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Speaker 1: Hello, this is it could happen here and today it's

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Speaker 1: me James, and I'm joined by four of my friends

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Speaker 1: here in San Diego, and we are talking about San

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Speaker 1: Diegos lying there and how he likes to punch down

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Speaker 1: on poor people even though he promised he wouldn't. So

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Speaker 1: joining me today, I'm gonna ask you guys to want

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Speaker 1: introduce yourselves. It can spend a little bit about what

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Speaker 1: relevant background you have in the area, and then we'll

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Speaker 1: get into it because there's a lot to talk about.

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Speaker 1: So Mandy, would you like to go first. I'm Mandy.

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Speaker 1: I am I'm a homeless advocate and mostly do on

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Speaker 1: the groundwork mutually aid UM, and then I advocate for

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Speaker 1: them as much as I can almost city municipalities, UM,

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Speaker 1: and just organize that way great, And Colleen, you can

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Speaker 1: go next to us. Okay, Yeah, my name is Colin Cusack.

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Speaker 1: I'm a criminal defense attorney and I uh represent uh

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Speaker 1: proximately fifty homeless person's pro bono right now who are

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Speaker 1: sighted with the crimes of survival such as encroachment and

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Speaker 1: overnight camping, so I can challenge and have them to

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Speaker 1: quote unconstitutional Michael McConnell, I'm an advocate for people who

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Speaker 1: are living unsheltered or homeless, and I've been working on

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Speaker 1: this for about thirteen years. First part working within this

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Speaker 1: system as a philanthropist, advocate, volunteer, former vice chair of

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Speaker 1: the Regional Task Force on the Homeless. I'm a founding

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Speaker 1: was a founding member of a local philanthropy group called

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Speaker 1: Funders Togethered and Homelessness San Diego. I have participated on

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Speaker 1: quite a few initiatives such as a blitzweek where we

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Speaker 1: housed about a hundred people in three days, Cities Initiative

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Speaker 1: where we worked on any veteran and chronic homelessness created

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Speaker 1: the regions first by nameless for veterans. Worked on a

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Speaker 1: lot of unmandated CEOC Continuum of care initiatives such as

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Speaker 1: how we score projects to get homelessness funding. UH long

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Speaker 1: communicated with are endless elected official Todd Gloria, who's now mayor,

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Speaker 1: who's made so many promises over the years and so

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Speaker 1: many claims on homelessness. People just doubt almost everything he

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Speaker 1: says about homelessness at this point, rightfully so. And UH

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Speaker 1: probably most most known for my on the ground advocacy

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Speaker 1: now where I do a lot of in Camas support

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Speaker 1: work with of course unsheltered people, film the police around

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Speaker 1: in camera sweeps and enforcement of of laws that target

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Speaker 1: homeless people and continue that till this day. Nice Yeah,

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Speaker 1: containing a lot of work on the street. It's great

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Speaker 1: to see and the Levi's at least indeed, Hi you guys,

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Speaker 1: I'm LEVI gapone with homeful Solutions, UM. I have lived

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Speaker 1: experience and being homeless. UM. I also work with a

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Speaker 1: group of kids called Lived Experience Advisors here in San Diego. UM.

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Speaker 1: We try to hold them accountable and keep them honest.

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Speaker 1: UM and uh we're also able to advocate for uh

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Speaker 1: a lot of what these people need in the recovery process,

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Speaker 1: just beyond like, UM, housing, which is the main thing.

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Speaker 1: We know that the homeless problem is a real estate crisis. UM.

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Speaker 1: And then I also work as a housing navigator downtown. UM.

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Speaker 1: So I work with a case load of about two clients, UM,

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Speaker 1: about sixty or seventy of them. I would say, have

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Speaker 1: UM S, M I S and I'm down UM really

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Speaker 1: in like uh kind of one of the main areas

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Speaker 1: of town that UM, you know, we have a lot

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Speaker 1: of these people living outdoors, so uh, UM I'm at

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Speaker 1: kind of the front lines of it every day when

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Speaker 1: it comes to people needed to get a shelter bed,

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Speaker 1: I'm the one that they cry to, um, you know

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Speaker 1: when when they think that it's a you know, when

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Speaker 1: they don't understand that it's the system that's broken. You know,

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Speaker 1: I'm the one that they get yelled at. But that

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Speaker 1: gets yelled at, but you know, they think I'm I'm

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Speaker 1: not doing enough, you know. And um so it's really

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Speaker 1: interesting to be able to see all sides of it

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Speaker 1: and see the promises that get made. And I literally

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Speaker 1: have clients come in and say, oh, hey, look everything's

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Speaker 1: gonna be fine because the mayor just said this week

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Speaker 1: he's opening a new shelter. And I'm like, all right,

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Speaker 1: let's do the math. That's a forty bed shelter, right

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Speaker 1: and there's eight thousand homes people in the county, so

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Speaker 1: you know, and so um yeah, I have to kind

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Speaker 1: of break down that. It's a good responsibility, I guess,

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Speaker 1: to to break down the system to my clients so

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Speaker 1: that they can understand how broken it is, as well

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Speaker 1: as uh, you know, me being able to teach some

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Speaker 1: patients to get them through the process too. So um yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's me yeah, that's good, thank you, And so yeah,

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Speaker 1: I want to get into how broken the system is

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Speaker 1: because it consistently I think, like every time, like I

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Speaker 1: like to ride my bike around a lot, I'm always

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Speaker 1: riding around town. Often are running to people who are

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Speaker 1: in distress, right, especially when we ride past the hospital,

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Speaker 1: which is something we can get into, and they'll be like, oh,

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Speaker 1: just just call up what you sort them out with

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Speaker 1: a shelter bed and like, and then they'll have this

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Speaker 1: horrible moment of realization where they're like, oh shit, like

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Speaker 1: there's nowhere for this person to go. So let's talk

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Speaker 1: a little bit about Todd Gloria. Right, Todd Gloria's are there.

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Speaker 1: He's a democrat. He ran on a very progressive platform generally,

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Speaker 1: and what he's done has been extremely reactionary. And I

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Speaker 1: wanted to start just by reading some Todd tweets. Todds

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Speaker 1: of poster um. Perhaps not not as much of a

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Speaker 1: poster as Rachel Richel laying his I guess communications manager.

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Speaker 1: I think she has the soul of a poster and

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Speaker 1: will attack people working like Michael to help people, which

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Speaker 1: is distressing to see. But I wanted to Uh, I

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Speaker 1: wanted to talk a little bit about Todd, So I've

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Speaker 1: got a few quotes here June. Yes, I will be

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Speaker 1: the first to enforce the law against those sheltered around

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Speaker 1: sheltered who break any law. But I will not use

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Speaker 1: our code to harass and criminalize sick and poor people.

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Speaker 1: That's the number one Augusten. What if we chose to

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Speaker 1: take the resources we used to criminalize the homeless and

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Speaker 1: redirect them to building housing instead? What if Todd um

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Speaker 1: January in his tag Michael in this one. Maybe right,

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Speaker 1: but the sad fact is that this doesn't just happen

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Speaker 1: before the p I t C. That's the point in

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Speaker 1: time count of unhoused people. It happens all the time.

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Speaker 1: It's unfair to the unsheltered and too STPD. My goal

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Speaker 1: is to end chronic homelessness. The only way to do

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Speaker 1: this is with permanent supportive housing, not criminalization. Uh. You're right,

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Speaker 1: but that's not what you do it. Uh, Californians of

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Speaker 1: all political views, No, a homelessness crisis is a serious problem.

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Speaker 1: More housing and services, not criminalization. It's past time to

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Speaker 1: tackle this problem. I could keep going with these things,

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Speaker 1: but I won't go. I think folks get the pictures

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Speaker 1: so Tod talked a lot about how we don't need

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Speaker 1: to criminalize poverty, how we don't need to criminalize living

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Speaker 1: on the street. UH, and then has proceeded to criminalize

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Speaker 1: living on the street, right, and so maybe we can

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Speaker 1: just start with these sweeps sort of happened pretty much consistently,

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Speaker 1: I think since took office and UH people might be

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Speaker 1: familiar with a little bit, Like they may have seen

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Speaker 1: some of the bikes being thrown away that that was

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Speaker 1: like Michael had a video of that which which had

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Speaker 1: how many views? Now, oh gosh, I don't know a

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Speaker 1: million or more. Yeah, it's a lot of people have

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Speaker 1: seen that. But perhaps one if you would like to

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Speaker 1: describe like exactly like how a sweep goes down right,

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Speaker 1: Like like there's there's a process of posting sometimes the

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Speaker 1: process of personal notices, but you don't have two personal

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Speaker 1: notices because people are encroaching. Like what's this sort of

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Speaker 1: justification for it? And then what does that look like

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Speaker 1: for people on the ground. February fourteenth of this year

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Speaker 1: is when Todd Gloria's started his UH sweep enforcement. Um

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Speaker 1: it was unspoken, but during COVID UH they were just

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Speaker 1: killing people with COVID and instead of my police, although

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Speaker 1: the police were doing your own thing. UM. So this

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Speaker 1: is what the police do at the sweeps as they

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Speaker 1: use a series of unconstitutional ordinances, city ordinances only existing

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Speaker 1: in the city of San Diego. UM. And these unconstitutional

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Speaker 1: ordinances taken together make it illegal for UM anybody to

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Speaker 1: exist in public space. So me, our mothers, our children,

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Speaker 1: anybody in public space can be ticketed for these violations

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Speaker 1: because they're so overbroad. For example, UM, standing on a sidewalk,

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Speaker 1: just being there on a sidewalk, UM will be enough

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Speaker 1: to get you a citation issued if you can't prove

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Speaker 1: you have a house to live in. UM. These laws,

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Speaker 1: like I said, they're written over broad. They apply to everyone,

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Speaker 1: but the police use their discretion to only use them

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Speaker 1: against poor persons. The Vehicle Habitation Ordinance UM lists a

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Speaker 1: series of items that if they're found in your car,

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Speaker 1: police could use those to arrest you. And those items

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Speaker 1: include things like food, water, trash. So everybody with food, water,

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Speaker 1: or trash. It doesn't have to be all three, just

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Speaker 1: one of them. UM could be the objected to being arrested,

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Speaker 1: have their conford, have their taken to shelter, having their

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Speaker 1: children taken to CPS and all because um, the city

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Speaker 1: wants to come after poor people with with ordinances. UM,

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Speaker 1: so here's the fund. The dis ordinances can be charged

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Speaker 1: either as misdemeanors or infractions. Mayor Glory announced a progressive

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Speaker 1: ordinance scheme, which means on day one, say Monday of

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Speaker 1: the week, the individual is issued a warning. On day two,

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Speaker 1: the individual is issued a infraction citation. That infraction citation

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Speaker 1: gives them a day to appear months down the road

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Speaker 1: UM to contest the case. But the very next day

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Speaker 1: they can be issued a misdemeanor citation. That misdemeanors titation

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Speaker 1: also has a date months down the road the resolution

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Speaker 1: and then UM gave four they can be arrested and

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Speaker 1: taken into custody UM, all without ever having a day

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Speaker 1: in court. UM. The citations, if there are issued to

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Speaker 1: people in Midway or downtown San Diego, direct them to

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Speaker 1: appear in Claremont Mesa. It's about twelve miles away. These

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Speaker 1: are individuals that have mobility issues. They can't get to

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Speaker 1: and from court. They can't They can't really get to

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Speaker 1: and from the end of the street very well without

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Speaker 1: police starting to take away their property. Court won't allow

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Speaker 1: them to bring their property in with them. The buses

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Speaker 1: won't allow them to bring their property on the buses.

