Hey, humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here.
Thanks for listening to another episode of hey,
human podcast.
This is episode 4 and 10. And my
guests are actor and activist William Baldwin
and doc Robert Margaret, who has worked on
issues of homelessness for more than 3 decades.
We'll learn a lot more about Robert in
an upcoming episode.
Robert and Williams sat down with me and
talked about how the 2 of them have
spent the last year visiting homeless
shelters and outreach programs.
They're part of a huge
humanitarian campaign that includes
the documentary
Americans with no address that William,
is the narrative 4. A feature film, no
address, starring William and an ensemble cast. A
book based on the film and an interactive
study guide to accompany
all of it and it is to educate
and provide structure for approaches
to engage and, quote, serve individuals who are
experiencing homelessness un unquote.
I've seen the documentary, and it is
incredible.
It
stunning
well done.
What really struck me in the film was
that there are outreach programs, private groups churches,
private citizens who are making a huge difference
in the homelessness
crisis in the fact that so many
Americans
have no address as stated in the film
title in San Antonio, there is a program
that was featured in the documentary that
has been able to drop homelessness by 70
percent.
It works. These programs work and yet, it
seems our government
is so busy fighting with itself.
That they're what's really standing in the way
of tackling this issue, and it's not a
left or right thing
because both sides
are have fo have problems with dealing with
this crisis. It's mental health crisis.
It's an addiction crisis.
It's it's a lot of stuff, all wrapped
up, But it's being
dealt with and
handled in a really beautiful lovely
humane.
And
dare I say Christ like,
I'm going to say it because I think
that's fitting.
In a way that
really... And I don't mean that in a
religious sense, I should say. I mean not
in an embodiment
sense.
That it's it's working.
And so I... When this movie when the
documentary, I should say, comes out
and people can see it. Right now, it's
doing the tour, and and they showed it
up in Washington Dc and things like that.
When it hits the air waves for
public consumption, I highly recommended it. It's so
so so good.
The movie, no address won't be out till
the end of the year, but the documentary
should
come out sooner than that. So please, if
you can. Definitely check that out, and I'll
keep you updated
when I know to let you know to
go find it. Okay. General stuff. I myself.
I'm on Patreon
under Susan Ruth.
It helps keep this show ad free. It
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Well, oh me rephrase that. It's not lots
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I'm working up to it, but definitely content
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Thank you for listening. Thank you for being
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and
I appreciate you.
So be well,
be kind.
Love,
be compassion.
Here we go.
William Baldwin, and Doctor Robert Margaret, welcome to
a human.
Hello. Hello. Hello?
Thanks for being here. Billy. We're gonna focus
on you for most of this. Robert, you're
gonna be stats person I understand. Billie, how
I like to start is I ask people
where they're from and how their childhood shaped
who they are now? I was born on
Long Island in Mass Long Island. I live
most of my life in New York.
Went to school and Upstate New York, and
I lived in New York City and the
suburbs. You know, when I met my wife
and we had our children that I I
got relocated for working
raised my children in the Santa of Barbara
commute to paramount, and I've been out in
on the West Coast for
since 2007,
but spent the majority of my life, in
in and around the city. You're living in
the city or, you know, growing up in
the suburbs and, yeah. My my life was
very, very
heavily influenced by... Primarily
by, you know, my... You know, my parents
first, my siblings, my community,
And also,
I would say outside of that, my... I
competed as an athlete as a wrestler, and
I think Wrestling from fourth grade through high...
Junior high, high school in college.
Really sort of, help to shape and inform
the way,
I go about my luck pursuing
just my philosophy on life, but more importantly
than that, certainly my parents, my father was
a public educator.
He was an activist
He was a high school political science teacher,
and he did everything at the school. He
coached the football team, the rifle team, he
ran the e club. He'd rather the youth
Council so he'd rather winter wreck program the
summer
recreation program. He was
a little coach for when my brother, Alex
started to when Steven finished, and he was...
Our Cub scout master who when Alex started
to when Steven finished. So he just was
directly and indirectly helping influence in shape and
inform
the lives of a lot of the members
of my community for, you know, 35 years.
Like, a community father figure. Yeah. Yeah. He
was a real pillar in our community He
was a gonna pillar and someone who instilled
the value in me, my siblings and many
people in my community of giving back in,
you know, through in the form of service.
Has he is he passed away?
He died when I was... I'm very young.
He died when I was 19 and when
I was college. That's awful. I'm sorry. And
then my mother
miraculously lived to be
almost 93.
Oh, wow. She my dad by 40 years.
Yeah. Wow.
Clearly, in your childhood,
you mentioned activism political science,
I think that definitely shapes a child to
have that
conversation going in the house? Yeah. And is
that really where you got the show bug
to be a a really an active member
of
society?
Yeah. I always say I I was an
activist that happened to become an actor or
not. The other way around. I wasn't an
actor that happened to become an activist. Because
I was an activist when I was
15 years old. I was involved with student
government all the way from
6 or seventh grade all the way through
graduating and at Binghamton University Was a political
science major.
