00:00:00
this is Portland Oregon the city where
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every drug is legal drug addiction
00:00:05
homelessness crime perhaps a few side
00:00:07
effects of decriminalizing every drug or
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so I think many believe this city is a
00:00:12
government experiment gone wrong but how
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did this all happen and what can be done
00:00:16
to fix it so I met up with Kevin a
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social worker born and raised in
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Portland whose life mission is to save
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this city before it's too late I'm born
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and raised Portland Oregon I've worked
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in Social Services a couple decades now
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primarily working with a homeless I have
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watched as this has grown into a
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legitimate crisis I believe we can solve
00:00:36
this with just applying a little bit of
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common sense a little effort and a lot
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of passion those are two fentanyl users
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right there we're already in kind of the
00:00:44
heart of it in this one block radius
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there's at least 50 camps you're going
00:00:48
to see a lot of overdoses out here I
00:00:50
carry Narcan which is an opioid blocker
00:00:52
because of measure 110 this
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decriminalized all drug use it's now
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just an open-air drug scene well Smash
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and grabs are very common in Portland we
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have a lawlessness City now we have cops
00:01:03
that can't even pursue they're not even
00:01:05
really allowed to because it's not
00:01:06
serious enough and we're going to walk
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past the Chinese Garden here to an
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encampment uh in any major encampment
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there's a mayor which is a homeless
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person who's in charge of the encampment
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I'm going to introduce you to one of the
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Mayors be a little disagree with the
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camera until we say hi so I don't know
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these two keep that in mind
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I'll put that
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together
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[Music]
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all right well then we walk and we walk
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away
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well I've been here longer than you
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brother hey man
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Kevin is bold right now
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oh did he move
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d
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all right let's go you were the boldest
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man I've ever met oh I'm gonna be honest
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so what it appears is that we have a
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leadership change and I I notice that
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right away because I didn't recognize
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them the new mayor's been re-elected
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he's reelected or he just took the
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office you know what was the likelihood
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of him using physical violence to beat
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her out yeah I'd say there was a high
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likelihood he did have his knife out and
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luckily we got away yeah I've been here
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multiple times the last couple years uh
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and I've built a really a strong Rapport
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these people and I've I've only been
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gone here for a week I know of a
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homeless Camp that's about a mile and a
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half from here and a guy has shotguns in
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the trees where if you step the wrong
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place it's going to shoot you and this
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was the moment I realized Kevin is
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insane how many other times have you
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been assaulted I've been stabbed twice
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I've been punched multiple times I've
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had needles uh shoved into my back
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hypodermic needle so I had to get tested
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for HIV had a guy try to cut my head off
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with a machete last year he chased me
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full speed and only reason I lived is
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because I dove last second as he swung
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and after we called the police and he
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was arrested he said I was trying to
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kill you because I want to be murdered
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by the police so I got hit once he was
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upset I was filming him the reason why I
