was close to impossible to house them in supervised facilities, which is what some needed. I had one guy who literally punched out his mother's car window and tried to strangle her because he thought she was working with the CIA against him, and court still refused to commit him. It wasn't until he stripped all the insulation off every electrical cord in his apartment and ran them under rugs to protect himself from the CIA "listening" to him that we were able to place him in a hospital.
PRECISELY, I WAS JUST SAYING WHAT YOU ARE SAYING TO SOMEONE WHO SAID REHABS ARE A WASTE OF TIME UNLESS SOMEONE WANTS TO GET CLEAN. I SAID THAT IF THE TREATMENT IS INADEQUATE, QUALITY OF COUNSELORS, TIME SPAN, ETC. THEN MORE PEOPLE FAIL. IF THE TREATMENT IS DONE RIGHT EVEN SOMEONE WHO DID NOT WANT TO GET CLEAN, PERHAPS COURT ORDERED, CAN STILL BE REACHED BECAUSE DONE RIGHT
In my country we help them and they get back to drugs and then rehab again and again.... you think anybody here wants to pay for those m0r0ns? fck em, nobody wants to except some leftists wo dont have a real job and dont pay taxes! Its not someone else problem if you cant handle life and become a drug addict.
@@LucielStarz123 Frankly, if your dollars don't go to treatment, they'll go to prison corporations. Not sure why you would prefer this option, as it is more expensive and due to our atrocious prison environment, it only tends to increase recidivism and make society worse. It really comes down to the kind of society you want to live in. You want to live in a society where drug addicts rotate between prison and homelessness, making your streets less safe? You want a society where people with serious health problems (which addiction is) are unable to access decent treatment and instead roam the streets fueling a criminal drug culture and potentially commit crimes to fuel their addiction? Or do you want a society where addicts are offered real treatment that stops the cycle of addiction and allows them to become productive members of society - thus reducing homelessness and crime associated with addiction and making urban life safer, more pleasant, and more visually attractive?
I’m literally in San Francisco right now, its my first time here, and I’m with my fiancée and our child. I was completely unaware of the homelessness in San Fran before visiting. In the 6 hours I’ve been here I’ve seen a prostitute shooting heroin on the bus stop, and guys peeing out in public, one person completely exposing himself. I can confirm, that the union square area is completely packed with homeless people
@@jonaskessler326 I actually appreciate that, because with the weather right now, and especially the sketchiness of union square, I’m struggling to find the vibe I was looking for lol. I will definitely look into those places. Thanks a lot!
@@darindthomas anytime! I feel ya with the gloomy weather, but we’re thankful for it these days, considering all the fires we’ve had lately in California. On a Wednesday night, I’d probably roll to Broadway or Columbus street in North beach, or Polk street in Russian hill/Nob hill anywhere from post and Polk going as far north as Broadway and Polk. Still a weds night, and a rainy one so prob not too much going on right now anywhere to be honest but my previous suggestions should still hold true in general. Forgot to add that the Castro district is always safe and the Height district can be fun in the daytime. Enjoy your visit!
@@jonaskessler326 that’s great! I plan on hanging out at the hotel tonight, but tomorrow I plan on taking your advice. Really appreciate it. If you’re ever in Denver, I’d be happy to give you a few recommendations
I hope your trip had at least some value. I used to live in CA and, though I like cities, always dreaded having to go there. I went earlier this year and the extent of the destitution was astounding.
I was a homeless heroin addict for 6 yrs. I've been clean for 2yrs and now work in a drug rehab. The fact is that most addicts want to get high, do nothing and get something for nothing (social services). U gotta want to not live like that and the truth is a majority will not put forth the effort.
truth. Im a support worker for the homeless in shelters and people have no idea. They assume everyone wants a house, kids, dog and a car. In truth, they don't. However they'll pretend they do for as long as possible in order to access services which are supposed to get them those things in order to get stuff for free and keep living their nomadic lifestyles
I'd hate the idea you are in a position of support when you generalise every addict as "pretenders". Really gross attitude, and that kind of ignorant generalising only furthers the misconceptions of addiction.
I've been by any standard but my own homeless. I fortunately, though, was just homeless. Not an addict, though I definitely drank too much--but that was more self medication than addiction. But my point is I ran in homeless circles so to speak. And the lack of dignity is the quintessential problem, from a practical standpoint. Once you have crossed that many boundaries and been that degraded, it is very, very hard to make good or sane choices to better your situation. The idea of just giving people houses isn't born out of endless compassion. It's that it is impossible to love yourself enough to have kind of hope it takes to get up every morning and slog your way through it. It's not a question of who is accountable to whom. I promise you, after what I've seen, I'm no bleeding heart. We SHOULDN'T be so condescending. Lot's of people DO just need a good kick in the pants and to face some real consequences for once. Lot's of people ARE just deeply confused about what is truly important to make a good life and are learning it the hard way. Some are beautiful Jesus like souls. Some just think they are. Some are the skids temporarily, and some come to love the street life. But the cross section you are talking about--the fucking crazy drug addled methheads who have open dug wars on the street, and strip naked and don't live in reality and make the streets unsafe, who ARE a menace and should not be conflated with the endless variation of people without means--those people are not on the same planet. They're gone, okay. They have been replaced with zombies. Get their act together? What does it even mean to be accountable? The world makes no sense in that state. Accountability is an impossible ask--unless, hopefully, maybe they can get their bearings long enough to remember they are human beings. But like I said, Im not exactly a bleeding heart at this point. I don't think they should be allowed to camp on the streets. They need to either go someplace that can help them or go some place where they won't make every day terrifying. Ive seen cars blown up and malatov cocktails thrown through windows by these tweakers---the fact that we're doing nothing is abhorrent. But the goal is to do things that will work, and not breed more problems.
I’m with you. I spent a year in the “hotel circuit” amongst other addicts. I was a bukowski-esk alcoholic with little ties left on reality. Drank myself into oblivion and ended up homeless right when the pandemic hit. My fiancé and got sober after 4 months of getting kicked out of hotels all over OC, mingling with other drug addicts and alcoholics, it was very easy to see how these people get here. We stayed sober and after 7 months got ourselves out of that life. I have to say though, we didn’t meet one person during that time, that had ANY interest of getting out of the life. They were so satisfied with a wad of cash they made the night before, and a pocket full of dope, they think they are living the good life. They’re perception becomes so warped that they no longer even conceive the idea of stability. They’re extremely arrogant about it as well. Hookers who think they’re celebrities, druggies who think they’re rappers, and schizophrenics that will attack unprovoked was the lay of the land. This was in Anaheim and most of north Orange County. I am completely jaded by it all and I have no sympathy for them. I’d been destroying my life for over a decade with booze, and all it took for me to put it down was a positive pregnancy test from my now wife. It can be done, but these “zombie people” are just that…they’re zombies and they’re creating wastelands amongst society. There are two plagues we have currently..one of fentanyl, and one of inherently unjust sociopaths we call our leaders. I don’t see an end which is why I’ll be arming up and leaving this fuckin state. Luckily I was able to restart my career and I can work anywhere
My problem is that in Seattle , the way the system works is you have to be late on payments to get assistants. I work at homeless shelter and these guys get a whole apartment paid for , yet people trying to not be homeless are not a priority.
This. And the system also preys on the fact that very sick, very vulnerable people don't have the fight in them to advocate on their own behalf in many cases.
@@Da808Boii Dude, I live here. The YMCA/YWCA homeless shelters pipeline single adults into 2-3 star motels in Shoreline and SeaTac. On average, a person would be at the shelter for about 3 months and then get put into a hotel room for up to a year (the Holiday Inn by the Space Needle was converted to this program too). But they usually move on to government housing within a few months of getting the hotel room - elderly housing, families with young children, even residential drug treatment programs. If you don't qualify for those programs (single non-senior non-addict), you're encouraged (but not required) to get employment and there are charities that cosign leases and such
This is the mentality that gets everybody in a bad place. You can also choose a government that helps both. But please stop blaming patients for being sick.
I lived in San Francisco when I was 34. Put my truck in storage across the street from my studio apartment between Sutter and Bush on Leavenworth. I worked on Geary Street in a hotel pretty nice hotel I might add. I had a great life running around until I met up with the wrong people. Soon after I was doing meth smoking it putting it over marijuana in a bong getting it from people who took it out of their mouth wrapped in a plastic baggie and hand it to me so disgusting. I didn’t care how gross it was I was so out of character I would do anything to get this shit… Except prostitute that never came to be thank God. Eventually my sisters husband my amazing brother-in-law brought a huge suburban SUV up packed it up my whole studio apartment, took my 4Runner out of storage packed it up and headed back home for Carmel Valley, California. Funny because back then my rent was $1,000. a month. When I gave my notice of departure to my landlord, he said he would lower my rent by $200 making it $800 a month. So I would agree with you, it wasn’t the rent. I had to fight for my life from the drugs which had captured and hooked me and held me prisoner. God bless you Joe, so love your interviews Edit: Now living my dream life completely clean and sober I don’t even mess with beer anymore.
It is really sad. I remember visiting SF in the 90s and there were always a homeless population around fisherman’s wharf but my last trip there about 4 years ago was shocking. No homeless at fisherman’s wharf but a ton have moved to union square. Right outside our hotel it smelled like weed and urine and I was having to step over people to walk in. It was really sad seeing so many people with mental health issues on the streets. Used to be one of my favorite cities to visit, now it just makes me sad.
It doesn't sound that bad. Kind of like a garden party or something. I think we should encourage it if anything. Did you know you can get them to fight eachother for money and drugs and then you can film that and sell it online. Not just fighting either, you can get them to do any kind of crazy wierd stuff and then take them out on your boat and just push them overboard and find another one. Just be careful of covid, you want healthy homeless people.
I saw the match that ignited homeless problem in SF. It was 1978 and from my seat on the "8 Market" bus I saw a crowd of bums appear in tents near the CIvic Center. Art Agnos was the mayor and he said it was ok for the bums to live there. It was like a brush fire that got out of control, to be the mess it is today. If only the fire was extinguished back then.
In the past 40 years, there’s been a major reduction in mental facilities in California. In 1970 there were around 40,000 facilities in California. Today, less than 4,000.
But Michael Shellenberger is just going to talk out of his ass for 6 minutes. This guy is part of the YIMBY movement. Funny how he doesn't even mention the actual conversation in SF. SF was bought out, forced out by developers. FUCK HIM!
@@theamericanopry why is YIMBY bad? Never heard the term before, but it seems like people who want more housing available in communities. Why would that be bad? Edit: fixed spelling error
There was a big phyc building in the north area of Chicago on Sheridan, that closed and the tenants/pts were relocated. I wonder if its associated with the tent situation.
You’re speaking too much sense for the JRE covid conspiracists. They would rather blame the problem on “Black People” or “the left” or “victim mentality drug addiction”
So he doesn't think the skyrocketing rent in San Fran has anything to do with homelessness? I'm calling BS on that one. I'm not saying it's the biggest reason but he just dismissed it.
Nice take! I was going to comment before watching the whole clip but he hit the nail on the head with the “Occupy Movement” Normalizing the tent camps. This is what I wrote before watching the whole clip: I’ve been in the SF Bay Area my whole life And the tent camping aspect of the homeless situation really became prevalent after the “Occupy Wallstreet” movement after the 2008 recession. For example In Oakland around 2011 people gathered in tents to “Occupy Oakland” at frank ogawa plaza. The tent village was cleaned up around a month after inception and moved to other locations around the city. This led people to become more bold and pitch tents all over.
@@Sorel366 my father was a Vietnam vet and I love our country but honestly bury all your family in a 4 1/2 yr period, have the 2008 housing crash hit while you employ 9 people, and get a divorce on top of that, then load everything up in a mountaineering pack that's key to your comfort and survival and simply try to lay your head down to get some sleep and you'll see how much freedom you truly have trying to get life sustaining sleep. Many turn to meth to stay up and I can't stand them stealing and thieving. I refuse to do the major cities and I stay in a national forest outside a small community and work 4 days a week. It's just me on my own now truly free for 11 yrs.
My wife and I went to San Francisco 5 years ago, and it was bad then. We went for my bday and stayed in a nice hotel, which was unfortunately located in the Tenderloin area, albeit almost out of the Tenderloin area. Thankfully we had no issues, but we walked the whole city and saw the homeless villages/encampments and were blown away. At the end of the day, these are our brothers and sisters. They're lost. Its a combination of many things, but we can't lose our humanity. They shouldn't be there and we've become too complacent with letting things go.
@@timtim7674 Why are people like you so goddamn desperate to try and derail any conversations. That has NOTHING to do with this video. Get out more, or read a damn book.
@@jcfra420 why are people like you so desperate to try and derail a poster adding to the conversation. This had EVERINGTHING to do with this video as victimization was discussed. get out of your head more, or pay some damn attention.
And yet, there's still people that think this 'homelessness crisis' is linked to letting a couple thousand fruitcakes out of their mental hospitals 40 years ago.
@@HardwiredZ06 Not talking shit just being real bro that's a very ignorant comment. Millions of people smoking fentanyl which people do not overdose with because there is close to no risk unless you're injecting with needles. Majority of people shooting up are injecting heroin and even if they wanted pure heroin without fentanyl cut inside of it they couldn't get it. All of it if not 90%+ has fentanyl in it. Just smoking fentanyl is safer in the long run if it's produced properly without anyone cutting it after cause it doesn't damage the immune system near as much as heroin does.
@@tommychoppa7564 lol that’s an interesting response. Ignorant huh? I guess I should have acknowledged the drug users who use responsibly and don’t die from misadventure. Got it.
As somebody who struggled with Heroin pills and fentanyl for six years I’m 11 months sober now and I would say that it gets so debilitating if it wasn’t for somebody taking initiative and making sure I follow up with direction I would be dead! Any process towards sobriety isn’t going to be easy or comfortable or sensitive we have been rendered sick and impaired of any clear judgment whatsoever your moral compass needs to be replaced don’t even bother with the old one it’s dead now and will leave the vulnerable to relapse being made uncomfortable to make a change! Is a vital and necessary part of the journey!
SF native here since the 80s, when I'm born. SF has always been rough. It isn't new. Some neighborhoods became fancy, some got worse. But the homelessness and drug use seemed to get really bad after the 2008 crisis. Things bounced back a bit around 2010 but it got nasty downtown again around 2016 or so, it was a slow uptick to the point where it was already quite bad around 2018, 2019, many shops were boarded up around Market and Montgomery, including shops that had been there for decades. Covid was the final nail in the coffin. It got really crazy in a lot of areas. TL has always been a mess though. That has never changed.
My recollection is during the Feinstein decade as SF's mayor there was a huge tent city on the expanse of lawn outside city hall. Many folks couldn't understand how a mayor who had no solution or even response to the growing crisis was somehow qualified to become a US senator.
It's not a rumor. Also, the homeless aren't locals - I talked to several homeless people in LA and SF, they are all from Texas, Indiana, Michigan etc. Stats confirm this as well...