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Speaker 1: So they have to make a choice. Do they risk

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Speaker 1: losing all the remaining property that they have in the

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Speaker 1: world to go to court to defend against the charge

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Speaker 1: that they're really don't have the h The police can

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Speaker 1: cite either as a misdemeanor infraction. But when they site

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Speaker 1: as an infraction, that individual doesn't get UM an appointed

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Speaker 1: attorney and UM nor jury trial and so UM the punishment,

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Speaker 1: the issuance of the citation becomes the punishment process. We're

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Speaker 1: just just trying to get to court and take care

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Speaker 1: responsibilities becomes a chore, even if later it's dismissed. We

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Speaker 1: found out two public records requests that of the misdemeanors

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Speaker 1: that are being cited, are them are being dismissed. So

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Speaker 1: people aren't getting their attempt, their their opportunity to defend

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Speaker 1: themselves in court. They're all being dismissed UM and so

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Speaker 1: if the city was was serious about believing that these

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Speaker 1: individuals were committing criminal offenses, then they wouldn't be dismissing

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Speaker 1: them after of them after they were were issued so

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Speaker 1: colleens talking about the the the laws or the codes

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Speaker 1: that are used to used during enforcement sweeps of people

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Speaker 1: out here on the streets. So the police go out

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Speaker 1: and use these codes and municipal codes two write people

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Speaker 1: tickets and eventually take them to jail. That's just one

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Speaker 1: kind of sweet that's the enforced and sweeps. There's also

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Speaker 1: clean up sweeps or abatement sweeps. We call them homeless

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Speaker 1: and canment sweeps or homeless community sweeps where per settlement

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Speaker 1: with past lawsuits, the city has to post three hour

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Speaker 1: seventy two notices in areas. Then they come out with

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Speaker 1: the police and environmental services and clean up cruise and

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Speaker 1: they'll throw away all your belongings if you're not there.

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Speaker 1: So that's another kind of sweep. So there's actually two

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Speaker 1: kinds of sweeps. There's these clean up sweeps where they

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Speaker 1: throw away your belongings, and then there's the enforcement sweeps

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Speaker 1: where they just go out with sometimes, oh gosh, Colleen,

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Speaker 1: we've probably seen as many as fifteen maybe fifteen plus

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Speaker 1: police go out to ticket people in a particular homeless

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Speaker 1: community so and just put them through the ringer with

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Speaker 1: all these citations that Colleen went through yeah, and then

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Speaker 1: press LEVI are you familiar with the system? Right? I

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Speaker 1: think maybe the the idea here is that the police

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Speaker 1: are supposed to offer them shelter, right, if they asked shelter,

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Speaker 1: they're supposed to offer it to them. Can you just

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Speaker 1: explain about how that shelter could be extremely difficult or

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Speaker 1: impossible for people to access? Yeah? Absolutely, and then I'll

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Speaker 1: tell you kind of some of the consequences that UM

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Speaker 1: people face even or as a result of this. But

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Speaker 1: um so, basically, like let me paint the picture for you.

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Speaker 1: So UM our location as a drop in center, we

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Speaker 1: don't have any housing here on site. UM and uh

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Speaker 1: so the clients will typically there's a line out the

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Speaker 1: gate when we get here at eight o'clock in the morning.

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Speaker 1: At eight o'clock in the morning until nine o'clock, all

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Speaker 1: I do is shelter referrals. So that's everybody that's coming

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Speaker 1: in the door that wants to get a shelter bed

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Speaker 1: for that night that night. Right. We're doing this at

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Speaker 1: eight o'clock in the morning, and oftentimes I will get

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Speaker 1: one or two. Some days I don't get anyone into shelter,

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Speaker 1: um because by nine o'clock all of those beds are full.

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Speaker 1: And that's what they report back to me as the

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Speaker 1: service provider, right is is at nine o'clock in the morning,

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Speaker 1: there's no more shelter beds. Um. And uh. On top

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Speaker 1: of that, to the other thing to to mention too

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Speaker 1: is like, you know, the police are supposed to offer

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Speaker 1: them shelter, but um, we have like some kind of

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Speaker 1: like conglomerates as far as organizations go in the shelter space. UM.

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Speaker 1: So if a client is for some reason not allowed

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Speaker 1: to go back to that shelter, um, that's one pretty

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Speaker 1: much forever. Um and be it could be something like

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Speaker 1: behavior like they got anxiety and yelled at somebody right,

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Speaker 1: or it could be uh, someone who can't complete their

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Speaker 1: A d l S as they call it, um, or

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Speaker 1: like an incontinence issue. Um. So there's times where a

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Speaker 1: doctor will say, yes, it is sanitary and medically necessary

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Speaker 1: for you to use this little bottle or whatever, But

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Speaker 1: then the shelter will then kick them out and not

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Speaker 1: let them return for that kind of thing. So by

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Speaker 1: nine o'clock, the shelter beds are full. Um. In the beginning,

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Speaker 1: when the Padres first started playing, they were doing their

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Speaker 1: sweeps real early Um, now they're doing their sweeps, um,

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Speaker 1: after the time that I'm being told as a service

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Speaker 1: provider that the shelters are already full and um and

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Speaker 1: on top of that our shelter system, you're you can't

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Speaker 1: stay there during the day, right, So some of these

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Speaker 1: people that they're taking their stuff and throwing it away

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Speaker 1: are actually in shelter. You know, they just had to

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Speaker 1: take their belongings with them back to the streets where

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Speaker 1: everyone can see them every day, and and you know

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Speaker 1: all that. But recently I had a client who we

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Speaker 1: had spent like a month and a half trying to

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Speaker 1: get him in the shelter every single day and it

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Speaker 1: wasn't going through. Finally we got him in the shelter,

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Speaker 1: and um, a ticket for encroachment had come up that

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Speaker 1: you know, was not paid and he didn't go to court.

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Speaker 1: So even though he was and shelter in the middle

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Speaker 1: of the day, the police officers stopped him, they arrested

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Speaker 1: him for his warrant. He was in there all weekend

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Speaker 1: and he lost to shelter them. Yeah, so that's and

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Speaker 1: perhaps you and Mandy could explain then, like some of

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Speaker 1: the things, because yeah, under the guise of I guess

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Speaker 1: a clean up or abatement or whatever you want to

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Speaker 1: call it. Like often they're actively stripping people of the

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Speaker 1: things that they need to access shelter, to access housing,

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Speaker 1: to transport themselves around, right, and just what if you

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Speaker 1: want to take on like what this means, M, Well,

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Speaker 1: they'll you know, they do it under the guys, we're

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Speaker 1: gonna you know, we're cleaning up the area. UM. But

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Speaker 1: they will drag entire tents full of people's belongings and

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Speaker 1: put them in the compactor. They won't go through them.

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Speaker 1: They never look. Oftentimes there's medication in their ideas, paperwork,

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Speaker 1: things that you know, people have to have to survive. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know, people can't get housing if don't have identify vacation.

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Speaker 1: It's really difficult for them to get identification UM living

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Speaker 1: on the streets. You know, it's it's a process, and

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Speaker 1: that process UM sets outreach workers back. So you know

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Speaker 1: you've got an outreach worker who may have gotten a voucher,

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Speaker 1: got them an i D, and you know they've taken

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Speaker 1: their UM. It's called the espadat when they're entered into

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Speaker 1: the housing system and they're waiting a housing match, and

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Speaker 1: then their I D and everything gets thrown away, So

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Speaker 1: then the outreach worker has to take time to go

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Speaker 1: back and help them get another I D when they

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Speaker 1: could be helping you know, someone else get set up

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Speaker 1: to maybe get into housing. UM. You know, they don't,

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Speaker 1: they don't look through the things. This causes um so

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Speaker 1: much trauma for these folks. I've seen UM so a

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Speaker 1: lot of times with sweeps. UM Sometimes I say, they'll

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Speaker 1: allow people to gather their things and move them and

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Speaker 1: then they'll sweep the area. I've seen times when they

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Speaker 1: have had people gather their things, they moved their things,

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Speaker 1: and then the police surround their things while people are

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Speaker 1: standing there and they placed their things in front of

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Speaker 1: them while they are begging for their things, and they

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Speaker 1: will not let them have them, and they will put

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Speaker 1: them in the trash compactor in front of them. And

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Speaker 1: it's I mean, the only way that you can view

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Speaker 1: that is it's just punishment, Like you're not you know,

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Speaker 1: you're out here, you're poor, we don't have many options

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Speaker 1: for you, but we're going to do this to deter

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Speaker 1: you because we just don't want to see you here. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: Like I remember I was talking to someone downtown a

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Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago and stop to give some folks

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Speaker 1: some water, and like, uh, this person was saying, like,

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Speaker 1: this is the ship I chose to bring with me,

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Speaker 1: Like I didn't, you know, It's not like I could

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Speaker 1: take everything, and these are the things that I wanted

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Speaker 1: to keep because they were special to me. And yet

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Speaker 1: now now they're being trashed. Indeed, I think a person

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Speaker 1: was thrown in one of those bin lorries, right, yeah,

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Speaker 1: like inside their tent and just fucking unbelievable. And so, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we've established these sweeps are cruel. We've established that there's

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Speaker 1: not really anywhere for people to go, right, and that

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Speaker 1: they don't they don't provide a lasting solution to homelessness.

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Speaker 1: They just they just move people around and make it

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Speaker 1: harder for them. And so one of the things that

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Speaker 1: we do in San Diego is that we have this

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Speaker 1: thing called a point in time count, right, and I

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Speaker 1: think there have been some fairly credible suggestions that the

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Speaker 1: sweeps were increased in certain areas around the point in

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Speaker 1: time count. So is what if you want to explain

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Speaker 1: what that count like is and does? Yeah, so the

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Speaker 1: point in time count really only captures like one night

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Speaker 1: out of the year, people experiencing homelessness. UM, there was

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Speaker 1: a couple of hostitles even in UM that process this

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Speaker 1: year it was particularly really cold that night. UM there

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Speaker 1: were some tech glitches that should have been worked doubt

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Speaker 1: way more in advance. UM. But UM that really only

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Speaker 1: pictures like takes capture of one night. UM. The data

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Speaker 1: I like to often refer to because it just feels

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Speaker 1: more realistic to me is um our TFH. UM states

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Speaker 1: that in any given year, there's thirty thousand people seeking

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Speaker 1: assistance for homelessness. So UM, whereas our point in time count,

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Speaker 1: you know, shows one night. UM, there is data being

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Speaker 1: collected all year round. So at the point in time count,

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Speaker 1: you have a lot of volunteers, UM go out very

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Speaker 1: early in the morning. UM, they have them count the population. UM,

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Speaker 1: try to do some interviews with them real quick. UM.

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Speaker 1: The interviews are very personal. UM. You know, it's a

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Speaker 1: it's it's not necessarily something somebody wants to wake up

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Speaker 1: an answer at five am. But we found some people

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Speaker 1: that were, you know, willing to talk. UM. But that's

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Speaker 1: that's the point in time account and a nutshell okay,

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Speaker 1: And then like what's I know that Downtown? I think

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Speaker 1: the Downtown Partnership collects our own data, right, because the

365
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Speaker 1: data we have is very unreliable, what's our best guess

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Speaker 1: at people like maybe in the city who are unsheltered

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Speaker 1: at this time. I believe it's over fifteen unsheltered homelessness,

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Speaker 1: meaning that they're not in a shelter or you know,

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Speaker 1: some kind of program, Okay, in just and that's just

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Speaker 1: in downtown San Diego, not the whole county, okay, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: So downtown San Diego, for people not familiar, is a

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Speaker 1: pretty small part of a very large county, right and

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Speaker 1: with I think San Diego has the highest ratio of

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Speaker 1: average income to property prices anywhere in the country now,

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Speaker 1: if I record correctly, it's incredibly unaffordable. And so this

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Speaker 1: has led unfortunately but probably pretty predictably, to a number

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Speaker 1: of deaths on our streets, right and four or four

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Speaker 1: last week if I recall correctly, or four in a

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Speaker 1: seven day period this August is it's hot. It's hot

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Speaker 1: for San Diego right now. And despite this, we've seen

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Speaker 1: this just like incredibly callous response from the city, I

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Speaker 1: guess where Like we've seen Todd, for instance, talk Gloria,

383
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Speaker 1: who's on there giving a speech in front of a

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Speaker 1: shelter where somebody's remains were taken away a few hours before,

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Speaker 1: and not mentioning that someone had just passed away in

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Speaker 1: that place. I want to talk to people about the

387
00:23:53,040 --> 00:23:57,080
Speaker 1: gap between rhetoric and reality, because if you were only

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Speaker 1: learning about this from the city and its Twitter account,

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Speaker 1: you'd think that it was fined right because he's posting

390
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Speaker 1: about these new shelter pits. But perhaps you can explain

391
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Speaker 1: how best that's to drop in the ocean and the worth.

