In this episode of the California Underground Podcast, host Phil dives into the early presidential ambitions of California Governor Gavin Newsom, exploring his strategic moves in South Carolina and the implications for the Democratic primary. The episode also tackles California's housing crisis, examining recent legislative changes and their potential impact on urban development. Additionally, Phil discusses the controversy surrounding the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and the challenges of accountability in homelessness spending. Tune in for an insightful analysis of California politics and governance. Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe to stay updated with the latest episodes!
Are you a Californian who feels isolated and alone in your political views in a deep blue state? Feel like you can’t talk about insane taxes, an overbearing government, and radical social experiments without getting a side eye? Then join us on the California Underground Podcast, the most trusted podcast on all things California politics.
Original air date 7.15.25
Chapters
00:00 Gavin Newsom's Presidential Aspirations
16:34 California's Housing Crisis and Legislative Actions
32:51 Government Oversight and Accountability in California
38:43 Corruption and Mismanagement in Homeless Services
45:43 The Homeless Industrial Complex: A Financial Drain
49:23 Success Stories: Private Charities Making a Difference
55:23 The Case for Nonprofits Over Government Solutions
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00:00:00
Gavin Newsom gets his presidential run started very
00:00:03
early out in South Carolina. California is supposedly super
00:00:07
serious about housing this time around, and the former head of
00:00:11
the Los Angeles Homeless Service Agency was found to have done no
00:00:15
wrongdoing when giving $2 to her husband's non
00:00:19
profit. All that and more coming up on
00:00:21
this episode of the California Underground podcast, starting
00:00:24
right now. What's going on, everybody?
00:00:42
Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the California
00:00:44
Underground Podcast, the most trusted podcast for all things
00:00:48
California politics. I am your host, Phil.
00:00:50
We have a ton of stories to get to tonight, plus some more and
00:00:54
maybe some more good news, like to end the show on some good
00:00:57
news as well. But let's before you get
00:00:59
started, if you haven't already, please help out the channel by
00:01:02
making sure you like share, comment, review.
00:01:05
All of that stuff helps with the algorithm, helps more people
00:01:07
find us. Let's get started with our first
00:01:10
story of the night. We all knew it was coming.
00:01:17
We knew he's been laying the groundwork.
00:01:20
And this past week, Gavin Newsom finally took the first step to
00:01:23
run for president of the United States.
00:01:26
That's right. Gavin Newsom made a trip to
00:01:30
South Carolina for some reason regarding getting federal
00:01:35
dollars and help or something about that and something about
00:01:37
Trump. But regardless, South Carolina's
00:01:39
pretty important in the Democratic primary.
00:01:41
So why is he out there? Well, we'll watch this story and
00:01:44
then we'll get into it. Welcome back in here to LIVE NOW
00:01:49
from Fox. I'm 80, Mac.
00:01:50
This next story has me asking myself, what year is it?
00:01:55
The 2028 presidential election is more than three years out,
00:02:01
but some potential candidates are already meeting the voters
00:02:04
in some early key primary states.
00:02:07
And as we know, the race for the White House is a marathon, not a
00:02:11
Sprint. California Governor Gavin Newsom
00:02:14
is one of those potential candidates.
00:02:16
We'll be joined right now by Fox's Asher Red as he follows
00:02:20
the Democrat on a 2 day tour of rural South Carolina.
00:02:24
Thank you so much for joining us from Lawrence, South Carolina in
00:02:27
the Palmetto State. What did you hear from Newsom?
00:02:30
What was his message to voters? A long way out.
00:02:36
Well, good evening, Andy. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat from
00:02:39
California, traveled all the way here to rural South Carolina to
00:02:43
pitch his political views to historically Republican voters.
00:02:48
Now, this church behind me is where his last events of the day
00:02:50
just wrapped up, and he's already headed back to
00:02:52
California. But Newsom isn't the only one
00:02:55
who seems to be testing the waters of a possible
00:02:58
presidential bid. For many, it feels like the 2024
00:03:05
campaign just ended. But that's not stopping
00:03:07
potential candidates from getting an early start on 2028I.
00:03:11
Need some coffee? If Governor Newsom does decide
00:03:15
to run for president, an official announcement likely
00:03:17
won't come for quite some time. But that didn't stop the
00:03:20
California Democrat from bringing his message to voters
00:03:23
in rural South Carolina this week.
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Question is how do we not only repair the party brand, repair
00:03:28
this nation, and how do we move from a defensive posture to an
00:03:31
inspiring vision? And so that has to also be the
00:03:33
project that can occurs concurrently as we push back
00:03:37
against Trump and Trumpism, Newsom told.
00:03:39
So if you notice, he's going to be talking about repairing the
00:03:42
brand of Democratic politics. He's been doing a lot of this,
00:03:47
trying to move more towards the middle, trying to make himself
00:03:51
more moderate. This is why he's going to South
00:03:52
Carolina is a red state and there's a lot of Republican
00:03:56
voters out there. A lot of moderate Democrats will
00:03:58
get into sort of the breakdown of the voters.
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But that is why he's, you can tell he's kind of laying the
00:04:04
groundwork of a national message, not just, hey, I'm from
00:04:07
here from California. I'm here to talk to you about
00:04:09
how wonderful California is. He's preparing that national
00:04:13
message. People in South Carolina that
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the country needs less political polarization, and that's
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something a lot of voters here are thinking about, too.
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I think the polarization isn't going to end, which is why we
00:04:24
need strong Democrats to combat that.
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Other Democrats stirring speculation about.
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I don't think the polarization is going to end.
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So we need strong Democrat, OK? I mean, you're just buying into
00:04:37
the political politicization and the political tribalism, but OK.
00:04:41
Potential White House runs include Illinois Governor JB
00:04:43
Pritzker. He spoke at a Democratic
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fundraiser in New Hampshire in April.
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In May, former transportation secretary and 2020 Democratic
00:04:51
candidate Pete Buttigieg held a town hall in Iowa.
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There's also no natural frontrunners in the Democratic
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Party. You know, they, they kind of
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have a a spotty bench. It's.
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A little bit anybody's game if you can get out there and build
00:05:11
a reputation. Some political analysts say the
00:05:14
early bird approach could help candidates build name
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recognition while they test out their pitch to voters.
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Some of the what's going on, I think probably too, is political
00:05:22
messaging. And you know what, what works
00:05:25
and what doesn't work and what resonates with people.
00:05:30
And Republicans are also heading to early primary states as well.
00:05:35
Just later this summer, Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia is
00:05:39
expected to speak at events both in Iowa and right here in South
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Carolina. Andy, all right, thank you so
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much. It's always interesting when we
00:05:47
see these potential candidates always make stops,
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coincidentally, in early primary states.
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Gavin Newsom, though, is pushed back that he's not seeking a bid
00:05:57
for the White House, right? He did reiterate he's not.
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He's not in publicly at least, seeking any Oval Office position
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as of right now. Obviously that could change.
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Be us. Sorry, must have caught
00:06:18
something in my throat. Especially if he flew from
00:06:21
California all the way here to South Carolina to do this.
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But in 2026, think about it. Governor Newsom will be out of a
00:06:27
job practically because he is term limited for governor of
00:06:31
California. We asked him if he think if he
00:06:33
thinks Kamala Harris would take his position and he said he
00:06:36
doesn't know that either, but he wouldn't be surprised.
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All right, very good. My last.