This is true. My city gets bus loads of literal crazy people that police officers in other cities cant handle. You can literally watch them spread through town and trash everything
Yeah right. If you're homeless and don't want to work, where are you going to go? Minnesota? No you're heading to California where you can sleep on a warm beach.
Here in Michigan we have a big drug/homeless population too. From my understanding, a lot of these people are wanting to be in a warmer climate. A lot of people freeze to death every winter.
That's a half truth. San Francisco has no greater greater concentration of homeless people from outside the city than any other major city. And most of those that hadn't lived in San Francisco proper are from the larger Bay Area. San Francisco gives bus tickets to people to cities if they can identify someone who'll see them there.
in the mid 70's they started tearing out orchards and vineyards in lodi ca. they built houses for people who were working in the bay area and could not afford to live there. it was a two hour commute depending on weather and traffic.... lodi used to be known for flame tokay grapes. there were vines that were more than 100 years old torn out and burned so we could have another burger king.... the homeless problem started a long time ago.
Im from San Francisco, 4th generation ....and i'm the last of my family left here! The root of the problem is actually the tech folks! These tech companies have created an environment that is not geared towards the local population. these tech workers are making more money than most of us, they are being offered extremely high salaries as well and stock options and bonuses, so they can afford to buy homes and teslas and expensive things, and the government is loving it all, because they are making a literal killing off property taxes, and payroll taxes etc. The Sad truth is that there is no money to be made from us locals, we are just in the way now taking up precious space. And then everyone seems like they are shocked and confused as to why the homeless and drug crisis????!!!! .......and that is even more alarming , that we have all had the wool pulled over our eyes with the smoke and mirrors of thhe pandemic, politics, race issues and police brutality. Sad.
As a bay area resident for almost my entire life, I can attest that this response is probably the only one that really holds any water. Tech industry is 100 percent the problem, and they've attracted H1B visa holders that have zero college debt in addition to six figure incomes. It's priced out native-born Americans.
@@franksanz1044 WHAT BUBBLE DO YOU LIVE IN MAN?! THE TECH FOLKS HAVE PRICED EVERYONE OUT OF HERE. THATS A FACT. WHERE DO YOU EXPECT 10s OF THOUSANDS OF HOMELESS ARE GOING TO GO? THE STATE HAS BEEN CLEARING OUT THE SIDES OF THE FREEWAYS, BUSHES, CREATING STREET PARKING CODES SO NO RVs CAN PARK AND SLEEP, ETC.....SO WHERE ARE ALL THESE FOLKS SUPPOSED TO GO? IM A LOCAL TOW TRUCK DRIVER, AND HAVE BEEN FOR ALMOST 2 DECADES, AND I CAN TELL YOU THAT I REGULARLY TOW FOLKS OUT TO THE CENTRAL VALLEY THAT HAVE EXPRESSED TO ME THAT THEIR HOMELESS POPULATION IS STAGGERING, AND I HAVE TOWED SEVERAL HOMELESS PEOPLE TO THESE LOCATIONS IN THE VALLEY BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN CHASED OUT OF HERE......AND THEN MANY OF THESE PEOPLE TURN TO DRUGS TO COPE WITH LOSING EVERYTHING. I HAVE PERSONALLY BEEN TO THESE HOMELESS CAMPS IN THE VALLEY, PARTICULARLY MODESTO, WHERE THERE ARE LITERALLY BETWEEN 400- 600 EITHER TENTS OR TINY TINY HOMES IN ONE CAMP, AND THERE ARE SEVERAL OF THESE CAMPS...WITH A HUGE FENCE , GATES AND SECURITY 24/7. ALL THE WHILE, DURING THIS PANDEMIC, I CAN TELL YOU AS A PERSON THAT DRIVES AROUND THE GREATER BAY ALL DAY EVERYDAY, THE ONLY THING THAT HAS NOT SLOWED DOWN AT ALL IS THE CONSTRUCTION OF MASSIVE APARTMENT COMPLEXES THAT FOR SURE THE NATIVE LOCAL POPULATION CANNOT AFFORD TO LIVE IN! SO PLEASE FURTHER BACK UP YOUR STATEMENT WITH SOMETHING VALID. I'LL BE AWAITING YOUR RESPONSE!!!
Here's a simple test. Go to downtown SF with $500 in cash BUT NO id or credit card and get room to stay for one night. Let me know how that park bench feels.
I feel you've raised a very interesting and important point. I wish this concept of "falling off the credit universe" would get a bit more examination. I live in West Oakland, and I think this is a part of our situation that is being overlooked (I do think everyones ideas here are a piece of it; not one stands alone as "the cause"). The amount of personal bureaucracy involved in a normie life nowadays seems crushing to someone who is dealing with other more serious issues. As a dweller of the fringe (no credit card, no credit history...), I think if I somehow lost my apartment or whatever- had a breakdown, etc. I honestly would probably have no route back up. I would probably have to just get a tent and go totally off grid. I'm not one to give up, but I could see it being a definite challenge. Thank you for raising this point which I hadn't heard articulated, but definitely feel.
I'm from the Bay Area and I've been living here since the late 1960's in Oakland, Ca. Homeless started when gentrification came here during the late 1980's. And the people here in the Bay Area were once paying anywhere from $250 - $500 a month, and now a one bedroom in the Mission district of SF goes for $3,500 and up & West Oakland starts at $3,000 a month for rent.... It's impossible to buy any real estate around here, when the median home goes for $1M and up, & when it used to sell for under a $100K. And the average blue-collar salary is now under $60K a year. This will push most local's into depression & alcohol & drugs and mental illness for being homeless.
As I was growing up (born in 77), I noticed lots of mentally ill people on the street. As I grew up and began living within the drug lifestyle, I began seeing mentally ill people in jail in the general population sometimes. I have seen first-hand that there is a lack of care for these people. Many of those people got by somehow and had children of their own. Now we're seeing the fallout from not being able to treat our mentally ill population.
After living a year in San Francisco's Tenderloin area... I never want to go back. Needles. Homelessness. Poop on the floors. Everything smells. Screams late at night of downright insane people walking the streets drugged out of their minds. Homeless people stealing things from CVS stores in broad daylight. San Francisco is a beautiful city in general - it's very rich, the architecture is incredible, and it's located right near the ocean. But the city has been totally ruined with all these issues.
I cant believe you survived living in the tenderloin for a year. I used to do skate trips in SF pretty frequently with a big group of friends. One of the first trips we ended up in the tenderloin. We couldn’t go 50 feet without belligerent dudes charging into the street after us, throwing bottles and shit. SF is fucked
My friends has rented a small studio with rent control on Eddy Street for 10+ years. I couldn't do it and I live in a not so desirable neighborhood in Sacramento myself.
@Yefri Fernandez It's America... Same shit everywhere. Everything u think about America is probably false. There's so much poverty out here and only the elites have money. Nothing changes no matter who u vote for because the politicians are looking out for the rich and vice versa.
There is a Vlogger called German in Venice who captured Los Angeles, Venice Beach and what not in a very good way, he treated all of the homeless he spoke to with much respect and it was very interesting to hear what some people said. Los Angeles is such a lost case, tons of overpaid state/city workers totally indifferent to the people just making a buck managing poverty.
Everyone involved with the homelessness industry deserves to be called out. Obviously their efforts aren't working because that would stop the money train.
San Francisco has always had homelessness problem. It is one of the most expensive cities in America. The rent in San Francisco is ridiculously high, a one bedroom in an 80 year old building could go as high as $ 3000. dollars per mount. Drug addiction is just one of the problems that is contributing to homelessness but there are many others. That said , it is a city that I love for as long as I live.
It did not always have a problem. It started just about the time Uni-party rule started. Around mid 1960s. And since then it has been carefully nurtured into big enough proportion to hold the city hostage. Its a completely manageable issue that is unintentionally being mismanaged.
Having been imported to San Francisco 1958 and living there until 1974 I had seen “homeless” individuals we called HoBo’s back then. I lived on the south side of KYA hill during the building of Candlestick Park (mid 50’s). The government tore down those projects mid~late ‘60’s. We as kids would play around Candlestick point at the water and chit chat with HoBo’s hanging around the area cooking their food in coffee cans. Frequently would be different individuals since they moved around a lot. Fast forward to mid to later ‘60’s the Hippie movement began to rear its ugly head. Drugs, free everything, liberal roots taking hold. Another point is Alcohol was a major cause of homelessness then also. Along Mission St, from 1st street (AC terminal) towards 5th was full of pawn shops, liquor store, cheap motels and numerous winos. Aquatic Park had drugs rampant 60’s-70’s. While riding 3rd & Kearney bus we ran over a wino on 3rd and Mission st [1967?) My step father died on Mission st (1982?). Had an individual shoot out his brains on Muni Pear while we were fishing (1969?) So homeless in San Francisco was long in progress.
You weren't listening. He didn't say it had nothing to do with it, YOU did. He said it's not as big of a factor as people are making it out to be. Can't make money when you're struggling with crack, heroin, and alcohol addictions! Duh
High rent has to factor into this, yes addicts are financially hindered but there are non addicts who are homeless because they are limited resources as a safety net. More and more of the communitys money is being bled off for other uses than looking after the people.
There is also the homeless industrial complex. State and charities are spending billions on helping homeless/indigent and a lot of that is getting syphoned into the pockets of consultants and non-profit management
I got narcaned 6-7 times I did a shot no bigger than anything I had done in the last 10 years an addict and I went out like a light. I started on oxy 30s they were just literally everywhere in east Kentucky. I have been sober 2 years now but it is an odd time to be an addict we are starting to step away from "this is 100% your fault and your bad choices alone lead you here" to now people are starting to see that you have to hold some responsibility to the companies that pushed oxy like crazy and that things like parent addiction and areas that have low opportunity are overwhelmingly the places getting eaten apart by drugs whether that be the ghetto or rural Appalachia that these factors and more play huge parts on whether someone is going to turn out an addict and the more outside pressures escalating the problem the more likely people who would not have ended up on drugs if afford the right opportunities would have most likely went in a different direction instead of actually ending up on drugs.
He has a lot of truth and some Bull crap mixed in his analysis. Gary Null has been doing documentaries on homeless crisis for years. High cost of living is a huge factor too. Lots of people go to jail for crimes. This guy is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The system is broken all around
Yeah he says high rent isnt a factor. If thats true then why is it only the most expensive cali cities that have this level of homelessness? There are drug addicts everywhere, not just in SF.
It’s foolish to say that high rent isn’t a factor in SF’s homeless problem. The drug epidemic is a nationwide problem, but in most states drug addicts can still find a place to live while still having the drug problem.
Why aren't you using the word California? You are using "SF", you do mean San Francisco right? So high rent is a problem in SF? Or in California? Should I keep going? Or can you already see where this is going? PS; the "drug epidemic" is not a "nationwide" problem, it's a big city problem
@@skyeangelofdeath7363 everything about the point you’re trying to make is wrong lol. Rent in SF is the highest on the west coast, and number 2 in the country as a whole for cities. And the drug epidemic is a very nationwide problem, not limited to cities at all. In 2015 people in rural areas were 4x more likely to die of an overdose than in the year 2000, because it is a problem everywhere, small town america is very affected by opioids.
@@skyeangelofdeath7363 you do realize all these homeless move from Red states to California. I talked to many if them snd they all moved from Red states
Ex homeless heroin addict 14 years sober. Homeless when I was basically a young adult around 22-25 years old. He's absolutely correct. Its almost entirely a drug issue and probably 20 percent mentally ill people who should be in institutions. The idea that its all people who are just down on their luck or even a fairly high percentage are is bullshit. In my years homeless I never met one person out there who didnt want to be out there using. Not one! Not one person who was trying or wanted to get off the streets who didnt. I only did beacuse my family came and found me and put me in rehab over and over until it stuck.
Most people who are homeless in San Francisco are not addicts. It's like 30-something% and that includes alcohol. I was homeless in SF, and I had none of those issues. There's a guy who was an addict for 6 months in San Francisco and he's built a little cottage industry talking about his addiction and homelessness. Right wing media loves him, and his perspective is the same as yours ie: "homelessness is all about addiction". That just isn't true.The statistics don't support that. Nothing but people's prejudice and desire to blame shift does.
@Yefri Fernandez My statistics come from San Francisco’s own city data. I have been involved in homelessness and poverty activism in San Fancisco for 3 years since I became housed after having been homeless myself. I know what I’m talking about more than this grifter (whose previous grift was climate denial). Obviously, you have an ax to grind about many issues not real acted to the one we are discussing. Not going to address those.
@@metalchix ahhh there ya go.. "involved in poverty activism' says it all. You know what, I dont believe you for a second that you were homeless. Because I was. My own eyes saw everything on the streets of Portland, Seattle, Vancvouer WA, and Vancouver BC. I lived all up the coast in all those cities homeless. There are TWO types of homeless, those who live on the streets and sleep on the streets and those who are down on their luck and live in the shelters for a period of time before eventually getting back on their feet. There is a poverty issue for sure but the leftist narrative that its all poverty is a LIE. flat out LIE. ANd you are clearly benefiting from that industry because you admitted its what you do. You have a stake in perpetuating that lie that its all poverty. Fuck off dude. Seriously. You are a danger to everyone with BS and corruption like that. Folks dont listen to him. Take it from someone who spent years homeless and has the real experience to back it up!---- BTW I worked with the homeless too for years through mamas hands a charity when i was a teenager before i became homeless. Same thing then in seattle. All drug and alcoholics. Nothing wrong with that but its the reality of it!
also who am i going to trust a dude who works for a cause with an agenda and "works with the homeless" Or my experience meeting hundreds of homeless while I was myself sleeping on the streets!
Thanks so much for sharing. I have a very close friend who is addicted to Opioids and keeps relapsing. Is there any suggestion for what kind of treatment you think works best?
Sometime in the mid-80s i lived in Seattle. It was made known amongst us down and outters thru food banks, missions, etc that anyone with an alcohol addiction could sign-up for almost $500 a month free. I saw the homeless situation slowly grow until it became the monster it is today. Free money with no accountability just increases the problem. People who 20 years ago mightve lived in a shelter and gotten a minimum wage job to slowly pull themselves up now can just sink even deeper in their addiction
I printed a list of available resources for the homeless in my city. I always carry a few with me and i give to anyone who looks like they need help. I look them in the eyes and tell them there's help if they want it. They always show kindness and appreciation. When i give them the respect as a person, they act like a repectful person.
That's a great way to go about it. At the end of the day, it's them that have to make a change in their lives. But they have to know what to do and where to ask for help.
Also a huge contributing factor is politics and transient nature is what dragged it down to this level. -Libertarian culture -Utopian/Progressive world view -Leftiest Policies Is a perfect cocktail to destroy any liberal city in America.