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Speaker 1: It's a distraction from the problems getting worse. I think that, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, there's the reality that they want the public

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Speaker 1: to see, and then there's the reality that's happening. Um.

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Speaker 1: And they think that they're failing so badly um at

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Speaker 1: getting people into services because um, many of the services

397
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Speaker 1: just don't fit people's needs. UM. So they want to

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Speaker 1: paint this picture that all the unsheltered people that are

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Speaker 1: out in their tents, living on the street, or living

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00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:42,480
Speaker 1: in their vehicles are service resistant. UM. And I hear

401
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:45,280
Speaker 1: that all the time. You know, we asked them, they

402
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Speaker 1: don't want services. It's not that people don't want services.

403
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Speaker 1: Many of these people have tried some of the service

404
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Speaker 1: centers in San Diego, and the barriers are extremely high. Um.

405
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Speaker 1: You know, the check in time and check out time

406
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:04,400
Speaker 1: can be difficult for people that are working. Um, they'll

407
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:10,040
Speaker 1: separate families so um. You know sometimes the they'll tell you, oh,

408
00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:12,320
Speaker 1: you can go in together if your husband and wife

409
00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:14,600
Speaker 1: or if your partners, and then you get to the

410
00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:17,879
Speaker 1: shelters and they say, I'm sorry, you can't be together

411
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Speaker 1: because we don't have family space. So you have to

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Speaker 1: go to a men's shelter and you have to go

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Speaker 1: to a women's shelter. Um. They'll also do that with uh.

414
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Speaker 1: Say a mother has a sixteen year old son and

415
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Speaker 1: she needs to go into a shelter, and there's not

416
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Speaker 1: a family shelter. Um, she cannot take her son into

417
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Speaker 1: a women's shelter with her. He has to go into

418
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:41,919
Speaker 1: a men's shelter. UM. So you know. Then you know,

419
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Speaker 1: people with their pets, they're only source of like love

420
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Speaker 1: and acceptance. You know, a lot of places won't take pets.

421
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Speaker 1: A lot of places take people if they're using substances.

422
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Speaker 1: So we've got all these boundaries that are keeping people

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Speaker 1: on the streets and no one's talking about at and

424
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:04,040
Speaker 1: no one's talking about the fact that some of not

425
00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:07,359
Speaker 1: all of them, but some of the service providers UM

426
00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:10,840
Speaker 1: are profiting off of these poor people because they represent

427
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,600
Speaker 1: state and federal dollars UM. So you've got shelters that

428
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:18,199
Speaker 1: are run horribly, and you know, the more people that

429
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:20,920
Speaker 1: come in, they just want to cycle them through because

430
00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:24,159
Speaker 1: that gives them money, and that pays their CEO and

431
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:26,760
Speaker 1: all of their family members that are you know, working

432
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:31,160
Speaker 1: for the nonprofit UM. And and these people because they're unsheltered,

433
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:34,600
Speaker 1: they don't feel they have a voice, they don't feel

434
00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:37,359
Speaker 1: they can speak up because of retaliation. So they're just

435
00:26:37,560 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: constantly abused. And then you've got the city who's saying,

436
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:46,119
Speaker 1: look at all these fantastic things we're doing UM, which

437
00:26:46,280 --> 00:26:50,040
Speaker 1: is is couldn't be farther from the truth UM. And

438
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:52,679
Speaker 1: then they constantly use the narrative that folks are service

439
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:56,200
Speaker 1: resistant UM, when in reality, the services that are out

440
00:26:56,200 --> 00:27:00,600
Speaker 1: there are too few and UM too difficult, and just

441
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:03,879
Speaker 1: they're not meaning people where they're at and they're just

442
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,680
Speaker 1: setting people up to fail every time. Yeah, as well

443
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 1: said another thing I want to get into with the

444
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:14,200
Speaker 1: shelter specifically is these congregate shelters, right, and what in

445
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:17,040
Speaker 1: the in the context of an ongoing pandemic that maybe

446
00:27:17,119 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 1: is transitioning into another pandemic. Can you explain what what's

447
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 1: a congregod shelter right, it's along way, but it's it's

448
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:27,520
Speaker 1: what does it mean? And how are those dangerous? Especially

449
00:27:27,560 --> 00:27:30,879
Speaker 1: for medically compromised older people living on the street. Or

450
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:33,280
Speaker 1: bulk of our shelter system here in San Diego, in

451
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:37,439
Speaker 1: the city of San Diego is congregate shelter h meaning

452
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,480
Speaker 1: people are just placed in one big room or in

453
00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:44,240
Speaker 1: some cases big circus type tents. We have a few

454
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:47,320
Speaker 1: of those where people are sleeping in cots literally three

455
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:50,199
Speaker 1: ft apart. So you can imagine how horrible that is

456
00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:53,119
Speaker 1: for the spread of disease. That's why we've had some

457
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 1: very large outbreaks of COVID in our in our shelter system,

458
00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:01,600
Speaker 1: and and they're frequently closed. The new intakes. I think

459
00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:05,679
Speaker 1: it's really important also to let folks know that, like

460
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:08,280
Speaker 1: you said, if you live, if you look at mayor

461
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 1: glorious Twitter or social media feed, you think they're doing

462
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 1: everything they can and there's all these resources, but on

463
00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 1: any given day, there may be a few dozen shelter

464
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 1: beds available for literally thousands and thousands of people that

465
00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:25,880
Speaker 1: are sleeping on our streets at night, and the only

466
00:28:25,880 --> 00:28:28,440
Speaker 1: reason there's a few dozen shelter beds is because they've

467
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:31,560
Speaker 1: kicked some people out that day for a break in

468
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:34,840
Speaker 1: some minor rules. Most people who leave shelter go back

469
00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:38,440
Speaker 1: to the street, so shelter is not a very good

470
00:28:38,440 --> 00:28:42,760
Speaker 1: pathway to anything. Roughly one in seven people who leaves

471
00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:46,240
Speaker 1: a City of San Diego shelter go to a permanent

472
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:51,840
Speaker 1: housing solution. That's that's a very very In fact, under

473
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:55,800
Speaker 1: Mayor Gloria, I've seen some of the lowest success rates

474
00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:57,880
Speaker 1: of our system than I've ever seen in my thirteen

475
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:02,200
Speaker 1: years of working on this. Our our system has actually

476
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:08,440
Speaker 1: is actually working worse than it was before Todd Gloria

477
00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:13,400
Speaker 1: took over. So he has done very very little, and

478
00:29:13,680 --> 00:29:17,320
Speaker 1: most of what he's done has been mostly performative, adding

479
00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:21,840
Speaker 1: some shelter beds here and there, uh very little on

480
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 1: the housing front. In fact, he's left tens of millions

481
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 1: of dollars on the table that he hasn't applied for.

482
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:32,680
Speaker 1: He did not utilize a California funding stream called Project

483
00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:36,280
Speaker 1: Room Key that would have allowed him to rent hotel

484
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:41,160
Speaker 1: rooms mostly on the government dime on our taxpayer dime

485
00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:45,040
Speaker 1: to get people off the street. He actually refused to

486
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:49,160
Speaker 1: do that. He has refused to open safe camp areas

487
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: where people could go and camp and get off of

488
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:57,720
Speaker 1: the sidewalks. Many of us and and others in the

489
00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:01,320
Speaker 1: community have pushed for real solution and for him to

490
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:07,000
Speaker 1: utilize these funding sources, and he's absolutely refused to do it. Meanwhile,

491
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:13,200
Speaker 1: like we stated earlier, he has deployed the police, garbage trucks,

492
00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:16,600
Speaker 1: and everybody else to go out there and make people's

493
00:30:16,680 --> 00:30:21,760
Speaker 1: lives miserable. So he's just been an absolute failure on

494
00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:24,880
Speaker 1: this issue. And at the same time, he's been the

495
00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:29,280
Speaker 1: one who's given the most lip service two solutions for this.

496
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:36,080
Speaker 1: It is absolutely incredible what a disaster he has been for,

497
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:40,280
Speaker 1: not only for the unsheltered community, but for San Diego.

498
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:45,920
Speaker 1: I've begun, I've began saying that he is San Diego's

499
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:51,320
Speaker 1: worst enemy. And and I just can't believe as somebody

500
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:56,160
Speaker 1: who supported him, supported him in his election urge people

501
00:30:56,200 --> 00:31:00,840
Speaker 1: to vote for him. You can imagine how who do

502
00:31:00,920 --> 00:31:04,920
Speaker 1: winked I was. I just can't believe that this guy

503
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:08,040
Speaker 1: has been so horrible for our city, and and and

504
00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:11,040
Speaker 1: every indication is that he's going to continue being He's

505
00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:14,720
Speaker 1: gonna continue running the ide into the ground and letting

506
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 1: people die on our streets at record numbers. Correct me

507
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, But but didn't when he came out

508
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:25,200
Speaker 1: of the gate, didn't Gloria estimate how many people he

509
00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:28,120
Speaker 1: was gonna house under his term and did me low

510
00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:31,880
Speaker 1: ball at me, lower the number than than in previous years.

511
00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was some kind of was that a

512
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:39,480
Speaker 1: state or a federal government goal that he set? And

513
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 1: he actually set a goal of housing people that was

514
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:44,959
Speaker 1: less than we had done in the previous year. So

515
00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:49,240
Speaker 1: his his big stretch was to actually house fewer people.

516
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:52,920
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's even I don't even know

517
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:57,480
Speaker 1: if he's even getting there. I mean, this guy, this

518
00:31:57,720 --> 00:32:02,640
Speaker 1: guy is unbelievable. The kind of nonsense that he is

519
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:07,800
Speaker 1: pulling on the citizens of our city. It is unbelievable.

520
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:12,880
Speaker 1: But he has invested so much in pr and he's

521
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:16,680
Speaker 1: got these folks who who are just good at spinning

522
00:32:17,480 --> 00:32:21,840
Speaker 1: this this nonsense to make it sound good. And because

523
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:24,480
Speaker 1: he gets a lot of media attention, he has a

524
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:30,560
Speaker 1: big obviously a big pulpit to disput this nonsense from

525
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,400
Speaker 1: he's he's able to get a lot of people to

526
00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:36,840
Speaker 1: believe it now on homelessness, anybody who has a decent

527
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:40,760
Speaker 1: set of eyes, it's basically calling bullshit. Yeah, I don't know.

528
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:42,920
Speaker 1: I don't know a whole lot of people anymore who

529
00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 1: think we're we're doing very well on this issue. And

530
00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 1: so I think he's gonna have a harder and harder

531
00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:55,400
Speaker 1: time convincing people that he's worthy of worthy of re election,

532
00:32:55,440 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 1: are certainly worthy of a higher office at some point,

533
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:00,880
Speaker 1: which is all he seems to care about. Yeah, and

534
00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:06,520
Speaker 1: more so so, he's personally to blame. He has personal

535
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:09,960
Speaker 1: involvement of getting rid of ten thousand s r o

536
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:13,760
Speaker 1: s single rental units that that if we had those today,

537
00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:18,400
Speaker 1: minus our eight thousand almost people, we would not have homelessness.

538
00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,840
Speaker 1: So of units that he was required to replace and

539
00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:27,280
Speaker 1: never replace them, that's his fault. I call him a monster.