You know, I fetch coffee on the hill
for fetch coffee and dry cleaning on the
hill for
a little and I've been active on
various political nonprofit and and charitable boards for
decades. My mother's breast cancer Foundation, rocked the
vote the creative coalition,
a help for the homeless... Lots of different
organizations. I've been
involved in, but that was something that was
instilled to me, you know, dinner
conversations sitting around the dinner table. I don't
remember
every night. We we always said dinner around
the tate table every night, but I don't
always remember
Pb
and Walter Cro be on every night, but
we were a family that that watched the
news was aware of world affairs and current
affairs and discussed it. I mean, I I
literally remember discussing when I was, you know,
10 years old, what was going on with
Nixon and Water gate around the dinner table
of my father.
You feel like that's something that you've been
instilled in your own kids as well as
you move forward?
I hope so, I think so I don't
know
Here's the deal. Like, it's in my Dna.
I don't know if it's in their Dna,
the way it's in my Dna.
I sort of have a compartment
life where
I do things with my kids, and I
don't really talk a lot about my show
business career, and I don't... I do talk
about things that are important to me. But
we live in a world where kids are
being sort of repel and turned off by...
Not... We... Look, my kids aren't the kids
right now,
that are watching what's happening
and they're aware, but they're not, like, actively
going to demonstrations. They have in the past
actually. They've gone to climate change of events.
They've gone to Black lives matter events.
They've marched in Santa Barbara and big marches
that they've had in in Santa Barbara,
so they're aware, and they've they've demonstrated. There's...
I I wouldn't say they have been...
Like, I was involved with student government in
from seventh grade through twelfth Grade. They've never
done that. I was a political science major.
They were not political science major. They are
aware, and they are
compassionate if they care. So we'll see where
at leads another. What my oldest just graduated
at Usc, my middle child is gonna be
a senior at Sc usc,
and my youngest child who
is the the dod bird
was, the val
of her school, and she's currently not She's
on her second gap year because she's working
and doing great in New York, and she's
playing guitar. And she's in studios and she's
recording demos and stuff. So she's
very bright. I'm not sure if it's gonna
wind up with her with, like a dual,
theater and economics degree or
if she's gonna go like her mother and
go into show business and have a record
deal and have 3 songs go to number
1.
On the billboard charts when she's 19 or
20 years old, like her mother did and
her grandmother. My her mother is my wife
China Phillips
and her grandmother is Michelle Phillips ups from
the mama's Papa so she comes from a
long line. But, I think that's what's in
her Dna.
Yeah. I get that. But she was Val
don't know any That it didn't go on
to go to college. Right now she's 1.
As far as the younger generation, I mean,
they didn't have a requirement
for Civic for my nieces and nephews. So
I don't know if that's even a part
of the curriculum anymore in high school, which
is unfortunate because I think that it rob
people of,
in a way it rob them of their
voice. If they don't know how everything works,
how can they speak out against it? Yeah.
My father used that a class like that
gold current affair then 1 of the assignments
every week is that you had to read
an article in the near times or or
News, Long Island and clip it and write
AA1 page report on it. There was various
aspects of what, you know. What was the...
What was the article about and what was
your opinion on the article? And then you
had to present it in class.
And my father just required that you didn't
clip like
the box score from the yankee Red sox
game the night before and say, yeah.
Yay. Hey. We won. You know, we we
wanted it to defeat. But he left a
broad
swath, if you will, of, it didn't have
to be
politics,
government history. It could be on
a play, it could be on some sort
of other cultural what he loved when they
were... When they when they got it Even
though it was a Snippets class. He loved
when they got it. Oh, my father take
bus flows and kids to the theater every
you. And that's why Wound up getting to
steal a lot of theater because we could
never afford that. I... We never had a
car. We'd never went on a vacation. We'd
never were on a plane. We'd never ate
at restaurants, but I wanna getting a healthy
dose of live musical theater because my father
had cake with a bunch of chaperone,
kids to see. I saw S,
the wiz,
pip,
I saw dozens of shows when I was,
like, 09:10 years old because my father would
take groups of kids
and in exchange for taking...
2 buffalo the kids taking 50 or 60
kids. He would prom, like, 2 or 3
tickets and throw us on the bus with
them, and I got to see a lot
of musical theater when I was young, 08:10,
12 years old. That's so cool. Your dad
would have loved Hamilton.
Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Did your dad get you into wrestling too
or was that another... Somebody else in new
life. That was my best friend's dad. K.
My best friend's dad,
if you can follow this. My best friend's
dad. My dad was a teacher at Mass
high school, my best friend's dad was a
student there,
what my father was his teacher. Not my
best friend, my best friend's dad. He graduated
in 57
then graduated from the Nyu and 61
went back to his,
his old Alma, high school to become a
teacher there and my father was a civic
history,
social study teacher and football coach. His father
was a ph teacher and the,
the varsity wrestling coach there for decades and
his dad got me involved in wrestling at
a very early age when I was 708
years old. I understand you and Robert have
a little rivalry between swimming and wrestling as
far as Olympic
sports.
No. It's... It's pent
and he's just jealous because he can't do
5 different sports. So... Put it this way?