I’m so happy Michael Shellenberger is on. I ran across him several years ago talking sense about nuclear energy being the sustainable solution TODAY for cheaper, more abundant, cleaner energy
San Francisco is in a really interesting spot where it’s never really above 75 degrees and never really below 50, so it’s a solid place for sleeping outside year round. Last time I was there there was a church advertising giving out 2 meals a day to the homeless as well, so the problem isn’t that it’s necessarily poorly run, it’s that it’s more accepting of the homeless than anywhere else.
I listened to the whole episode on Spotify and learned a ton. This excerpt doesn't do it justice. Shellenberger has as impressive grasp of a complex problem and doesn't suffer from partisan tribalism.
I honestly feel bad for hard working Californians right now what with the surge in shoplifting, homelessness and now with the ban on gas powered lawn maintenance equipment.
That’s a big part of my life story also. I raced motorcycles in the early 2000’s. Lots of broken bones and surgeries at a time when docs were prescribing OxyContin like Advil. I got hooked, then when they stopped prescribing painkillers I switched to heroin. I finally got clean in 2012 but I wasted so many years in absolute misery. Life is great now and I have more than I ever thought I would. But I have a lifetime of regrets from that time of my life.
Myself did drugs as escape, and I’m sure many do the same. To escape the fear of eviction the fear of starvation, the feeling that you’re never going to get ahead. It’s all to overwhelming. How is it that my parents bring four children up in the 60’s were able to do so on one income? We lived in a 3/1 middle class. And in the 70’s mortgage rates were 17-18% a new car 3 year loan 15%. My parents had one credit card “Sears” . Some major shit went n in Washington between 1970’s & 1980’s that totally fuck up the system and made us the slaves to credit. Where is the balance in income, inflation & cost of living? NO single group is innocent in this. We’re all going to have to own this in order to get out of this. Arguing or warring solves nothing.
i feel this so much!! exactly!! i know if i were on the street i would turn to drugs as well bc there is no hope!!! we r all one emergency away from it
When I travelled to the US for the first time in 2009, I landed in San Francisco, and I was shocked at how bad the homeless situation was in the city there. Here I was dragging around a big suitcase (hey everybody, it’s me the tourist!), and quite a few homeless guys were approaching me for loose change. It was a big culture shock. During that big vacation, I travelled widely in the US, and SF was clearly the worst I saw for homelessness. Followed by DC, strangely enough. I was expecting the worst to be in NYC, but I was wrong there. Having said the above, homelessness in my city of Sydney AUS has gotten worse over the last 30 years too.
At least he’s bringing attention to long overlooked problems homelessness, networks lying, the problems with overgrowth of various industries and the many problems that creates
But these aren't overlooked problems. As Joe pointed out in other interviews, California has spent BILLIONS on the homeless problem. The issue is government corruption - much of the money never makes it to the people who need it. Joe referred to it as "farming the homeless" which I think describes the situation perfectly.
Also Portland and Seattle. These beautiful cities have become hellholes. Me and my girlfriend literally spent 30 minutes just trying to find a bench to sit on at a park that didn't have homeless drug addicts hanging out on them or ranting to themselves. At times it was really scary too. Seattle is shocking. Completely overrun everywhere by homeless people and tent cities. Lots of heroin needles all over the ground too, including in a children's playground right by our friend's place.
I've lived at Turk and Hyde in the Tenderloin for almost 7 years. My apartment is nice inside and I don't ever worry about playing music at too loud of volume so I have always taken that as a partial trade-off for the 'hood. I can tell you that there is a core group of chronic homeless on my block that have been there for generations (30+ years) who are fine living on the street smoking crack and doing their thing. I don't mind those people, they are my neighbors, I see them everyday and we kinda look out for each other's stuff. The issue is with the drug dealers and the temporary addicts that come and go in waves. The dealers are predominantly illegal Honduran kids (like 18) who work off their transportation across the border, room and board by dealing on the sidewalk for an average of around 6 months each. They live 30 minutes away in crash houses and are brought into the city following regular shifts, even being fed dinner by designated dudes who are also ferried in and dropped off to make the rounds. It is all very organized. The police do not do anything to break this up. I think that is partially because the SFPD does not have a division devoted to Narcotics - it is rolled-in with traffic crimes. And we have a pitiful District Attorney who is on record wanting to keep people out of jail, specifically the street dealers. The one thing that has been making a difference the last 6 months have been the street ambassador teams from Urban Alchemy which is an NGO employing recent paroled inmates to just patrol the neighborhood and corners. They've been in "the life" so their attitude makes all the difference as they verbally challenge bad behavior. Not physically, not escalating anything, just merely calling sh*t out and that is all it takes to bust stuff up as for so long the vast majority of the city populace have ignored or turned a blind eye or offered a guilty cash handout to these people allowing the dealing, drugs, and bad behavior to go unchecked. Props to this guest for calling out the drug/homeless connection and the bullsh*t argument about this being an affordable housing problem. Unfortunately, groups like the Coalition on Homelessness who push the false narrative blaming everything on housing receive the greatest press and largest platforms instead of the people actually living in it, surrounded by it, and having experienced it.
Your post here should be plastered on the front of every so called "newspaper" in this Country. Well put and WELL said. (This is happening in every West Coast City in this Country.)
I wish we had a narc division- I see those fucking kids all the time by mission & 8th and I figured it was organized but didn’t know to what extreme- it’s infuriating/depressing because I get cat called omw 2 Bart from work by those kids- not to mention all the folks strung out, so sad- there’s some sort of county assistance office over there making it even more cruel to pass by… Thanks for the info.😣
Just finished this entire 3 hour podcast and came back just to say it was an incredible interview in terms of both information learned, new perspective gained, and overall very entertaining. 100% would recommend giving it a full listen.
I did some public contract work in Dallas back in 2017, and there was a program in place that offered to bus any homeless person to San Francisco, LA, or Seattle on a free one-way ticket, or wait for us to finish our work. All anyone had to do in order to qualify was name a relative in any of those places that they could conceivably room with. No proof needed, no plan of reintegration, no services offered, nothing... And from what I've heard that was the norm in many parts of the country. "Greyhound Therapy" I think was the phrase a lot of people were using for the program. Bottom line, I don't know why folks are trying to reduce the issue to any one cause in particular. There are many, many reasons for the homeless crises we see in many of these large metropolitan American cities.
There was a fascinating article in the guardian a few years back that showed how the homeless in America are just bussed around the country by law enforcement. 1 way tickets are bought for these people from one city to another. Not really a solution to the problem that actually works.
It’s a good solution and everyone wins. Dallas gets to keep its city safe and beautiful. The homeless person gets to go to CA where they will be taken care of with open Arms. CA residents feel all warm and fuzzy that they are helping a victim.
Most people probably don't know that as of recent Sacramento, relative to its population, actually has far more homeless than SF. "Sacramento, which is separated by about 87 miles from San Francisco across the nearby bay, now has a staggering 952 homeless people per 100,000 citizens, versus 503 per 100,000 in San Francisco" - Daily Mail
I’ve lived in SF for 18 years and 2 of the biggest factors contributing to the rise of homelessness aside from drug use is 1) Mayor Gavin Newsom’s “Care not cash” program was eliminated once he became LT gov and Mayor Ed Lee took over (the program transferred the $700 check homeless people would receive each month to a room in a single resident occupancy (SRO), and 2) after 2008 Google went IPO and hundreds if not a few thousand brand newly minted millionaires moved into the city and offered up to twice market rate or more for the most desirable housing, and Mayor Ed Lee also decided to give massive tax incentives for Silicon Valley based tech companies to move their offices or expand into the then and now still dilapidated Mid-Market region of San Francisco, with the idea that they would clean up the neighborhood and bring more retail and other businesses in. No such thing ever happened, and the city became flooded with tech-bros who ordinarily would have stayed in San Jose or Palo Alto now moving to SF and more than willing to pay $4k/month or more for a 1br apt. Naturally, anyone who used to be able to afford living here would either move away or move onto the streets.
@@geoffvalero3516 always evade the blame and ppl STILL think democrats r for the working class!!! proof is in the pudding, red or blue, these ppl r in it to make the wealthy richer and THATS IT!!!
I lived in San Francisco/Bay area from 1985 - 2015. We noticed a change around 1995 - 1996. It started turning more "grunge" around that time with homelessness, people using outside as a bathroom, and Overdosing on the street. 6th Street near Market street, Civic Center Plaza, the Mission District, the Tenderloin or TL and the Haight always had their own vibe and people who hung out there panhandling. Back then you weren't afraid or uncomfortable going there because no one bothered you other than asking for spare change. They weren't violent and aggressive like now. You could pay a homeless man a few dollars to watch your car if you were going to a restaurant or event and you parked your car outside of a parking garage and it would be safe when you returned. Even though the politicans were Democrats, they were more Moderate: Dianne Feinstein, Art Agnos, Frank Jordan, Willie Brown. The current politicans, Tech companies, high rents, companies leaving to Conservative States have contributed to the demise of San Francisco. I still have great memories and will always love San Fran regardless!
All relative. I remember being in Berkeley off of Telegraph on a Saturday afternoon in the 80's and seeing a street person passed out in Durant Square. I came back a few hours later to see the EMT's hauling him away DOA.
@@tonyjmurillo96 They also choose to go there. Mild weather, easier access to drugs, the culture of homelessness (Skidrow comes to mind), they throw out drug charges, much easier to not have to post bond/bail, etc.
I've also heard that SF heavily favors renters versus those that own the rentals. Creates a high risk situation for landlords so they hike up the rent to cover any potential losses, or dont bother to rent at all and leave places vacant. Have you heard about this?
They know how to fix the problem and are trying. The biggest issue is funding which was cut from the federal budget in the 80's. This is a problem in every city in the US, not just San Francisco.
I was a Libertarian and then realized that society had to control drugs, drunkenness, homelessness and unlimited individualism. Anarchism from the right or left leads to society sinking to the lowest common denominator.
The homeless problem in Stockton and Sacramento are also extremely bad. It's scary, I worry for my families safety. It feels like we need some kind of federal help or something here in California. It's horrible.
what about the identity we give the elite? successful businessman, geniuses, philanthropists, heroes...when they are really all psychopaths. yeah i think that might be worth talking about a little more than not being hard enough on the person born into conditions most of us can't fathom
There is definitely a high rent aspect to homelessness. I have two separate friends living in vans because of high rents. I know that one mechanical problem with their vehicle and they will be on the street. The rent is too damn high!!!!!
its ABSOLUTELY a problem and im grossed out by this guy saying its drugs. sure thats an aspect, which is in fact the governments problem, bc they let pharm companies get away w literal murder. its disgusting. thixs society is so gross , blaming the victims, letting the elite get away w EVERYTHING
I was a bike commuter coming from a club I closed in Jack London Sq, Oakland. Rode my bike north straight thru the city hall area, aka Occupy. For the last decade I’ve watched homelessness go from blankets on the ground to tents to, now, whole goddamn mini houses!
@@farzana6676 I mean if jobs that pay well lower their qualifications then maybe I’ll apply but until then I’ll work in a dead end job that’s okay with my mediocrity
@@xxo-deathshot-oxx2047 Yeah but either way, even working a dead end job and renting a room. Sharing a house with other like minded workers means there shouldn't be a homeless epidemic. How can there be so many homeless people when companies are saying they're struggling to find employees.
@Dungeon Master Lol, you're a fool. And it's clear by your absurd economics, you've never owned nor even rented a home in your entire life. Regarding the rest of your comment about being harder to get a job due to being homeless, I can't comment on it. It might or might not be true.
At 3:00 you state the 2011 Occupy protests brought a lot of tents Into the San Francico downtown area. In Seattle, WA, it was the 2001 Susan G Coleman three day, 60 mile, cancer fund raiser walk. During the event, walkers were used pink tents. After the event, people donated these tents to homeless people. These were the first homeless people I saw in the Seattle area sleeping in tent. During the financial crisis 2007-2008, people became more tolerant of people sleeping in dilapidated RVs and cars. Walmart parking lots and parking lots of bankrupts stores soon became camp grounds.
I was sitting in a circle in Golden gate park and then Mayor Newsom and his posse came strolling through, assessing the "drug problem" By the next week hundreds of homeless had been arrested for cannabis possession or fled, I too fled. Now him and his buddies are rich from legalization and all those poor people still have records.
Love how the federal govt involvement in the opioid crisis always neglected. The federal govt started demanding that pain be the 5th Vital Sign. Inpatients were not allowed to have a VAS pain score of more than 4 without adequate narcotics. Physicians had been taught for decades to restrict narcotic prescription due to fear of addiction. During these mandates all those studies were said to be invalid and addiction potential in the postoperative period was impossible. Pharma took advantage of these mandates and (especially percocet and oxycontin) became standard postoperative management due to marketing efforts (which wouldn't have worked if mandates were not in place).
Very insightful. This is why many people are Mrs. Doubt Pfizer, and are demanding to protect their rights against the "Mandate" -the govt is here to help you and saving lives BS propaganda.
The idea you're a bad doctor if you're patient is in pain came vein the govt. They used the nurses as enforcers. You would get phone calls that you're patient had a pain score of 5 and they wanted to give then morphine for the pain. If you said no, you'd be written up and you'd have to explain yourself. JCAHO would do audits on pain scores and physician response and hospitals would get fined. So protocols were implemented on what to give for each pain score. Big pharma couldn't infiltrate the hospital nurses and administrators. That's not to say they didn't hit the marketing hard. But the govt wants you to blame big pharma and not realize that they set up the environment. So postoperative pain patients started getting addicted (~10%) and then they would start visiting pill mills. Then the govt started cracking down on pill mills and the addicts turned to fentanyl. Then China started getting involved and sending Mexico the ingredients to create their own batches. Then the deaths started spiking. So the govt jumps in to save us from the epidemic that they started. Now doctors have to check Eforse everything they prescribe a narcotic and assess abuse potential. If they don't they will be fined per occurrence. So what do doctors do? They don't prescribed any more narcotics because they don't want to be fired. So the real chronic pain patients (injuries, autoimmune disorders, rheumatolgoical conditions, fibromylagia, etc) don't have providers writing them prescriptions. So they have to go to pain centers and sit for hours to get a 30day supply of narcotics and repeat this again in 30 days. Then theybshow up one day to find out an auditor reviewed their file and have mandated that they receive half the dose for the to 3 months. So the real pain patients go to the streets to manage their pain. Had the govt not stepped in, and let the professionals do what they had been doing for 100 years, there would be no opiod crises. Big pharma is the scape goat the govt uses to redirect your attrntion away from them. I can go into medical error mandates as well and show how govt mandates via EMTALA and price control lead to medical errors and rising costs of Healthcare. And how in 15 years with CME, time outs, root cause analysis, and $20 billion dollars spent there has been no drop in medical errors. But thats another video .
And now its impossible to get opiates. I'm a disabled vet and live in constant agony because it is impossible for me to get opiates legally. No doctor will prescribe them to me. The crackdown on opiates hurts people as well.