540
00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:31,719
Speaker 1: I I was, you know, Kevin Falconer criminalized, but he

541
00:33:31,760 --> 00:33:35,360
Speaker 1: was a Republican. We expected it of him, and he

542
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:38,480
Speaker 1: didn't tell the promise lest he was gonna end criminalization

543
00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,680
Speaker 1: to get our vote. Um. One of the reasons that

544
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:45,160
Speaker 1: are probably the only the main reason that that Gloria

545
00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:50,480
Speaker 1: didn't didn't put funding into Project GROUPTI. Um was because

546
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:53,800
Speaker 1: the city is in this unique position of owning and

547
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 1: operating the nonprofit that runs the convention center. So when

548
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:00,440
Speaker 1: COVID hit, they were looking at non up at going

549
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:02,600
Speaker 1: belly up because they couldn't put any events in there

550
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:05,040
Speaker 1: and having to layoff all their staff. So instead of

551
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:07,320
Speaker 1: putting people in hotels where they'd be safe, they put

552
00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:09,520
Speaker 1: them in a convention center where they'd be exposed to

553
00:34:09,560 --> 00:34:13,759
Speaker 1: COVID and would die. But the city funded convin nonprofit

554
00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 1: would be funded. So um, that's just heinous and a

555
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,840
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty two million dollars is what Todd Gloria

556
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:25,000
Speaker 1: got the city to to pay out on a settlement

557
00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:29,080
Speaker 1: on Ash Street, his boom doggle He cost the stad.

558
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:31,560
Speaker 1: He convite city Council to invest all this money to

559
00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:34,840
Speaker 1: slide donor money to his just slide city money to

560
00:34:34,920 --> 00:34:39,200
Speaker 1: his donors. For the listeners who aren't familiar with our

561
00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:43,440
Speaker 1: real estate griff scene, So, James, if you were going

562
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:46,399
Speaker 1: to go buy a house right now, uh, you would

563
00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:51,760
Speaker 1: think it is important that you get a property inspection? Correct? Yes? Yeah?

564
00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:55,239
Speaker 1: Would you think it would be important to google or

565
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:59,680
Speaker 1: seek out documents that may inform you of as best

566
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:03,600
Speaker 1: as prior to your purchase. Yeah, I want to know that. Yeah.

567
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,879
Speaker 1: So UM, these are two of the opportunities that they

568
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:10,759
Speaker 1: missed when they entered this deal with UM. Uh with

569
00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:13,440
Speaker 1: the one on one Ash Street. Um. So they basically

570
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:18,320
Speaker 1: had a middleman SISTERA come in and purchased the property

571
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:20,960
Speaker 1: and then at least to own it back to the city. UM.

572
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:24,319
Speaker 1: At no time was an inspection done. Um. The asbestos

573
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:28,560
Speaker 1: was uh, people were aware of it, um, but there

574
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:31,520
Speaker 1: was no studies done on what the impact was going

575
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:33,920
Speaker 1: to be in all that. So now we've got ourselves

576
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,960
Speaker 1: sunk into this deal that m is estimated to cost

577
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:41,960
Speaker 1: taxpayers two hundred and two million dollars. Right, So I

578
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:46,759
Speaker 1: punched some of the maths. Okay, And if you assume

579
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:51,680
Speaker 1: uh one year's rent as twenty four thousand dollars, right,

580
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:55,759
Speaker 1: twenty two hundred and two million divided by twenty four

581
00:35:55,800 --> 00:36:00,080
Speaker 1: thousand dollars is more than eight thousand people that this

582
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:04,520
Speaker 1: taxpayer money, you know. And it's always it's just and

583
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:06,920
Speaker 1: it's in a cycle, and it's it's not only the

584
00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:09,279
Speaker 1: cycle there, but it's also the cycle of we don't

585
00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:12,359
Speaker 1: have enough police, so they're bringing in more police when

586
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:14,520
Speaker 1: we don't have the housing. And then the police that

587
00:36:14,560 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 1: we do have are working overtime to pick up shopping

588
00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:21,560
Speaker 1: carts and throw away tens. You know. So, um so

589
00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:24,680
Speaker 1: the astreet deal, there's plenty to google on it, but

590
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:27,640
Speaker 1: it is it is uh like historically going to go

591
00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:30,839
Speaker 1: down in in San Diego. Screw ups for sure. Yeah,

592
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:34,440
Speaker 1: it's a giant monument to grift go ahead, but we

593
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:37,120
Speaker 1: don't have any police. Is also more gaslighting. We have

594
00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:40,200
Speaker 1: plenty of police. When I started practising law thirty years ago,

595
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:42,920
Speaker 1: two police officers would show up at the scene. Now

596
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:45,839
Speaker 1: at least six police officers show up every single time.

597
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:50,879
Speaker 1: We have an overblight of of police, and we could

598
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:54,800
Speaker 1: afford to lay off two thirds, agreed, Yeah yeah, but

599
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:59,759
Speaker 1: instead we just built childcarecenter for them. Yeahs back on

600
00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:04,680
Speaker 1: that quick about the police. Um, one thing that I

601
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:07,799
Speaker 1: think they also push the narrative that you know, there's

602
00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:11,200
Speaker 1: this hot team, the homeless Outreach team that the police

603
00:37:11,840 --> 00:37:16,120
Speaker 1: they never take water, they never really take anything, um

604
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:20,359
Speaker 1: And they search for unsheltered people and they have these

605
00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:25,600
Speaker 1: pop up events and they rarely get any traffic to

606
00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:30,839
Speaker 1: these things, and people often wonder why, Um, we cannot

607
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:36,520
Speaker 1: expect unsheltered people to trust and accept help from the

608
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:40,880
Speaker 1: same people that criminalize them, terrorize them, harass them and

609
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:45,040
Speaker 1: throw their things away. Um. So you know, adding more

610
00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:48,719
Speaker 1: police to deal with homelessness, Um, it's just also a

611
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:51,840
Speaker 1: waste of money. It caused more trauma to the unsheltered people,

612
00:37:51,840 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 1: and it's completely unnecessary. So we're talking about this duality

613
00:38:13,840 --> 00:38:17,440
Speaker 1: between like what said and what what what exists on

614
00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:20,320
Speaker 1: the street, right, And it's it's very apparent people on

615
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:22,319
Speaker 1: the internet love to be wrong about George or well.

616
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:27,480
Speaker 1: But I think like the one time recently where I

617
00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:29,680
Speaker 1: felt that like, oh well would be a useful things

618
00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:32,319
Speaker 1: to deploy. Is the idea of a care court, like

619
00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:34,799
Speaker 1: which is the thing that has been very strong on

620
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:38,719
Speaker 1: to Gavin Nuisance. First, Right, courts, in my opinion, don't

621
00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:42,360
Speaker 1: care about people. It's not their role. Can someone explain

622
00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:44,640
Speaker 1: what a care court is and why it's relevant in

623
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:49,239
Speaker 1: this setting. So the framework of this is you have

624
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:55,920
Speaker 1: a bunch of um liberals in Gloria and Gavin Newsom's

625
00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:59,520
Speaker 1: ear saying we have to we have to end homelessness,

626
00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 1: and the politicians are saying, oh, well, we can't and

627
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 1: homelessness because they're all mentally ill drug users. Okay, so

628
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:10,080
Speaker 1: that's the first premise that we're working with, and they're not.

629
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:14,359
Speaker 1: Ten are used drugs in a mental illness and debilitating

630
00:39:14,680 --> 00:39:19,160
Speaker 1: to an abilitating extent in the homeless population. Um, and

631
00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:24,000
Speaker 1: the drug use uh is parallels the rate of drug

632
00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:26,880
Speaker 1: use in the house community. We don't take houses away

633
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:30,239
Speaker 1: from drug users who are housed and make them get

634
00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:33,799
Speaker 1: sober before we return their houses to them. So requiring

635
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:36,360
Speaker 1: that they be sober beef before we get a house

636
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:39,759
Speaker 1: is asked backwards. Um, we have to get them into

637
00:39:39,760 --> 00:39:44,920
Speaker 1: housing first. Now, the care court is set up just

638
00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:48,279
Speaker 1: to pass more money to their donors. That's all it's

639
00:39:48,280 --> 00:39:52,080
Speaker 1: set up to do. It's not gonna ease anything. It's

640
00:39:52,160 --> 00:39:55,800
Speaker 1: gonna set up a situation where a person is considered

641
00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:59,560
Speaker 1: gravely disabled, then they can be put into a conservatorship.

642
00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:03,880
Speaker 1: And grave disabled is defined as unable to provide shelter

643
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:07,680
Speaker 1: for oneself. So essentially, everybody who is poor is now

644
00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:10,840
Speaker 1: gravely disabled, and the rich who got them in this

645
00:40:10,960 --> 00:40:14,240
Speaker 1: position can make all the decisions for them. I'm very

646
00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:18,240
Speaker 1: passionate about this. Because it's it's cruel, and it's it's

647
00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:24,560
Speaker 1: it's it's essentially the return of all the institutionalization that

648
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:27,840
Speaker 1: was set set turned off. The whole reason that you know,

649
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:31,920
Speaker 1: Reagan got every get everybody released from the prisons because

650
00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 1: of the mental illness, but he never paid. There was

651
00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:39,719
Speaker 1: never any payment into community mental health services. So um,

652
00:40:39,760 --> 00:40:42,520
Speaker 1: now they want to return them to the institutionalization after

653
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:46,640
Speaker 1: never providing any street a sufficient street um services for them.

654
00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:52,279
Speaker 1: And that's that's just cruel. Yeah. And so with the

655
00:40:52,320 --> 00:40:55,000
Speaker 1: whole care court plan, there's like a few very large

656
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:57,240
Speaker 1: holes in it. One is that it does not mention

657
00:40:57,400 --> 00:41:01,880
Speaker 1: that there is any housing uh stipulation at all, So

658
00:41:01,920 --> 00:41:07,160
Speaker 1: it does not say that the conservator must provide them shelter. Um.

659
00:41:07,280 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 1: The checking guidelines are once every thirty days, which is

660
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:12,040
Speaker 1: about like the same time period that we have them

661
00:41:12,120 --> 00:41:14,359
Speaker 1: checking with their case managers. Is at least once every

662
00:41:14,400 --> 00:41:17,960
Speaker 1: thirty days. Um. And they also try to try to

663
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:22,560
Speaker 1: tell it like, um, well, it's it could be temporary, right,

664
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:26,600
Speaker 1: like once they get better, then they'll be off the conservatorship.

665
00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:28,280
Speaker 1: And what that says to me is it's like okay,

666
00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:31,000
Speaker 1: you force them into treatment and then once they get

667
00:41:31,080 --> 00:41:33,160
Speaker 1: kicked out of treatment, you say, okay, they're healed, and

668
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:36,680
Speaker 1: then you know they're back away from their services. And

669
00:41:36,719 --> 00:41:41,520
Speaker 1: I've had clients who thought maybe a conservatorship is right

670
00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:44,120
Speaker 1: for me. I've had clients like begging where they're like,

671
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:47,160
Speaker 1: I just can't do stuff right, like you know. Um.

672
00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:49,239
Speaker 1: And I had one client specifically asked me to be

673
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:54,000
Speaker 1: her conservator, and I care about her so much, UM

674
00:41:54,040 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: And if I thought that her having a conservator would

675
00:41:56,680 --> 00:42:00,120
Speaker 1: really benefit her, then absolutely. But as of right now,

676
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:03,399
Speaker 1: there's no difference in um, whether a conservator can get

677
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:06,799
Speaker 1: somebody shelter better than me as a service provider, or

678
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:09,080
Speaker 1: if they can get them into a treatment program better

679
00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:11,560
Speaker 1: than a service provider. Now, Colleen was talking about how

680
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:14,480
Speaker 1: only ten percent of our homeless population has a drug addiction,

681
00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:17,800
Speaker 1: but in San Diego County as a whole, fifteen percent

682
00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:23,960
Speaker 1: of Sandy agains have a substance use issue. Right my time,

683
00:42:24,040 --> 00:42:30,400
Speaker 1: percent was debilitating a debilitating Uh yeah, okay, good to clarify, um.

684
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:32,880
Speaker 1: But so that being said, fifercent is way more than

685
00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:36,040
Speaker 1: our homeless population. Those aren't the only ones with substance use.