I walks around with a s shirt, you
know, and does this thing you on a
mat. IIT
Mar in this olympic battle the same way
I would transform marvin in a wrestling match.
Leave it Just ask him who ask him
who's back in the Olympics and who's not
in the Olympics. Okay? What's the answer that
question, Barb? Ask him who got knocked out
of the Olympics first and who stayed in.
What a bunch of pools to knock out
a sport that had been in the Olympics
to 8 870
70 years before Christ.
Okay? Take that to your your Trump supporting
evangelical and tell that you threw a sport
out. That pre dates the man himself. See
what they say to you.
You're gonna get us you're gonna get us
spanking for that.
Wrestling. Now was that's really what was the
big event in the Olympics.
Yes. It was wrestling like, the 2 founding
sports were, like, disc.
We're, like, Ja and wrestling.
Nearly a thousand years before Christ. Yeah. Well,
h ancient been tap on. That was the
actual where the end of the Olympics ended
actually had wrestling as a subs support of
our sport. So
So III said, Billy a picture on the
wall. I have a thing from Greece that
the the Grease Olympic team gave me and
it it has the 5 ancient sports of...
Then ancient pent.
And there's wrestling, you know, 1 of the
5,
just for others. And Can peed if you
didn't have a million dollar pony.
And his campaign flute and a pistol and
an ascot. How did you added did that
work back then? What was Well, what how
did you compete in that sport back then?
His force says tally h.
If I what's the yeah
How did you billy get involved with the
documentary
Americans with no address and the film?
No address. I imagine it immediately spoke to
your activism side.
Had explain how you got drawn into that.
Well, it's just the the basic, you know,
I got a call from my agent, I
was offered the film
very quick turnaround. And they needed me on
a plane in, like, 3 days. And then
when I got on the set, I sort
of you know, ing negotiated my way into
deeper involvement in the project. The documentary, I
don't think was originally intended
to be
honest, truthful accurate and authentic. They went to
20 cities at 18 states conducted several hundred
interviews. They had thousands of hours of footage
that's spun off the dock, which we now
have called Americans would no address. They then
asked me to do the voice over Ford
which I in.
I've seen it now 3 or to 4
times it looks great.
And we're just trying to raise awareness into,
try to focus attention on this issue,
but it happened through the normal the normal
casting process that I think because
I like the part, and I like this...
III like the part. I like the script.
I like the team. I had some problems
with the script that I I sort of
warned production about that we've
addressed,
no pun attendance hits that we thank God,
we did
there was and we we dealt with that.
Yeah It was the normal casting process, and
then they they spun off the dock. I
did the voice over.
And, because of my path, where I study
politics, and I I, have worked, you know,
a very
you know, fairly deeply totally they became a
dad. I worked fairly deeply in politics that
been involved with democratic party politics. I I
told I served on various boards and say,
I've attended every Rn in every Dnc and
run like a shadow convention at the Rn
dnc since 19 92.
I retreat... I've attended the Dnc since 19
88 and both the Rn of the Dnc
since 92. I've always
enjoyed is
maybe not the exact word, but I've always
enjoyed working, reaching over the aisle, working in
a bipartisan Way. We've had significant
done significant work with Dennis Has and or
in hatch when it comes to funding for
the national endowment for the arts and things
like that. So... But I... Again, I I
have worked with Maria Cuomo organization help for
the homeless, I've worked with Andrew when he
was the housing secretary or Clinton, and I
slept over homeless facilities
in Dc, and I... Maybe Baltimore, Philly, New
York couple times I slept over facilities with
Andrew. And and I've been engaged, but when
When I relocated to California,
in 2007
to do a a television show for Abc
b,
All of my political contacts
were
albany New york City in Washington and now
I was living in Santa Barbara,
and I had 3 young children, and I
basically told everybody
you know,
I didn't say lose by a number, but
I said don't call me. I'll call you.
I said I wanna focus on
parenting and and raising my children and supporting
my family. Loan a whole, like, 15 years
went by. I really enjoyed that, but I'm
anxious and interested and excited to
get back in the game if the plot
us line, and that's what I mean by
that is if I can do it effectively
if you can do it efficiently if I
could have a real impact and it's
it's... I'm not I'm not howling into the...
The boyd know I'm not screaming into a
hurricane, you know? Yeah. Yeah into the void.
You know? I watched the documentary
in cal n la and with all of
you.
And it's quite moving.
And the the beauty of this film to
me of this documentary
is that
it doesn't feel gratuitous. Yeah. It felt like
you all really... And and for the listeners,
basically, they went to impairments they went to,
various,
shelters
and community outreach programs and really
really on the ground.
And getting to know people talking to people
who are un unharmed,
and
it was really beautifully
done.
Well, thank you.
Yeah. The other thing that I think is
really said in this documentary is this could
happen to anyone. And it's not that many
steps in order to find yourself in that
situation. And I think there's AAA
fear and a distance that happens in the
human
psyche
that says, oh, if I engage this or
if I think about this or if I
look at this,
I'm looking at the potential of myself, and
it really shuts people off. So I think
that
the fact that you all were really there
and in it and talking to people
is so wonderful.