@@bucknasty69 this right here is one of the seriously overlooked side effects of the opioid crackdown. I've been trying to manage a fairly severe case of Crohn's disease for almost 15 years, and after trying everything except surgery I've found nothing even close to being as life changing and effective for managing pain & symptoms than certain opiates which are almost impossible to get now. Regardless of what people like Joe Rogan might say, there are some individuals out there who can't live a normal life without these drugs. Unfortunately the panic caused by deaths from overdoses, street drugs laced with fentanyl etc is affecting a group of people who need these medications
@@cloudbloom You are right about drugs like Noco being nearly impossible to get prescribed. I was hobbling with a cane and bent over in severe pain when I saw my doc. Nothing prescribed. When I was unable to sleep for 3 days because of the pain I would up in the ER. They gave me a couple of shots of morphine and prescribed the Noco. I was able to tolerate physical therapy and after 5 months, I'm doing well. The point is, when your pain level is an 8 some intervention is necessary in order to heal and sleep. Telling doctors they shouldn't use them and monitoring the doIcs closely is an error in the opposite direction and may impede healing. P.S. I didn't get addicted.
The SF homeless budget is around $500 MILLION annually! Yet the "crisis" is getting worse! If the media would aggressively question the city leaders regularly and track where all that money is actually going I think it would be a step in getting something done.
As a person who lives in San Francisco and has been homeless here I can tell you that this guy is a shyster, and this episode is crap. Almost nothing in this clip is true. Tent encampments weren't started by Occupy, for example.
@@ranelrimas6523 yes fentanyl and meth that Floyd sold are no different than wine. 🙄 also riots are peaceful and people in trailerparks are privileged oppressors.
@@a.d.4536 Don't misinterpret me. Calling people "just drug addicts" is a different thing. Selling drugs is also not a bad thing, hence the alcohol you bought this past year. Again, hypocrisy.
Yes! And the opiates did help the patient feel good. I know I used oxy as a depressant more than for pain. Then they stopped prescriptions and then you have no other choice but to buy a bundle and it’s even cheaper. Glad I got out of that and got sober a few yrs ago
My observation as a regular visitor of the US over about the last 15 years is that 15 years ago homelessness was the reserve of the addicted and sick who lived in tents tucked away out of sight, under bridges, in tunnels, in bushes, etc. This year I visit to see that it's no longer just pockets of tents, but whole homeless communities, no longer just with addicts and the sick but whole families too. People now living in motorhomes, cars and make shift huts. It's become not just a problem of health and addiction but an issue of a seriously broken system that lets whole families slip through the cracks. It's no longer something people can look at and say "take drugs and that's the result" but it's grown to something much bigger. It's now become an issue of not paying the bills on time falling pray to the cut throat nature of the US system and businesses. It's very very sad to see.
I wouldn't necessarily call someone living in an RV homeless. I've lived on a boat for over a year, three different times. The boat was my home. I'll probably do it with an RV when I am too told to handle the boat.
@@ralphholiman7401 that's fair point. It's more the location, environment and surrounding community that set them apart from people who do it by choice/pleasure and those who are doing it for necessity. :/
@@thomasraven2024 , it's necessary for some people to live in smaller homes than others. That doesn't make them homeless. Just look at the tiny home movement, for one.
@@ralphholiman7401 Other than picking nits through the use of anecdotal ,exception-based semantics, what is your intent with these posts? Are you refuting the broader assertions made by the OP? Reading the conversation, it appears to me that you are simply playing the role of contrarian for the sake of being provocative. In any logical analysis, a clear distinction exists between someone who makes a conscious choice to adopt a motorhome or boat as their permanent place of residence and people who are living in something other than a a fixed, terrestrial structure out of necessity. The same is true for tiny homes. You don't strike me as someone so naive as to not understand the not so subtle differences between these situations. Therefore, it begs the question, what is your point?
The fact that the cost of living is so high is an issue that contributed to the homeless problem. Why does a studio apartment have to be 2000 grand a month is crazy.
This gentleman is exactly right about opioids epidemic beginning in the 1990s because before that you had to be dying of cancer or or be having surgery to get anything for pain doctors would not prescribe opioids for as needed chronic pain like they do today
I think a lot of this stems from the breakdown of the family system. In a past era most of these dysfunctional people would be living with relatives. Now that everyone is more independent, they have no interest in housing such people in their own home. It's easier to let them wander the streets.
@@marcdemontbron9657 Idk if there's a shortage, just maybe in the urban areas where rent is so high. There are literally hundreds of ghost town subdivisions that were created during the housing collapse of 07. There used to be anyway, IDK if most of those were demolished or fixed up and sold since then
The family unit has nothing to do with it. It can actually be linked to the defunding of the state sponsored mental institutions in the 80's. Before that point families would dump their mentally deficient members into an institution. Have dyslexia or down syndrome? Get dumped in an institution. Color blind or epileptic? Institution. Once those places were closed we saw a huge boom in the homeless population around the country. Also the average family in America has not been educated on how to handle or work with mentally deficient family members, so unfortunately it is quite common in our country for families to cut lose a person instead of learning how to help them.
@@matthewgabbard6415 There is a housing shortage EVERYWHERE. Many ghost subdivisions were unlivable & needed to destroyed (most of those were built out of mortgage fraud). But there just isn’t enough housing for the amount of people that need it throughout the US.
“It’s hard to pinpoint a single thing.” Meaning impossible. Drugs are a symptom. It’s mental health at root. Then add the well-intentioned but horrible political, legal, celebrity, and community interventions along with no accountability and you get the problem we see now.
Plenty of otherwise mentally healthy people get into drugs and it ruins them, its not as if mental illness is always the pipeline to drug use, if anything it can just as easily be the other way around. Mental issues can cause drug use, drug use can cause mental illness, and poverty could either cause or result from either.
The major cause of drug addiction, especially with the mentally ill, is people trying to self medicate their problems away. When those problems are mental illness, it's a real recipe for disaster.
@@kobeh6185 I think people underestimate the prevalence of mental health issues. Drug abuse is very much connected to mental health in that it used to self medicate. Anise/misuse of drugs, food, sex, gambling, and other things are very often all symptoms of untreated mental health problems.
@@davidluchsinger7377 that is true, all im saying is that often drugs are a major factor is making those mental issues more debilitating than they would have already been, or can create mental disorders themselves.
I’ve only seen that be a thing in toxic relationship where one person get some benefit out of being the “helper”. I don’t think it applies on a societal scale. I think if you look at Europe where we have a much better safety net and regulations, and where we don’t have an extreme homelessness problem like in the us it becomes clear that the issue isn’t “too much compassion for the poor” the problem is that you don’t spend 3”effort money on helping the poor and mentally ill. No somewhat developed country has these problems as far as I’m aware. Like most problems in the US, This is a problem of extreme cut throat neo liberal capitalism
Why don't we ever talk about the shutting down of mental asylums as being a major contributing factor to homelessness, as well?
Because how dare you use logic, Bigot! Vote Democrat
It was supposed to be about protecting their civil rights…they now have the rights to furthering ruin their lives and the lives around them such as local business owners and regular citizens
100%
because that would require deep thinking.
Thank you, was gonna say but I scolled a bit and found u
I'm a recovering meth addict and what got me out of it, was I stopped being a victim and started facing my dragons one at a time. Yes, I had childhood trauma, but I realized that as an adult, I had control over my behavior. What happened to me was affecting me and my ability to respond instead of react to situations. I finally realized what was behind my reactions and started slowing down & responding to situations. I still have difficulty sometimes when I don't realize I've been triggered, but I'm able to deal with issues more quickly. Any fellow addicts/alcoholics out there: the power is within you & you are worth it!
Look up
“Joe Rogan gets mad at Alex Jones”
It’s too funny!😡 😂
Not anywhere near as bad as meth,but I have a severe nicotine addiction and go through a 50 mg bottle of juice in a couple days.Its really an everyday struggle,even the people who are sober are still addicts deep down and work everyday to make the right choice.Good on ya for breaking your habits,ill be right there with ya soon✊
@@seeyouspacecowboy.....196 My goal is to be done with nicotine by Jan 1, 2022. This is more difficult than the meth, man!
I'm gonna think about that "slowing down and responding to situations" thing.
@@seeyouspacecowboy.....196 same here man...i just started for fun and here i am
One of my close friends and former boss was a narcotics detective in California. He told me that you can try everything under the sun but the likelihood of a 45 year old man who is addicted to meth changing his ways is basically zero. However, the likelihood of stopping a 16 year old kid from ever picking up drugs by providing sports, Education and mentorship is far greater. Unfortunately, the most effective way is to improve the next generation and he started a free non profit boxing program that provided HW tutoring, mentorship and training. Solutions exist. Fund them.
Ironically, CTE from multiple concussions makes those kids more likely to develop a substance habit. I grew up boxing… I love the sport… but you aren’t helping kids by getting them to competitively hurt each other. Instilling discipline and structure is a farce fabricated by karate gyms that want people to bring their kids. It’s ridiculous to think you’re decreasing the likelihood of violence by teaching kids how to fight. Every competitive athlete has a desire to hurt people.
Imagine an open and free discussion of this country's problems without the distortion of legacy media, it must scare the hell out of politicians.
This guest is a self promoting Propaganda artist. Almost as bad as MSM legacy. His bullshit isn't fact at all. Us Bayarea Natives know how this shit got started and why it continues.
just because someone isn't legacy media doesn't mean they're telling the truth. this guy is a liar and the fact that you would believe him without doing any research says a lot about you.
@@cspan1993 how's he a liar? Wtf?
@@capndallas4918 if you actually did your own research you would find hes lying
@@cspan1993 I've done my own research and I can confirm that you're simply misinformed.
I was a homeless couch surfing, non drug using college student in San Francisco. There is zero help if you are normal. I couldn't even get food stamps. I was told to get pregnant. Insane city.
@KimIGKimi 🙄🙄
Yeah, thats the craziest part to me. That the people in charge instead of trying to change the fucked up policies, they just try to convince you to cheat the system and rely on them. It's fucked.
Why were you homeless and also going to college?
@@jonathanguinn3929 its better than being homeless and not going to college
@@skellington2000 It's less than $600, so definitely not enough to pay rent, you would be on the street, drug habit or not. Also, SSI if you are disabled is less than a $1000 and won't even rent you a room in SF.
I was a homeless addict until the age of 29. Allowing these "tent cities" discourages homeless people going to the shelters. The shelters have resources (or access to resources) available that are vital to their health, well being and potentially their recovery.
The things that go unnoticed in these tented areas are often tragic. There's no one to look over the more vulnerable. The environment that cultivates in these places is detrimental to everyone involved.
I also was a homeless addict and I agree with what you are saying. Once I came out of that lifestyle, I have come to believe that the more enablement of homeless drug addicts the worse off things are going to be. Do we need resources for people to get help and use funds for that yes, but you will not help people by allowing them to live in squalor doing whatever they want.
My son is seriously mentally ill with psychosis and a disabled vet so he receives money and thank god I am his guardian and conservator, but the homeless befriended him since he was so lonely and has addictive behaviors so they destroyed his home along with him of course. He is now addicted to meth or anything to smoke. I moved him out to our ranch, but he has once again befriend more druggies. I have him living in a RV on our property and I am torn as to whether I should confront these drug people and tell them to stay away or I will call the sheriff or just call the sheriff. He is being treated for his mental health, but that isn't making progress since he is using. Any thoughts?
There aren't nearly enough shelters in the cities where this is a problem. This is as much of a non-solution as tents.
@@nickparis7 depends on which cities I suppose.
@@nickparis7 I can only speak for the two cities I was homeless in. Baltimore for instance is allowing tents to be placed just about anywhere. There is room in shelters in that case for instance. There was plenty of shelter in Harrisburg, PA but the rules were pretty strict. There is a huge problem in LA (which is a city I wasn't technically homeless in). There are thousands if empty shelter beds each night in LA. It's certainly a nuanced issue. For instance, many of their shelters are ran poorly, not sanitary and potentially even have rat infestations. The city is throwing plenty of money at it, but oversight is really shitty.
Many, many people have had difficult childhoods. It's no excuse to destroy yourself and others. It is a blessing to hold people, adults, accountable for their actions and help them get free, healthy and whole. Aiding them to slowly kill themselves isn't compassion, it's cruelty. God bless~
Accountability?!? That's racist! And homophobic! And sexist! And transphobic!
You must have no idea how difficult a childhood can be.
@@RipsRidiculus11 oh look a victim. Let me guess your daddy didn't give you a hug one day
?@@RipsRidiculus11
My mother has been a drug & alcohol counselor for 30+ years, and believes one of the biggest problems with addiction in the US is the quality of treatment available here. Treatment for the poor is notoriously bad and usually run for-profit with contracts with the state, and most of the companies running rehabs are trying to cram as many people in as legally allowable while providing the lowest-cost treatment they can. Most are 28-30 days, which is usually not adequate for someone with a serious addiction to opiates or amphetamines. My mother has also worked in self-pay rehabs that are outrageously expensive ($10,000+ a month), but provide far better care, longer stays, healthy meals, specialized classes in yoga, meditation, tailored addiction philosophies, etc. Those who can afford these places have much better outcomes. Unfortunately, if we want to reduce the drug epidemic in this country, we need to shift our entire health care system - and that doesn't seem to be anywhere close to happening.
I personally worked in mental health as an intensive case manager for people with the most severe mental illness, and can attest to the difficulty of keeping many of these folks housed. In a lot of cases they were simply too paranoid to maintain housing, and it was close to impossible to house them in supervised facilities, which is what some needed. I had one guy who literally punched out his mother's car window and tried to strangle her because he thought she was working with the CIA against him, and court still refused to commit him. It wasn't until he stripped all the insulation off every electrical cord in his apartment and ran them under rugs to protect himself from the CIA "listening" to him that we were able to place him in a hospital.
PRECISELY, I WAS JUST SAYING WHAT YOU ARE SAYING TO SOMEONE WHO SAID REHABS ARE A WASTE OF TIME UNLESS SOMEONE WANTS TO GET CLEAN. I SAID THAT IF THE TREATMENT IS INADEQUATE, QUALITY OF COUNSELORS, TIME SPAN, ETC. THEN MORE PEOPLE FAIL. IF THE TREATMENT IS DONE RIGHT EVEN SOMEONE WHO DID NOT WANT TO GET CLEAN, PERHAPS COURT ORDERED, CAN STILL BE REACHED BECAUSE DONE RIGHT
In my country we help them and they get back to drugs and then rehab again and again.... you think anybody here wants to pay for those m0r0ns? fck em, nobody wants to except some leftists wo dont have a real job and dont pay taxes! Its not someone else problem if you cant handle life and become a drug addict.
i don't see why my tax dollars has to go to anyone who got themsmselves into addiction on their dollars yet demand mine to 'treat' them
@@LucielStarz123 Frankly, if your dollars don't go to treatment, they'll go to prison corporations. Not sure why you would prefer this option, as it is more expensive and due to our atrocious prison environment, it only tends to increase recidivism and make society worse. It really comes down to the kind of society you want to live in. You want to live in a society where drug addicts rotate between prison and homelessness, making your streets less safe? You want a society where people with serious health problems (which addiction is) are unable to access decent treatment and instead roam the streets fueling a criminal drug culture and potentially commit crimes to fuel their addiction? Or do you want a society where addicts are offered real treatment that stops the cycle of addiction and allows them to become productive members of society - thus reducing homelessness and crime associated with addiction and making urban life safer, more pleasant, and more visually attractive?