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was filming him because he was
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committing a crime right punched me
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again knocked me to the ground uh got
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hit in the head got kicked and then he
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walked away
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you're a patient guy you know they're
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hearing voices command voices that might
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say I need to kill Tyler
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after hearing how many times Kevin's
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nearly been killed out here doing this
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we went downtown to talk to some drug
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addicts to figure out how this all
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happened so what's going on here is this
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fennel use well I'm gonna go talk with
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him really quick he's looking so much
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stripping potentially hey I'm with my
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friends I was wondering if you would
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want to talk to him for a second for
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five dollars
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is this something you would want to do
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there
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no okay so this is uh you know she is
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severely mentally ill she's holding a
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fentanyl pipe and as you see her pants
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are completely down oh I see I did not
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know and you know she really is someone
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who needs serious mental health
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treatment and it's not she's not getting
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out here so fentanyl has completely
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replaced almost all other drugs it got
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really popular the last couple years
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started I think we think in Philadelphia
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origin point is Philadelphia Kensington
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where we went that's what we believe
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trank and fetty really started there we
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just because you use needles
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what's going on here he seems to be
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symptomatic so I'll go say hi to him and
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see if I can offer him a cigarette these
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two people as well seem to be tripping
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doing fentanyl or well yeah and right in
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front of you know a bar and grill bar
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and grill a lot of businesses around
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here are closed down because of the
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crime because of the drug use this is my
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friend Tyler how you doing I see you're
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holding a fentanyl straw do you want to
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share with me uh when you started using
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fentanyl uh
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almost everybody on the streets now are
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using fentanyl are they really yeah how
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long you been out here a while I don't
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remember exactly how long okay well let
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me ask you is anybody out here helping
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you get off the streets nope take care
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of yourself man how you doing sir so
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you're doing fentanyl right now yeah I
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was loading some speed here do you do
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any other drugs besides speed yeah
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okay what are we talking here fentanyl
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mushrooms LSD I like mbma MDA uh 2cb 267
00:04:59
juicy I juicy it's a lot of drugs yeah
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people out here approaching you and
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offering help
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you know like Outreach workers
00:05:08
so you feel like no one's really giving
00:05:09
you help out here when you're homeless
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you you have to like have a house to get
00:05:15
a job sure you can't do it the other way
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around be able to shower before work you
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have to know that you're going to be
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able to sleep and get up that time are
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you afraid to be out here at night I
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mean sometimes like a week ago I was
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sleeping in my sleeping bag and I set up
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someone yelling at me and you started
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socking me in the face I couldn't walk
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the other day and they took me to the
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hospital and they like kicked me out and
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I had an episode where I couldn't even
