SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey guys, welcome to Is It Legit Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about a subject that's very near and dear to us because we both live in, well, we live in Washington and we live close to Seattle, and we have seen Seattle really morph into something that we really don't like. And I'm sure a lot of people have heard of this, people who don't live in Seattle. And the question really is if you look at places in like LA, San Francisco, Portland, or even uh Seattle, as you guys have heard, and it really is not it's as bad as people think. Why do we keep voting in the same people when we are we're getting worse and worse results, right? Um, why are we allowing this rampant drug use, this homelessness to continue? Uh, and we're supposedly spending a lot of federal dollars uh into all of this. And so that's what we're gonna be talking about today. Again, Johnny is here with me. And uh, yeah, John, let's talk about it. So, uh question number one. Um, again, the kind of big picture is we're spending billions of dollars, okay, um, on this homelessness issue. Uh and yet we're seeing the visible crisis get worse and worse. And a little background on myself, guys, I've actually uh I've helped with I've had a nonprofit helping homeless people for over 10 years. And so I I actually I I have some insights to talk about. But what what do you think is actually uh going on? Why is there visible disorder even after spending literally billions of dollars into this uh homeless issue?

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Yeah, so this problem. Um, let's let's talk about some data. Uh so like Peter's like Peter mentioned, we've spent on the on the West Coast up to billions of dollars every single year, and we still have visible homeless issues. Washington state in particular, so our state in particular has uh 31,554 people experiencing homelessness in 2024, which is a 12.5 increase from 2023. And now we have the third highest homeless population in the U.S. after California and New York, which is a shocking and not so nice statistic. However, um, and we were just talking off camera about this in 2025, so last year, 158,791 people were in emergency shelters or unhoused. So maybe not technically homeless on the street, but in shelters. I mean, to put that into context, 158,000 people is the criteria that we use when we look for commercial properties, right? To be in a certain city, but we have that in shelters, which is crazy. I mean, if you add that and the actual homeless population together, that's almost 200,000 people. Uh Portland's, you know, still terrible in this regard. Uh the Tri-County area had 12,000 people experiencing homelessness in 2025, which is a 61% increase in 2023.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

That's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

That is a crazy, crazy statistic. So, so Peter, I mean, what what do you think is in the the heart of this problem? Is it that we are just too permissive? Is it that like what is the issue?