Most other countries spend less on treatment. It's more of a demographic problem if anything. But we also didn't have this problem 40 years ago.
I’m literally in San Francisco right now, its my first time here, and I’m with my fiancée and our child. I was completely unaware of the homelessness in San Fran before visiting. In the 6 hours I’ve been here I’ve seen a prostitute shooting heroin on the bus stop, and guys peeing out in public, one person completely exposing himself. I can confirm, that the union square area is completely packed with homeless people
@@jonaskessler326 I actually appreciate that, because with the weather right now, and especially the sketchiness of union square, I’m struggling to find the vibe I was looking for lol. I will definitely look into those places. Thanks a lot!
@@darindthomas anytime! I feel ya with the gloomy weather, but we’re thankful for it these days, considering all the fires we’ve had lately in California. On a Wednesday night, I’d probably roll to Broadway or Columbus street in North beach, or Polk street in Russian hill/Nob hill anywhere from post and Polk going as far north as Broadway and Polk. Still a weds night, and a rainy one so prob not too much going on right now anywhere to be honest but my previous suggestions should still hold true in general. Forgot to add that the Castro district is always safe and the Height district can be fun in the daytime. Enjoy your visit!
@@jonaskessler326 that’s great! I plan on hanging out at the hotel tonight, but tomorrow I plan on taking your advice. Really appreciate it. If you’re ever in Denver, I’d be happy to give you a few recommendations
@@darindthomas No worries at all. And I appreciate that, definitely will do, thanks!
I hope your trip had at least some value. I used to live in CA and, though I like cities, always dreaded having to go there. I went earlier this year and the extent of the destitution was astounding.
I was a homeless heroin addict for 6 yrs. I've been clean for 2yrs and now work in a drug rehab. The fact is that most addicts want to get high, do nothing and get something for nothing (social services). U gotta want to not live like that and the truth is a majority will not put forth the effort.
Congratulations on your two years.
truth. Im a support worker for the homeless in shelters and people have no idea. They assume everyone wants a house, kids, dog and a car. In truth, they don't. However they'll pretend they do for as long as possible in order to access services which are supposed to get them those things in order to get stuff for free and keep living their nomadic lifestyles
Seems like the solution is tough love, and changing incentives so that it favors autonomy.
@@imanuel8883 Thats a very dangerous idea my friend. Idk if you realize that or not.
I'd hate the idea you are in a position of support when you generalise every addict as "pretenders". Really gross attitude, and that kind of ignorant generalising only furthers the misconceptions of addiction.
Should post the full episode, man. Heard it on Spotify and it's one of the great ones.
I've been by any standard but my own homeless. I fortunately, though, was just homeless. Not an addict, though I definitely drank too much--but that was more self medication than addiction. But my point is I ran in homeless circles so to speak. And the lack of dignity is the quintessential problem, from a practical standpoint. Once you have crossed that many boundaries and been that degraded, it is very, very hard to make good or sane choices to better your situation. The idea of just giving people houses isn't born out of endless compassion. It's that it is impossible to love yourself enough to have kind of hope it takes to get up every morning and slog your way through it. It's not a question of who is accountable to whom. I promise you, after what I've seen, I'm no bleeding heart. We SHOULDN'T be so condescending. Lot's of people DO just need a good kick in the pants and to face some real consequences for once. Lot's of people ARE just deeply confused about what is truly important to make a good life and are learning it the hard way. Some are beautiful Jesus like souls. Some just think they are. Some are the skids temporarily, and some come to love the street life. But the cross section you are talking about--the fucking crazy drug addled methheads who have open dug wars on the street, and strip naked and don't live in reality and make the streets unsafe, who ARE a menace and should not be conflated with the endless variation of people without means--those people are not on the same planet. They're gone, okay. They have been replaced with zombies. Get their act together? What does it even mean to be accountable? The world makes no sense in that state. Accountability is an impossible ask--unless, hopefully, maybe they can get their bearings long enough to remember they are human beings. But like I said, Im not exactly a bleeding heart at this point. I don't think they should be allowed to camp on the streets. They need to either go someplace that can help them or go some place where they won't make every day terrifying. Ive seen cars blown up and malatov cocktails thrown through windows by these tweakers---the fact that we're doing nothing is abhorrent. But the goal is to do things that will work, and not breed more problems.
I’m with you. I spent a year in the “hotel circuit” amongst other addicts. I was a bukowski-esk alcoholic with little ties left on reality. Drank myself into oblivion and ended up homeless right when the pandemic hit. My fiancé and got sober after 4 months of getting kicked out of hotels all over OC, mingling with other drug addicts and alcoholics, it was very easy to see how these people get here. We stayed sober and after 7 months got ourselves out of that life. I have to say though, we didn’t meet one person during that time, that had ANY interest of getting out of the life. They were so satisfied with a wad of cash they made the night before, and a pocket full of dope, they think they are living the good life. They’re perception becomes so warped that they no longer even conceive the idea of stability. They’re extremely arrogant about it as well. Hookers who think they’re celebrities, druggies who think they’re rappers, and schizophrenics that will attack unprovoked was the lay of the land. This was in Anaheim and most of north Orange County. I am completely jaded by it all and I have no sympathy for them. I’d been destroying my life for over a decade with booze, and all it took for me to put it down was a positive pregnancy test from my now wife. It can be done, but these “zombie people” are just that…they’re zombies and they’re creating wastelands amongst society. There are two plagues we have currently..one of fentanyl, and one of inherently unjust sociopaths we call our leaders. I don’t see an end which is why I’ll be arming up and leaving this fuckin state. Luckily I was able to restart my career and I can work anywhere
My problem is that in Seattle , the way the system works is you have to be late on payments to get assistants. I work at homeless shelter and these guys get a whole apartment paid for , yet people trying to not be homeless are not a priority.
This. And the system also preys on the fact that very sick, very vulnerable people don't have the fight in them to advocate on their own behalf in many cases.
That isnt true. I also live in Seattle area (iMedina). Your statement isnt valid at all.
@@Da808Boii Dude, I live here. The YMCA/YWCA homeless shelters pipeline single adults into 2-3 star motels in Shoreline and SeaTac. On average, a person would be at the shelter for about 3 months and then get put into a hotel room for up to a year (the Holiday Inn by the Space Needle was converted to this program too). But they usually move on to government housing within a few months of getting the hotel room - elderly housing, families with young children, even residential drug treatment programs. If you don't qualify for those programs (single non-senior non-addict), you're encouraged (but not required) to get employment and there are charities that cosign leases and such
i believe you can help someone successfully ONLY if that person willing to help themselves first.
This is the mentality that gets everybody in a bad place. You can also choose a government that helps both. But please stop blaming patients for being sick.
I lived in San Francisco when I was 34. Put my truck in storage across the street from my studio apartment between Sutter and Bush on Leavenworth. I worked on Geary Street in a hotel pretty nice hotel I might add. I had a great life running around until I met up with the wrong people. Soon after I was doing meth smoking it putting it over marijuana in a bong getting it from people who took it out of their mouth wrapped in a plastic baggie and hand it to me so disgusting. I didn’t care how gross it was I was so out of character I would do anything to get this shit… Except prostitute that never came to be thank God. Eventually my sisters husband my amazing brother-in-law brought a huge suburban SUV up packed it up my whole studio apartment, took my 4Runner out of storage packed it up and headed back home for Carmel Valley, California. Funny because back then my rent was $1,000. a month. When I gave my notice of departure to my landlord, he said he would lower my rent by $200 making it $800 a month. So I would agree with you, it wasn’t the rent. I had to fight for my life from the drugs which had captured and hooked me and held me prisoner.
God bless you Joe, so love your interviews
Edit: Now living my dream life completely clean and sober I don’t even mess with beer anymore.
Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh
You don't say you were homeless in this story... they are talking about homelessness.
@@devinludwig relax guy she had a good story
Congrats on breaking free from those demons. I put away the alcohol too 7yrs ago. I will never reawaken that sleeping demon.
I can be sure to tell you that there is nothing in San Francisco for 800$ a month. It is the most expensive city in america
It is really sad. I remember visiting SF in the 90s and there were always a homeless population around fisherman’s wharf but my last trip there about 4 years ago was shocking. No homeless at fisherman’s wharf but a ton have moved to union square. Right outside our hotel it smelled like weed and urine and I was having to step over people to walk in. It was really sad seeing so many people with mental health issues on the streets. Used to be one of my favorite cities to visit, now it just makes me sad.
It doesn't sound that bad. Kind of like a garden party or something. I think we should encourage it if anything. Did you know you can get them to fight eachother for money and drugs and then you can film that and sell it online. Not just fighting either, you can get them to do any kind of crazy wierd stuff and then take them out on your boat and just push them overboard and find another one. Just be careful of covid, you want healthy homeless people.
you're totally true man
dont see the problem with weed bc its legal but the urine yeah i understand
@@65stang98 What's wrong with urine? Some people enjoy it. It's sterile and tasty.
@@chucknutly3290 facts
I saw the match that ignited homeless problem in SF. It was 1978 and from my seat on the "8 Market" bus I saw a crowd of bums appear in tents near the CIvic Center. Art Agnos was the mayor and he said it was ok for the bums to live there. It was like a brush fire that got out of control, to be the mess it is today. If only the fire was extinguished back then.
Joe victorious against CNN is the best thing I’ve seen all week.
Context?
Shut your mouth
DUDE, LOL.
That's not what CNN is saying
Victorious. Hysterical.
In the past 40 years, there’s been a major reduction in mental facilities in California. In 1970 there were around 40,000 facilities in California. Today, less than 4,000.
But Michael Shellenberger is just going to talk out of his ass for 6 minutes. This guy is part of the YIMBY movement. Funny how he doesn't even mention the actual conversation in SF. SF was bought out, forced out by developers. FUCK HIM!
@@theamericanopry why is YIMBY bad? Never heard the term before, but it seems like people who want more housing available in communities. Why would that be bad?
Edit: fixed spelling error
There was a big phyc building in the north area of Chicago on Sheridan, that closed and the tenants/pts were relocated. I wonder if its associated with the tent situation.
Thank the Republicans for that
You’re speaking too much sense for the JRE covid conspiracists. They would rather blame the problem on “Black People” or “the left” or “victim mentality drug addiction”
So he doesn't think the skyrocketing rent in San Fran has anything to do with homelessness? I'm calling BS on that one. I'm not saying it's the biggest reason but he just dismissed it.
Nice take! I was going to comment before watching the whole clip but he hit the nail on the head with the “Occupy Movement” Normalizing the tent camps.
This is what I wrote before watching the whole clip: I’ve been in the SF Bay Area my whole life And the tent camping aspect of the homeless situation really became prevalent after the “Occupy Wallstreet” movement after the 2008 recession. For example In Oakland around 2011 people gathered in tents to “Occupy Oakland” at frank ogawa plaza. The tent village was cleaned up around a month after inception and moved to other locations around the city. This led people to become more bold and pitch tents all over.
The problem started because no one in charge knows what they’re doing
Silicon Valley made it worse.
Too busy focusing on "social justice" instead of cleaning up their streets.
Pelosi, Newsom and Garcetti are the ones in charge
This ua-cam.com/video/A1Y5fGcwja0/v-deo.html 🤯🤯🤯
@@DARTHNEWS there was a chance to get rid Newsom but the people wanted to keep him. Why the F wound they do that
The 9th circuits decision on homeless camping was a big contributor to the problem as well.
these people know exactly what they're doing
Have you seen the video
Elon Musk meets Post Malone
It’s hilarious!! 👽 😂
@@Sorel366 my father was a Vietnam vet and I love our country but honestly bury all your family in a 4 1/2 yr period, have the 2008 housing crash hit while you employ 9 people, and get a divorce on top of that, then load everything up in a mountaineering pack that's key to your comfort and survival and simply try to lay your head down to get some sleep and you'll see how much freedom you truly have trying to get life sustaining sleep. Many turn to meth to stay up and I can't stand them stealing and thieving. I refuse to do the major cities and I stay in a national forest outside a small community and work 4 days a week. It's just me on my own now truly free for 11 yrs.
There was also the shutting down of institutions for the severely mental ill that added to the problem. Drugs are a big part of it but not the only
not high rent?
My wife and I went to San Francisco 5 years ago, and it was bad then. We went for my bday and stayed in a nice hotel, which was unfortunately located in the Tenderloin area, albeit almost out of the Tenderloin area. Thankfully we had no issues, but we walked the whole city and saw the homeless villages/encampments and were blown away. At the end of the day, these are our brothers and sisters. They're lost. Its a combination of many things, but we can't lose our humanity. They shouldn't be there and we've become too complacent with letting things go.
I'm from Sao Paulo Brazil and i thought that my city had homeless folks but when i traveled to SF i was like: wtheeeeeeell boi
The "victim" or "victimization" mentality is so dangerous and corrosive to any healthy society.
Indeed, and it has crept into both parties, all religions and most of US culture.
He says while living off his parents still 😆😆😆😆 How funny.
@@timtim7674 Why are people like you so goddamn desperate to try and derail any conversations. That has NOTHING to do with this video. Get out more, or read a damn book.
@@jcfra420 why are people like you so desperate to try and derail a poster adding to the conversation. This had EVERINGTHING to do with this video as victimization was discussed. get out of your head more, or pay some damn attention.
Say that to Rogan and all his right-wing buddies. Guys like Ben Shapiro are always clutching their pearls!
The figure of ODs from 17,000 deaths in 2000 to 93,000 last year is absolutely insane!!
🤫Democrats might read that and then find another crisis distraction
whoever is idiotic enough to fuck with fentanyl probably isn't going to last that long regardless but ya pretty crazy jump.
And yet, there's still people that think this 'homelessness crisis' is linked to letting a couple thousand fruitcakes out of their mental hospitals 40 years ago.
@@HardwiredZ06 Not talking shit just being real bro that's a very ignorant comment. Millions of people smoking fentanyl which people do not overdose with because there is close to no risk unless you're injecting with needles. Majority of people shooting up are injecting heroin and even if they wanted pure heroin without fentanyl cut inside of it they couldn't get it. All of it if not 90%+ has fentanyl in it. Just smoking fentanyl is safer in the long run if it's produced properly without anyone cutting it after cause it doesn't damage the immune system near as much as heroin does.
@@tommychoppa7564 lol that’s an interesting response. Ignorant huh? I guess I should have acknowledged the drug users who use responsibly and don’t die from misadventure. Got it.