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Question. All right, so South Carolina,
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it's no coincidence that Gavin Newsom just showed up in South
00:06:48
Carolina, right? It's no, it's not like he picked
00:06:52
it out of the hat or for whatever BS reason he came up
00:06:56
with that he wanted to go to South Carolina because he thinks
00:06:59
they needed federal dollars for disaster relief or, or something
00:07:02
like that. None of that is really what he's
00:07:07
doing. It is so blatantly obvious that
00:07:10
Gavin Newsom is slowly but surely building up his platform,
00:07:15
testing out his message in these red states, testing it out
00:07:19
moderates. You've seen him on these
00:07:21
podcasts. He was on the Sean Ryan podcast
00:07:23
where he was gifted a gun and they had to make sure his
00:07:27
California compliant, of course, has to be on the California
00:07:29
handgun roster, which is completely unconstitutional.
00:07:31
But that's a whole different story.
00:07:33
And he says, oh, I'm I'm not anti gun.
00:07:36
I'm not, I'm I'm actually, I just want common sense gun
00:07:39
control. Yeah, OK.
00:07:40
This coming from the guy who signed off on basically
00:07:43
everything. Want to ban your right to carry
00:07:45
and conceal here in the in California.
00:07:47
You know, he thinks that AR15 S are these automatic weapons of
00:07:51
like war type weapons that can shoot a bajillion rounds, which
00:07:54
is 1 Press of the God Mode button.
00:07:57
This is no coincidence that he ended up in South Carolina.
00:08:01
Why is it not a coincidence? Well, strategically, and they
00:08:06
alluded to that in the video, South Carolina is one of the
00:08:08
first primary states in the Democratic primary.
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You have Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
00:08:14
It kind of goes that way. And and South Carolina is an
00:08:17
interesting state because it's one of the more conservative
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states. And in fact, it's been sort of a
00:08:23
predictor of who's going to be the Democratic nominee going
00:08:27
forward. Now, if you remember in 2020
00:08:31
when Joe Biden was running in the Democratic primary, remember
00:08:33
those? They used to have Democratic
00:08:35
primaries, but they don't really like to do that anymore.
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It's amazing they're going to have another Democratic primary.
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Joe Biden 2020 was able to win South Carolina mostly because
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everybody dropped out and coalesced behind Joe Biden.
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And he got the endorsement from James Clyburn, who was a very
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powerful and influential representative down in South
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Carolina. And that was sort of the push
00:09:01
that people needed to see that Joe Biden is palpable and he can
00:09:06
appeal to moderate voters and swing voters, which is important
00:09:09
in an election because that's really cool.
00:09:10
People are going after is those independent swing voters.
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So that is really the bellwether for a lot of people.
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If you can win in South Carolina, it shows you a broader
00:09:21
appeal across the country. And that's why it is so
00:09:24
important. Now South Carolina has
00:09:25
petitioned to be the first state.
00:09:28
It wants to be the first state in the Democratic primary.
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It's always been Iowa for all these parties.
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Iowa has always been the first state, but in South Carolina
00:09:36
wants to be the first state now. But that's sort of where the
00:09:40
strategy lies. If you win South Carolina as a
00:09:45
Democrat in the Democratic primary, you kind of pave your
00:09:50
own way to win more states, coalesce your support, coalesce
00:09:55
the fundraisers, all of that behind you.
00:09:58
The first three are always kind of a toss up.
00:10:02
I think like Pete Buttigieg in 2021 Iowa, but then didn't win
00:10:06
New Hampshire, South Carolina. So he kind of flamed out really
00:10:09
quickly. That's why he's there.
00:10:12
It is absolutely no coincidence that he just ended up in South
00:10:17
Carolina talking about spreading the message and fixing the
00:10:22
national brand of Democratic politics.
00:10:25
Now, one of the things that Newsom is going to have to
00:10:29
contest with one is it is a red state and he comes from a very
00:10:35
deep blue progressive state. We all know that.
00:10:39
And I'm sure people in South Carolina don't look at
00:10:42
California and think, boy howdy, let me get some of that.
00:10:45
California here in South Carolina, because they see
00:10:49
what's happening with the homelessness and the cost of
00:10:51
housing and the cost of gas and all that stuff.
00:10:53
They don't look at California as a model for what they want South
00:10:58
Carolina to be. So he's got to try and figure
00:11:00
out how to move closer to the middle.
00:11:02
I'm now doing the the Gavin Newsom dance with my shoulders.
00:11:05
He's got to figure out how to move more towards the middle and
00:11:09
appeal to those people, which is why they made a whole big deal
00:11:11
about him getting a gun. And he said, oh, I'm not anti
00:11:14
gun. That's one thing.
00:11:16
He's got to get those moderate Democrats.
00:11:18
And he's been working hard at at smoothing out his image or
00:11:21
getting that image of he's he's just a common sense moderate.
00:11:24
That's all he wants. You know, he's just a common
00:11:26
sense moderate. The other thing that is really
00:11:30
important is the African American vote, which is why
00:11:33
Representative James Clyburn is so crucial to whoever wants his
00:11:37
endorsement in South Carolina. Now.
00:11:39
They appeared at this event. James Clyburn actually said
00:11:42
something to the effect of the next president United States or
00:11:45
someone who's running for president.
00:11:46
He kind of made it a slip of the tongue that like, oh, you know,
00:11:49
Gavin Newsom, he is gonna be, you know, running for president,
00:11:53
even though Gavin Newsom is acting like he's not running for
00:11:55
president. We all know you're running for
00:11:57
president is the worst kept secret in politics right now.
00:12:00
But the African American vote in South Carolina is very, very
00:12:03
crucial to winning that state, which then, like I said, becomes
00:12:07
the momentum that you're going to need to move forward and win,
00:12:12
moving for the rest of the Democratic primary.
00:12:15
This is according to a Public Policy Institute of California
00:12:18
poll. This was conducted recently as
00:12:20
of May 2022 to 29th in 2025. It says 56% of African American
00:12:26
voters in California approve of Governor Gavin Newsom's job
00:12:30
performance. Additionally, this poll suggests
00:12:34
that only 43% of Black voters nationally, California or Black
00:12:39
voters nationally rate Cal Newsome as very favorable and
00:12:44
only 26% of Black Californians believe he responds to Black
00:12:48
community needs. Though these figures reflect
00:12:50
sentiment beyond just approval ratings are not conclusive.
00:12:54
So he's got some work to do, right?
00:12:57
He's got some work to do with African American and Black
00:13:00
voters. This is something, this was a
00:13:02
tweet recently. It says this will definitely
00:13:04
feel even more speculation about a 2028 run, referring to Gavin
00:13:08
Newsom. However, if Newsom plans to win
00:13:12
the Democratic nomination, he's going to have some work to do
00:13:15
convincing the vast majority of Black voters.
00:13:16
Only 43% of Black people rated him very favorable, compared to
00:13:21
less than 50% for both or more than 50% for both Harris and
00:13:25
Biden. So he does have some work to do
00:13:29
in that area. Now, is he making the right
00:13:32
strides? I don't know.
00:13:34
Is he schmoozing James Clyburn, who is a very influential
00:13:38
politician in South Carolina? Can he get his endorsement?
00:13:41
He's getting there early. And that might be the name of
00:13:44
the game. But regardless, you are seeing
00:13:48
the beginning stages of Gavin Newsom's presidential run,
00:13:53
right? We all knew this was coming.
00:13:56
The podcast was part of it. We all knew that he has this
00:13:59
Campaign for Democracy PAC, which he's going to end up
00:14:01
probably dumping all the money into his presidential campaign,
00:14:04
something like, you know, 10s of millions of dollars that he's
00:14:06
already raised. He's going to dump that into his
00:14:09
presidential campaign once he announces.