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, again, a subject near and dear to my heart. Um and and of course, we haven't even talked about California. California is the worst out of all of these, right? Um, I was doing some research on this, and and California is really uh in bad state. And you know, it's crazy because I walk I walk around California, I walk around like LA or or San Francisco, and and it's a it's a zoo, dude. Like it's so bad. It it feels unsafe. I feel unsafe, and I'm not really I I've been around homeless people for a very long time. And uh not only that, I you know, I we're seeing feces. I mean, I remember one time I went to Portland now, shortly, this was shortly after uh COVID, but there was literally feces everywhere. There's poop everywhere, homeless people all around the ground. I'm not talking like in like a corner somewhere next to a like a store typically. I'm talking everywhere, like on the street, just out there in the open. And of course, we see people on drugs, fentanyl, right? And and these are very powerful drugs. And so um, it's just very, very sad to see, you know, the the like dystopia, right, that you see in in some of these um western states. And so okay, so we're spending billion, we're gonna talk about the spending, right? Because we're spending so much money um on homelessness. And I believe, first of all, I believe there is some fraud going on. I actually do believe that actually is happening. Um, it's not only Minnesota or Minneapolis, right? I believe a lot of fraud is going on with you know this effort to help homelessness, uh, which needs to be investigated immediately. And then secondly, uh, I believe that we are trying we're we're putting we're putting a band-aid over an infected wound. We're I understand people's sentiments. Listen, I understand the heart to help people who are experiencing homelessness, um, but to just give away a bunch of stuff is not the answer. Okay. There shouldn't be a hundred and fifty-eight thousand people in shelters. That's a systematic problem. So I've read a book called Um When Helping Hurts. It was one of the most transforming, it's actually how I um how my ministry was based upon. And the book was about how you have to avoid paternalism, which is doing things for people in which they can do themselves. And by giving, so the thing is like you think a good parent is just giving, like your kids, just doing everything for them, right? You you literally put the spoon to their mouth, you you you you chew for them, you spit into their mouth, you know what I mean? Like they fall, you pick them up, you know, all that stuff, right? That is not developmentally good for the child or for a person. And that's kind of how we our philosophy was. See, the problem is when you give someone, okay, someone who has had trauma, someone who has uh, you know, mental issues, mental disorders, which I believe get exacerbated being on the streets, to be honest. When you give this person clothing, shelter, you give this person um really everything the body needs, right? I know what happens in the streets. Okay. I I've heard, I've talked to them. A lot of them are very candid and very real with me. You know, a lot of those guys they use any extra money on either alcohol or on drugs. Sure. And that's what it is. And they believe that they can sustain a lifestyle of just living on the street because you get so much handouts that no one wants to change. So the reason why I know this is because I believe it was 2016. Um, what's crazy is they just made I I don't know if you remember, but there was a there was a huge headline about how they put billions of dollars into helping homelessness, okay. Billions of dollars. And what's funny is um I was on the streets back then, like not me personally, but I was like actually out there trying to help these people, trying to get people's mindsets to change. I used to do training modules, okay, on personal development and to get people off the street. And I actually had a good following of people. It was great, honestly. I like it. We were making some incredible progress. People wanted to talk to us, people wanted to change. Um, the problem was in 2016, they made this massive injections. Homelessness doubled. I'm talking like almost a hundred percent increase in homelessness after they made this big injection. People did not want to talk to me. They did not want to change. They didn't even want to go like free. I'll give you free, free uh lunch. Let's just grab lunch. They didn't even want to talk to me, right? As much as like, as like charismatic, I you know, I tried to be, no one would want to like change. And the big realization there, and and I saw visibly like drugs were getting uh way worse. It was getting dangerous for because I had a bunch of volunteers come with me. We went to like the heart of the homelessness, and I just saw things get so much worse. And that's where it was it was very eye-opening that just giving free handouts is not going to solve the issue. You have to solve, you know, very important things. For example, like mental health. If you have mental health issues, you you're not going to be a functioning person in society. The other problem is we have to solve this drug problem. There were so much drugs going in into um Washington State, you know, call it through immigration, whatever it is. I don't really know, but we have to solve that problem because if you don't, I mean, we it no one's gonna get better when drugs are just free and you know anyone can use it. And cops are what are cops doing? You know, and this has always been my question. Like, you're clearly doing something illegal, right? You're clear, I've seen people shoot up in front of me almost like once a month. I I could see people visibly doing drugs in front of me, and even like we like it was it was legal then or illegal then, right? But like people just do drugs and and you know, no problem. So, anyway, this is kind of what I saw. I believe that the solution is, yeah, again, we need to have more AA, more NA. We have to have mental health institutions. People really need to change. We also need to stop enabling. I actually believe in doing less resources. We have to stop enabling people from living off of a system, right? They have to, I think there should be aid. If you are willing to work, you can eat. We'll help you, but you have to be willing to work, you have to be willing to do something, anything, manual labor. Because if you're not willing to work, you don't eat and you die. I and and I know that sounds really like cold, but that's just the way the world has always worked. Never in society, right? Like, has it been like, hey, here's hand-me downs, even though you don't you don't contribute to society. Never. So long-winded answer, but I'm very passionate about this. That's that's that's my answer to that.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Yeah, I mean, I grew up in Hawaii, and uh one of the things that we um always knew was that there were different areas and different parks, even. Uh, there was a park called Ala Park that we all knew when we said that word, it was like a homeless park, like in the middle of Chinatown and downtown. I've been there. Yeah. I actually saw it. So it's something that I've always known about. It's something that you know, as a kid you wonder, like even kit, my kids now, you know, we talk about homelessness, and when you when you stop on the intersection and there's a guy who's asking for dollars, and it's like you feel bad, and then me and my wife have to talk them through like, well, why is that person on the street? Why does he look like that? Or, you know, whatever. And I also do think that it comes down to so let's so let's uh let's kind of close this topic by because this is one of the pillars of the issues in the West Coast cities, right? So homelessness is driven by three main factors uh lack of affordable housing. Uh that's that's for sure, addiction to you know drugs or gambling or uh even abuse, um, and untreated mental health issues. And so it's not just poverty alone. So I think that maybe humanizes the problem, but then again, the issue on why we can spend so much money. I mean, again, hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in certain states and districts, is cities are adding shelters and services, but without the mandatory treatment, for example, maybe therapy or uh like actual medical treatment on maybe they're they're trying to mass some pain, right? I know a lot of people who even had legitimate surgeries, back surgeries, knee surgeries, whatever, and got just addicted to pain pills, and they don't have counseling to be able to wean off of that, for example. Like I had a quick story is I remember I was coming out of a shoulder surgery, and they were looking at me weird because they asked me, Do you want some pain pills? And I said, I don't really need pain pills because I think I'll be okay. And they're like, No, I think you need pain pills. And they gave they literally prescribed me. So this is oxycodone, uh, which is the the narcotic pain pill.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Very powerful drug.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