As somebody who struggled with Heroin pills and fentanyl for six years I’m 11 months sober now and I would say that it gets so debilitating if it wasn’t for somebody taking initiative and making sure I follow up with direction I would be dead! Any process towards sobriety isn’t going to be easy or comfortable or sensitive we have been rendered sick and impaired of any clear judgment whatsoever your moral compass needs to be replaced don’t even bother with the old one it’s dead now and will leave the vulnerable to relapse being made uncomfortable to make a change! Is a vital and necessary part of the journey!
SF native here since the 80s, when I'm born. SF has always been rough. It isn't new. Some neighborhoods became fancy, some got worse. But the homelessness and drug use seemed to get really bad after the 2008 crisis. Things bounced back a bit around 2010 but it got nasty downtown again around 2016 or so, it was a slow uptick to the point where it was already quite bad around 2018, 2019, many shops were boarded up around Market and Montgomery, including shops that had been there for decades. Covid was the final nail in the coffin. It got really crazy in a lot of areas. TL has always been a mess though. That has never changed.
My recollection is during the Feinstein decade as SF's mayor there was a huge tent city on the expanse of lawn outside city hall. Many folks couldn't understand how a mayor who had no solution or even response to the growing crisis was somehow qualified to become a US senator.
they were right.
I heard a rumor that other cities got rid of their homeless population, by giving them one way bus tickets to San Francisco or Los Angeles.
It's not a rumor. Also, the homeless aren't locals - I talked to several homeless people in LA and SF, they are all from Texas, Indiana, Michigan etc. Stats confirm this as well...
This is true. My city gets bus loads of literal crazy people that police officers in other cities cant handle. You can literally watch them spread through town and trash everything
Yeah right. If you're homeless and don't want to work, where are you going to go? Minnesota? No you're heading to California where you can sleep on a warm beach.
Here in Michigan we have a big drug/homeless population too. From my understanding, a lot of these people are wanting to be in a warmer climate. A lot of people freeze to death every winter.
That's a half truth. San Francisco has no greater greater concentration of homeless people from outside the city than any other major city. And most of those that hadn't lived in San Francisco proper are from the larger Bay Area. San Francisco gives bus tickets to people to cities if they can identify someone who'll see them there.
in the mid 70's they started tearing out orchards and vineyards in lodi ca. they built houses for people who were working in the bay area and could not afford to live there. it was a two hour commute depending on weather and traffic.... lodi used to be known for flame tokay grapes. there were vines that were more than 100 years old torn out and burned so we could have another burger king.... the homeless problem started a long time ago.
Im from San Francisco, 4th generation ....and i'm the last of my family left here! The root of the problem is actually the tech folks! These tech companies have created an environment that is not geared towards the local population. these tech workers are making more money than most of us, they are being offered extremely high salaries as well and stock options and bonuses, so they can afford to buy homes and teslas and expensive things, and the government is loving it all, because they are making a literal killing off property taxes, and payroll taxes etc. The Sad truth is that there is no money to be made from us locals, we are just in the way now taking up precious space. And then everyone seems like they are shocked and confused as to why the homeless and drug crisis????!!!! .......and that is even more alarming , that we have all had the wool pulled over our eyes with the smoke and mirrors of thhe pandemic, politics, race issues and police brutality. Sad.
As a bay area resident for almost my entire life, I can attest that this response is probably the only one that really holds any water. Tech industry is 100 percent the problem, and they've attracted H1B visa holders that have zero college debt in addition to six figure incomes. It's priced out native-born Americans.
@@franksanz1044 WHAT BUBBLE DO YOU LIVE IN MAN?! THE TECH FOLKS HAVE PRICED EVERYONE OUT OF HERE. THATS A FACT. WHERE DO YOU EXPECT 10s OF THOUSANDS OF HOMELESS ARE GOING TO GO? THE STATE HAS BEEN CLEARING OUT THE SIDES OF THE FREEWAYS, BUSHES, CREATING STREET PARKING CODES SO NO RVs CAN PARK AND SLEEP, ETC.....SO WHERE ARE ALL THESE FOLKS SUPPOSED TO GO? IM A LOCAL TOW TRUCK DRIVER, AND HAVE BEEN FOR ALMOST 2 DECADES, AND I CAN TELL YOU THAT I REGULARLY TOW FOLKS OUT TO THE CENTRAL VALLEY THAT HAVE EXPRESSED TO ME THAT THEIR HOMELESS POPULATION IS STAGGERING, AND I HAVE TOWED SEVERAL HOMELESS PEOPLE TO THESE LOCATIONS IN THE VALLEY BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN CHASED OUT OF HERE......AND THEN MANY OF THESE PEOPLE TURN TO DRUGS TO COPE WITH LOSING EVERYTHING. I HAVE PERSONALLY BEEN TO THESE HOMELESS CAMPS IN THE VALLEY, PARTICULARLY MODESTO, WHERE THERE ARE LITERALLY BETWEEN 400- 600 EITHER TENTS OR TINY TINY HOMES IN ONE CAMP, AND THERE ARE SEVERAL OF THESE CAMPS...WITH A HUGE FENCE , GATES AND SECURITY 24/7. ALL THE WHILE, DURING THIS PANDEMIC, I CAN TELL YOU AS A PERSON THAT DRIVES AROUND THE GREATER BAY ALL DAY EVERYDAY, THE ONLY THING THAT HAS NOT SLOWED DOWN AT ALL IS THE CONSTRUCTION OF MASSIVE APARTMENT COMPLEXES THAT FOR SURE THE NATIVE LOCAL POPULATION CANNOT AFFORD TO LIVE IN! SO PLEASE FURTHER BACK UP YOUR STATEMENT WITH SOMETHING VALID. I'LL BE AWAITING YOUR RESPONSE!!!
Here's a simple test. Go to downtown SF with $500 in cash BUT NO id or credit card and get room to stay for one night. Let me know how that park bench feels.
I feel you've raised a very interesting and important point. I wish this concept of "falling off the credit universe" would get a bit more examination. I live in West Oakland, and I think this is a part of our situation that is being overlooked (I do think everyones ideas here are a piece of it; not one stands alone as "the cause"). The amount of personal bureaucracy involved in a normie life nowadays seems crushing to someone who is dealing with other more serious issues.
As a dweller of the fringe (no credit card, no credit history...), I think if I somehow lost my apartment or whatever- had a breakdown, etc. I honestly would probably have no route back up. I would probably have to just get a tent and go totally off grid. I'm not one to give up, but I could see it being a definite challenge.
Thank you for raising this point which I hadn't heard articulated, but definitely feel.
I'm from the Bay Area and I've been living here since the late 1960's in Oakland, Ca. Homeless started when gentrification came here during the late 1980's. And the people here in the Bay Area were once paying anywhere from $250 - $500 a month, and now a one bedroom in the Mission district of SF goes for $3,500 and up & West Oakland starts at $3,000 a month for rent.... It's impossible to buy any real estate around here, when the median home goes for $1M and up, & when it used to sell for under a $100K. And the average blue-collar salary is now under $60K a year. This will push most local's into depression & alcohol & drugs and mental illness for being homeless.
This guy is a beast at articulating his points. Excellent speaker
As I was growing up (born in 77), I noticed lots of mentally ill people on the street. As I grew up and began living within the drug lifestyle, I began seeing mentally ill people in jail in the general population sometimes. I have seen first-hand that there is a lack of care for these people. Many of those people got by somehow and had children of their own. Now we're seeing the fallout from not being able to treat our mentally ill population.
After living a year in San Francisco's Tenderloin area... I never want to go back. Needles. Homelessness. Poop on the floors. Everything smells. Screams late at night of downright insane people walking the streets drugged out of their minds. Homeless people stealing things from CVS stores in broad daylight. San Francisco is a beautiful city in general - it's very rich, the architecture is incredible, and it's located right near the ocean. But the city has been totally ruined with all these issues.
I cant believe you survived living in the tenderloin for a year. I used to do skate trips in SF pretty frequently with a big group of friends. One of the first trips we ended up in the tenderloin. We couldn’t go 50 feet without belligerent dudes charging into the street after us, throwing bottles and shit. SF is fucked
Better elect a different democrat...cuz democrats are compassionate
My friends has rented a small studio with rent control on Eddy Street for 10+ years. I couldn't do it and I live in a not so desirable neighborhood in Sacramento myself.
@Yefri Fernandez
It's America... Same shit everywhere. Everything u think about America is probably false. There's so much poverty out here and only the elites have money. Nothing changes no matter who u vote for because the politicians are looking out for the rich and vice versa.
Sadly, you get what you put up with.
There is a Vlogger called German in Venice who captured Los Angeles, Venice Beach and what not in a very good way, he treated all of the homeless he spoke to with much respect and it was very interesting to hear what some people said. Los Angeles is such a lost case, tons of overpaid state/city workers totally indifferent to the people just making a buck managing poverty.
Ah yes. It’s the government workers fault.
What?!? Makes no sense. Word salad
Everyone involved with the homelessness industry deserves to be called out. Obviously their efforts aren't working because that would stop the money train.
Soft White Underbelly interviews a lot of them as well.
Right, like we need to take a Vlogger's perspective at face value.
The Tragedy of American Compassion is an excellent book on this subject as well.
San Francisco has always had homelessness problem. It is one of the most expensive cities in America. The rent in San Francisco is ridiculously high, a one bedroom in an 80 year old building could go as high as $ 3000. dollars per mount. Drug addiction is just one of the problems that is contributing to homelessness but there are many others. That said , it is a city that I love for as long as I live.
It did not always have a problem. It started just about the time Uni-party rule started. Around mid 1960s. And since then it has been carefully nurtured into big enough proportion to hold the city hostage. Its a completely manageable issue that is unintentionally being mismanaged.
Having been imported to San Francisco 1958 and living there until 1974 I had seen “homeless” individuals we called HoBo’s back then.
I lived on the south side of KYA hill during the building of Candlestick Park (mid 50’s). The government tore down those projects mid~late ‘60’s. We as kids would play around Candlestick point at the water and chit chat with HoBo’s hanging around the area cooking their food in coffee cans.
Frequently would be different individuals since they moved around a lot.
Fast forward to mid to later ‘60’s the Hippie movement began to rear its ugly head. Drugs, free everything, liberal roots taking hold.
Another point is Alcohol was a major cause of homelessness then also. Along Mission St, from 1st street (AC terminal) towards 5th was full of pawn shops, liquor store, cheap motels and numerous winos. Aquatic Park had drugs rampant 60’s-70’s.
While riding 3rd & Kearney bus we ran over a wino on 3rd and Mission st [1967?) My step father died on Mission st (1982?). Had an individual shoot out his brains on Muni Pear while we were fishing (1969?)
So homeless in San Francisco was long in progress.
This homelessness discussion is in tents.
ba-dum-tss
🥱 lol
🥁
Have you seen the video
Elon Musk meets Post Malone
It’s hilarious!! 👽 😂
Yes it's fukin in ⛺😂😂🤣
so.... homelessness has nothing to do with not being able to pay a $2,400 rent on minimum wage? but tents from 10 years ago do?
It's not good to get your statistics from the party who literally is called "The Business Man and CEOs party".
You weren't listening. He didn't say it had nothing to do with it, YOU did. He said it's not as big of a factor as people are making it out to be.
Can't make money when you're struggling with crack, heroin, and alcohol addictions! Duh
It’s almost like you aren’t supposed to live your entire life on minimum wage!
@@Americanpride555 it looks like people rather not work if there's nothing better. good on them. new labor movement is here.
Most people move to somewhere affordable before sleeping and shitting in the street...
Prevent people with a current addiction to drugs and an extensive criminal history from getting EBT benefits in San Francisco. That's one step
High rent has to factor into this, yes addicts are financially hindered but there are non addicts who are homeless because they are limited resources as a safety net. More and more of the communitys money is being bled off for other uses than looking after the people.
There is also the homeless industrial complex.
State and charities are spending billions on helping homeless/indigent and a lot of that is getting syphoned into the pockets of consultants and non-profit management
Man I remember watching all this unfold in the 2010s
For me, it was the late 80’s. Left LA in 93…… fly over country, in the country with a couple acres small pond and 1800sq ft. Much better
@@heybamanba1 Bitch please how low does it get in Cali at Christmas fucking 80°
@ᴛᴀᴘ ᴍᴇ ᴀɴᴅ sᴇᴇ Mia that's also a huge factor nowhere for mentally ill they sleep on the streets
I got narcaned 6-7 times I did a shot no bigger than anything I had done in the last 10 years an addict and I went out like a light. I started on oxy 30s they were just literally everywhere in east Kentucky. I have been sober 2 years now but it is an odd time to be an addict we are starting to step away from "this is 100% your fault and your bad choices alone lead you here" to now people are starting to see that you have to hold some responsibility to the companies that pushed oxy like crazy and that things like parent addiction and areas that have low opportunity are overwhelmingly the places getting eaten apart by drugs whether that be the ghetto or rural Appalachia that these factors and more play huge parts on whether someone is going to turn out an addict and the more outside pressures escalating the problem the more likely people who would not have ended up on drugs if afford the right opportunities would have most likely went in a different direction instead of actually ending up on drugs.
I’m still in east Kentucky, 9 years clean
He has a lot of truth and some Bull crap mixed in his analysis. Gary Null has been doing documentaries on homeless crisis for years. High cost of living is a huge factor too. Lots of people go to jail for crimes. This guy is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The system is broken all around
Yeah he says high rent isnt a factor. If thats true then why is it only the most expensive cali cities that have this level of homelessness? There are drug addicts everywhere, not just in SF.
It’s foolish to say that high rent isn’t a factor in SF’s homeless problem. The drug epidemic is a nationwide problem, but in most states drug addicts can still find a place to live while still having the drug problem.
Why aren't you using the word California? You are using "SF", you do mean San Francisco right?
So high rent is a problem in SF? Or in California? Should I keep going? Or can you already see where this is going?
PS; the "drug epidemic" is not a "nationwide" problem, it's a big city problem
Maybe reducing the drug prices might fix the problem
@@skyeangelofdeath7363 everything about the point you’re trying to make is wrong lol. Rent in SF is the highest on the west coast, and number 2 in the country as a whole for cities. And the drug epidemic is a very nationwide problem, not limited to cities at all. In 2015 people in rural areas were 4x more likely to die of an overdose than in the year 2000, because it is a problem everywhere, small town america is very affected by opioids.
@@skyeangelofdeath7363 Dude have you not watched the news in the past ten years? There's a drug epidemic across the country
@@skyeangelofdeath7363 you do realize all these homeless move from Red states to California. I talked to many if them snd they all moved from Red states
Ex homeless heroin addict 14 years sober. Homeless when I was basically a young adult around 22-25 years old. He's absolutely correct. Its almost entirely a drug issue and probably 20 percent mentally ill people who should be in institutions. The idea that its all people who are just down on their luck or even a fairly high percentage are is bullshit. In my years homeless I never met one person out there who didnt want to be out there using. Not one! Not one person who was trying or wanted to get off the streets who didnt. I only did beacuse my family came and found me and put me in rehab over and over until it stuck.