00:14:11
He's basically just laying the groundwork and he's getting
00:14:14
there early. He's trying to get his face out
00:14:15
there. He's trying to make it seem like
00:14:17
this is all altruistic. But why is the governor of
00:14:20
California, who has enough on his plate, worried about going
00:14:24
3000 miles away to a state that has nothing to do with
00:14:26
California? We have enough going on here in
00:14:28
California that he should be absolutely worried about.
00:14:31
Why is the Palisades taking so long to rebuild?
00:14:34
That should be a big issue. We should be talking about gas
00:14:37
prices. We should targeting, should be
00:14:38
talking about homelessness and all of that.
00:14:41
Crime is still an issue. There are enough issues that
00:14:44
Gavin Newsom has to fix here in California, and if he does not,
00:14:49
he doesn't have much time left. If he doesn't do anything to
00:14:53
even move the needle on a lot of these issues, his presidential
00:14:56
campaign is probably already dead in the water.
00:14:59
Because no matter how much he wants to just ignore and be the
00:15:03
deadbeat dad who doesn't care about California, the deadbeat
00:15:06
governor, at the end of the day, people are going to remember
00:15:10
that California is in really dire straits after he left.
00:15:13
So he can't really campaign on the fact that he left California
00:15:16
a better place because we all know it's not really in a better
00:15:19
place. So he may be starting early, but
00:15:23
instead of work in South Carolina, probably the best work
00:15:26
he could be doing is right here in his home state of California.
00:15:31
All right, I'm going to take a little sip of water.
00:15:38
Welcome to everybody who is hanging out in the chat.
00:15:40
Thank you everybody for hanging out with us tonight, wherever
00:15:43
you are hanging out. We're going to hit some more
00:15:47
stories. We got three other stories
00:15:48
tonight that I want to get to, and I'll be interspersing with
00:15:51
some of the chat. Everybody who popped in, thank
00:15:55
you for tuning in. Somebody said he isn't electable
00:15:58
for he is a failed governor. Yep.
00:16:00
Like I said, if he can't change anything and it's going to be
00:16:06
hard for hard pressed for him to change anything at this point,
00:16:09
then he's already dead in the water, right?
00:16:15
Let's see, Camille said. Doesn't he have a state to run
00:16:23
yet? He does have a state to run.
00:16:25
We live in that state. All right, let's, let's get to
00:16:29
our next story. California is really, really
00:16:37
super serious about tackling the issue of housing and the
00:16:41
affordability of housing. This time they promise.
00:16:45
They promise. This time they are really,
00:16:48
really serious. They're really tackling the
00:16:50
issue. Let's get into the story.
00:16:54
It was a major day in the state Capitol.
00:16:57
It was too urgent, too important to allow.
00:17:01
The process to unfold as it has for the last generation.
00:17:06
California's $320 billion budget is now law, but the process came
00:17:12
with strings attached. Governor Gavin Newsom signed two
00:17:15
major bills, but not without a controversial move leaving
00:17:18
environmentalists disappointed. ABC 10's Garsh Paul Sanga joins
00:17:23
us in studio and looks at the law that if not passed, could
00:17:26
have derailed months of work. Garsh Paul Galora Some called it
00:17:31
a poison pill because the governor signed the budget last
00:17:33
week, but he said his signature would be invalid if the
00:17:37
lawmakers didn't make changes to seek what?
00:17:40
And tonight, he got his way. Congratulations pen to paper.
00:17:48
Governor Gavin Newsom signed 2 bills, AB130 and SB131.
00:17:53
They strip away key parts of Sequa, the California
00:17:56
Environmental Quality Act, which for decades gave
00:17:59
environmentalists and communities the power to block
00:18:02
projects. They disagreed with.
00:18:04
The most consequential housing reforms that we've seen in
00:18:09
modern history in the state of California.
00:18:12
Long overdue. Absolutely.
00:18:14
Supporters say the changes are crucial to fast track housing in
00:18:18
a state with the severe shortage.
00:18:20
The new law skips lengthy environmental reviews, making it
00:18:23
easier to build housing in urban areas, Saying no housing in my
00:18:27
community is no longer state sanctioned.
00:18:30
That is not allowed anymore in the state of California.
00:18:33
But. Whether you like it or not,
00:18:36
we're going to shove housing down your throat.
00:18:39
That's what Buffy Wicks is saying.
00:18:40
Got Buffy Wicks? Oakland State Representative
00:18:44
Scott Weiner. We all know and they put all
00:18:46
these guys investing back. I guess that shows you that
00:18:48
these guys are ready to start working on housing.
00:18:50
That's, that's the that's the image that they want to portray.
00:18:54
But yeah, it's basically this argument of Nimbyism or Yimbyism
00:18:59
that they're fine. What they want to shove housing
00:19:01
as in many places as possible. Now, I doubt where they live is
00:19:06
probably going to be affected by this.
00:19:07
So the housing and the congestion is not going to be
00:19:09
shoved down their throats particularly.
00:19:11
But you know, you peasants, you better get, you know, you better
00:19:14
get used to this. They're going to start shoving
00:19:16
housing down your throat and it's going to be really
00:19:18
congested in your neighborhood. So just get used to it.
00:19:22
Process is what has critics worried the governor threatened
00:19:26
to block the entire budget unless Sequa was rolled back, a
00:19:29
move some say undermine democracy.
00:19:32
It was a insistence upon the Governor that the legislature do
00:19:38
that, which I believe compromises the Co equal nature
00:19:42
of the two branches. Environmental groups like Sierra
00:19:46
Club argue the reforms could allow projects harming wildlife
00:19:50
and limiting public transparency.
00:19:52
Sad to see the state legislature taking a page straight out of
00:19:55
Trump's playbook and ramming through policy to tear apart
00:20:01
Sequa through the budget process instead of the actual policy
00:20:04
process. Say that again.
00:20:09
Taking a page out of Trump's playbook and ramming through to
00:20:13
destroy Sequa. Hope this kid isn't a political
00:20:18
science major because that that is a weak argument my friend.
00:20:22
The governor insists it is not the end of sequa and the law
00:20:25
won't be used to fast track fossil fuel projects.
00:20:28
This was too urgent. This was too important to play
00:20:32
chance. The world we invented has been
00:20:34
competing against us. We've got to perform now.
00:20:39
That reform takes effect in less than an hour.
00:20:42
Now Democrats call it a balancing act between California
00:20:45
screen values and a housing crisis.
00:20:47
Laura and Garsh Paul Sanga reporting for us.
00:20:50
Thank you. Sequa, Let's start off here.
00:20:56
Sequa, if you're not in, if you're not familiar with what
00:20:59
Sequa is, it's the California Environmental Quality Act passed
00:21:03
back in the 70s. I believe in Ronald Reagan was
00:21:06
governor. It was the intent of it was to
00:21:10
protect California environment so that we weren't building a
00:21:14
ton of projects and ruining the environment that was started
00:21:16
back in the 70s. Since then, Sequa has become not
00:21:23
necessarily a tool to protect the environment, but a way to
00:21:27
shake down a lot of developers. And it's one way that the cost
00:21:32
of housing gets so damn expensive here in the state is
00:21:36
because it is so easy that if someone wants to build
00:21:42
something, they can literally just go and file a lawsuit.
00:21:46
And that lawsuit can then hold up the developer.
00:21:50
So basically, it's a win by losing strategy.
00:21:52
Basically, they file this lawsuit knowing they're going to
00:21:54
lose. They don't care.
00:21:56
They file the lawsuit, gets tied up in court for five to 10
00:21:58
years. You know, it takes forever for
00:22:01
these lawsuits to get through. And basically they then go and
00:22:06
hold ransom the project to the developers and say, well, we'll
00:22:11
back off if you hire this person or hire this union and blah,
00:22:15
blah, blah. Like they get what they want.