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get up at the hospital and they're just
00:05:38
like bye I felt very underwhelmed and
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unappreciated the people out here he's
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breathing unnaturally okay you okay
00:05:44
brother you okay hey Stewie you good
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thank you for your time Johnny
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appreciate it the situation for these
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homeless seem brutal but how did
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Portland get to this point as we walked
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around the corner I saw another guy
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injecting a needle into his arm my name
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is Tyler Jack good to meet you Jay what
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are you shooting up here xylazon yeah
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yeah how long you been out here how long
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you been homeless in Portland I've been
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homeless since 96. so in
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1996. Jay how dangerous it is it out
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here on these streets it's gotten a lot
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worse in the last year I've seen three
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different shootings where somebody's
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been shot and killed hey brother how you
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guys doing number one thing
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and most are telling us that no one's
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out here really approaching you all
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everybody you have people steal from you
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oh yeah
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the response they are the worst rapid
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response goes into people's camps gives
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them 72 hours to get out and you have to
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run out of that 72 hours they take
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everything they own and they gotta start
00:06:59
over again there shouldn't be anybody
00:07:01
else right now 3.2 billion dollars if I
00:07:04
have that money to distribute all those
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houses and even every person that needed
00:07:08
a home home once you give them the home
00:07:10
what happens next with the drug crisis
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that's up to them it's gonna take at
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least five years for them to get
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adjusted okay so what if they don't pay
00:07:17
their bills and they fall further into
00:07:19
addiction and use the homes or destroy
00:07:20
it that's the risk of dealing with
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humans I'm an addict yeah I've been out
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here uh 48 years homeless off and on
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while the homeless here clearly felt
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left behind by the city what led to so
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many of them ending up on the streets in
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the first place have a great day thank
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you for sharing yeah hey brother does
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your family know you are here
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no okay how old are you
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22 okay yeah you know you can recover
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from this you know this right
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you know how to get into a shelter to
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try to go into Shelter tonight and see
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how it works will you you please with a
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22 year old kid on the streets barely
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able to speak anymore common sense with
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our you drugs have an obvious and major
00:07:58
role in this homelessness crisis but
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what is the city doing to help this so
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Kevin you said the shelters so there are
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places these people you could go to the
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shelters you get stolen from more in the
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shelters than you do out here you can
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live in a tent in a park or when you go
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to a shelter where there's 91 bunk beds
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and one large room with no air
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conditioning where people are coughing
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all night there's some people living
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right under here and I just want to
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introduce you to them if they're still
00:08:19
here so it is immediately like I know
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hey there how you doing man I noticed
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you have a suitcase is how he used to
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carry all your things you move from
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place to place every night yeah
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how easy is it to get your hands on
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fentanyl out here and you know what this
00:08:34
is of course yeah have you ever had to
00:08:36
use one of these on yourself or someone
00:08:37
else or as soon as I use it on me like
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five times how many times have you tried
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to quit no I I need to be really honest