How did it shape you as you went
through that process?
Well, 1 of the things what's so cool
about Billy, literally, the first day before... Well,
I guess it was... We were set to
shoot on Monday.
And when everybody came, not everybody, but but
about half to cast came in on Saturday
a couple days in advance.
And we spent the first couple days just
touring homeless en cabinets, and we were shooting
in Sacramento
And at that time, the largest longest en
camp in America
was was actually in Sacramento.
So we spent a lot of time there
and in some other enhancements.
And and and I always remember, Billy, the...
And it's funny because Billy and I have
literally
gone against each other in sport. We've been
at the same meetings. We that we've been,
you know, over 40 years just
in and out on different side, never on
the same side.
And Billy came over to me and said,
if we're just doing this for a, sort
of a 2 fruity
drive by as, you know, picture that's un
meaningful.
I don't wanna be involved. Yeah. Start off.
But if if this is a serious effort,
I'm all in. And then he goes. So
what's buster? I mean, you know, and and
and, literally, that's our first 30 minutes together.
And in 2 hours later, Billy and I
had sort of escaped our security team in
the film, we've gone way to an end
and come into this couple who invited us
breakfast at, you know, 10:30 in the morning
on a Saturday.
And that was when Billie and I, and
ended... We started communicating through just Eye looks.
That was when we realized
this is... We had something different going on
here, and we just... Even though we disagree
in so many different other areas,
we actually find a lot of common ground
in most areas.
And and that if you get wet rave
sort of the fringe,
that we could start working together and so
little of that's happening in the country now.
And so, hopefully,
you know, we can show, you know, here
we are working together very bar apart in
a lot of ways, but we're finding ways
to agree. We're finding common ground. Well, there
isn't really a political...
It's a human problem. It's a
it's a human issue. It's not a right
or left or up or down. And I
think that unfortunately, politics tries to make it
1 or the other and the human beings
get lost in that fight because then it's
stops being about them, and it's all about
the fight appear. We talked about this today
at breakfast.
On 1 side, there's a group who doesn't
wanna fund this. You know, and some of
the extremist,
maybe within my side of the aisle. At
times have said, we don't need to fund
this. They just chose to be come homeless
so why are we... But why are we
gonna fund it? Well, in the reality is
most of the time, nobody chose to become
experiencing homelessness.
And if we don't spend money now, it's
gonna be way more expensive later in in
terms of Ems fire, police, hospitals, emergency rooms,
loss of downtown.
And then on on the other side of
the aisle, Billy side of the aisle. He
has some people to his extreme that do
not wanna have treatment. Do not wanna have
sort of accountability and programming. And and what
I know with meta physical certainty after doing
this a long time.
You don't get recovery
hanging out on a bench or under a
bench or on a beach or in a
cold d sac.
Likewise, you don't, get recovery in jail cell
floor. You don't get... You don't get recovery
by being arrested, but you don't get recovery
just hanging out on a street either. And
Billy and I've been now in multiple states
and multiple cat. We saw 1AA week ago
or so a couple weeks ago, I guess,
up in Seattle of a person who was
dying right in front of us. And everybody
was trying to get this guy treatment. And,
you know, Billy, maybe you wanna share that
story because that... That's...
Anybody who saw that story would come to
the conclusion
that
Our system now, our legal system in particular
is totally completely broke.
Yeah. I think, you know, what market is
saying is that
I I just will just a little bit
of what He just said,
you know, the the right is hesitant to
pun. The left is hesitant to
force it not enforce it, but to force
it. I believe it needs the funding, it'll
be cheaper to address it, then it'll it'll
be far more
costly, if we don't spend the money. We
need money primarily in mental health care. There
was 500000
national beds in the 19 fifties. There's less
than 20000
today. This is not an epidemic or a
crisis of of homelessness it's a crisis of
mental health. It's also less of of a
crisis of a drug addiction, than people think
people think that's the choice. But that's,
untreated mental health problems, people that have anxiety
that have depression of bipolar that have schizophrenia,
don't have health care. They're not seeing a
psychologist or a psychiatrists not getting prescribed the
proper medication. So they're self medic with street
drugs, meth
but
alcohol,
of course, a heroin and and primarily fentanyl
now, and that's medic a mental health problem.
So
part of... A big, big part of it
is mental health and a big, big, part
of the addiction problem is mental health. So
we have to get the medical health care
funds back in place.
And on my side, the 2 things that
I think Marvin is Jesse, which I agree
with is that this harm reduction policy where
you're allowing people to
give them pipes you're giving them needles and
you're not require requiring them a path to
recovery at path to sobriety,
stability,
independence,
a job, you know,
I I think there has to be
strings attached. I think harm reduction or no
harm policies
are not working and need to be addressed,
number 1. And they're incredibly expensive. Yeah. They're
not working.
That's not the way I would wanna
raise my child
is to just say, just stay in your
bedroom and keep getting high and tell me,
you know, come out when you wanna eat
and come out when you wanna have a
conversation. Yeah.