00:22:17
So developers who start to develop something and have
00:22:21
these, you know, prospectuses plans and and business plans
00:22:24
that they have laid out and the numbers have all been crunched.
00:22:27
Then also a sequel lawsuit comes in, throws everything out the
00:22:30
window. So that's the problem with
00:22:32
Sequa. While I want to say I'm
00:22:39
hesitantly happy that they are trying to cut away parts of
00:22:44
Sequa, I will say this. There is one simple solution
00:22:50
that California legislators just don't want to admit.
00:22:53
And it is the simplest solution that could help with housing and
00:22:58
a lot of projects here in California.
00:23:01
And I'm going to say it very slow.
00:23:03
So if there are any Democratic legislators in Sacramento happen
00:23:06
to be listening to this, it's very simple.
00:23:10
Pay attention. You can write it down.
00:23:13
Scrap sequa, scrap it. Start all over.
00:23:19
Just gut and get rid of the entire thing.
00:23:22
Start all over. At this point, there are more
00:23:26
holes in sequa than Swiss cheese.
00:23:30
There are so many exemptions and loopholes and carve outs for
00:23:33
sequa. Just just ban it.
00:23:37
You know, just get rid of it, right?
00:23:40
Just just write a law that says a simple one page law says we
00:23:43
completely and utterly repeal the California Environmental
00:23:48
Quality Act. And then as you start to see
00:23:51
fit, maybe if you want to reintroduce a new bill that's a
00:23:54
little bit more reasonable, then maybe you could do that.
00:23:59
But the simplest thing is scrap it.
00:24:04
Just say it was wrong and it's it, it's gotten way out of hand
00:24:09
and we just want to scrap the whole thing.
00:24:12
But again, what's the golden rule politicians is that they
00:24:15
never, ever, ever, ever admit that they were wrong, right?
00:24:18
They never admit that they did anything wrong, that they
00:24:21
supported Sequa in the past. So they're never going to
00:24:24
completely scrap Sequa because they in the end don't want to
00:24:28
admit that they were wrong. Now there are these two bills
00:24:30
I'm going to read some of my notes about.
00:24:32
AB130 exempts urban infill projects.
00:24:37
So that basically means apartments, homes, mixed-use
00:24:39
stuff from Sequa that they fit local zoning and void sensitive
00:24:44
areas like wetlands. No more than 1000 page studies.
00:24:47
Just a 30 day approval window. I have to look this up because
00:24:51
I'm not a real estate developer. What is infill?
00:24:55
An infill site has been quote previously developed for
00:24:58
qualified urban uses or is adjacent to developed parcels.
00:25:03
Qualified uses include any residential, commercial, public,
00:25:07
institutional, transit or transportation, passenger
00:25:09
facility or retail use, or any combination of those uses, as
00:25:13
well as some industrial uses. What does that mean?
00:25:17
Those lots that you see in cities that are not being used,
00:25:21
that are dead lots, they are now going to fast track building in
00:25:27
those lots. So basically it's urban
00:25:29
building. There's going to be a lot of
00:25:31
urban building. You're going to start seeing
00:25:32
that. So in places like San Diego, Los
00:25:34
Angeles, San Francisco, you're going to start seeing these lots
00:25:37
that were previously empty are now going to start sprouting up
00:25:40
with more housing or maybe some residential commercial stuff.
00:25:45
Basically, we're going to increase the density in these
00:25:48
urban centers. So everybody wants the 15 minute
00:25:52
cities, right? That's what they say.
00:25:53
They want everyone in these 15 minute cities.
00:25:55
They want everybody on public transportation.
00:25:57
They, they don't want people in their cars.
00:25:59
They don't want you to be independent.
00:26:01
They're building and forcing a lot of people into these cities.
00:26:03
So that's one thing. So they've exempted these
00:26:06
projects in these urban places where it's these infill
00:26:10
developments so that they can start to push people more into
00:26:13
the city. So it's not suburban sprawl, but
00:26:16
they're going to make it easier that you can start developing
00:26:18
and not worry about sequel or any of these sequel lawsuits or
00:26:22
studies so much. SB131 streamline sequel for
00:26:26
projects that miss full exemption by focusing only on
00:26:29
specific issues, cutting lawsuit risk.
00:26:32
Coastal zones also got easier permitting under the California
00:26:35
Coastal Act. But streamlining doesn't
00:26:37
guarantee homes get built. It still depends on local zoning
00:26:42
and high interest rates and all that stuff.
00:26:44
So that basically means that previously if there was a
00:26:48
lawsuit or there was something you missed or there was
00:26:51
something wrong, it wasn't the whole project was held up or now
00:26:56
they're going to fix this that the the whole project isn't
00:26:58
going to be held up. Basically, it's just one
00:27:00
specific issue that you're going to have to fix.
00:27:02
That's what it comes down to. So between these two, they are
00:27:06
planning on building a lot more housing.
00:27:07
Now, does it mean there's going to be more suburban housing?
00:27:10
No. Does it mean it's going to be
00:27:12
more apartments and stuff in downtown centers and urban
00:27:15
centers? Yes, that's what it's going to
00:27:17
mean. I personally, when I think of
00:27:20
housing, maybe I'm I'm old school or maybe I'm not thinking
00:27:23
about this right. But I think of housing, I think
00:27:25
of houses, not apartments that you're going to rent.
00:27:29
I think of housing. And maybe they think if we just
00:27:33
keep adding more and more units in these cities, that will make
00:27:36
it easier for people to find affordable housing because they
00:27:40
can then live in these downtown centers.
00:27:42
I guess that's their strategy. Will developers get excited
00:27:46
about this? Maybe, maybe they'll see it as
00:27:49
an opportunity that they want to build in these downtown areas.
00:27:52
But there was something else and unique to California is not only
00:28:01
do they not want to admit that Sequa is a horrible bill and
00:28:05
that they should just get rid of it all together.
00:28:07
One thing that California is known for that when they need to
00:28:11
solve a problem, what do they do?
00:28:15
They create more government, right?
00:28:17
It's always more government. More government is the solution.
00:28:21
So as part of this, this whole reform that Gavin Newsom is
00:28:27
rolling out, they've created a new agency on top of the how
00:28:34
many agents, I don't know, 5875 or something.
00:28:38
There's a whole ton of agency, state agencies that are in
00:28:40
California. They are now creating a specific
00:28:44
housing agency to just tackle housing as if there wasn't a
00:28:49
housing agency before, and they think this will help streamline
00:28:53
a lot of things with the state. So supporters of the
00:28:56
bureaucratic reshuffle say the move is long overdue and surveys
00:28:59
California's regularly named housing costs and homelessness
00:29:02
among the state's top concerns. That alone warrants the creation
00:29:06
of a new Cabinet level advisor to the governor, said Ray Pearl,
00:29:10
executive director of the California Housing Consortium,
00:29:14
which advocates for affordable housing development.
00:29:16
A Cabinet level secretary who will sit with other Cabinet
00:29:19
secretaries whose purview will be housing, that is elevating
00:29:23
the agenda to the highest level. Pearl, like virtually every
00:29:27
expert interviewed for this article about the new agency,
00:29:29
described the reorganization as just the first step in bringing
00:29:32
much needed order and efficiency.
00:29:33
The California's network of funding programs for affordable
00:29:37
housing. Quote.
00:29:38
Simply moving people around and giving them a new business card
00:29:41
doesn't change the system. I would agree.
00:29:47
I mean creating more government in a new agency is the MO of
00:29:56
California politicians is that there is no problem too big that
00:30:00
government can't solve. I mean, keep in mind this is the
00:30:02
same state government that believes that they can tax our
00:30:06
way into better weather and to clean the air, right?