686
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:39,200
Speaker 1: But if you're on medical right, if your low income

687
00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:41,359
Speaker 1: and low income in in San Diego as anyone making

688
00:42:41,440 --> 00:42:44,760
Speaker 1: less than seventy six thousand dollars per year UM, which

689
00:42:44,920 --> 00:42:47,359
Speaker 1: is a lot more people than they realize. If you

690
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:54,000
Speaker 1: are low income UM until bumping just because if you're

691
00:42:54,080 --> 00:42:56,560
Speaker 1: low income. But I have some memes here. I want

692
00:42:56,600 --> 00:43:00,680
Speaker 1: to point some facts on the Care Court care to

693
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:04,960
Speaker 1: address houselessness, but of its sixty five million dollar budget,

694
00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:08,880
Speaker 1: zero will go to housing and zero will go to

695
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:13,760
Speaker 1: mental health services. That's shocking. Zero to mental health services

696
00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:17,040
Speaker 1: are housing care cord will weaponize its unchecked power and

697
00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 1: worse than historical violence against black and ground communities, and

698
00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:24,719
Speaker 1: care Court claims to address mental health ability disabilities, but

699
00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:27,839
Speaker 1: allows a judge to rub anyone they find unfit of

700
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:32,120
Speaker 1: autonomy over their health, home, and life. Yeah, and I

701
00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:36,319
Speaker 1: did remember my thoughts. So um, like the people on

702
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:41,040
Speaker 1: medical um there as far as detox facility goes, like

703
00:43:41,440 --> 00:43:43,600
Speaker 1: we already know fentin als and everything. Now, even if

704
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:46,480
Speaker 1: somebody thinks they're gonna coke or or whatever they think

705
00:43:46,520 --> 00:43:49,239
Speaker 1: it is, typically there is fvent al in it. So um,

706
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:54,120
Speaker 1: anyone who does wish to go through a detox um

707
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:57,400
Speaker 1: it's impossible to get them bets, Like I have clients

708
00:43:57,440 --> 00:43:59,480
Speaker 1: who come in they're like, please, I know, I know,

709
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:02,719
Speaker 1: I gotta get worked this out of my life. And

710
00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:05,520
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try. Can you get me into detox and

711
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:07,880
Speaker 1: we will spend the whole day, you know, And and

712
00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:11,520
Speaker 1: and there's one and like all these people are competing

713
00:44:11,719 --> 00:44:14,600
Speaker 1: for maybe one bet at the detox facility. So if

714
00:44:14,600 --> 00:44:16,880
Speaker 1: it was like we had the infrastructure set up and

715
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:19,239
Speaker 1: we had this awesome mental health care and we have

716
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:22,680
Speaker 1: these awesome like street medics and street therapy, and we

717
00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:25,480
Speaker 1: had okay, and everyone in the Conservative ship is gonna

718
00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:29,160
Speaker 1: be housed at this place like then then maybe. But

719
00:44:29,680 --> 00:44:33,000
Speaker 1: like this whole thing, it's just it's it's a load

720
00:44:33,040 --> 00:44:36,399
Speaker 1: of crap. So believe if we had if we had

721
00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:39,400
Speaker 1: all those things, if we had a good system that

722
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:44,120
Speaker 1: had good substance use treatment, good mental health care, and housing,

723
00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:47,760
Speaker 1: we wouldn't have all these folks on the street. Amen.

724
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:52,160
Speaker 1: So it's kind of interesting that they're they're creating something

725
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:56,440
Speaker 1: to solve an issue that they don't have the infrastructure

726
00:44:56,440 --> 00:45:00,440
Speaker 1: to solve. But I think it's important to note that

727
00:45:02,160 --> 00:45:05,560
Speaker 1: care Court is a conservatorship, but we already have conservatorship

728
00:45:05,680 --> 00:45:10,680
Speaker 1: laws on the books conservatives laws, they're very strict. It's

729
00:45:10,719 --> 00:45:15,440
Speaker 1: a very high threshold to get somebody conserved currently for

730
00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:18,120
Speaker 1: good reason. You're taking away somebody's civil You're taking away

731
00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:21,360
Speaker 1: somebody's right to make their own decisions, is what a

732
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:26,080
Speaker 1: conservatorship is. But for some folks that are gravely disabled

733
00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:29,680
Speaker 1: and and impaired, it is the best thing to do.

734
00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:32,600
Speaker 1: It's for you know, for very few people. But but

735
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:40,400
Speaker 1: the the city attorneys and the people in the hospitals, uh,

736
00:45:40,560 --> 00:45:43,799
Speaker 1: the workers, Uh, they don't want to go through it

737
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:49,480
Speaker 1: because it is very difficult and challenging, and oftentimes the judge,

738
00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:55,160
Speaker 1: the judge will deny it because that's how how important

739
00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:57,879
Speaker 1: it is for people to have these civil rights. So

740
00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:00,600
Speaker 1: sometimes even have to do a multiple times with somebody

741
00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:03,279
Speaker 1: who probably you know, who may actually need it. And

742
00:46:03,360 --> 00:46:06,520
Speaker 1: I speak from firsthand experience of helping people you know,

743
00:46:06,800 --> 00:46:10,000
Speaker 1: go through this process and try to you know, and

744
00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:12,480
Speaker 1: and trying to get a conservatorship on somebody who just

745
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:17,400
Speaker 1: really really needs it. Care court would lower that threshold

746
00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:21,319
Speaker 1: so much, I I doubt it's legal. I'm sure it's

747
00:46:21,320 --> 00:46:26,440
Speaker 1: gonna get challenged in court. It it is such a dangerous,

748
00:46:27,640 --> 00:46:33,439
Speaker 1: dangerous leap against our civil liberties or civil rights. Uh

749
00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:36,759
Speaker 1: that I I just am gonna find it incredible if

750
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:40,600
Speaker 1: if judges allow this to move forward when it's challenged. Uh.

751
00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:46,040
Speaker 1: But the main point is that people need help. They

752
00:46:46,080 --> 00:46:50,240
Speaker 1: need care, not court and if we would provide the care,

753
00:46:51,120 --> 00:46:54,600
Speaker 1: which are elected officials don't want to do. I think

754
00:46:54,640 --> 00:46:56,799
Speaker 1: this is just a cop out on their part. I

755
00:46:56,840 --> 00:47:02,480
Speaker 1: think this is this is this is the elected official saying, uh,

756
00:47:02,560 --> 00:47:06,279
Speaker 1: we have failed, so we'll just pun it to the

757
00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:10,200
Speaker 1: courts and let them take ownership and control of this,

758
00:47:11,120 --> 00:47:13,319
Speaker 1: which in effect, the courts are just kicking it to

759
00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:17,080
Speaker 1: the counties because the county is are behavioral health provider

760
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:20,080
Speaker 1: who's gonna have to provide these services and be responsible

761
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:23,160
Speaker 1: for these folks. I think this is gonna be set

762
00:47:23,320 --> 00:47:28,840
Speaker 1: a train wreck. But the one thing it is illuminating

763
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:35,400
Speaker 1: is that our behavioral our behavioral health system is so broken,

764
00:47:35,680 --> 00:47:42,040
Speaker 1: so dysfunctional, that they would even be trying to do this.

765
00:47:42,239 --> 00:47:47,799
Speaker 1: I think it's basically a an indictment of our system

766
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:51,359
Speaker 1: and but care courts not going to fix anything. That's

767
00:47:51,560 --> 00:47:55,200
Speaker 1: and I think it's setting people up for failure. I've

768
00:47:55,280 --> 00:48:01,439
Speaker 1: talked to some families who are who are really. Now,

769
00:48:01,480 --> 00:48:06,799
Speaker 1: these are house folks who have uh seriously mentally ill

770
00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:13,040
Speaker 1: loved ones, whether it's spouses or children, UM, siblings. They

771
00:48:13,440 --> 00:48:18,400
Speaker 1: see this as a silver bullet two get care for

772
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:23,600
Speaker 1: these their loved ones. And maybe it works better for

773
00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:28,160
Speaker 1: that segment of the population because they have somebody, they

774
00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:31,280
Speaker 1: have a loved one as an advocate to make sure

775
00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:37,120
Speaker 1: that the care is the care is the focus. But

776
00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:40,919
Speaker 1: for for unsheltered folks, they're gonna be abused and used

777
00:48:40,920 --> 00:48:47,000
Speaker 1: by this system. Uh maybe warehoused. Who knows, they're gonna

778
00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:50,239
Speaker 1: end up worse off in my opinion, And so I

779
00:48:50,400 --> 00:48:55,200
Speaker 1: for one, am against it as it's written, and certainly

780
00:48:55,320 --> 00:48:58,439
Speaker 1: fear that the implementation of it is going to be

781
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:05,640
Speaker 1: a travesty. Uh that I just can't imagine. I can't

782
00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:11,120
Speaker 1: imagine that this so called liberal state uh would try

783
00:49:11,200 --> 00:49:16,600
Speaker 1: to trample the rights of people like this. And oh boy,

784
00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:19,640
Speaker 1: I tell you it's there's so much dangerous about this

785
00:49:19,800 --> 00:49:22,040
Speaker 1: that I mean, we could we could have a whole

786
00:49:22,040 --> 00:49:25,319
Speaker 1: show talking about this and maybe and I'm sure there

787
00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:27,319
Speaker 1: will be a lot of talk about this down the road.

788
00:49:27,960 --> 00:49:30,960
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I think they will, all right. So what

789
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:33,920
Speaker 1: I want to do is focus a little bit to

790
00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:36,880
Speaker 1: finish up here on some solutions. So the things that

791
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:40,239
Speaker 1: a lot of you guys are doing right now to

792
00:49:40,360 --> 00:49:44,640
Speaker 1: provide people with help, to provide people with the basic

793
00:49:44,680 --> 00:49:50,600
Speaker 1: necessities of living a dignified existence, and like how the

794
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:53,120
Speaker 1: state could do better? Right? Like what what housing first

795
00:49:53,120 --> 00:49:56,239
Speaker 1: solutions look like? What solutions are informed by evidence rather

796
00:49:56,400 --> 00:49:58,520
Speaker 1: just informed by sort of cruelty and the desire to

797
00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:01,600
Speaker 1: brush the problem aside. What do those look like? Well,

798
00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:03,480
Speaker 1: I think you have to you know, you can't expect

799
00:50:03,520 --> 00:50:07,880
Speaker 1: people to get well living on the street, so you've

800
00:50:07,920 --> 00:50:11,760
Speaker 1: you've got to get them inside UM and congregate shelters.

801
00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:14,239
Speaker 1: We've already talked about why those are so problematic on

802
00:50:14,320 --> 00:50:17,919
Speaker 1: so many levels. UM. There is a model in San

803
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:22,239
Speaker 1: Diego that's being used by a nonprofit UM where right

804
00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:25,800
Speaker 1: now it's only for elderly UM individuals. It's called Housing

805
00:50:25,800 --> 00:50:30,280
Speaker 1: for the Homeless, and they put UM unsheltered elderly folks

806
00:50:30,440 --> 00:50:35,360
Speaker 1: in hotel rooms and it's had tremendous success. For some reason,

807
00:50:35,440 --> 00:50:39,960
Speaker 1: it cannot get funding city or UM county funding. UM.

808
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:42,200
Speaker 1: But getting these people off the street and out of

809
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:47,160
Speaker 1: survival mode is first and foremost, and then you've got

810
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:50,480
Speaker 1: them in a stable place so that services can find

811
00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:52,640
Speaker 1: them when they need them. They can get the health

812
00:50:52,640 --> 00:50:57,120
Speaker 1: care they need, they can get mental health services. UM.

813
00:50:57,160 --> 00:51:00,239
Speaker 1: You know, we need to bolster our our rehab an

814
00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:06,560
Speaker 1: addiction UM services. We also need more harm reduction UM.

815
00:51:06,600 --> 00:51:08,920
Speaker 1: You know, it can take you one to three weeks

816
00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:12,040
Speaker 1: to get in just a detox at McAlister, which is

817
00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:15,960
Speaker 1: the only UM detox center in San Diego south of Incionidas,

818
00:51:16,640 --> 00:51:21,319
Speaker 1: and detox is separate from UM, so we living. So

819
00:51:21,440 --> 00:51:23,600
Speaker 1: you made detox, and then it may be another one

820
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:26,840
Speaker 1: to three week way to UM get into Solver Living,

821
00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:28,839
Speaker 1: which is just enough time to get turned back out

822
00:51:28,840 --> 00:51:32,359
Speaker 1: on the streets and relax again. UM. And after that,

823
00:51:32,440 --> 00:51:34,880
Speaker 1: even there's no housing at the end of the tunnel,

824
00:51:35,320 --> 00:51:39,000
Speaker 1: so you know, really the biggest thing that we're missing

825
00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:45,040
Speaker 1: is housing UM, and then everything else trickles down from there. UM.