So, you know, I I think... I I
don't know enough about it. So speaking from...
This is the actor talking not the expert
in the field, but I've learned a lot
about it.
Over the last 2 years that have been
involved with this film.
And harm reduction is is not working,
but also, I... And this is pretty radical
for someone like me to say, But I
don't think that
I don't I'm not... I've done
ships over people.
And I'm not sure if the... If if
it's a 51 50, I'm talking about, but
we saw a guy overdo on the street,
22 year old kid his name at blessing,
he would his foaming at the mouth.
And we had fire department police department, several,
people from non nonprofit organizations. And they barely
got him coherent enough
for him to simply... Out of the words,
I decline
treatment. Like, I don't wanna be taken away
on the stretcher by the fire department any
of the emergency. And the primary reason he
was saying that, and I didn't realize it
at the time the fire department of the
Cops and marvin in the nonprofit were role
telling me is because when they give him
Na, he won't be high anymore and the
way he'll heal when he's not high, is
so terrifying to him
That's why he was rejecting treatment. I don't
think it should be a judge in a
courtroom
3 weeks later making the decision. I think
if you have a cop of fire
first responder, a paramedic a social worker. And
any 2 of those people say, take them,
then she should be put into a 72
hour locked in possibly. Again, as well
and let this person make a decision on
his future
is future regarding all of it.
Addiction,
homelessness,
all of it. A job, education and all
of. Because it's all... If you if you
agree to the treatment, you're on a path
to recovery. You're you're on a path back
to independence. So
I don't know if this should be a
situation where you go in with lawyers and
a judge the decides if I think if
you have a social worker and a fire
and a paramedic, and they say,
because the the term when I've done a
cons entrepreneurship is, if they are a threat
of a harm to themselves or others or
they are a harm to themselves or others,
then you have the right you could take
their rights away.
Clearly this kid blessing
was clearly not only a potential... He he
was harming himself. He was not a potential
harm himself. He was harming himself and he
was clearly a potential harm to others. I'm
not doing it to cleaning up the sidewalks
in front of the Nike store in front
of Starbucks so they you know, the the
patrons don't have to be bothered stepping over
them when they come in and out of
the door. I could care less about that.
I care about the life and and
to a health and well being of this
person,
and
he was not in a position to make
that decision for himself. He was not.
He was not a clear in my... Oh.
I mean, I've seen people
high on booze. I seen people high on
on on cocaine. And I seen people high
on heroin when I see people hire at
oxy,
fentanyl is a totally different ball wax. It's
a totally to kick all of that together
and
multiply it by 10, and that's what you're
dealing with. These people who are not in
a position to know how to make a
reasons
judgments on that. So I wouldn't mind putting
it in the hands of people that are
experts in the field more so than any
judge
a social worker on the streets, fire, a
paramedic account.
Instead, they left him there the cops walked
by and said this is This is what
we do. This is that we're this that
we're dealing with. You know? It it was
the most amazing thing how society
showed up for blessing. I mean, if you
think of it as sort of a societal
response. We had 4 firefighters,
3 of who were Ems trained,
We had 2
county sheriff there.
We had 3 different
Seattle
city
agencies that had multiple people there. There was
a non profit group that had 4 people
there,
plus she had billy and I every 1
of us thought this guy needs help now.
Because he may not be alive as we
take this. He may not be with us
anymore. He was that far gone. And he's
the 1 person on that street corner
who was the least
had the least ability to make a coherent
decision, but the way our laws are written
that you basically are giving it to a
judge 3 weeks later rather than the people
on the spot.
And and maybe and I get there were
were bad things done in the past. But
that doesn't mean you throw throughout the whole
program. We had a situation where, again, 1
side of the aisle, didn't wanna a fundamental
health. And then the other extreme on the
mental health. And then almost by the way
it breaks in the same political groups we
have here who are watching 1 of flu
of K nest thought it was a documentary
and moved into the institutional.
And so you had this really strange and
holy alliance. Those are the Reagan years. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Of people trying to un fund
on 1 side in
institutional on the other
And you wonder... Well, why do we now
have more people in jail than ever before?
Why do we have more people on the
street than ever before? And when you take
away treatment from the equation, and then you
add something so powerful as fentanyl,
it... I'm not surprised at all. What's happened
at Downtown, Portland, Downtown, Seattle, that's, you know,
San Francisco, and my book is almost the
lost city. And I know others may differ,
but and unless we make some radical changes,
we're we're just gonna
it's gonna be not getting those city better.