00:30:10
That's their belief is that they can tax their way, tax and
00:30:13
regulate their way into solving the weather problems.
00:30:18
So I guess they think anything can be solved with more
00:30:20
government. And now they've created a whole
00:30:22
new agency. Will that new agency actually do
00:30:24
what it needs to do? I don't know.
00:30:27
And we, we have yet to see. And they they want to make it
00:30:30
sound like it's a great idea, but like every bureaucratic
00:30:33
agency in California, it's probably going to get filled
00:30:37
with a bunch of people who don't really care about getting the
00:30:39
job done. It's probably going to be slow,
00:30:41
inefficient, which is kind of the MO for a lot of agencies in
00:30:45
Sacramento. So is it just moving the, you
00:30:50
know, the chairs around on the Titanic where they say moving
00:30:52
the deck chairs around on Titanic?
00:30:55
Probably. I mean, it just makes it seem
00:30:57
like there's not really any solution besides creating this
00:31:00
new agency and, and more government for California.
00:31:03
So with that all said, again, more government, their solution
00:31:10
is more government, more agencies.
00:31:15
My solution is much simpler. Scrap it all and start all over
00:31:22
or don't start over at all. Just scrap Sequa and just be
00:31:25
done with it. Because I've always said the one
00:31:29
way you're going to get government, the the one way that
00:31:33
government can help with housing is get the hell out of the way.
00:31:38
That is the number one way government can help.
00:31:42
That's it. That's really what it comes down
00:31:44
to. Get out of the way, let people
00:31:46
build housing and be done with it.
00:31:49
That's your solution. Stop trying to overthink it.
00:31:54
All right, Take a little sip of water, check the chat, see how
00:32:03
everyone's doing. They're live on YouTube X Rumble
00:32:08
as well. Let's see.
00:32:13
Name a California agency you want to keep.
00:32:17
I can't think of one now that I think of it now I can't think of
00:32:23
1. I can't really think of one
00:32:27
agency. I mean, if there was one time we
00:32:29
went through like the list of agencies, I think it was a Brian
00:32:32
Dolly who was on the show and he he was running for governor.
00:32:35
We asked him kind of like point blank, like would you get rid of
00:32:38
this agency? Would you get rid of this
00:32:39
agency? Would you get?
00:32:40
And most, pretty much all the answers were yes, because
00:32:43
there's so many agencies in California.
00:32:45
We don't need another agency. That's for for damn sure.
00:32:48
Here in California we need less government.
00:32:51
Like I said, we need to get rid of government out of the way
00:32:54
more in California because clearly the idea of pouring more
00:32:58
government into these solute or these problems is is not not
00:33:02
working for California. Shocker to no one.
00:33:10
When the government investigates itself, it usually finds no
00:33:15
wrongdoing at all. If you're not familiar with this
00:33:19
story, we'll give you a little bit of background on it, but I
00:33:21
want to read this article first. This is from the LAist.
00:33:25
They've been doing an incredible job of keeping us informed on
00:33:29
this whole story. In fact, they were really the
00:33:31
ones who broke the story about what is happening at the LAHSA
00:33:37
Los Angeles Homeless Services Agency, LAHSA.
00:33:41
It's a tough one to say. You know what's been going on
00:33:44
with this lady who is Doctor Valicia Adams Kellum.
00:33:48
She was the chief executive officer for the LAHSA.
00:33:53
And well, we'll give you a little background.
00:33:58
She was under investigation because she was found months ago
00:34:05
to have signed mistakenly, mistakenly, That's her story.
00:34:11
Mistakenly it was, it was a mistake.
00:34:13
She didn't mean to do it. Mistakenly signed as the CEO of
00:34:18
the agency that is supposed to be helping homeless, $2
00:34:23
in checks to her husband's nonprofit.
00:34:27
Mistakenly just so happened she just signed three checks that
00:34:31
ended up being $2 to her husband's nonprofit and they
00:34:37
just concluded that review, that investigation, and to no
00:34:44
surprise at all, the review commissioned by LA clears doctor
00:34:50
Valicia Adams Kellum of any conflict related to these
00:34:54
contracts with her husband's employer.
00:34:57
The article goes on to say the leader of the Los Angeles
00:34:59
Homeless Services Authority has been cleared of misconduct
00:35:03
related to her signature appearing on $2.1 million
00:35:06
contract with her husband's employer agency, otherwise known
00:35:10
as LAHSA. The LAHSA Commission hired an
00:35:14
outside law firm in March to investigate contracts for Upward
00:35:17
Bound House, about a month after Las first reported that
00:35:20
documents showed Valicia Adams Kellum, the agency's outgoing
00:35:24
chief executive, signed the contract and two amendments.
00:35:28
In a Wednesday memo from Norton Rose Fulbright, the firm said
00:35:31
Adams Kellum did not act unethically or improperly in
00:35:36
agreements between the agency and Upward Bound House, a Santa
00:35:40
Monica based non profit where her husband, Edward Colum, works
00:35:45
in senior leadership. According to the memo, Adam
00:35:49
Kellum's signatures on several documents and agreements relate
00:35:51
to the Upward Bound House were unintentionally applied by her
00:35:54
staff after they were approved by LAHSA and Commission without
00:35:58
her input. Oh, so that's the IT wasn't now
00:36:01
it's mistaken, Now it's they were done without her input.
00:36:03
They just did it behind her back.
00:36:04
It was an auto pen thing. It was a Joe Biden thing.
00:36:06
They just signed it on her behalf.
00:36:08
LAA has reported in February that a different LAHSA
00:36:11
spokesperson said Adams Callum mistakenly signed the contracts
00:36:16
after staffers inadvertently sent them to her.
00:36:19
When the CEO has a conflict of interest, LAHSA standard
00:36:22
practice is for contracts to instead be signed by the
00:36:24
agency's top programs officer, the spokesperson said.
00:36:29
A $2 million contract signed by Alex Kell authorized federal
00:36:32
taxpayer funds for Upward Bound House to pay rent for unhoused
00:36:35
people in the region. Help them find homes.
00:36:38
The money also covered Case Management Administration costs
00:36:40
at the nonprofit Federal tax dollars.
00:36:46
Funneling federal tax dollars to your husband's nonprofit.
00:36:50
Not a conflict of interest in Los Angeles.
00:36:53
Nothing to see here. Nothing to see here.
00:36:56
You're the CEO of the agency that is supposed to be spending
00:37:00
money on homelessness and solving homelessness.
00:37:04
You give it to your your husband's employer at this
00:37:07
nonprofit, $2. It's no small amount of money.
00:37:10
Federal dollars. Hello, Pam Bondi, are you awake?
00:37:16
Are you out there? This is federal money that is
00:37:18
being funneled from one CEO of a government agency to a non
00:37:25
profit where her husband works. Hello Pam Bondi, are you is
00:37:28
anyone home? Anyone pick up the phone there?
00:37:30
I mean, I know you dropped the ball on the whole Epstein thing,
00:37:33
but maybe you could, I don't know, maybe look into this and
00:37:36
maybe see where all the money is going out here in California
00:37:39
where the millions of dollars are going federal funds and
00:37:41
state funds. Can we can we talk about that?
00:37:43
This is not new, though, to, to California because this whole
00:37:50
story reeks of corruption. We've covered it before.