826
00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:47,400
Speaker 1: You know. Just building these relationships with people so that

827
00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:49,719
Speaker 1: they can can trust that you're on their side and

828
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:52,239
Speaker 1: you're not going to lie to them, give them emptie promises,

829
00:51:52,320 --> 00:51:55,560
Speaker 1: or or use them in some way to uh, to

830
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:59,239
Speaker 1: monetize them for yourself is one of the biggest things

831
00:51:59,239 --> 00:52:01,880
Speaker 1: that I've found of importance for me as an on

832
00:52:01,960 --> 00:52:06,760
Speaker 1: the ground UM, you know, outreach worker and doing mutual aid. UM.

833
00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:08,319
Speaker 1: You know, most of the time, these people just don't

834
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:12,839
Speaker 1: have water. You know, they're they're thirsty, they're hungry, UM.

835
00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:17,919
Speaker 1: And that's what poverty looks like. UM. So I think

836
00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:20,920
Speaker 1: we've you know, we've got to get these people inside

837
00:52:21,719 --> 00:52:26,279
Speaker 1: UM immediately, and then we start deploying the resources to them,

838
00:52:26,400 --> 00:52:28,719
Speaker 1: UM to help them recover from the trauma you know,

839
00:52:28,719 --> 00:52:31,960
Speaker 1: on the street or you know, whatever trauma led them

840
00:52:32,000 --> 00:52:35,920
Speaker 1: to be in that situation. UM. I think people often

841
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:39,680
Speaker 1: forget that a lot of folks on the street. UM.

842
00:52:39,719 --> 00:52:42,720
Speaker 1: You know, there's the foster to the streets pipeline, there's

843
00:52:42,760 --> 00:52:46,759
Speaker 1: the jail to the streets pipeline. UM. So you know,

844
00:52:47,480 --> 00:52:49,600
Speaker 1: many people don't end up on the streets because they

845
00:52:49,640 --> 00:52:52,359
Speaker 1: have family to help them. And a lot of these

846
00:52:52,400 --> 00:52:55,120
Speaker 1: folks on the streets they don't have any family members.

847
00:52:56,600 --> 00:52:59,040
Speaker 1: So UM. You know, as a community, we need to

848
00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:03,480
Speaker 1: step up and be their fan. So that that's great,

849
00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:06,480
Speaker 1: and I think I think we we have to understand

850
00:53:06,560 --> 00:53:10,040
Speaker 1: that the homeless service system, and I'm gonna talk about

851
00:53:10,080 --> 00:53:11,600
Speaker 1: some of the good things that are happening because I

852
00:53:11,600 --> 00:53:13,680
Speaker 1: think that's it's important for people to know there's a

853
00:53:13,719 --> 00:53:16,960
Speaker 1: ton of stuff happening, both grassroots all the way up.

854
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:20,160
Speaker 1: But it's important to understand that the homeless service system

855
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:23,160
Speaker 1: can only do so much. As as Manny was talking

856
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:27,040
Speaker 1: about these pipelines that feed homelessness, people are becoming homelessness.

857
00:53:27,719 --> 00:53:29,440
Speaker 1: I've never seen so many new people out here on

858
00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:31,000
Speaker 1: the street in my work. I'm on the street some

859
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:34,920
Speaker 1: part well a lot of the every day, and I'm

860
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:36,799
Speaker 1: seeing more new people than I've ever seen in my

861
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:40,160
Speaker 1: last thirteen years. And there's all these feeder systems. It's

862
00:53:40,200 --> 00:53:43,760
Speaker 1: it's child welfare, it's foster care, it's it's criminal justice,

863
00:53:43,760 --> 00:53:46,879
Speaker 1: it's the education system. You know, you can name it.

864
00:53:46,880 --> 00:53:49,359
Speaker 1: It's it's uh, the health care system. All these things

865
00:53:49,360 --> 00:53:53,840
Speaker 1: are feeding homelessness. It's the it's the how we've commoditized housing,

866
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:56,280
Speaker 1: it's I mean, I can go on and on talking

867
00:53:56,320 --> 00:54:00,759
Speaker 1: about what's feeding homelessness. It's the lack of safety nets,

868
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:02,840
Speaker 1: it's a lack of good mental health care and substance

869
00:54:02,920 --> 00:54:08,680
Speaker 1: use care. So homeless services cannot control these things up above.

870
00:54:09,239 --> 00:54:12,200
Speaker 1: These systems, these billion dollar systems that are feeds that

871
00:54:12,239 --> 00:54:16,319
Speaker 1: are failing people and feeding homelessness what homeless services system is.

872
00:54:16,320 --> 00:54:18,160
Speaker 1: And I like to say they've got a lot of

873
00:54:18,200 --> 00:54:21,320
Speaker 1: mission creep going on here, because ideally they really should

874
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:24,200
Speaker 1: be focused on getting people into housing and out of homelessness,

875
00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:29,360
Speaker 1: but they've become this this big system that's uh is

876
00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:32,440
Speaker 1: really getting very costly to feed, and it's very inefficient

877
00:54:32,440 --> 00:54:36,799
Speaker 1: and effective. But we know what solves homelessness. Housing and

878
00:54:36,880 --> 00:54:41,879
Speaker 1: services solve homelessness, period and it works. We see when

879
00:54:41,920 --> 00:54:46,840
Speaker 1: these new quality projects like Zephyr or Trinity place these

880
00:54:46,880 --> 00:54:51,720
Speaker 1: these housing uh they're not projects, they're housing. They're housing

881
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:54,359
Speaker 1: with services, so we call them projects, but they're just

882
00:54:54,440 --> 00:54:58,040
Speaker 1: like any other apartment building really, except they have supportive

883
00:54:58,080 --> 00:55:01,279
Speaker 1: services for folks and they work extremely well. They have

884
00:55:01,360 --> 00:55:06,080
Speaker 1: a N plus success rate of keeping folks housed, even

885
00:55:06,160 --> 00:55:09,520
Speaker 1: folks who have some who are disabled and have some

886
00:55:09,680 --> 00:55:13,839
Speaker 1: significant issues. And it helps provide that self sufficiency by

887
00:55:13,880 --> 00:55:18,440
Speaker 1: providing a deep rental subsidy and supportive services for folks

888
00:55:18,480 --> 00:55:20,239
Speaker 1: who aren't ever going to be able to take care

889
00:55:20,239 --> 00:55:25,000
Speaker 1: of their own rent totally themselves. There is no free housing.

890
00:55:25,120 --> 00:55:30,000
Speaker 1: Everybody who gets these these units pays their income, whether

891
00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:34,839
Speaker 1: it's disability income, social security retirement, whatever, they're paying some

892
00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:39,480
Speaker 1: money that's not free housing. People are helping themselves and

893
00:55:39,520 --> 00:55:43,759
Speaker 1: that's really important to say, and they're participating in services.

894
00:55:43,800 --> 00:55:48,200
Speaker 1: But once you're in housing, your participation in services rates

895
00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:52,040
Speaker 1: go up because people want to continue to keep doing

896
00:55:52,120 --> 00:55:55,480
Speaker 1: better and stay in the housing. These things are being built,

897
00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:58,680
Speaker 1: they're being built as we speak, but at a snail's pace.

898
00:55:59,400 --> 00:56:02,160
Speaker 1: And that's the things that I fault are elected leadership

899
00:56:02,239 --> 00:56:05,560
Speaker 1: for is they're nibbling around the edges. So Todd, has

900
00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:09,560
Speaker 1: Todd Gloria done some some good things, a few, but

901
00:56:09,719 --> 00:56:12,560
Speaker 1: they're so small and he blows them up to like

902
00:56:12,960 --> 00:56:15,719
Speaker 1: he's solving something and he's not. Has the county done

903
00:56:15,760 --> 00:56:18,640
Speaker 1: some good things? Yeah, they've actually done more good things

904
00:56:18,640 --> 00:56:21,880
Speaker 1: that I've ever seen them do, but it's still not

905
00:56:22,120 --> 00:56:25,880
Speaker 1: anywhere close to the pace that we need. They've opened

906
00:56:25,920 --> 00:56:28,319
Speaker 1: up some mental health crisis centers that are actually walk

907
00:56:28,360 --> 00:56:31,040
Speaker 1: in centers. They put together some mental health crisis teams

908
00:56:31,040 --> 00:56:34,960
Speaker 1: that respond to a small percentage of cases of when

909
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:39,319
Speaker 1: you call. But it is helping. All of these things help,

910
00:56:39,360 --> 00:56:42,120
Speaker 1: but they need What really needs to be done is

911
00:56:43,160 --> 00:56:46,160
Speaker 1: the things that we know work need to be taken

912
00:56:46,160 --> 00:56:49,200
Speaker 1: to scale. But we have to also understand the challenges

913
00:56:49,239 --> 00:56:52,120
Speaker 1: of that. We can't just fault the elected officials for

914
00:56:52,360 --> 00:56:56,920
Speaker 1: some things they don't have control over. As we all know,

915
00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:00,680
Speaker 1: there's it's hard time. It's a hard time hiring people.

916
00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:03,520
Speaker 1: So we need a lot more staff that work with

917
00:57:04,280 --> 00:57:08,120
Speaker 1: that are providing mental health services and substance use services.

918
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:11,319
Speaker 1: But we won't get there. And this is where the

919
00:57:11,320 --> 00:57:15,280
Speaker 1: elected officials have have a lot of fault is they've

920
00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:18,000
Speaker 1: really not put a priority in on this issue. And

921
00:57:18,040 --> 00:57:21,520
Speaker 1: this is where there's the biggest disconnect. On one hand,

922
00:57:21,560 --> 00:57:24,560
Speaker 1: you have Todd Gloria constantly saying how this is his

923
00:57:24,640 --> 00:57:27,760
Speaker 1: number one issue. On the other hand, his actions don't

924
00:57:27,760 --> 00:57:32,640
Speaker 1: show that. I'm a big believer in in bicycle safety

925
00:57:32,640 --> 00:57:35,640
Speaker 1: and safe roads and things like that. But he seems

926
00:57:35,680 --> 00:57:37,920
Speaker 1: to put more importance on a bike lane than he

927
00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:43,280
Speaker 1: does solving homelessness. And they're both important. But we have

928
00:57:43,680 --> 00:57:48,880
Speaker 1: five people dying on our streets because they're homeless. That's

929
00:57:49,120 --> 00:57:51,200
Speaker 1: you know, he he needs to put He needs to

930
00:57:51,320 --> 00:57:56,760
Speaker 1: back up his his talk with action. Just like you know,

931
00:57:57,040 --> 00:58:00,600
Speaker 1: they're they're expanding some bike lanes and I think that's great. Uh,

932
00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:02,240
Speaker 1: I think they need to do it a lot smarter.

933
00:58:02,360 --> 00:58:04,560
Speaker 1: Because some of them don't seem to be that safe

934
00:58:04,560 --> 00:58:10,320
Speaker 1: to me. But that's a whole another show to involved in.

935
00:58:10,480 --> 00:58:14,680
Speaker 1: But they don't seem to be very strategic to me,

936
00:58:14,680 --> 00:58:17,480
Speaker 1: and they just don't seem to be very They don't

937
00:58:17,480 --> 00:58:20,320
Speaker 1: seem to care. They seem to be more interested in

938
00:58:20,360 --> 00:58:23,640
Speaker 1: hoodwinking the public so they can get their next job.

939
00:58:24,040 --> 00:58:29,080
Speaker 1: We need people who care mostly that care about people,

940
00:58:29,760 --> 00:58:33,360
Speaker 1: but also care about spending our money efficiently and effectively.