It's gonna be now Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas,
New Orleans are gonna become just like those
cities Yeah. The the thing that really struck
me to is that it's not like there
aren't programs that do work. The San Antonio
to district where 70 percent of the of
the people that are were experiencing homelessness
was eradicated and they got their life back
together, and that you have shown in this
documentary and by going from town to town
that the public citizens who step up in
the churches and
the people that say no we can make
a difference, and then they do make a
difference. I don't understand the disconnect, and that's
maybe
maybe I'm being po about how the government
works, but it seems like if I'm in
the government and I say, oh, here are
these cities
that
they have programs running by private citizens and
privately funded and non profits,
that it works why am I not looking
at that as the model for the whole
country? Yeah. That should be replicated across the
country. Should be federal state, local government it
should be profits. It should be faith based
organizations, and it should be Corporate America, we
can go in and replicate this. A significant
amount of homeless this takes place in counties
where there's
800
a thousand 1200 people in the county that
are homeless,
And you could probably
have
strike teams go when they're and implement these
programs and and and reduce that
fair like, Marvin has done, you know, 70
80 percent
in these in these areas where it's a
little bit more manageable
rather than going into
a, Sacramento where it went from 2 or
3000 to 12 or 14000
over the last 5 years. You know, I
think Covid was a major contributor to that.
But, also, what's a big contributor to it
is
Correct me if I'm wrong, Marvin, But there's
the reason there's a homeless problem in in
California a big problem with homelessness in California
is because California is California.
It's an amazing,
amazing place. Okay? We also have
Greyhound diplomacy where they give you 300 bucks
of the Greyhound ticket cincinnati of your ritter
Toledo and say you wanna wake up on
the beach in venice tomorrow with 300 bucks
in your pocket, and they way better services
there in in La and it's staff Cisco
that we do here they'll provide you with
way better services. So the reason there's showing
homeless people in California is because the service
in California because of our less leaning
bleeding heart liberal tendencies
is to... Is to look out and take
care of these people when we provide maze
services and that's part of why the people
come.
California is amazing.
There's there's Greyhound diplomacy, and the services are
better than, you know,
probably better than anywhere in the country. There's
other states that have good services but California's
are probably the best. Most comprehensive. And I'd
add 1 thing there, California also has the
lease to about accountability
for an individual. They don't require
treatment. They don't require you to go meet
with the case manager. That that more than
any other state, it's the most
liberal,
we give you all this stuff, and there's
no strings. We give all this stuff. There's
no accountability. I would even call that liberal
to call that, like, nonsensical. But something is
not working or something was working and now
the numbers have dropped pre.
Like, let's look at it, And let's... Of
course correct. Let's tack east. Let's try something
different with stress. I need right now, what
you guys are doing in Arkansas. What you're
doing in San Antonio, what you're doing in
in Pine what the Cuomo have done in
New York, which was easy to get consensus
because they were specifically
targeting
veteran homelessness. So they were able to reduce
veteran homelessness
by 70, 80 percent over the course of
a 4 or 5 year period. If we
can go into
suburban areas where you have 6 800 a
thousand homeless people in suburban
communities outside of Chicago outside of Boston outside
of Baltimore where reduce the numbers by
forget 70 percent 80. If we could reduce
the numbers by 30 or 40 percent, that's
a great start.
A great start. If you stop the growth
in in the West Coast. If you just
stop the growth,
that would... Most people would go, wow, look
at what we changed. And this problem has
gotten so bad. It is a direct threat
to our country and many of our communities,
and it's only gonna get worse.
We're now doubling, street level homeless is now
doubling every 5 to 6 years. And unless
we all, you know, man
battle stations. And I mean everybody, faith based
non nonprofit secular government,
state local, 1 of our
examples we use in our movie, which I
just love is John Hopkins University,
a secular university
setting up a mental health behavioral health and
substance use clinic inside a Christian rescue mission.
And if they could pull that off and
do so well.
And why should the government should be saying,
well, we don't like those type of programs
and we don't like it that way. It
that may not be the only way and
not everybody responds to to that. But if
you're getting that good of success, why shouldn't
it, we be encouraging much more of that
rather than saying we can't do it and
can't do it this way.
We need everybody's help now not telling people
you can't help. Yeah.
Mark says, you know, a lot of people
who were... I wouldn't say
lacking and compassion maybe, but sort of des
to this or thing people made this choice
in their life. We have 1300000.0
adults in 1500000.0
children in homeless.
1500000.0
children, none of them made the choice to
be homeless. Of the 1300000.0,
which the numbers are probably
skewed
lower than it it is in reality, especially
coming out of Covid.
But of the 1300000.0,
how many of those mentally ill made that
choice? How many children that aged out of
foster care became almost made that choice? How
many Ptsd veterans that were not taken care
of made that choice? How many people that
are addicted to drugs
that are self medic a health... A mental
health crisis made that truth. Are there people
that made the choice instead... Because, you know,
you do go into these campus and they
say,
I don't want, I'd rather stay in the
camp then go to a facility
because,
I... For whatever reason, I don't feel safe.
Because remember of the old days, they have
a silly room a big open air room,
and they had men and women staying together
and the women had a child them and
they didn't they they didn't feel safe for
their child. They thought they might be attacked.
They thought they might be raped. So people
literally would choose to not get the... To
not be put up in a facility.
That's changed now. We have we have facilities
that a a men's car, a women's car,
a family card, people that are that are
working on sobriety, people that are are in
the holding... In a holding pattern and hoping
to graduate to get into detox. If you're
talking about
1 point... Let's say rounded off to to
3000000 people, half of them are children,
and the other half that are adults.