00:37:54
We've done a couple episodes on this because not only was it
00:37:58
this two million, $2.1 million contract signed by Valicia Adams
00:38:02
Kellum when they first came down on her, the court came down on
00:38:08
her. And we're going to get to the
00:38:09
court in a second because the court, there's a federal court
00:38:11
judge who was keeping an eye on this stuff and he's not very
00:38:15
happy about it. They told him you have to
00:38:20
disclose these 700 for I think it's seven 10740 these forms to
00:38:26
show conflict of interest. And under Doctor Valicia Adams
00:38:31
Callum, they refused. They didn't want to produce
00:38:37
these forms to show if there's a conflict of interest between any
00:38:40
members of the LAHSA and anybody outside that they are dealing
00:38:45
with. They didn't think it was proper.
00:38:47
They were like, why do we have to show that?
00:38:48
Well, there's a conflict of interest between US and any
00:38:50
nonprofits that we give money to or any of these contractors that
00:38:53
we give money to. That doesn't seem fair.
00:38:55
We shouldn't have to do that. They, they refused and tried to
00:38:59
hold out as long as possible. Then they got some more and they
00:39:01
got some information they, they were forced to do so.
00:39:05
But that's the sort of transparency we're talking about
00:39:07
with the LAHSA, is they refuse to disclose forms that should be
00:39:12
available to the public regarding conflict of interest.
00:39:17
They didn't want people to see what was going on conflict of
00:39:21
interest wise. OK, That's what we're dealing
00:39:26
with here. This is an agency that is
00:39:29
completely out of control. Now mind you, mind you, Doctor
00:39:33
Valicia Adams Callum was begged by this woman right here.
00:39:39
I can't remember her name, but she is like the right hand woman
00:39:43
to Karen Bass. When Karen Bass won to be mayor,
00:39:48
this woman tracked down Doctor Valicia Adams Callum and begged
00:39:53
her, begged her to be the CEO of this homeless authority and then
00:40:00
in a couple of years absolutely destroyed it.
00:40:04
It's now under federal investigation by a judge.
00:40:07
It's been audited. It is a complete disaster.
00:40:11
And the fact that she got away with this, I'm not shocked.
00:40:14
I'm not shocked at all. But I don't think it's the end
00:40:17
of the story for her and LAHSA. But I do want to get to this
00:40:21
because there was an audit that was done.
00:40:25
And this is what I was talking about, about this judge who is
00:40:28
really upset about what's going on with like Los Angeles
00:40:31
homeless spending. Audit reveals LA's failure to
00:40:34
track billions in homelessness spending, raising accountability
00:40:38
concerns A new audit exposes LA's lack of oversight and
00:40:42
tracking $2.4 billion in homelessness funds.
00:40:46
With a federal judge calling out a high level of non compliance
00:40:49
by outsource agencies. Now, city officials face
00:40:52
mounting pressure to take responsibility.
00:40:56
An independent Audit Commission Thursday by U.S.
00:40:58
District Judge David O Carter shows how LA city officials have
00:41:02
neglected tracking homelessness spending.
00:41:04
The city has failed to collect accurate data on its vendors,
00:41:07
relying mostly on outsourcing from an agency.
00:41:09
This highlight proof is another frustrating case of taxpayer
00:41:12
dollars becoming misallocated after auditors revealed $2.4
00:41:16
billion in City funding. The global consulting firm
00:41:21
Alvarez Marcel Audit highlights inadequate financial oversight
00:41:25
that paints a lack of accountability for taxpayer
00:41:28
dollars. Quote insufficient financial
00:41:31
accountability led to an inability to trace substantial
00:41:33
funds allocated to the City programs.
00:41:36
The lack of uniform data standards and real time
00:41:38
oversight increased the risk of resource misallocation and
00:41:41
limited the ability to assess the true impact of homelessness
00:41:44
assistance services. Most of the discrepancies were
00:41:47
found at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.
00:41:51
Tracking spending became impossible when orders reviewed
00:41:54
the port documents provided by the agencies.
00:41:56
Auditors also found that LAHSA quote failed to verify whether
00:42:00
the services invoiced were provided.
00:42:06
Let me say that again. Auditors found that LAHSA quote
00:42:12
failed to verify whether the services invoiced were provided
00:42:21
$2.1 billion that they can't find.
00:42:26
And you have invoices from the LAHSA to contractors that they
00:42:34
don't have proof that they are paying or getting the services
00:42:40
that they are supposedly paying for.
00:42:44
I want that to really sink in because what we're saying here
00:42:51
is they just did not keep track of the money going out to these
00:42:56
contractors and these nonprofits and whether or not what they
00:43:00
were paying for was actually provided or, or the worst case
00:43:11
scenario is they didn't care whether or not these services
00:43:17
were provided. The pessimist in me says it's
00:43:25
the latter. When you have the CEO handing
00:43:30
out $2 to her husband's nonprofit and thinking there's
00:43:33
nothing wrong, and then you have invoices where they couldn't
00:43:40
tell. They couldn't tell whether or
00:43:45
not the services that they paid for were provided.
00:43:48
That makes me think this was funneling money out to people
00:43:54
who were connected as a slush fund and not getting to the
00:44:01
actual homeless issue. That's my thinking.
00:44:05
And I think no matter how much this Commission says Doctor
00:44:11
Valicia Adams Callum did nothing wrong.
00:44:13
She was cleared of all wrongdoing.
00:44:17
I would say she probably better get a good lawyer because I
00:44:21
don't think this is done yet. And, and David O Carter, a
00:44:25
federal judge, is coming down on them like a ton of bricks.
00:44:28
He's not putting up with it. He's not putting up with Karen
00:44:30
Bass. He's not putting up with the
00:44:32
LHSA. He's not putting up with any of
00:44:35
it. Karen Bass thought that they
00:44:38
didn't have to look into this because it was something created
00:44:41
by there was a, a, some sort of organization that Karen Bass
00:44:44
created. They were like, wait a second,
00:44:46
you created an organization. We have to look into that.
00:44:49
She didn't think that you had to make that public and let anybody
00:44:52
know what the money was being spent for.
00:44:54
Now you have the LAHSA under Doctor Velocity Adams Kellum,
00:44:58
who didn't want to tell you about conflict reports, can't
00:45:02
tell you whether or not what they use taxpayer funds for were
00:45:05
services that were actually provided.
00:45:07
This sounds like an enormous, enormous slush fund that is just
00:45:13
pumping billions of dollars out to well connected people.
00:45:18
And This is why people say there is a homeless industrial complex
00:45:22
going on in California because of stuff like this, because
00:45:27
money is being poured into homelessness as an issue and
00:45:32
there's no results, no results, absolutely no results.
00:45:39
Just to put it into context, in the past 10 years, anything is
00:45:44
the number that we all know spent $24 billion.
00:45:48
The state as a whole has spent $24 billion on homelessness and
00:45:51
housing projects. The figure covers more than 30
00:45:57
programs administered by 9 state agencies, including initiatives
00:46:00
like Project Home Key and Prevention and Assistance and
00:46:05
prevention program, House Homeless Housing Assistance and
00:46:09
Prevention Program. 24 billion. And then an audit came out that
00:46:14
said we don't know where the money went.
00:46:16
We don't know if it did anything. 24 billion and then
00:46:19
this year or was it like last year they snuck it in when
00:46:26
people weren't paying attention because it wasn't, it wasn't
00:46:28
during a normal election cycle. They snuck in prop one to take
00:46:34
out another. Was it $8 billion for homeless
00:46:39
spending? Borrowed it.
00:46:41
I borrowed it. They're going to take out a bond
00:46:43
for $8 billion, which by the time we're done paying for it as
00:46:45
taxpayers, because we're on the hook to pay bonds, because the
00:46:50
state doesn't produce money. It's not like they make money.
00:46:52
So they got to get money from us.