941
00:58:33,840 --> 00:58:36,440
Speaker 1: But some of the grassroots stuff, like I say, getting

942
00:58:36,440 --> 00:58:38,880
Speaker 1: people into hotel rooms and then getting into housing is

943
00:58:38,920 --> 00:58:43,720
Speaker 1: a good pathway. The county opened a small shelter I

944
00:58:43,760 --> 00:58:46,840
Speaker 1: think it's forty four beds or so. It's the first

945
00:58:46,840 --> 00:58:50,240
Speaker 1: small shelter that they opened that's really more tailored towards

946
00:58:50,280 --> 00:58:53,680
Speaker 1: people with substance use and mental health needs. It has

947
00:58:53,720 --> 00:58:56,360
Speaker 1: a great uptake rate and and and the feedback from

948
00:58:56,400 --> 00:58:58,880
Speaker 1: people on the streets is good. So here we have

949
00:58:59,040 --> 00:59:02,040
Speaker 1: something that the county did that was good. We need

950
00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:04,680
Speaker 1: a lot more of them. But instead they're opening another

951
00:59:04,760 --> 00:59:10,720
Speaker 1: jumbo tent. So these things are very frustrating to folks

952
00:59:10,800 --> 00:59:14,760
Speaker 1: like myself and Mandy Felleen. The different people that the

953
00:59:14,760 --> 00:59:17,280
Speaker 1: people who are actually on the ground working that are

954
00:59:17,360 --> 00:59:21,040
Speaker 1: trying to get people into the assistance. We know what

955
00:59:21,840 --> 00:59:25,520
Speaker 1: we know the things that people will go into, including

956
00:59:25,600 --> 00:59:29,280
Speaker 1: substance use help. But whenever you try to get somebody

957
00:59:29,320 --> 00:59:31,560
Speaker 1: in it and you're told there's a three week waiting list,

958
00:59:32,160 --> 00:59:35,480
Speaker 1: you lose that person. They want to go, They want

959
00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:38,160
Speaker 1: to go now. You've got to be responsive to the

960
00:59:38,200 --> 00:59:43,200
Speaker 1: person's motivation in that moment to get the help. And

961
00:59:43,280 --> 00:59:46,560
Speaker 1: it's heartbreaking for people like Mandy and me who are

962
00:59:46,560 --> 00:59:49,280
Speaker 1: out there on the street and people are crying out

963
00:59:49,320 --> 00:59:54,240
Speaker 1: for this help, and it's just bullshit when these folks,

964
00:59:54,280 --> 00:59:56,600
Speaker 1: whether it's the police or the mayor, say that there's

965
00:59:56,640 --> 00:59:59,400
Speaker 1: the people who don't want help. It's really disgusting because

966
00:59:59,640 --> 01:00:02,040
Speaker 1: when you're on the street like we are and people

967
01:00:02,080 --> 01:00:04,880
Speaker 1: are pleading for this help and we can't help them

968
01:00:04,920 --> 01:00:09,200
Speaker 1: because it's not available, we know firsthand and we call bullshit.

969
01:00:10,040 --> 01:00:13,040
Speaker 1: We call bullshit on on the rhetoric that comes out

970
01:00:13,480 --> 01:00:17,200
Speaker 1: of these people's mouths. We know the people, We see

971
01:00:17,240 --> 01:00:21,320
Speaker 1: their faces, those tears are real, that pleading for help

972
01:00:21,480 --> 01:00:25,760
Speaker 1: is real, and we can actually help them if we

973
01:00:25,880 --> 01:00:29,200
Speaker 1: do what's right. And so, uh, we could talk all

974
01:00:29,280 --> 01:00:31,160
Speaker 1: day about some of the good things too, that the

975
01:00:31,200 --> 01:00:36,360
Speaker 1: grassroots people like Mandy are out there, um, just on

976
01:00:36,440 --> 01:00:40,840
Speaker 1: the ground doing We're not paid to do this. None

977
01:00:40,840 --> 01:00:43,520
Speaker 1: of us here on this call except for Levi. Levi

978
01:00:43,720 --> 01:00:46,440
Speaker 1: works within the system, and thank goodness for him. And

979
01:00:46,760 --> 01:00:49,960
Speaker 1: the last thing I want to say, and I I'm

980
01:00:49,960 --> 01:00:53,080
Speaker 1: always remiss if I don't remind remember to say this,

981
01:00:53,160 --> 01:00:55,720
Speaker 1: but I always want to send a shout out. This

982
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:59,520
Speaker 1: is not the fault of the hard working people on

983
01:00:59,560 --> 01:01:03,240
Speaker 1: the street, whether you're paid or not. I just want

984
01:01:03,280 --> 01:01:06,320
Speaker 1: to say thanks to all of the folks who take

985
01:01:06,400 --> 01:01:08,880
Speaker 1: on this job, paid or not, to go out and

986
01:01:08,920 --> 01:01:13,160
Speaker 1: help people firsthand and try to do the best with

987
01:01:13,320 --> 01:01:16,520
Speaker 1: this shitty system that they're given. So there's a lot

988
01:01:16,520 --> 01:01:19,440
Speaker 1: of people who take very little pay they do this

989
01:01:19,560 --> 01:01:23,280
Speaker 1: because they care, or the volunteers who do it because

990
01:01:23,320 --> 01:01:26,280
Speaker 1: they care to help people. And there's a lot of

991
01:01:26,320 --> 01:01:29,080
Speaker 1: folks out there really trying hard to help folks, and

992
01:01:29,120 --> 01:01:33,240
Speaker 1: they are helping people one by one by one, and

993
01:01:33,280 --> 01:01:37,560
Speaker 1: we need to support we need we have to have

994
01:01:37,720 --> 01:01:41,000
Speaker 1: the support of the Todd Gloria's and the Nathan Fletchers

995
01:01:41,000 --> 01:01:44,640
Speaker 1: of the world and the Gavin Newsom's to do the

996
01:01:44,760 --> 01:01:47,720
Speaker 1: right thing and and to keep funding what works and

997
01:01:47,760 --> 01:01:52,160
Speaker 1: to quit doing what doesn't. And so, UM, I think

998
01:01:52,200 --> 01:01:55,320
Speaker 1: it's just important to round out by saying that, Yeah,

999
01:01:55,440 --> 01:01:58,320
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty good. Alright. So both of you

1000
01:01:58,400 --> 01:02:00,959
Speaker 1: are out helping people. I see it all the time

1001
01:02:01,040 --> 01:02:04,680
Speaker 1: on your on your social media. Where can people find you? Uh?

1002
01:02:04,800 --> 01:02:07,640
Speaker 1: And how can they support what you're doing if it's

1003
01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:10,440
Speaker 1: getting people, tend to getting people water that kind of thing. Uh,

1004
01:02:11,000 --> 01:02:14,440
Speaker 1: tree start with UM, let's just go down and this

1005
01:02:14,560 --> 01:02:20,840
Speaker 1: will start with Mandy. UM. I usually UM kind of

1006
01:02:20,880 --> 01:02:27,000
Speaker 1: bum off of Michael for funding. UM because most of

1007
01:02:27,080 --> 01:02:32,240
Speaker 1: everything I do, UM, I pay for myself. UM, so

1008
01:02:32,840 --> 01:02:35,320
Speaker 1: I you know, if he has he does a go

1009
01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:38,080
Speaker 1: fund me and then you know he'll be like, hey,

1010
01:02:38,240 --> 01:02:40,360
Speaker 1: I gotta go fund me money. And you know I

1011
01:02:40,360 --> 01:02:42,240
Speaker 1: meet him and he like loads up my car and

1012
01:02:42,520 --> 01:02:46,880
Speaker 1: off I go. UM. You know people can can find

1013
01:02:46,920 --> 01:02:52,400
Speaker 1: me on Twitter. UM, I think I'm cute Cooper to UM,

1014
01:02:52,520 --> 01:02:56,880
Speaker 1: I'm very passionate. So UM, you know it's like and

1015
01:02:56,920 --> 01:03:00,640
Speaker 1: be careful what you look at on my feed. UM.

1016
01:03:00,680 --> 01:03:03,080
Speaker 1: You know, I just I love these people, and UM,

1017
01:03:03,400 --> 01:03:06,040
Speaker 1: I want to see them because they're all people. I

1018
01:03:06,160 --> 01:03:08,800
Speaker 1: want to see them get the help and One thing

1019
01:03:08,840 --> 01:03:11,280
Speaker 1: that Michael taught me in the very beginning of this,

1020
01:03:11,440 --> 01:03:15,560
Speaker 1: because you know, I started this, um maybe about two

1021
01:03:15,600 --> 01:03:18,840
Speaker 1: or three years ago. One thing that Michael said to

1022
01:03:18,880 --> 01:03:21,120
Speaker 1: me that resonated with me, because you know, I was

1023
01:03:21,160 --> 01:03:24,600
Speaker 1: out doing these you know, like I call them parades now,

1024
01:03:24,600 --> 01:03:28,120
Speaker 1: which are like liberal marches, um, you know, yelling at

1025
01:03:28,120 --> 01:03:30,120
Speaker 1: buildings when I wants in, and you know, then going

1026
01:03:30,160 --> 01:03:34,040
Speaker 1: home and feeling good about what I did. UM. And

1027
01:03:34,080 --> 01:03:38,040
Speaker 1: he said, you know, Mandy, he said, every single social

1028
01:03:38,200 --> 01:03:49,840
Speaker 1: justice issue that everyone fights for, Black lives Matter, immigration, UM, disability, UM.

1029
01:03:49,880 --> 01:03:53,840
Speaker 1: You know, all of these things come together, you know, UM,

1030
01:03:53,960 --> 01:03:56,400
Speaker 1: l G, B, t Q, I A plus all of

1031
01:03:56,440 --> 01:04:00,400
Speaker 1: those people are overrepresented in the homeless population, and so

1032
01:04:00,520 --> 01:04:04,320
Speaker 1: it shakes down to that. And so I thought, you know,

1033
01:04:04,400 --> 01:04:06,480
Speaker 1: my mind was like bloan and I was like, oh

1034
01:04:06,520 --> 01:04:08,360
Speaker 1: my god, you know, I'm not her marching for people

1035
01:04:08,800 --> 01:04:15,240
Speaker 1: and the most marginalized of them are living on the street. UM.

1036
01:04:15,360 --> 01:04:19,720
Speaker 1: And there's very little help for those people because unfortunately,

1037
01:04:19,840 --> 01:04:24,200
Speaker 1: whether what whatever marginalized group of you come from, when

1038
01:04:24,240 --> 01:04:28,480
Speaker 1: you become homeless, that overtakes all of them. And there

1039
01:04:28,600 --> 01:04:32,080
Speaker 1: is a huge public hatred for unsheltered people, and it

1040
01:04:32,200 --> 01:04:36,560
Speaker 1: is my parson across the board. Um So we we

1041
01:04:36,640 --> 01:04:38,880
Speaker 1: all just need to realize that this is, you know,

1042
01:04:38,920 --> 01:04:41,520
Speaker 1: this is a societal failure and a social justice issue.

1043
01:04:42,280 --> 01:04:46,120
Speaker 1: Um And I hope that you know, more people would

1044
01:04:46,240 --> 01:04:49,320
Speaker 1: will get up and and get go to the ground

1045
01:04:49,320 --> 01:04:52,160
Speaker 1: and start talking to your unsheltered neighbors. Try to build

1046
01:04:52,200 --> 01:04:56,440
Speaker 1: a relationship with them, reach out to their humanity. Um

1047
01:04:56,480 --> 01:04:58,480
Speaker 1: And and if you just do it with one person,

1048
01:04:58,600 --> 01:05:00,880
Speaker 1: if each of us just did it with one person,

1049
01:05:01,440 --> 01:05:03,560
Speaker 1: it would make such a difference. Even if you can't

1050
01:05:03,560 --> 01:05:06,240
Speaker 1: get them in housing or you don't have a lot

1051
01:05:06,240 --> 01:05:09,400
Speaker 1: of money, literally, just treating them like a human being

1052
01:05:09,880 --> 01:05:16,920
Speaker 1: means so much to these folks. Yeah, that's that's very important. Kelly.