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with you this isn't gonna land you're
00:08:46
not gonna last another year or two out
00:08:48
your brother I'm done you'll be dead in
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a year if you don't stop know this right
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please would you go into a shelter go
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into treatment or detox
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and there's a shelter right here I I
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know okay right on so we find we see a
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lot of people in wheelchairs with the uh
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unable to walk that are stuck out here
00:09:07
homeless okay and they're of course the
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ones being victimized more than anybody
00:09:11
they're assaulted because they can't
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chase them run away any of that and
00:09:14
that's very common sadly Kevin what is
00:09:16
this right here Blanchette House of
00:09:17
hospitality has been offering food to
00:09:20
the homeless for decades okay look I'm
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all about helping a person meet their
00:09:23
basic needs but let me ask you this if
00:09:25
you feed a person 10 years in a row have
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you done them any good you got to teach
00:09:29
your man to fish and out of nowhere we
00:09:30
heard this in the distance and I'm like
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you know what that's actually true this
00:09:35
is neglect uh yeah let's go so that was
00:09:37
a gunshot okay let's go so let's go so
00:09:39
how often do you hear gunshots out here
00:09:41
and who just got flipped well
00:09:44
someone just got shot you think I don't
00:09:46
know but that was a gunshot okay you're
00:09:47
used to it well yeah I mean you hear
00:09:49
them there's pointed at us
00:09:52
okay it did actually come from the camp
00:09:54
we were kicked out of an hour ago when
00:09:57
the guy pulled a knife on us you know
00:09:58
murders are common out here I mean one
00:10:00
way to get away with the murderer here
00:10:01
is to call it an overdose this happened
00:10:04
to one of my clients recently is they
00:10:06
put two fentanyl pills in his drink and
00:10:09
he did he wasn't a user and died of an
00:10:10
overdose it was you know the fentanyl
00:10:12
powder and they put it in his drink
00:10:13
actually they did it sort of as a joke
00:10:15
he overdosed and died so we're not gonna
00:10:17
get fentanyl overdose there's a 60
00:10:21
chance that's not going to happen ah and
00:10:24
you have Narcan in case I touched it or
00:10:25
posture touch there you touch it yeah
00:10:26
yeah yeah I'm prepared tell me about
00:10:28
decriminalization of drug use in
00:10:31
Portland Portland OR really the state of
00:10:33
Oregon decided to decriminalize drugs
00:10:35
was because some had argued that we
00:10:38
shouldn't make drug use punitive and
00:10:40
that we need to offer treatment and that
00:10:42
sounds great but Portland took
00:10:43
inspiration from places like Portugal
00:10:45
and the Netherlands places that
00:10:47
successfully decriminalized drugs but
00:10:50
the big difference between them and
00:10:51
Portland is that they had Rehabilitation
00:10:54
systems in place that they proved to
00:10:56
work before they did it Kevin thinks
00:10:58
that Portland forgot to include recovery
00:11:00
detox treatment all that stuff that they
00:11:03
promised really isn't happening a person
00:11:05
who is using drugs oftentimes have gone
00:11:07
through a trauma and so what they lack
00:11:09
is rational thinking and so people who
00:11:12
already have make poor choices are
00:11:14
unable to really stop using anyway but
00:11:17
now you've given the freedom to use as
00:11:18
much as they want sure and that's
00:11:19
terrifying but why did the people of
00:11:21
Portland vote for this so oh we went to
00:11:23
fentanyl Fountain to ask the locals
00:11:25
their opinion on the decriminalization
00:11:27
of drugs this is the fountains any other
00:11:30
day of the week it's going to be a
00:11:31
completely different scene here let's
00:11:33
get worse throughout the week yeah they
00:11:34
come here Friday night and just and
00:11:36
sweep everybody and clean it up yeah and
00:11:38
then the vendors come here and you know
00:11:40
set set up shops oh you've been out here
00:11:41
in Portland almost 20 years from before
00:11:43
and after decriminalization I was I was
00:11:47
and I it got progressively worse for a
00:11:49
number of years but uh they're
00:11:50
definitely cutting the meth with
00:11:52
fentanyl because there'd be people
00:11:54
running around they're really happy in
00:11:55
the morning just losing their [ __ ] in
00:11:57
the afternoon so how does this place
00:11:58
change after today there are quite a lot
00:12:01
of wondering people who don't have homes
00:12:03
that do spend a lot of time here
00:12:05
definitely have seen
00:12:07
um a lot of downtown businesses really
00:12:08
struggling not necessarily with the
00:12:10
legalization of drugs but just people
00:12:11
camping in their doorway um have you
00:12:13
been in Portland for many years okay got
00:12:15
it so you've seen Portland before
00:12:17
decriminalization and after sure have
00:12:19
you seen any impact on downtown or
00:12:23
[Music]
00:12:24
hope you guys have an awesome
00:12:26
day okay we're noticing some general
00:12:28
resilience but um well there is because
00:12:30
about 60 of the people voted for this uh
00:12:33
I measure they're not going to change
00:12:35
their opinion I feel like the
00:12:36
decriminalization of drugs yeah turned
00:12:38
into the decriminalization of crime you
00:12:40
know when you need help it's the police
00:12:42
don't show up do you support the
00:12:44
decriminalization of drugs here yeah of
00:12:45
course I do because it's no longer like
00:12:48
our girls
00:12:49
Japanese got it okay throws aren't bad
00:12:52
they're just preferred for the people
00:12:54
that can properly use them these drugs
00:12:57
harder than out here unfortunately yes I
00:12:59
take breaks okay and not everyone can do
00:13:01
that out here yeah I mean people are
00:13:03
still dying I died last week so you got
00:13:06
hit with a Narcan or yes it doesn't work
00:13:08
very well said it didn't work I had to
00:13:10
have it injectable okay and you almost
00:13:12
died I did die oh you died and you were
00:13:14
brought back does that scare you or does
00:13:16
it lead you to be like damn I should
00:13:18
stop using or is it just so hard to to
00:13:20
withdrawal syndromes or whatnot all
00:13:21
three yeah we both died a couple times