They gave me literally a hundred oxycodone pills, a hundred. Because they probably looked at me, you know, I'm a bigger guy, you know, stuff like that. And I'm like, I don't, I'm okay. Like, I've been through the surgery before, so I knew what I was getting myself into. I even uh denied what's called a nerve block to kind of numb everything because I wanted to feel and be aware, so I don't bang it, stuff like that. But they just gave it to me as super nonchalantly, right? Probably incentives to do that. Yeah, that's a whole nother topic, right? What's hospitals and doctors get incentivized by drug reps and you know, farm reps, pharmaceutical reps? So, anyway, it's it's the giving, but without the treatment, the enforcement, and the coordinated housing. Uh, maybe you know it should be mandatory to have a shelter, but also with screening, for example. Yeah, totally. Kids at school, they have counselors. So you fight with a friend of the yard. Well, you go to your teacher, then your counselor, then maybe your principal, right? Um, so it's clear that as we dive into the other issues, uh, which have a lot to do with budgeting, that more money spent doesn't equal a problem solved. Um so the next thing we can talk about is budget shortfalls. I know we talked about this briefly. So the question, the other question is why does Washington, Oregon, and California keep running into budget shortfalls even after repeated tax hikes and bigger government? So, Peter, what do you uh what are your thoughts on this?

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah, let's actually go through some statistics. Washington is facing a $5.1 billion operating shortfall in 2025 to 2027. Oregon has a $372.7 million gap uh from 2027, 2025 to 2027. Um, California has the biggest problem. Governor Newsom, 2026, 2027, literally a year uh worth of budget. Uh, the proposal shows a $21 billion general fund shortfall. Massive, right? Um, so here's the thing: uh a lot of these states are broke, right now, there's a a lot of things we could talk about that, right? It's like there's there's theories, but you know, at least from my point of view right now, is that listen, you can't just keep first of all, fraud. I feel like there's a lot of fraud going on, you know, governments inside governments, and you know, a lot of people taking advantage of the governments again. When you're in places where it's free handouts, you know, here's a bunch of free stuff. Of course, people are probably taking advantage of the system. I'm sure you've heard of people who had uh social security, right? Uh of dead people, and people are collecting on social security and like Medicare and like all this stuff on dead people, dude. Um, so so that's one, but then also like being in a place where it sounds so good. As again, like I think these guys are being voted in because it sounds so good to be like, hey, you know, here's a bunch of free stuff. I know you're struggling, and that already strikes such a huge chord. Here's a bunch of free stuff. Let's tax the rich. The problem is, is the rich leave, right? As we've been seeing, and we did a podcast on it where the rich leave. And then secondly, um, we it's not like this money is going to like coming from nowhere. That's our money, dude. Our property taxes. That's our you know, our the taxes that we pay. The it's going to these programs that clearly don't work, like the homelessness issue, right? That that's a clear thing where, like I said, you know, it's not a problem with them having a bunch of free stuff. It's the it's the the the system, the way to fix the homelessness does not work. Okay. One funny thing about uh just I just want to say a quick statistic about Korea, because you go to Korea and dude, you will rarely see a homeless person. You you see that guy with the no legs, there it's fake, a lot of these guys, right? Um, no, it is, it's like a well-known thing, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:42