1053
01:05:17,040 --> 01:05:19,160
Speaker 1: What would you like to say? Where can people find you?

1054
01:05:19,160 --> 01:05:22,280
Speaker 1: How can they help? That was just like how to

1055
01:05:22,320 --> 01:05:27,040
Speaker 1: find us? Right, I know, I thought it was great.

1056
01:05:27,200 --> 01:05:31,680
Speaker 1: I welcome it all right, I thought it was really good.

1057
01:05:32,640 --> 01:05:38,520
Speaker 1: Everybody should have a Mandy. Um. I my name is

1058
01:05:38,560 --> 01:05:41,400
Speaker 1: Colleen Q. Sack c U s A C K. You

1059
01:05:41,440 --> 01:05:44,480
Speaker 1: can Google me and find me. I'm in searchable on

1060
01:05:44,520 --> 01:05:48,320
Speaker 1: the attorney directory. My number six two three or six

1061
01:05:48,360 --> 01:05:53,200
Speaker 1: three zero and my email address is C another c

1062
01:05:53,600 --> 01:06:00,560
Speaker 1: U s a c K dot policy at gmail dot com. Um,

1063
01:06:00,720 --> 01:06:04,720
Speaker 1: and I'm on Twitter at symbol O b j K

1064
01:06:04,960 --> 01:06:08,480
Speaker 1: s h N, which stands for objection. Great. Thank you,

1065
01:06:08,960 --> 01:06:13,040
Speaker 1: all right, Michael. So, I, like Mandy, I've just funded

1066
01:06:13,080 --> 01:06:17,200
Speaker 1: my work myself also except for about oh gosh, I

1067
01:06:17,200 --> 01:06:19,120
Speaker 1: don't know. A month or two ago, I was out

1068
01:06:19,160 --> 01:06:23,280
Speaker 1: on the street film in some sweeps, watching the police

1069
01:06:23,360 --> 01:06:27,560
Speaker 1: and the environmental service workers throw away people's tents and

1070
01:06:27,560 --> 01:06:31,000
Speaker 1: and I and I UM, and I said, well, I'm

1071
01:06:31,000 --> 01:06:33,480
Speaker 1: gonna go get those people some new tents. And the

1072
01:06:33,480 --> 01:06:36,400
Speaker 1: police officer told me, go ahead. We can throw them

1073
01:06:36,400 --> 01:06:39,480
Speaker 1: out faster than you can give them out. And I

1074
01:06:39,480 --> 01:06:44,160
Speaker 1: tweeted about that, and you know, I think it really,

1075
01:06:45,280 --> 01:06:48,280
Speaker 1: you know, it struck a chord with people. So I've

1076
01:06:48,280 --> 01:06:51,240
Speaker 1: had people offered to help before, but I've just had

1077
01:06:51,280 --> 01:06:54,560
Speaker 1: this real outpouring of of offerings to help lately. So

1078
01:06:55,120 --> 01:06:57,240
Speaker 1: for the first time ever, I set up a go

1079
01:06:57,400 --> 01:06:59,760
Speaker 1: fund Me, and in the first day I just said,

1080
01:06:59,800 --> 01:07:02,720
Speaker 1: you know, this is just to help support encampments that

1081
01:07:02,760 --> 01:07:05,360
Speaker 1: are impacted by the sweeps or or whatever is needed,

1082
01:07:05,400 --> 01:07:08,920
Speaker 1: and to support other grassroots people like Mandy who are

1083
01:07:08,920 --> 01:07:11,160
Speaker 1: out there. And I think I raised about three thousand

1084
01:07:11,240 --> 01:07:13,200
Speaker 1: dollars in the first day, and I was like, wow

1085
01:07:13,880 --> 01:07:17,280
Speaker 1: that it really was touching because you know, I didn't

1086
01:07:17,320 --> 01:07:19,840
Speaker 1: even hardly. I just put it out on Twitter, I think,

1087
01:07:20,600 --> 01:07:24,040
Speaker 1: and I haven't promoted it much since, but I think

1088
01:07:24,040 --> 01:07:27,720
Speaker 1: we're up to six or seven thousand dollars use that

1089
01:07:29,960 --> 01:07:35,920
Speaker 1: every day. I don't where are you the Uh I'm retired,

1090
01:07:35,960 --> 01:07:38,520
Speaker 1: so I get to do this uh all day long.

1091
01:07:39,040 --> 01:07:41,240
Speaker 1: People like Mandy, they have a job. They're doing this

1092
01:07:41,280 --> 01:07:46,600
Speaker 1: as a second job that's unpaid. So um so what

1093
01:07:46,640 --> 01:07:50,320
Speaker 1: I do is is is is help. Uh is the

1094
01:07:50,400 --> 01:07:55,200
Speaker 1: buy stuff? I help other I funneled money to other organizations.

1095
01:07:56,280 --> 01:08:00,800
Speaker 1: I also UH promote that it uh go fund me

1096
01:08:01,720 --> 01:08:04,440
Speaker 1: of other people on my social media site. So I

1097
01:08:04,440 --> 01:08:07,720
Speaker 1: really would appreciate you following me. On Twitter, it's at

1098
01:08:07,800 --> 01:08:13,960
Speaker 1: Homelessness s D at Homelessness SD. On Facebook, it's Homelessness

1099
01:08:14,000 --> 01:08:18,200
Speaker 1: New San Diego. On on Instagram it's the same, and

1100
01:08:18,320 --> 01:08:22,000
Speaker 1: on YouTube it's I think it's Homelessness New San Diego

1101
01:08:22,080 --> 01:08:25,040
Speaker 1: on YouTube. I just started a YouTube page. Well actually

1102
01:08:25,040 --> 01:08:26,639
Speaker 1: I started a long time ago, but I just started

1103
01:08:26,640 --> 01:08:29,560
Speaker 1: posting stuff on there. I have a lot of followers.

1104
01:08:29,600 --> 01:08:34,080
Speaker 1: It's a pretty active conversation. Especially on Twitter, I get

1105
01:08:34,080 --> 01:08:37,439
Speaker 1: the bear's people lashing out at me, attacking me because

1106
01:08:37,479 --> 01:08:41,120
Speaker 1: they don't like me calling them out. Um, I get

1107
01:08:41,400 --> 01:08:43,840
Speaker 1: you know, I get haters on there too. I let

1108
01:08:43,880 --> 01:08:50,040
Speaker 1: them voice their opinion. Uh, I let the conversation flow. Um.

1109
01:08:50,080 --> 01:08:52,320
Speaker 1: But what I do is your what And I do

1110
01:08:52,400 --> 01:08:56,879
Speaker 1: warn you that, especially on Twitter, it's heart wrenching stuff.

1111
01:08:57,280 --> 01:08:59,720
Speaker 1: So I'm out here on the ground, I'm seeing people die,

1112
01:09:00,479 --> 01:09:03,360
Speaker 1: I'm seeing horrible stuff and I'm sharing it with you

1113
01:09:03,520 --> 01:09:06,400
Speaker 1: because I think people deserve to know the truth. So

1114
01:09:06,520 --> 01:09:09,360
Speaker 1: elected officials like Mayor Todd Gloria, they don't want you

1115
01:09:09,400 --> 01:09:11,439
Speaker 1: to know the truth. But I'm gonna bring it to you.

1116
01:09:12,320 --> 01:09:15,160
Speaker 1: I've worked every day to bring you the truth that's

1117
01:09:15,200 --> 01:09:17,000
Speaker 1: going on out here on the street. And it's ugly,

1118
01:09:17,640 --> 01:09:22,599
Speaker 1: it's it's but it's also I also see some amazing stuff.

1119
01:09:22,880 --> 01:09:26,759
Speaker 1: I also see some amazing, heartwarming stuff, people helping people.

1120
01:09:28,120 --> 01:09:31,360
Speaker 1: So it's everything, but it's it's a roller coaster ride, folks,

1121
01:09:31,400 --> 01:09:35,760
Speaker 1: So you know, just be prepared and from there you

1122
01:09:35,800 --> 01:09:39,280
Speaker 1: can find my go fund me. Um. But most of all,

1123
01:09:40,200 --> 01:09:42,880
Speaker 1: you can get educated on the issue, make up your

1124
01:09:42,920 --> 01:09:46,680
Speaker 1: own mind. Uh, don't just listen to the bullshit that's

1125
01:09:46,680 --> 01:09:49,640
Speaker 1: spewed out of city hall. Uh, see it on the

1126
01:09:49,680 --> 01:09:55,600
Speaker 1: ground for yourself. Take people out with me. Uh. I

1127
01:09:55,640 --> 01:09:57,880
Speaker 1: do a lot of work with the media, but but

1128
01:09:58,040 --> 01:10:02,960
Speaker 1: just just just joy in the conversation, join the conversation, learn,

1129
01:10:03,720 --> 01:10:06,519
Speaker 1: donate if you want to learn where you can donate

1130
01:10:06,560 --> 01:10:09,760
Speaker 1: your time to other people. Yeah, message me, you can

1131
01:10:09,800 --> 01:10:15,000
Speaker 1: cut me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're just real people out

1132
01:10:15,000 --> 01:10:19,559
Speaker 1: there doing, you know, doing stuff. And I worked within

1133
01:10:19,640 --> 01:10:21,839
Speaker 1: the system trying to I went to all these meetings.

1134
01:10:22,680 --> 01:10:26,320
Speaker 1: I spent a whole ton of money within the within

1135
01:10:26,360 --> 01:10:30,040
Speaker 1: the mainstream system, which I'll never do again because it's

1136
01:10:30,040 --> 01:10:33,479
Speaker 1: a black hole. So I mostly promote grassroots stuff now

1137
01:10:34,400 --> 01:10:38,080
Speaker 1: and we're just out there doing it and and doing

1138
01:10:38,120 --> 01:10:41,559
Speaker 1: what we can uh in a very difficult situation. But

1139
01:10:41,760 --> 01:10:45,639
Speaker 1: join the conversation and see what's going on. And that's James.

1140
01:10:45,640 --> 01:10:48,719
Speaker 1: I just I appreciate all your support over the years,

1141
01:10:49,000 --> 01:10:53,840
Speaker 1: um uh, both amplifying our messages, getting messages out on

1142
01:10:53,880 --> 01:10:56,760
Speaker 1: social media, and just for everything that you do on

1143
01:10:56,840 --> 01:11:02,320
Speaker 1: social justice issues and and and safety issue is um

1144
01:11:02,360 --> 01:11:06,360
Speaker 1: so I can hold them accountable on the bike stuff, yeah, absolutely,

1145
01:11:06,360 --> 01:11:09,320
Speaker 1: well do that's another episode. I will plug leavi on

1146
01:11:09,400 --> 01:11:11,880
Speaker 1: Levi's behalf because I leave, I had to jump off

1147
01:11:11,880 --> 01:11:15,400
Speaker 1: to sort out an emergency. But it's homeful Solutions, which

1148
01:11:15,439 --> 01:11:20,679
Speaker 1: on Twitter is at the Solution nine. You can find

1149
01:11:20,720 --> 01:11:23,519
Speaker 1: them there and leave. I can help folks if they

1150
01:11:23,520 --> 01:11:27,360
Speaker 1: are in San Diego access services and so yeah, that's

1151
01:11:27,800 --> 01:11:30,639
Speaker 1: being us today. Please do follow these people. Please get

1152
01:11:30,640 --> 01:11:32,360
Speaker 1: out and try and be a good neighbor to the

1153
01:11:32,360 --> 01:11:35,479
Speaker 1: young housed community. Wherever you are, feel free to reach

1154
01:11:35,479 --> 01:11:37,519
Speaker 1: out to any of us if you need some help

1155
01:11:37,600 --> 01:11:39,439
Speaker 1: or advice on how to do that or want to

1156
01:11:39,439 --> 01:11:42,280
Speaker 1: come out here in San Diego. All right, thank you

1157
01:11:42,400 --> 01:11:45,240
Speaker 1: very much. Everyone appreciate you taking some of your afternoons.