00:13:23
so that's why we've chosen not to mess
00:13:25
with fentanyl anymore sure hi there my
00:13:28
name is Catherine I'm currently on house
00:13:29
because my wallet ID and phone were
00:13:31
stolen a few months ago it is impossible
00:13:33
to get an ID uh when you are homeless I
00:13:36
want to work a job I want to live inside
00:13:38
I was thrown out of my parents house I
00:13:40
didn't use they kicked me out for being
00:13:42
queer and openly coming out to them and
00:13:44
then I had one argument with her I told
00:13:47
her to f off the next day she bought me
00:13:49
Greyhound ticket sent me here I have
00:13:52
nothing it's been three months since
00:13:53
then I was reported missing by someone
00:13:55
on my Tick Tock account not by them they
00:13:58
know where I am they sent me here to be
00:13:59
homeless to die on the streets because
00:14:01
I'm queer I worked at a homeless shelter
00:14:03
and came out as a she-day non-binary
00:14:05
gender fluid individual I told them she
00:14:08
they it's no longer she her she they and
00:14:11
then I was fired there were a lot of
00:14:14
mixed opinions on the legalization of
00:14:15
drugs but the impact on downtown
00:14:17
Portland was unavoidable
00:14:20
word all right while everyone else was
00:14:23
busy getting high Kevin wanted to show
00:14:25
me another camp where someone tried to
00:14:27
kill him here a few weeks ago and there
00:14:28
was a very unhappy person who tried to
00:14:30
physically assault us who was living
00:14:32
here so that's why I was just saying be
00:14:33
a little mindful of that so look at that
00:14:35
you see those two propane tanks oh yeah
00:14:36
and that's what causes the tent fires
00:14:38
got it and the explosions hi there good
00:14:40
to meet you want to learn more about
00:14:41
this crisis and kind of where we went
00:14:44
wrong there's a lot of there's a lot of
00:14:46
different steps to that issue yeah like
00:14:49
like you know every other person that
00:14:53
walks by is asking for fetty or whatever
00:14:54
and got it or Blues do you feel safe out
00:14:57
here lately not So Much Anymore five
00:15:00
years and why is that there's stories
00:15:02
about violence
00:15:04
a little salt and that sort of thing or
00:15:05
not just that like murder actually
00:15:07
murder oh murder okay if we were to go
00:15:09
out to where we went earlier today at
00:15:11
night what would we hear what would we
00:15:13
see you're gonna hear screams usually
00:15:15
assaulted you know I interviewed a
00:15:17
homeless guy just a couple days ago it
00:15:18
says I hear blood curdling screams every
00:15:21
night and the most terrifying thing is
00:15:23
when the screams abruptly stop there is
00:15:26
a known cereal rate that has been going
00:15:28
to 10 to 10 at night as many women as he
00:15:31
can I've interviewed five different
00:15:33
women who have been by the same person
00:15:34
in the same area and the police haven't
00:15:37
done anything about it well none of the
00:15:38
women have pressed charges because
00:15:40
they're scared he uh will kill them his
00:15:42
nickname is the Viper
00:15:44
life seemed harsh and dangerous for the
00:15:46
homeless people in downtown Portland but
00:15:48
without reliable housing to go back to
00:15:50
reporting certain criminals means
00:15:52
they'll have to return back to camps to
00:15:53
face those who assaulted them in the
00:15:55
first place but what about the homeless
00:15:57
people who have moved to the outskirts
00:15:58
of Portland what's going on here well
00:16:00
this is the infamous long line of RV so
00:16:03
we're going to be able to count at least
00:16:04
100 of them yeah look at all
00:16:07
where are the services to help these
00:16:09
people the fact that there's families
00:16:11
out here stuck in RVs in the middle of
00:16:13
summer is just really unacceptable as we
00:16:16
drove past hundreds of RVs with homeless
00:16:18
families living in cars I realized that
00:16:20
homeless people were living anywhere
00:16:21
here to survive there was a a couple
00:16:24
families living in these tunnels that
00:16:25
kind of go underground Portland okay but
00:16:27
even among the homeless hierarchies
00:16:29
status and power have developed in
00:16:31
unexpected ways all right we've made it
00:16:33
right across the way these are million
00:16:35
dollar condos it's where the homeless
00:16:37
live and they have the identical view
00:16:38
it's really incredible architecture
00:16:40
anybody home
00:16:42
hello
00:16:43
anybody home
00:16:44
hello
00:16:45
so no one's home probably not it's risky
00:16:48
for us to be here well yeah I don't want
00:16:49
to invade their space too much there's
00:16:51
like a machete and an ax right there all
00:16:53
right let's get out of here and they've
00:16:54
kind of finessed the system by not
00:16:56
buying a million dollar property over
00:16:57
here and just you know building one
00:16:59
instead so this is literally tens of
00:17:02
thousands of pieces of Driftwood and
00:17:04
someone has tunneled in and there's a
00:17:05
camp inside of here whoa
00:17:08
that's crazy and they have boats right
00:17:11
here to go on the water and explore this
00:17:13
would be like a 600 foot one bedroom
00:17:15
apartment so how many people do you
00:17:17
think live in these communities with Max
00:17:18
Capacity I believe about 15. 15. so this
00:17:21
is truly the upper Elite the Bill Gates
00:17:23
of the homeless out here full on Mega
00:17:24
Mansion bike in there they are
00:17:26
presumably of this community and what
00:17:28
makes this extra special is he's the
00:17:29
only one with a pure oh so beautiful
00:17:32
this place right here pristine beautiful
00:17:34
and then a nice access point to a nice
00:17:37
little Ocean View the detail look at the
00:17:39
bricks oh my God you're right detail
00:17:42
that's incredible this is crazy it's
00:17:44
very creative of what they've done out
00:17:45
here these are humans it doesn't matter
00:17:47
who you voted for can't we all work
00:17:49
together
00:17:50
scared the [ __ ] out of me dude say if
00:17:52
you want real change vote differently
00:17:53
vote for the candidates vote for the
00:17:55
people with common sense ideas the ones
00:17:58
actually make a difference so how could
00:17:59
anyone watching help you on your mission
00:18:01
well
00:18:02
um I have a Twitter page Kevin V
00:18:04
Dahlgren or just type Kevin Dahlgren and
00:18:06
homeless and you're gonna find me and
00:18:07
then truth on the streets.org is my
00:18:10
website and of course and I have a
00:18:12
YouTube channel called Truth on the
00:18:13
streets thank you for having us thanks
00:18:14
brother appreciate it Kevin is my
00:18:16
favorite dude ever and is helping make a
00:18:17
real change can we help him get to 100
00:18:20
000 subs and help him save the city of
00:18:22
Portland thanks guys love you all