Most people who are homeless in San Francisco are not addicts. It's like 30-something% and that includes alcohol. I was homeless in SF, and I had none of those issues. There's a guy who was an addict for 6 months in San Francisco and he's built a little cottage industry talking about his addiction and homelessness. Right wing media loves him, and his perspective is the same as yours ie: "homelessness is all about addiction". That just isn't true.The statistics don't support that. Nothing but people's prejudice and desire to blame shift does.
@Yefri Fernandez My statistics come from San Francisco’s own city data. I have been involved in homelessness and poverty activism in San Fancisco for 3 years since I became housed after having been homeless myself. I know what I’m talking about more than this grifter (whose previous grift was climate denial). Obviously, you have an ax to grind about many issues not real acted to the one we are discussing. Not going to address those.
@@metalchix ahhh there ya go.. "involved in poverty activism' says it all. You know what, I dont believe you for a second that you were homeless. Because I was. My own eyes saw everything on the streets of Portland, Seattle, Vancvouer WA, and Vancouver BC. I lived all up the coast in all those cities homeless. There are TWO types of homeless, those who live on the streets and sleep on the streets and those who are down on their luck and live in the shelters for a period of time before eventually getting back on their feet. There is a poverty issue for sure but the leftist narrative that its all poverty is a LIE. flat out LIE. ANd you are clearly benefiting from that industry because you admitted its what you do. You have a stake in perpetuating that lie that its all poverty. Fuck off dude. Seriously. You are a danger to everyone with BS and corruption like that. Folks dont listen to him. Take it from someone who spent years homeless and has the real experience to back it up!---- BTW I worked with the homeless too for years through mamas hands a charity when i was a teenager before i became homeless. Same thing then in seattle. All drug and alcoholics. Nothing wrong with that but its the reality of it!
also who am i going to trust a dude who works for a cause with an agenda and "works with the homeless" Or my experience meeting hundreds of homeless while I was myself sleeping on the streets!
Thanks so much for sharing. I have a very close friend who is addicted to Opioids and keeps relapsing. Is there any suggestion for what kind of treatment you think works best?
Sometime in the mid-80s i lived in Seattle. It was made known amongst us down and outters thru food banks, missions, etc that anyone with an alcohol addiction could sign-up for almost $500 a month free. I saw the homeless situation slowly grow until it became the monster it is today. Free money with no accountability just increases the problem. People who 20 years ago mightve lived in a shelter and gotten a minimum wage job to slowly pull themselves up now can just sink even deeper in their addiction
I printed a list of available resources for the homeless in my city. I always carry a few with me and i give to anyone who looks like they need help. I look them in the eyes and tell them there's help if they want it. They always show kindness and appreciation. When i give them the respect as a person, they act like a repectful person.
Until you hand it to a hipster and he reports you for hate speech from his iphone 13
That's a great way to go about it. At the end of the day, it's them that have to make a change in their lives. But they have to know what to do and where to ask for help.
I live in the bay area and what this guy just said is 100% spot on.
Also a huge contributing factor is politics and transient nature is what dragged it down to this level.
-Libertarian culture
-Utopian/Progressive world view
-Leftiest Policies
Is a perfect cocktail to destroy any liberal city in America.
I’m so happy Michael Shellenberger is on. I ran across him several years ago talking sense about nuclear energy being the sustainable solution TODAY for cheaper, more abundant, cleaner energy
It always has been.
What about Fukishima . . . ??!!!😫
Nuclear power sounds so obvious when you learn it isn't nearly as risky as the past disasters and way more efficient than any other alternative.
@@XenoTravis all people think about when someone says that is Fukushima, 3 Mile Island, and Chernobyl sadly.
More people have died falling off ladders installing solar panels than from nuclear power 😂
San Francisco is in a really interesting spot where it’s never really above 75 degrees and never really below 50, so it’s a solid place for sleeping outside year round. Last time I was there there was a church advertising giving out 2 meals a day to the homeless as well, so the problem isn’t that it’s necessarily poorly run, it’s that it’s more accepting of the homeless than anywhere else.
Yah, and lot of states shipped the homeless here because of the temperature.
I listened to the whole episode on Spotify and learned a ton. This excerpt doesn't do it justice. Shellenberger has as impressive grasp of a complex problem and doesn't suffer from partisan tribalism.
I honestly feel bad for hard working Californians right now what with the surge in shoplifting, homelessness and now with the ban on gas powered lawn maintenance equipment.
They get what they voted for, unfortunately / fortunately.
This ua-cam.com/video/A1Y5fGcwja0/v-deo.html😱🤯🤯🤯
@The Human Spider who cares about the homeless right?
Banning gas powered lawn maintenance really fucks with small lawn care businesses gotta get all new equipment
The people who tolerated communism are now stuck with commies? Boo f'in hoo.
That’s a big part of my life story also. I raced motorcycles in the early 2000’s. Lots of broken bones and surgeries at a time when docs were prescribing OxyContin like Advil. I got hooked, then when they stopped prescribing painkillers I switched to heroin. I finally got clean in 2012 but I wasted so many years in absolute misery. Life is great now and I have more than I ever thought I would. But I have a lifetime of regrets from that time of my life.
Thanks for your honesty.
Look at it like a life lesson. You learned and overcame. So glad you are doing well.
Myself did drugs as escape, and I’m sure many do the same. To escape the fear of eviction the fear of starvation, the feeling that you’re never going to get ahead. It’s all to overwhelming. How is it that my parents bring four children up in the 60’s were able to do so on one income? We lived in a 3/1 middle class. And in the 70’s mortgage rates were 17-18% a new car 3 year loan 15%. My parents had one credit card “Sears” .
Some major shit went n in Washington between 1970’s & 1980’s that totally fuck up the system and made us the slaves to credit. Where is the balance in income, inflation & cost of living? NO single group is innocent in this. We’re all going to have to own this in order to get out of this. Arguing or warring solves nothing.
i feel this so much!! exactly!! i know if i were on the street i would turn to drugs as well bc there is no hope!!! we r all one emergency away from it
Businesses OFF Shored OUR jobs..its been a race to the bottom ever sense
Rest in peace Bob Lee. You didn't deserve to die like that.
When I travelled to the US for the first time in 2009, I landed in San Francisco, and I was shocked at how bad the homeless situation was in the city there. Here I was dragging around a big suitcase (hey everybody, it’s me the tourist!), and quite a few homeless guys were approaching me for loose change. It was a big culture shock.
During that big vacation, I travelled widely in the US, and SF was clearly the worst I saw for homelessness. Followed by DC, strangely enough. I was expecting the worst to be in NYC, but I was wrong there.
Having said the above, homelessness in my city of Sydney AUS has gotten worse over the last 30 years too.
Cost of living, housing affordability
Sad but true
No it’s not sad but true. Did you REALLY! REALLY! Listen to the clip. It’s not a poverty problem. It’s a problem of the crack epidemic!!!!!!!
You head to liberal cities and you will find it.
Fight for your rights mate . Stay strong down there
At least he’s bringing attention to long overlooked problems homelessness, networks lying, the problems with overgrowth of various industries and the many problems that creates
But these aren't overlooked problems. As Joe pointed out in other interviews, California has spent BILLIONS on the homeless problem. The issue is government corruption - much of the money never makes it to the people who need it. Joe referred to it as "farming the homeless" which I think describes the situation perfectly.
@@JM-io4vb "Throwing money" at things never helps. Look at our school systems.
Also Portland and Seattle. These beautiful cities have become hellholes. Me and my girlfriend literally spent 30 minutes just trying to find a bench to sit on at a park that didn't have homeless drug addicts hanging out on them or ranting to themselves. At times it was really scary too. Seattle is shocking. Completely overrun everywhere by homeless people and tent cities. Lots of heroin needles all over the ground too, including in a children's playground right by our friend's place.
I've lived at Turk and Hyde in the Tenderloin for almost 7 years. My apartment is nice inside and I don't ever worry about playing music at too loud of volume so I have always taken that as a partial trade-off for the 'hood. I can tell you that there is a core group of chronic homeless on my block that have been there for generations (30+ years) who are fine living on the street smoking crack and doing their thing. I don't mind those people, they are my neighbors, I see them everyday and we kinda look out for each other's stuff. The issue is with the drug dealers and the temporary addicts that come and go in waves.
The dealers are predominantly illegal Honduran kids (like 18) who work off their transportation across the border, room and board by dealing on the sidewalk for an average of around 6 months each. They live 30 minutes away in crash houses and are brought into the city following regular shifts, even being fed dinner by designated dudes who are also ferried in and dropped off to make the rounds. It is all very organized. The police do not do anything to break this up. I think that is partially because the SFPD does not have a division devoted to Narcotics - it is rolled-in with traffic crimes. And we have a pitiful District Attorney who is on record wanting to keep people out of jail, specifically the street dealers.
The one thing that has been making a difference the last 6 months have been the street ambassador teams from Urban Alchemy which is an NGO employing recent paroled inmates to just patrol the neighborhood and corners. They've been in "the life" so their attitude makes all the difference as they verbally challenge bad behavior. Not physically, not escalating anything, just merely calling sh*t out and that is all it takes to bust stuff up as for so long the vast majority of the city populace have ignored or turned a blind eye or offered a guilty cash handout to these people allowing the dealing, drugs, and bad behavior to go unchecked.
Props to this guest for calling out the drug/homeless connection and the bullsh*t argument about this being an affordable housing problem. Unfortunately, groups like the Coalition on Homelessness who push the false narrative blaming everything on housing receive the greatest press and largest platforms instead of the people actually living in it, surrounded by it, and having experienced it.
Your post here should be plastered on the front of every so called "newspaper" in this Country. Well put and WELL said. (This is happening in every West Coast City in this Country.)
I wish we had a narc division- I see those fucking kids all the time by mission & 8th and I figured it was organized but didn’t know to what extreme- it’s infuriating/depressing because I get cat called omw 2 Bart from work by those kids- not to mention all the folks strung out, so sad- there’s some sort of county assistance office over there making it even more cruel to pass by… Thanks for the info.😣
Most accurate comment thus far
I live in San Francisco and work in the downtown area. You are absolutely right.
@@abanana007 It's fucking INSANE that SF doesn't have a major narcotics division...
Just finished this entire 3 hour podcast and came back just to say it was an incredible interview in terms of both information learned, new perspective gained, and overall very entertaining. 100% would recommend giving it a full listen.
Very informative. Funny how me mentions Gavin Newsom “isn’t a reader” 😂 such a funny way of expressing his negative view on him
I did some public contract work in Dallas back in 2017, and there was a program in place that offered to bus any homeless person to San Francisco, LA, or Seattle on a free one-way ticket, or wait for us to finish our work.
All anyone had to do in order to qualify was name a relative in any of those places that they could conceivably room with. No proof needed, no plan of reintegration, no services offered, nothing...
And from what I've heard that was the norm in many parts of the country. "Greyhound Therapy" I think was the phrase a lot of people were using for the program.
Bottom line, I don't know why folks are trying to reduce the issue to any one cause in particular. There are many, many reasons for the homeless crises we see in many of these large metropolitan American cities.
There was a fascinating article in the guardian a few years back that showed how the homeless in America are just bussed around the country by law enforcement. 1 way tickets are bought for these people from one city to another. Not really a solution to the problem that actually works.
Look up
“Joe Rogan gets mad at Alex Jones”
It’s too funny!😡 😂
californiania
It’s a good solution and everyone wins.
Dallas gets to keep its city safe and beautiful.
The homeless person gets to go to CA where they will be taken care of with open Arms.
CA residents feel all warm and fuzzy that they are helping a victim.
@@riuqpijfkdls sure now California has to deal with the homeless from other states as well that's very unfair
Imagine thinking the problem with homelessness is that they have tents.
wow.
Most people probably don't know that as of recent Sacramento, relative to its population, actually has far more homeless than SF. "Sacramento, which is separated by about 87 miles from San Francisco across the nearby bay, now has a staggering 952 homeless people per 100,000 citizens, versus 503 per 100,000 in San Francisco" - Daily Mail
I’ve lived in SF for 18 years and 2 of the biggest factors contributing to the rise of homelessness aside from drug use is 1) Mayor Gavin Newsom’s “Care not cash” program was eliminated once he became LT gov and Mayor Ed Lee took over (the program transferred the $700 check homeless people would receive each month to a room in a single resident occupancy (SRO), and 2) after 2008 Google went IPO and hundreds if not a few thousand brand newly minted millionaires moved into the city and offered up to twice market rate or more for the most desirable housing, and Mayor Ed Lee also decided to give massive tax incentives for Silicon Valley based tech companies to move their offices or expand into the then and now still dilapidated Mid-Market region of San Francisco, with the idea that they would clean up the neighborhood and bring more retail and other businesses in. No such thing ever happened, and the city became flooded with tech-bros who ordinarily would have stayed in San Jose or Palo Alto now moving to SF and more than willing to pay $4k/month or more for a 1br apt. Naturally, anyone who used to be able to afford living here would either move away or move onto the streets.
yes the trickle down narrative is a lie and causes alot of what you described but seems to evade the blame
@@geoffvalero3516 always evade the blame and ppl STILL think democrats r for the working class!!! proof is in the pudding, red or blue, these ppl r in it to make the wealthy richer and THATS IT!!!
Can they just not go to the streets…. literally go anywhere else but the streets I hate seeing them
Thank you for this - you saved me time repeating you.
I lived in San Francisco/Bay area from 1985 - 2015. We noticed a change around 1995 - 1996. It started turning more "grunge" around that time with homelessness, people using outside as a bathroom, and Overdosing on the street.
6th Street near Market street, Civic Center Plaza, the Mission District, the Tenderloin or TL and the Haight always had their own vibe and people who hung out there panhandling.
Back then you weren't afraid or uncomfortable going there because no one bothered you other than asking for spare change. They weren't violent and aggressive like now.
You could pay a homeless man a few dollars to watch your car if you were going to a restaurant or event and you parked your car outside of a parking garage and it would be safe when you returned.
Even though the politicans were Democrats, they were more Moderate:
Dianne Feinstein, Art Agnos, Frank Jordan, Willie Brown.
The current politicans, Tech companies, high rents, companies leaving to Conservative States have contributed to the demise of San Francisco.
I still have great memories and will always love San Fran regardless!
All relative.
I remember being in Berkeley off of Telegraph on a Saturday afternoon in the 80's and seeing a street person passed out in Durant Square.
I came back a few hours later to see the EMT's hauling him away DOA.
Other states are literally getting caught sending their homeless to California (SF, LA, and San Diego) with one-way train tickets...
@@tonyjmurillo96 They also choose to go there. Mild weather, easier access to drugs, the culture of homelessness (Skidrow comes to mind), they throw out drug charges, much easier to not have to post bond/bail, etc.