90 percent of them didn't make... Did not
make a choice. It's a huge
mental health crisis that needs to be addressed
and it's gonna be a lot cheaper to
address it than if we don't address it
you you look at what Barb talking about
in in terms of quality of life, the
impact on cost of living, real estate value,
restoration,
drug addiction crime.
It's just is far more expensive to not
give these people treatment than it is to
give them the treating people say how gonna
fund it. It's cheaper to fund it the
not fund, and we're paying the price right
now. The stop for funding the
meth
type wave of
accommodating,
was something like a quarter million dollars. Was
it a day? Am I... Was that correct?
Yeah. From the documentary here. That was a
a stat in San Francisco
where they're spending a over a quarter million
dollars a day to clean the streets up
not treatment, not recovery. That's just how much
they're paying to pick up what's going on.
It's crazy. That money should be going to
treatment and recovery, not mitigating the damage being
done. It's gonna be so cheaper to do
this right.
Than to spend money wasteful doing it long.
Mh. And we have to do some investment
to to get this. And in the long
run, it will save money. Will save money
if we make an investment, and it will
save money if we, course correct our policies.
I like the way Billy says that. You
know, some of what we're doing is working.
We know how to do this right around
the country. Clearly, that's the back half of
the movie is to show
places that have had huge
reductions
and sustained it, but they don't buy in
crazy on either side to be honest, most
of it is common sense, middle,
you know, the way you would want to
to work with your family members in many
ways. That's why I was saying after I
walked out of the... You know, I left
the movie. I was really moved by it
as I said, everyone... I don't I don't
know when it actually launches for the human
out there consumption,
but I know it's coming soon, but the
first thing I thought of is every single
person on the hill
all the way up so the White House
needs to watch this film. Yeah. Yeah. I
mean, 1 of my favorite parts of was
that housing complex at Austin, Texas where they
were on that 40 or 50 acres and
they were to expand another 50 acres, and
they had there's beautiful little cult sac in
those mobile homes all facing each other. They
said,
Strategically, there's no backdoor, like, there's a little...
You gotta come up with which I don't
know if that's an insurance like Thought hero
a fire hazard or enough, but
hopefully they have an escape rude in case
they can't get out the front door? The
Billy is putting his backdrop draft. Pat on
here. It is 2 months of fire academy
in Chicago here.
Yeah. I love the facility there. They were
all different. They didn't... They weren't all cookie
cutter. There were all different colors. There were
all different people, and there was there were
strings attached with accountability.
You can't be put in there and do
whatever the heck you want. There there's accountability
in terms of
conduct and behavior and that community looks
absolutely
pristine. I go to in homeless in canvas
and I've been going to them with Marvin
quite a bit. We left
blessing. What once she said I refused treatment
and the fire department looked at each other
and they said did you hear that and
hear, yeah. And they go, okay, Sorry, guys.
And they got on the rig and they
drove away.
We then left, and we went to various
other facilities and 1 place we went to
was on twelfth in Jackson jackson in Seattle,
we were in, like, a Ethanol gallery, and
we were hanging at with probably 30 or
40 people from 7 chained to 75 when
older guy was in a wheelchair with his
leg amputated.
And he couldn't even get across the street
and was falling out of his wheelchair.
People were doing the the classic, you know,
fentanyl
lean.
There just 1 very articulate, 22 years old,
very
handsome them very articulate, very intelligent guy who
this this kidneys needs help because this is
a kind of kid you could absolutely snatch
and save and this you did go on
to have like,
a super, very, very successful and productive.
Life and he could be a great outcome
if we could just get him away from
the fentanyl and proper treatments. And then we
went to, this other place called the White
House. And 1... I couldn't believe about twelfth
in Jackson in the White House was how
absolutely
end the the 7 mile stretch in Sacramento.
I just could not believe. And I think
that's again, a reflection of the mental health
component of it, but I couldn't believe
the filth
and the hoarding that was going on. 1
guy was repairing bicycle. So I understood why
he 50 or 60 bicycle tires outside of
this thing that he built called the White
House. But mixed in with all the tires
was literally trash and debris and like, he
was collecting shopping cart of stuff and just
dumping it in front of his own house,
and,
you know, it it just heartbreaking to see
and just
hopefully, people seeing this will will inspire and
and motivate people to reach out and
start to help them, you know. The hoarding
reminds me of the people that went through
to the great depression.
And for those of us with parents or
grandparents of that age,
that we see them with, you know, washing
their paper plates and getting things that Filling
their houses up with stuff because they went
through a period of time when they had
literally nothing, and I think that when the
cities come through, and they clean up
a homeless en camp en compartment,
They're taking away
literally, everything
a person owns on the face of the
earth.
All of their.
Yeah.
And I think about blessing. Also, it's it's
such a tragedy to think of I think
what what is that person's future? Like, maybe
they...
Have the cure for cancer. Maybe they're gonna
write the most beautiful son that anyone's ever
heard. Maybe they're going to
you know, have a kid that
figures out how to solve some other crisis,
but we'll never know because we lose these
people
over and over and over again. And I
think it does to create this how am
I ever going to feel good about myself
again or have self worth. And maybe I
don't deserve to have things or maybe, you
know, if society keeps looking at me, like,
I'm a piece of shit. How am I
supposed to feel good about myself, and that
all ties in as well.