No, well, for context, there's uh there's a lot of uh like train stations and uh subway stations, and there's people that hang out in these hallways, and there's people that are like professional, you know, homeless people that beggars, yeah, yeah. Yeah, beggars, and they there's it's it's like a thing where you have these like slightly too long short pants that kind of make you look like you have no legs, and I'm sure some of them, you know, maybe they're in the war or something. Yeah, maybe anyway. That's that's I I just laugh because I remember that from my childhood.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Yeah. The okay, so this is 2024 statistic, right? Dude, in the whole nation of Korea, the whole nation, there's 12,000 people, 12,725 people annually that are experiencing homelessness. Okay, that's uh since 2021, so the last three years, it's been down 11.6 percent. Okay. Again, it just for context, there's a hundred and fifty eight thousand people in shelters and thirty-one thousand five hundred and fire people experiencing homelessness in just the state of Washington, and it's been increasing versus Korea. See, the I think the big difference is that Koreans believe that if you don't work, you starve. This is normal, man. Like you don't work, you starve. Like this, this is there's no like fallback. Uh you get a bunch of free stuff from the government. There's none of that stuff because we're not going to incentivize you to stay homeless, okay? You gotta contribute to society. Of course, we're our GDP, you know, is not growing as much as we would because we're incentivizing people not to work. Same thing with Medicare and all that, like you know, honestly, there's a lot of incentives not to work, okay? Um, but getting to the the the actual um issue, the budget. So at the end of the day, like we're we're like we have a budget shortfall, we're kicking out the millionaires, right? We're charging people for a vacant, or I that's a proposal to charge people for a vacancy tax. So our millionaires, people who bring jobs, are leaving, right? We're giving a bunch of free stuff to homeless people, which obviously doesn't work and it demands a lot more money. So we're mismanaging the funds. But I will say Washington State is broke, and there's plenty of cities right now that are broke. And uh, you know, and then who are the other cities that that are also broke? New York, right? And you see what's happening in New York. There's a lot of homeless people in New York. There's probably number one, or uh, you know, second to maybe California, right? And so you're seeing it clearly not working, the system doesn't work. So I guess my question and my frustration is like, why do they keep doing it? Why did why do they keep allowing this? This stuff doesn't work. This is true.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

This is true.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

So this is like why I, you know, it it boggles my mind, and um, and and we've tried this for so many years. One of the things I will say is like Spellman was the last. Uh this okay, sorry, this this guy named John Spellman was elected in 1981. He was the last Republican um governor. Every other governor since 19 uh uh eighty-five is what when when he ended, has been Democrat, dude. And we've we've been seeing this Washington has so much potential, it's a port city, it's like great, but we've seen just Washington turn into you know crap, you know, in in the last two decades. Like I barely go to Washington because I don't I don't want to go there, it's dangerous. Or Seattle, right? Like the oh, sorry, sorry, Seattle.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

So so yeah, what do you think? Like why is this happening? I mean, I've heard that even from the friends that I have that grew up here, you know. Like I have friends that say, Oh, I don't go to Seattle. And for me, Seattle was like, you know, the the the Emerald City, you know, uh sleepless in Seattle. Like I I'm from Hawaii, so I'm I'm looking at Seattle like through a different lens. And when you when I I remember when I first got here in 2008, you know, I Remember taking uh the Orca bus because I didn't have a car or anything, and I would just go to the library and just walk around and you know it felt like a real city, like uh like uh West Coast New York or whatever, whatever you call call it. But um the other thing before because cause I do want to uh talk about why it keeps happening, but I think the other last thing we want to mention is public drug use. So this unfortunately I think ties into the policies that our government um continues to uphold, but public drug use keeps on showing up even when it's illegal and clearly destructive, right? So we also have an addiction problem to these pharmaceuticals and it or just heroin or you know um just um uh drugs. Addiction turns it into a public health and enforcement challenge at the same time. Nationally, 70.5 million people, ages 12 plus, uh, have used illegal drugs or misuse prescriptions in the last year. So this goes back to my my surgery story, right? I mean, 25% of Americans all across the states, ages 12 plus have used illegal drugs or misuse prescriptions. I've heard of stories where kids have had access to their parents' prescriptions, right? To pain pills. Or again, the the the injury and the surgeries and coming out of that, people get addicted and kind of ruin their lives. I've I've heard of that, you know, uh over and over again. Um and I and there's some thought that even this addiction, um, overdose and addiction crises are so visible that they directly shape voting behavior, um, which may tie in to the reason why we have more democratic um, you know, candidates, right? Um so anyway, we keep doing decriminalization, we do uh enforcement, or we even talked about you know the big topic was uh the defunding the police. I mean, that was that's insane. One of the craziest, most ridiculous personally things that I've ever heard. Like the idea that you think society is so insulated that we can do without police people, police officers and women, and like that's the crit like I I don't think people understand the reason why we are so safe is because of those people. Like I've heard so many look, I've gotten a lot of traffic tickets, right? I joke around about this with you and my other friends, but sure, I've I've had a lot of opportunities to meet police officers, not in the best light, but I also know real police officers doing real jobs that are terrible, like you know, having to deal with literal feces. Like I've had a a good friend back home, he became a police officer, and we all knew each other through church. And every time we would meet, he would tell me some crazy story. And the last story I remember hearing from him was that he was in Waikiki, which is a famous beach in Hawaii, and a homeless guy came up to him, and he literally like threw his poo at him. Oh my gosh, right? Oh my gosh. I mean, these are real stories of real people dealing with real things, so I think you know, maybe we can just end with so we talked about homelessness, we talked about budgets, we talked about drug use, which I think they're all tied together. But how do we not elect the same leaders and policies? And how do we stop this from happening? And but what do you think it's happening now?