00:46:54
We're going to be on the hook for $10 billion.
00:46:57
And the grift and the slush fund continues and continues and
00:47:01
continues. And until people get in there
00:47:04
and start ordering to show what is going on, this homeless
00:47:08
industrial complex will continue to funnel billions and billions
00:47:12
and billions of dollars through this and it will never, ever
00:47:15
stop. They will never solve
00:47:17
homelessness. They have no desire to solve
00:47:19
homelessness. They don't.
00:47:22
The amount of money that we have spent on homelessness, it should
00:47:24
be at least solved or at least completely, greatly reduced.
00:47:28
Not small fraction points, not little small decimal points here
00:47:31
and there. It should be mostly solved, but
00:47:35
it's not. So like I said, Pam Bondi, if
00:47:37
you're out there, hello, pick up the phone.
00:47:39
I know you're, you're, you're busy answering questions about
00:47:42
why you didn't produce the Epstein file.
00:47:45
I know Bill Asale is up there in LA.
00:47:47
He wants to help out, get Bill Asale on the case.
00:47:49
He'll, he'll look into that. Something has to be done here,
00:47:52
though, because when people are getting away with what Doctor
00:47:56
Valicia Adams Kellum got away with and she's found of no
00:48:01
wrongdoing, there's no end to the the homeless slush fund.
00:48:05
It will just go on forever and ever at our expense.
00:48:13
Let's see what's going on, everybody.
00:48:16
We got one more story. But I did want to check in on
00:48:18
the chat for everyone who is tuning in live.
00:48:23
Let me know in the chat what you think about.
00:48:25
There's the the homeless industrial complex.
00:48:28
Very corrupt and very greedy. Yep.
00:48:30
Yeah. Do can't we vote Newsome out?
00:48:40
Well, you can vote a lot of people out.
00:48:42
Newsome's out on his own. Let's see.
00:48:49
Bureau Atlanta. Yeah, Someone that brought up
00:48:56
about the housing in rural areas.
00:48:58
It's it's not the rural areas that they're going to, it's the
00:49:01
urban areas. They want people to be pushed
00:49:03
into the the urban areas. All right, after that whole
00:49:10
thing, I did want to end on a good note.
00:49:12
So this will be the final story for tonight.
00:49:15
So if you got any chats or anything like that, let me know.
00:49:23
All right, some good news in California, a feel good story.
00:49:27
I want to. I want to get this out here.
00:49:29
It's a feel good story and I feel like I had to cover it,
00:49:32
especially with all the news going on about homeless
00:49:36
spending, mismanagement of funds, corruption, slush funds,
00:49:40
all that stuff. Finally, there is a good story
00:49:44
about how private individual charity wins again, and I
00:49:49
believe this. Private charities are the best
00:49:53
way to solve problems in our society.
00:49:56
I want you to. We're going to look at this
00:49:58
story. I think you're going to feel
00:50:00
good after. It, a local nonprofit, is
00:50:04
helping homeless people return to their families and hometowns,
00:50:07
and interest in that program increased after the recent
00:50:10
immigration raids. Corrine Winter is live in Santa
00:50:12
Monica with some details. Hi, Corrine.
00:50:16
Hi, Sam and Lou. You know, we didn't have to look
00:50:18
far here on the streets of Santa Monica to find homeless
00:50:21
individuals who told us, yeah, we'd be up for it, A one way
00:50:24
ticket out of Los Angeles. You'll soon hear from a man
00:50:27
named Michael. He's been on the streets for
00:50:29
quite some time, and he wants to return home to Idaho.
00:50:33
According to Santa Monica police, the homeless population
00:50:36
has increased significantly here.
00:50:38
And there is one, a local man, a business owner who's looking to
00:50:41
change that. We spoke with John Alley from
00:50:43
the Santa Monica Coalition. He's a private citizen, not tied
00:50:47
in any way to the government, and he's heading a family
00:50:50
reunification program to fly homeless people out of LA, out
00:50:54
of Santa Monica and back to their families and hometowns
00:50:56
here in the US places. I want you to take note of what
00:51:01
she said. He is explicitly said he is not
00:51:05
tied to the government, has nothing to do with the
00:51:08
government that is important to the point of this story.
00:51:12
Wisconsin, Chicago and Florida. This program is funded by donors
00:51:16
and in the past few weeks, Sally says they've helped about eight
00:51:19
people. They've taken flights and bus
00:51:21
rides home. Ali says these are people who've
00:51:23
been living in the greater Los Angeles area for less than a
00:51:26
year and have found it way too difficult to survive here on the
00:51:29
streets. Ali says county and city
00:51:31
programs for the homeless aren't entirely effective, like the
00:51:34
multi $1 housing units currently available.
00:51:37
He says many people who are homeless would rather roam the
00:51:40
streets where there are greater challenges with their safety.
00:51:43
Also, access to food. Ali says they've even received
00:51:46
calls from those in MacArthur Park looking to self deport
00:51:49
South of the border. He says, unfortunately, this
00:51:52
organization can't help with that.
00:51:54
He's urging those individuals to work with the government.
00:51:57
But here's more from Michael. You want out?
00:52:01
You said you'd love to go to Idaho.
00:52:03
Yeah. I'll take a free and plate take
00:52:04
it to go to Idaho. Why?
00:52:06
What's in Idaho for you? Just piece of land.
00:52:10
The people are better. I like fishing, hunting like
00:52:14
that. So we did some research just in
00:52:17
the last two weeks and we were able to partner up with Fast
00:52:21
Response and AI firm and we were able to partner up with willing
00:52:25
volunteers, Citizen County advocates that live here that
00:52:31
want to get something done. And that's what instigated this.
00:52:35
And we've been able to reach out.
00:52:37
Over 200 people have reached out.
00:52:38
We've been able to help about 8 so far.
00:52:43
We had a tough week last week because it was a holiday
00:52:46
weekend. But they're thanking us and
00:52:49
their message is the same. They do not feel safe in Santa
00:52:53
Monica. They don't feel safe in LA and
00:52:59
we have put Michael in touch with the Santa Monica Coalition.
00:53:03
Michael also telling us that one reason it's so hard here to
00:53:05
survive on the streets is that his stuff often gets stolen at
00:53:09
night, his food, his clothing, things that are really, really
00:53:12
valuable for him or to him. So right now, he's looking for a
00:53:16
fresh start. That's latest here in Santa
00:53:18
Monica. I'm Corrine Winter.
00:53:20
We'll be right back after this quick break.
00:53:24
That's a great story. And when you think about the $24
00:53:29
billion that California has spent on homelessness, it took
00:53:35
upon a a single individual involved in a non profit to go.
00:53:40
I think I want to help and I'm going to try and do the most
00:53:43
direct solution I can think of, which is do these people who are
00:53:48
homeless, do they want to get out of California and be
00:53:51
reunited? Maybe they never had a way to
00:53:56
get there. If you're homeless is sometimes
00:53:58
there's no way to get home. Maybe there's no way to contact
00:54:01
people or friends or family or anything like that to start over
00:54:05
and start a new life and not stay in California.
00:54:08
But it took one individual to start this and is starting it
00:54:11
right now. And you go back to the billions
00:54:15
and billions and billions of dollars that were spent on
00:54:20
homelessness in California, on top of the billions that were
00:54:24
just borrowed in 2024 under Prop 1.
00:54:27
And you wonder if all of this is being spent well.
00:54:32
And I don't think any of the homeless spending is being spent
00:54:36
incredibly well here. It took a private charity to
00:54:39
step up and go, we're going to do it, and we're going to help
00:54:42
with homelessness because we want to help our neighborhood.