@@tonyjmurillo96 lol yea? cite sources
I've also heard that SF heavily favors renters versus those that own the rentals. Creates a high risk situation for landlords so they hike up the rent to cover any potential losses, or dont bother to rent at all and leave places vacant. Have you heard about this?
They know how to fix the problem and are trying. The biggest issue is funding which was cut from the federal budget in the 80's. This is a problem in every city in the US, not just San Francisco.
As long as SF gets money for having a large homeless population, there will always be a massive homeless problem
I was a Libertarian and then realized that society had to control drugs, drunkenness, homelessness and unlimited individualism.
Anarchism from the right or left leads to society sinking to the lowest common denominator.
It should be controlled not as a criminal problem but as a health issue.
I’m not completely Libertarian, but I’m more libertarian (lower case l).
The homeless problem in Stockton and Sacramento are also extremely bad. It's scary, I worry for my families safety. It feels like we need some kind of federal help or something here in California. It's horrible.
I hear ya. The central valley is becoming a shit hole
San Frans problem is its freakin expensive as hell to live there..
The origin of the overwhelming majority of homelessness in this Country is Reaganomics.
Counting down the days till JRE is off Spotify and starts his own platform... but I'm one of millions that would like him back on UA-cam atleast!
Look up
“Joe Rogan gets mad at Alex Jones”
It’s too funny!😡 😂
@@wcw7813 said all the NPCs
By giving someone the identity of victim you give them permission to forgo accountability for past, present and future actions.
Best comment by far.
if the conversation stops there, sure, but recognizing the root of a problem is the first step in solving it
what about the identity we give the elite? successful businessman, geniuses, philanthropists, heroes...when they are really all psychopaths. yeah i think that might be worth talking about a little more than not being hard enough on the person born into conditions most of us can't fathom
@@solo2873 yeah. all i'm saying is there are victims and to dismiss that is to dismiss the problem
They are in fact victims though. They are victims of a society that allowed this. They did not dream of being homeless.
My cousin's best friend got addicted to opioid pain pills. Couldn't get them, and switched to heroin. OD death. Really sad ..
There is definitely a high rent aspect to homelessness. I have two separate friends living in vans because of high rents. I know that one mechanical problem with their vehicle and they will be on the street. The rent is too damn high!!!!!
its ABSOLUTELY a problem and im grossed out by this guy saying its drugs. sure thats an aspect, which is in fact the governments problem, bc they let pharm companies get away w literal murder. its disgusting. thixs society is so gross , blaming the victims, letting the elite get away w EVERYTHING
I was a bike commuter coming from a club I closed in Jack London Sq, Oakland. Rode my bike north straight thru the city hall area, aka Occupy.
For the last decade I’ve watched homelessness go from blankets on the ground to tents to, now, whole goddamn mini houses!
like brazillian favelas? unreal..
Apparently, there have always been homeless encampments/shantytowns in Oakland though, stemming back to the great depression.
@@diffusesingularity2760 Wrong. You aren't even from out here. Stop making false statements on some "I guess" type shit.
Years ago there was that homeless guy on the various corners everyone knew of. Now it's that block of homeless people in every neighborhood
Look up
“Joe Rogan gets mad at Alex Jones”
It’s too funny!😡 😂
This makes no sense because companies are struggling to find staff.
@@farzana6676 I mean if jobs that pay well lower their qualifications then maybe I’ll apply but until then I’ll work in a dead end job that’s okay with my mediocrity
@@xxo-deathshot-oxx2047 Yeah but either way, even working a dead end job and renting a room. Sharing a house with other like minded workers means there shouldn't be a homeless epidemic.
How can there be so many homeless people when companies are saying they're struggling to find employees.
@Dungeon Master Lol, you're a fool. And it's clear by your absurd economics, you've never owned nor even rented a home in your entire life.
Regarding the rest of your comment about being harder to get a job due to being homeless, I can't comment on it. It might or might not be true.
They believe housing is a human right but don’t want those people to come into their neighborhoods. It’s very hypocritical.
At 3:00 you state the 2011 Occupy protests brought a lot of tents Into the San Francico downtown area. In Seattle, WA, it was the 2001 Susan G Coleman three day, 60 mile, cancer fund raiser walk. During the event, walkers were used pink tents. After the event, people donated these tents to homeless people. These were the first homeless people I saw in the Seattle area sleeping in tent. During the financial crisis 2007-2008, people became more tolerant of people sleeping in dilapidated RVs and cars. Walmart parking lots and parking lots of bankrupts stores soon became camp grounds.
I was sitting in a circle in Golden gate park and then Mayor Newsom and his posse came strolling through, assessing the "drug problem" By the next week hundreds of homeless had been arrested for cannabis possession or fled, I too fled. Now him and his buddies are rich from legalization and all those poor people still have records.
Love how the federal govt involvement in the opioid crisis always neglected.
The federal govt started demanding that pain be the 5th Vital Sign. Inpatients were not allowed to have a VAS pain score of more than 4 without adequate narcotics. Physicians had been taught for decades to restrict narcotic prescription due to fear of addiction.
During these mandates all those studies were said to be invalid and addiction potential in the postoperative period was impossible.
Pharma took advantage of these mandates and (especially percocet and oxycontin) became standard postoperative management due to marketing efforts (which wouldn't have worked if mandates were not in place).
Very insightful. This is why many people are Mrs. Doubt Pfizer, and are demanding to protect their rights against the "Mandate" -the govt is here to help you and saving lives BS propaganda.
The idea you're a bad doctor if you're patient is in pain came vein the govt. They used the nurses as enforcers. You would get phone calls that you're patient had a pain score of 5 and they wanted to give then morphine for the pain. If you said no, you'd be written up and you'd have to explain yourself. JCAHO would do audits on pain scores and physician response and hospitals would get fined. So protocols were implemented on what to give for each pain score.
Big pharma couldn't infiltrate the hospital nurses and administrators.
That's not to say they didn't hit the marketing hard. But the govt wants you to blame big pharma and not realize that they set up the environment.
So postoperative pain patients started getting addicted (~10%) and then they would start visiting pill mills.
Then the govt started cracking down on pill mills and the addicts turned to fentanyl.
Then China started getting involved and sending Mexico the ingredients to create their own batches. Then the deaths started spiking.
So the govt jumps in to save us from the epidemic that they started.
Now doctors have to check Eforse everything they prescribe a narcotic and assess abuse potential. If they don't they will be fined per occurrence.
So what do doctors do? They don't prescribed any more narcotics because they don't want to be fired.
So the real chronic pain patients (injuries, autoimmune disorders, rheumatolgoical conditions, fibromylagia, etc) don't have providers writing them prescriptions.
So they have to go to pain centers and sit for hours to get a 30day supply of narcotics and repeat this again in 30 days. Then theybshow up one day to find out an auditor reviewed their file and have mandated that they receive half the dose for the to 3 months.
So the real pain patients go to the streets to manage their pain.
Had the govt not stepped in, and let the professionals do what they had been doing for 100 years, there would be no opiod crises.
Big pharma is the scape goat the govt uses to redirect your attrntion away from them.
I can go into medical error mandates as well and show how govt mandates via EMTALA and price control lead to medical errors and rising costs of Healthcare. And how in 15 years with CME, time outs, root cause analysis, and $20 billion dollars spent there has been no drop in medical errors. But thats another video .
And now its impossible to get opiates. I'm a disabled vet and live in constant agony because it is impossible for me to get opiates legally. No doctor will prescribe them to me. The crackdown on opiates hurts people as well.
@@bucknasty69 this right here is one of the seriously overlooked side effects of the opioid crackdown. I've been trying to manage a fairly severe case of Crohn's disease for almost 15 years, and after trying everything except surgery I've found nothing even close to being as life changing and effective for managing pain & symptoms than certain opiates which are almost impossible to get now. Regardless of what people like Joe Rogan might say, there are some individuals out there who can't live a normal life without these drugs. Unfortunately the panic caused by deaths from overdoses, street drugs laced with fentanyl etc is affecting a group of people who need these medications
@@cloudbloom You are right about drugs like Noco being nearly impossible to get prescribed. I was hobbling with a cane and bent over in severe pain when I saw my doc. Nothing prescribed. When I was unable to sleep for 3 days because of the pain I would up in the ER. They gave me a couple of shots of morphine and prescribed the Noco. I was able to tolerate physical therapy and after 5 months, I'm doing well. The point is, when your pain level is an 8 some intervention is necessary in order to heal and sleep. Telling doctors they shouldn't use them and monitoring the doIcs closely is an error in the opposite direction and may impede healing.
P.S. I didn't get addicted.
I lived in SF for over 15 years. I moved in in may of 2006. And the homeless problem didn’t appear until 2011. It exploded in 2015
The SF homeless budget is around $500 MILLION annually! Yet the "crisis" is getting worse! If the media would aggressively question the city leaders regularly and track where all that money is actually going I think it would be a step in getting something done.
Great job explaining the problems in SF!! I’m a native SAN Franciscan. That is exactly how drugs and homelessness took over SF!!
This is an excellent podcast episode, highly recommend watching the full episode!
As a person who lives in San Francisco and has been homeless here I can tell you that this guy is a shyster, and this episode is crap. Almost nothing in this clip is true. Tent encampments weren't started by Occupy, for example.
Why? Dissing on drug users when he drinks wine every night?
@@ranelrimas6523 yes fentanyl and meth that Floyd sold are no different than wine. 🙄 also riots are peaceful and people in trailerparks are privileged oppressors.
@@a.d.4536 Don't misinterpret me. Calling people "just drug addicts" is a different thing. Selling drugs is also not a bad thing, hence the alcohol you bought this past year. Again, hypocrisy.
Michael Shellenberger is a saint. Please America acknowledge this. Do not be ashamed to think this.
Yes! And the opiates did help the patient feel good. I know I used oxy as a depressant more than for pain. Then they stopped prescriptions and then you have no other choice but to buy a bundle and it’s even cheaper. Glad I got out of that and got sober a few yrs ago
My observation as a regular visitor of the US over about the last 15 years is that 15 years ago homelessness was the reserve of the addicted and sick who lived in tents tucked away out of sight, under bridges, in tunnels, in bushes, etc.
This year I visit to see that it's no longer just pockets of tents, but whole homeless communities, no longer just with addicts and the sick but whole families too. People now living in motorhomes, cars and make shift huts. It's become not just a problem of health and addiction but an issue of a seriously broken system that lets whole families slip through the cracks.
It's no longer something people can look at and say "take drugs and that's the result" but it's grown to something much bigger. It's now become an issue of not paying the bills on time falling pray to the cut throat nature of the US system and businesses.
It's very very sad to see.
I wouldn't necessarily call someone living in an RV homeless. I've lived on a boat for over a year, three different times. The boat was my home. I'll probably do it with an RV when I am too told to handle the boat.
@@ralphholiman7401 that's fair point. It's more the location, environment and surrounding community that set them apart from people who do it by choice/pleasure and those who are doing it for necessity. :/
@@thomasraven2024 , it's necessary for some people to live in smaller homes than others. That doesn't make them homeless. Just look at the tiny home movement, for one.
@@ralphholiman7401 Other than picking nits through the use of anecdotal ,exception-based semantics, what is your intent with these posts? Are you refuting the broader assertions made by the OP? Reading the conversation, it appears to me that you are simply playing the role of contrarian for the sake of being provocative. In any logical analysis, a clear distinction exists between someone who makes a conscious choice to adopt a motorhome or boat as their permanent place of residence and people who are living in something other than a a fixed, terrestrial structure out of necessity. The same is true for tiny homes. You don't strike me as someone so naive as to not understand the not so subtle differences between these situations. Therefore, it begs the question, what is your point?
The US hasn't experienced real wage growth since the 70s. Something has got to give.
This interview could have been 6 hours long and I would’ve easily watched it all in one sitting.
The fact that the cost of living is so high is an issue that contributed to the homeless problem. Why does a studio apartment have to be 2000 grand a month is crazy.
This gentleman is exactly right about opioids epidemic beginning in the 1990s because before that you had to be dying of cancer or or be having surgery to get anything for pain doctors would not prescribe opioids for as needed chronic pain like they do today
I think a lot of this stems from the breakdown of the family system. In a past era most of these dysfunctional people would be living with relatives. Now that everyone is more independent, they have no interest in housing such people in their own home. It's easier to let them wander the streets.
Which also ties into the world's housing shortage.
@@marcdemontbron9657 Idk if there's a shortage, just maybe in the urban areas where rent is so high. There are literally hundreds of ghost town subdivisions that were created during the housing collapse of 07. There used to be anyway, IDK if most of those were demolished or fixed up and sold since then
The family unit has nothing to do with it. It can actually be linked to the defunding of the state sponsored mental institutions in the 80's. Before that point families would dump their mentally deficient members into an institution.
Have dyslexia or down syndrome? Get dumped in an institution.
Color blind or epileptic? Institution.
Once those places were closed we saw a huge boom in the homeless population around the country. Also the average family in America has not been educated on how to handle or work with mentally deficient family members, so unfortunately it is quite common in our country for families to cut lose a person instead of learning how to help them.
Also very true.
@@matthewgabbard6415 There is a housing shortage EVERYWHERE. Many ghost subdivisions were unlivable & needed to destroyed (most of those were built out of mortgage fraud). But there just isn’t enough housing for the amount of people that need it throughout the US.
“It’s hard to pinpoint a single thing.” Meaning impossible. Drugs are a symptom. It’s mental health at root. Then add the well-intentioned but horrible political, legal, celebrity, and community interventions along with no accountability and you get the problem we see now.
Plenty of otherwise mentally healthy people get into drugs and it ruins them, its not as if mental illness is always the pipeline to drug use, if anything it can just as easily be the other way around.
Mental issues can cause drug use, drug use can cause mental illness, and poverty could either cause or result from either.
The major cause of drug addiction, especially with the mentally ill, is people trying to self medicate their problems away. When those problems are mental illness, it's a real recipe for disaster.
@@kobeh6185 I think people underestimate the prevalence of mental health issues. Drug abuse is very much connected to mental health in that it used to self medicate. Anise/misuse of drugs, food, sex, gambling, and other things are very often all symptoms of untreated mental health problems.
@@davidluchsinger7377 that is true, all im saying is that often drugs are a major factor is making those mental issues more debilitating than they would have already been, or can create mental disorders themselves.
@@kobeh6185 Gotcha. Yeah agreed.
The origin of homelessness is either schizophrenia, being an orphan, or being exposed to drugs during prenatal period.
If you peer hard enough through the fog of emotion you discover enablement often disguises itself as love
I’ve only seen that be a thing in toxic relationship where one person get some benefit out of being the “helper”. I don’t think it applies on a societal scale.
I think if you look at Europe where we have a much better safety net and regulations, and where we don’t have an extreme homelessness problem like in the us it becomes clear that the issue isn’t “too much compassion for the poor” the problem is that you don’t spend 3”effort money on helping the poor and mentally ill.
No somewhat developed country has these problems as far as I’m aware.
Like most problems in the US, This is a problem of extreme cut throat neo liberal capitalism