SPEAKER_01 26:02

It I mean, it's happening because uh a lot so from the data that I've read, it's the people are following personalities, they don't really understand the policies, they don't understand how that affects the economy. They're not economists, right? People are just following people as oh, Katie Wilson seems like she's a nice gal, right? She's kind, she's compassionate, right? That's why she got voted in, dude. It's not because you know, she's she really understands economy. She has no like background in economics or anything like that. She just, you know, she she gave what people want to hear. But of course, what people want to hear is not what's necessarily good for the public. And so um, I think that's from what I'm reading, that's why people these guys keep get getting voted in. Um, and of course, you know, there could be, you know, conspiral things like campaigns, like you know, the Soros is funding a lot of this, you know, behind the scenes and you know, you giving giving a lot of publicity to get more votes, right? Because if you have a whole bunch of money, you can change the mindsets of people, then of course, you know, it's it's not that hard to get voted in. So, um, but yeah, I mean, I like that I I believe that's what is happening, and it's like we're so strong. Uh again, regardless whether you're red or blue, I will say we're very strong in the blue, um, very democratic, and it's so hard for anybody. I I know people who have tried, it's so hard to to infiltrate that. They're so stuck in in their ways. And at the end of the day, it's like it's not working, right? It's it's it's only getting worse, it's getting worse, right? It it doesn't even like California. I I I used to love California. I don't like going over there. It's it's worse in Seattle, in my opinion. So um, but we should end there because I, you know, I I do have to go, but um, yeah. Any final thoughts before we end?

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Uh, I think, I mean, like you said, identity politics is very strong. Um, you know, we do tend to follow personalities, and it is difficult when you come home from work and you have kids and you have responsibilities and you have to clean the house and do this to actually sit down and think about politics. It's much easier to consume and to be told what to do or what to think. And to be honest, I do that too. I don't have time to sit down and think about every little thing and extrapolate that to the ends of the earth. But at the same time, as you're voting, as you're making choices, it should be informed. You know, as you vote every few years for different people and different offices and you know, different levels of state uh and and federal government. I think politics is where this is this is the biggest, the best advice that I've heard from my my stepdad from way back when in the day, because I was asking him questions like this. And he said, You just have to follow the money. Follow the money, it will take you to where the truth is. You see where the campaign contributions are coming from. You see where these homeless, like in California, these homeless uh program directors are getting paid like a quarter million to half a million dollars a year. It's kind of like paying, you know, it's like you're incentivizing the wrong outcome, right? It's like if I sell a house for more money, I should get paid more and not less. It's like it's not the right idea. So I think if you really follow the money and kind of follow where, if you just calmly take the approach of, okay, well, is this policy actually going to turn out to be like this? You can study history, you can look at other examples from different countries or states or or what have you. Um, but I think awareness is key and understanding that just increasing the budget, increasing the taxes is not necessarily the the way, the way out. Because we're clearly still having budgeting issues, even though our revenues are high and taxes are being proposed. So uh you gotta you gotta vote with your hands, you know. And um, to vote, I think you need to be aware. So sounds good.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Well, thank you guys for watching. Um, we're gonna have more content like this. Again, we're from the uh greater Seattle area, and we see it uh, you know, live. And so uh we're happy to report on what's going on. Please like and subscribe for more of this kind of content. And we'll see, we'll see you guys on the next video.