00:54:45
Private charities will beat the government 10 times out of 10.
00:54:53
I I wholeheartedly believe that nonprofits and private charities
00:54:55
will beat the government 10 times out of 10.
00:54:58
Why? Because a private charity has
00:55:02
one thing that makes them a better solution than the
00:55:07
government, and that's competition.
00:55:09
Private charities and nonprofits have to compete for your
00:55:14
dollars. They have to compete and compel
00:55:17
you that they are worth investing in or donating in,
00:55:23
right? The government has no
00:55:25
competition. They have no accountability.
00:55:27
And competition is in this sense is the best way to hold someone
00:55:31
accountable because if the government wastes money, if they
00:55:36
funnel money to their husband's nonprofit like they did in Los
00:55:39
Angeles and LAHSA, if there's billions of dollars lost, then
00:55:43
they have no idea whether the services were provided or not.
00:55:46
No, the government doesn't care who they're going to
00:55:47
investigate. And government investigates
00:55:49
itself. You have Democrats up and down
00:55:51
the state, you have Rob Bonta attorney general, you have Gavin
00:55:54
Newsom as governor, Karen Bass is the mayor.
00:55:56
Who cares? No one's going to check in and
00:55:58
no one's going to hold any of us accountable because we're all on
00:56:00
the same team. But private charities and non
00:56:04
profits have to compete for your dollars.
00:56:07
They have to show that what they're doing is working, and
00:56:11
that competition is what makes nonprofits and private charities
00:56:17
immensely, if not miles better than the government that
00:56:22
provides welfare. That's my honest belief, and I
00:56:26
think it's absolutely true. And this is a great example of
00:56:30
how people are starting to take to private charity and
00:56:33
nonprofits to help solve these issues.
00:56:36
One charity I think of down here in San Diego's Father Joe's
00:56:39
Village, which is an enormous homeless non profit that helps a
00:56:43
lot of homeless people down here in San Diego.
00:56:46
This is all just non profit donations, people donating and
00:56:51
they just got better and better and bigger and bigger.
00:56:53
And that's because they provided a good product and people
00:56:57
believed in them. Because the government forces
00:57:01
you through violence to give up your money to spend on
00:57:04
homelessness, and they're not accountable to you on whether or
00:57:09
not they spent it well or not. A private charity, you give
00:57:15
money to a private charity. If you see they're doing good
00:57:18
work, you go, they're doing good work, I'm going to keep donating
00:57:20
to them. If you look at a private charity
00:57:23
and all of a sudden you see that they're not spending money on
00:57:25
what they're spending money on, guess what?
00:57:28
You don't have to give them money anymore.
00:57:30
You're not coerced into it. There's no no element of
00:57:33
violence or imprisonment to give to a private charity.
00:57:36
So that competition is why private charities will always
00:57:41
win over the government. So when I saw this story, I had
00:57:43
to share it because it's a great example of how private
00:57:48
charities, localities, local citizens working together solve
00:57:53
issues way better than some huge behemoth, overly bloated,
00:57:58
bureaucratic state government or city government that we have
00:58:01
here in California. So another win for private
00:58:04
charities already making an impact, more probably helping
00:58:07
more people than a lot of these agencies say they are in all
00:58:11
these state agencies in California.
00:58:13
So another win for private charity.
00:58:15
We need more of them. Whoever is you know, donate if
00:58:18
you can go find them, donate them if you believe in that,
00:58:22
help any local nonprofit, private charities and
00:58:24
nonprofits. They'll probably be doing more
00:58:26
on the ground work. Check them out.
00:58:29
All right, got a couple minutes left here.
00:58:32
Thank you everyone to tuning in. If you haven't already, make
00:58:35
sure you like and comment. You guys are blowing up the
00:58:37
chat, which I love to see. Somebody said he ain't tied to
00:58:42
the government until the government shuts him down.
00:58:45
Now that it's being reported, yeah, they don't want the
00:58:50
nonprofits to succeed because they don't want the they don't
00:58:55
want the money going somewhere else.
00:58:57
They want all the money going right into the coffers of the
00:59:02
state. Now we had an idea that was part
00:59:05
of our, our Cala Publican platform that we create in
00:59:09
California. What they, we call, I don't know
00:59:11
what you call special purpose or super special purpose, something
00:59:16
like that. Like these nonprofits that serve
00:59:19
a very important societal purpose like helping the
00:59:22
homeless when they pass a certain threshold of like they
00:59:27
don't spend more than you know, 40% on administrative costs.
00:59:31
They have to meet strict requirements.
00:59:33
And once they are deemed and get that certification, they are
00:59:37
deemed the special or super nonprofits.
00:59:40
Any dollar that you donate to them would be worth $2.00 in tax
00:59:44
write offs, meaning that there is a more of an incentive for
00:59:51
you to donate to them because you can get double the write
00:59:53
off, which means businesses can donate and get double the write
00:59:56
off. Individuals can donate and get
00:59:58
double the write off and you're pouring more money into these
01:00:00
nonprofits that are working for a lack of a better term.
01:00:05
All right, any other comments or questions and checking out the
01:00:09
chat right now before will this money be provide for US
01:00:14
veterans? No, You're talking about
01:00:17
homeless money. No, probably not.
01:00:22
Yeah, the money that went out for LA.
01:00:27
I looked into this and I want to look into it a little bit more.
01:00:29
Maybe next week's episode I'll talk about a little bit more
01:00:31
because it's, it's kind of hazy. Like I was like everybody else.
01:00:34
I saw this and I was going to post something on X and
01:00:39
Instagram about, if you don't haven't heard the story, LA is
01:00:42
now giving out cash cards, like cards preloaded with cash.
01:00:46
Couple 100 bucks of cash to illegal immigrants in Los
01:00:49
Angeles and people immediately like jump to the idea of like,
01:00:53
oh, it's our taxpayer dollars they're giving out.
01:00:55
It looks like it's coming from nonprofits, but it does look
01:00:59
like the nonprofit gets a lot of government funding.
01:01:06
So I want to look into it more and connect the dots as to
01:01:09
whether or not it is government funding that it's just being
01:01:14
funneled through this nonprofit and then it's going to these
01:01:17
cash cards. That may be a story that we talk
01:01:19
about next week. Newsom will never be president.
01:01:24
The entire country doesn't want to become California.
01:01:27
I I mean, the, the ads write themselves against Gavin Newsom.
01:01:33
They just run videos of California.
01:01:35
Just run those videos of the homeless in Los Angeles and
01:01:41
that's it. Just run that over and over
01:01:43
again and show gas prices and just run that over and over
01:01:45
again. Just as don't California, my ex,
01:01:48
whatever, Texas, whatever. All right, I think that's it for
01:01:56
tonight. Thank you to everyone for tuning
01:01:58
in live, especially all out there on X YouTube Rumble.
01:02:02
We love to do this live so we can get your input so you can
01:02:04
join the show live. There is a new feature and I may
01:02:11
have to go into more detail on there's a new feature that we
01:02:14
have on our website. If you go to California
01:02:15
underground dot live to contact us, if you go there, you can
01:02:21
record a voice message which can then be played on the show.
01:02:25
So it's like you calling into the show.
01:02:29
So maybe maybe some listeners out there want to do that.
01:02:31
Maybe they want to call into the show with their questions.
01:02:36
So just something out there, but I want to thank everyone for
01:02:39
tuning in. If you haven't already, make
01:02:41
sure you like share, subscribe, review, share.
01:02:43
This could be because the best thing that you can do to help
01:02:46
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01:02:51
believe will find this interesting, engaging and
01:02:53
entertaining. And with that, we'll see you on
01:02:56
the next one later.