We have to start seeing people as
just human being period end of story.
And I think 1 of the saddest thing
in most parts of the country today, not
everywhere. Not San Antonio or not pan, not
the
community First village that Billy was talking about
up and off and, but in most parts
of the country,
the number way you exit homeless now is
dying.
That that's what our country has gotten to
that you don't exit through recovery and treatment
in American. Most part of America you die.
The other crazy thing that's going on is
the number 1 supplier of Mental health services
America is occurring in jail and prisons. And
we all know that doesn't work.
I'm not saying that's good treatment. I'm not
saying it works well. But the fact that's
the number 1 location of attempted
behavioral and mental health rather than a real
robust program that's good. When you think about
those 2 factors, just facts. I mean, this
is not a right wing left wing from
Republican Democrat. This is just fact.
And how could you have a society
that says,
If if people were committed shooting themselves, literally
with the gun on the street, if blessing
had a gun on a street, something would
have been done for that person.
But instead shooting in an arm or, you
know, smoking a straw, whatever. At with... You
know, he may have eaten pills, you know,
there 4 different ways you can take fentanyl
now. So... And it it 3 dollars a
hit now. So I don't know how he
personally was taking,
but we would do it for other things.
So why we're doing it now. It it's
just mind boggling how we've gotten to this
point. But the good news is there is
a path to get this fixed.
That's clear that there are ways to make
a difference and to
start rectify this problem
it's been done. It's been proven. There are
cities that have shown it to work that
do it on their own. So what's your
next step? How are you
going to get people in the political
arena to pay attention and to step up.
I'm on my way to a screening in
Washington, Dc right now. Created to a bunch
of staffers so that we can do exactly
that raise awareness. This is how we're doing
it. We're rolling out the dock. We're we're
we're we're platforming the release of the film,
created And, hopefully, you know, we'll raise awareness
and we'll get enough attention on this to
try and implement what Marvin and others are
doing in areas of the country words work
thing and we'll do a couple pilot programs
in areas where they're not employing similar philosophies
and services,
and, you know, 1 success story at a
time. Mh. Well, I was at a screening,
and there was a gentleman there. Who was,
you know, used to run the city council.
He was a little bit. Older, probably in
his early to mid eighties, and he was
ahead of the city council. What was that
gentleman's name in Seattle? Doctor Marvin that was
the moderator for our panel in Oc seattle,
up at discovery institute Bruce Chapman, and he
was formerly on City Council. Yeah. Wonderful. Wonderful
guy. And at the end of this, he
was saying, I implore you.
To
to call your
congressional representatives and your political leaders or write
them letters, and I cut them off and
I was, no.
We should take this 2 to them. We
should get a bipartisan committee
with a bunch of big, big heavy hit
that care about this issue in the corporate
sector in the celebrity sector in the nonprofit
sector, and I've had great success. I literally
sat down with Denny Has and Or Hatch
Man. Other when I had... Not I'm not
saying we'll do this with it. We're talking
about government funding of the Arts and Arts
advocacy and person them at writes and you,
I had, you know, Susan Ran and Tim
Robbins, Julia Roberts with me, and I had
other experts in the field. If you put
together the right team, and you target the
right people and positions of power on the
right committees, you're gonna be able to... We'll
be able to move this forward. We'll be
able to be able to move the needle
deal for sure. Amanda that. I I really
appreciate your time, both of you gentlemen.
I don't know if you have a set
date yet for the doc coming out or
the film coming out. Is that been chosen
for everyone to be able to see? The
film's is targeting late September sometime. They haven't
locked the film yet. They're still
in post with music right now. They haven't
locked it. They're color correcting and stuff. So
it locks in early June and they're hoping
to release it in late September the doc.
I'm not sure Margaret. What's going on there?
Similar late summer, early fall. Okay. Great. And
I'll put links on hay human podcast dot
com. So Erwin everyone can keep track. There
is a there's a documentary. There's the movie.
There's a reference guide. Is that correct? And
a book. Yes. Stand small communities that he
got. Everyone who's listening.
Youtube can make a difference. You can go
volunteer. You can get educated on this because
it does affect you. It affects all of
us. This is this is the community of
of human life, and we need to
you know, lift up so that we don't
keep losing our blessings, you know? Thank you
guys so much.
Yeah.
The film is no address. The documentary is
Americans with no address And yes,
I suggest all of your listeners go on
the Internet and look at the services that
are being provided in their local communities and
go to the saliva salvation Arm, go to
the local mission and try to be a
service, try to give some time, try to
learn more and try to strategize with other
members of your community to help eradicate.
And if anybody wants for further information... No
address movie. You just type that in on
any search engine that will come up and
there are a lot of ways you can
click on and get involved.
And I'll put those links on hey human
podcast. Thank you for listening everybody. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Alright. Take care. Bye.
Bye. Bye.
Yeah
Great review and subscribe to hey human podcast
wherever you get your podcast.
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Bye.