“MASS EXODUS”… Terrified Locals FLEE L.A. as Homelessness EMPTIES CALIFORNIA

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Enough's enough.

[00:00:01]>> For 33 years, Adam Stober has owned this building on Montagu Street, a street that he says for the past two or so years has been overrun by broken down RVs. So homelessness in California, while that's nothing new. Over the last couple of months, things are getting worse with businesses and locals unable to live normal lives as they are surrounded by everexpanding RV encampments. And while California's leaders attempt to blame President Trump for their self-induced unaffordability, the state itself is undergoing a mass exodus that could cause it to collapse.

[00:00:41]The skid row of the valley furniture, satellite dishes, and trash of all sorts now block the sidewalks.

[00:00:48]The exodus continues. We've got shocking new figures showing Los Angeles losing tens of thousands of residents, one of the biggest population drops in the nation. Experts pointing to soaring costs, shrinking opportunity, and policy failures driving people out. We are like scared all the time.

[00:01:05]>> She's concerned about retaliation for speaking out about the RV encampment along her street in Pomaa. She says over the past 2 years, while the RVs have grown in number, their quality of life has gone down. Other vehicles pull up like clockwork. 25 mass thieves swarm in. The entire heist takes just 70 seconds. The bad guys are in and out with 1.7 million worth of jewelry. This state's unaffordable. We have the highest gas prices in the United States of America. We have the highest utility costs in the continental United States and the highest home prices. It happened under our watch.

[00:01:46]So, it's one thing to be unaffordable, but when the companies that could help you fix that, like these homebuilders, when they shut down and leave, uh, IT'S TIME TO ACT FAST. And what nobody's talking about is the unaffordability complex here. It doesn't just disenfranchise people. IT ALSO DISENFRANCHISES COMPANIES. AND WHEN they leave, they take their people with them.

[00:02:08]I mean, just look at this. How do you run a business in a neighborhood surrounded by a humanitarian crisis?

[00:02:15]Local leaders keep saying they're going to deal with, but never seem to. You can't. And this inaction has led to a point where customers are too afraid to walk down the street, much less pull out their wallet and spend money in a place where there are very few police around at all, if any, to protect them. A problem that's leading to mass lawlessness everywhere with lootings and raids of companies that were once profitable happening on the regular like this gang of thieves that struck a jewelry store and cleared it out in 70 seconds for a 7 figure payday. That'll cause your businesses to pack up and leave because there won't be anything left for them to sell or do here. Which means an exodus is the only reasonable option. And that brings us to the real reason California's got such a problem.

[00:03:02]It's not just the rich who found out about a new wealth tax that's causing them to leave. It's everybody. It's the middle class. And while there might be a few high-profile billionaires that decide to pack their bags and hit the road, when your families pack up and leave, there will be no future generation of taxpayers to exploit.

[00:03:22]After all, how can you raise a family in a place that encourages crime and not expect your kids to get swept up in that? Because the legal system here does absolutely nothing but release those who commit the same offense over and over again, teaching them crime must not be that big of a deal because THE CONSEQUENCES AREN'T THAT BIG of a deal.

[00:03:38]However, this has caused a massive problem for California because in order to fund all of this mayhem and sustain itself, they're going to need money from the people who are leaving for things like this. Now, we are here outside of Healthy Life Adult Daycare. This place over the past few years has buil $19.8 million alone. Now, let's go see if I can enroll my grandma.

[00:04:07]>> Nobody's here already. You have to come back tomorrow.

[00:04:11]>> And can we get like a brochure to enroll our grandma into this location?

[00:04:14]>> Uh, I don't have anything. And look, all they have to say that they are an adult day healthcare is that sign that says ADHC.

[00:04:23]And there was some people working inside of it. We have the phone number right here.

[00:04:27]>> You can leave a message after the tone.

[00:04:29]This mailbox is full.

[00:04:31]>> Right. So the law abiding, they can't afford to live here, but they got to pay for all the fraud. They got to pay for all the crime. They got to pay for things that do not benefit THEM AT ALL.

[00:04:41]NOR DOES THE MONEY paid to the government here benefit the needy who are used as the constant excuse for ever higher living expenses and taxes. And because it's the law-abiding who are punished and demonized while being expected to support all of these industrial complexes like the fraud industrial complex and the homeless industrial complex, they're leaving.

[00:05:04]They're taking everything with them. And as you're about to see, California, it might be past the point of no return.

[00:05:10]This state's unaffordable. Uh we have the highest gas prices in the United States of America. Uh we have uh the highest utility costs in the continental United States and the highest home prices. It happened under our watch. Uh this wasn't because of Donald Trump. Uh this was because of policies that we created. That's wild. You've got this fundamental sinkhole California's fallen into and it can't seem to get out of because its policies won't let it out because funding fraud and nonprofits.

[00:05:40]That's the name of the game here. It's the status quo that refuses to go away while the problems these organizations hope to solve keep growing. And this is a problem because the longer fraudulent activity continues to be the name of the game in California. of the more legitimate sectors of society not only need to stick around to keep paying for all this but are leaving which is the opposite of what California wants. All because this is a place that does not believe at all in allowing people to help their fellow man. They think that is unamerican. And now we're seeing things in California that aren't present anywhere else in the country. Enough's enough. For 33 years, Adam Stober has owned this building on Monteue Street, a street that he says for the past 2 or so years has been overrun by broken down RVs.

[00:06:30]>> Skidro the valley.

[00:06:32]>> Why do you call it that?

[00:06:34]>> I mean, just looks crazy.

[00:06:36]>> Furniture, satellite dishes, and trash of all sorts now block the sidewalks.

[00:06:42]And Adam said, >> "Uh, yeah, this doesn't feel like a very welcoming environment to have right outside your business where you're trying to get customers to come in and spend money, does it?" And of course, this entire situation should not be happening at all. But in order for it to get to the level you see on the screen, it has to be manufactured. And it is.

[00:07:04]California is spending billions of dollars keeping things this way. And as we've been learning over the last few months, there is collusion between the CRISIS INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, WHATEVER THAT CRISIS IS, in this case homelessness and local politicians who spend the public's money in the name of solving all of these problems by turning it over to the nonprofits and orchestrators of programs that are supposed to be helpful but never seem to accomplish anything. And every single year, the problems here get worse and worse. And now you got residents who look outside and they're like, "What? What's going on? The four and twolegged inhabitants of the campers aren't always exactly friendly. Oh, they're not friendly.

[00:07:44]>> Dom says one of his tenants who is paying 80 grand a month for 60,000 square ft of space is now leaving because their clients didn't enjoy coming here.

[00:07:54]>> 80 grand a month. That's what you get to run your business. $80,000 a month. Now, look at this behind the fence here. It looks rather nice, but you can't even enter the driveway with your vehicle without running over the edge of this skid right here. This is crazy. That's not going to work. That's not sustainable. But what you're seeing here is the conflict between what the scammers and fraudsters controlling California want and what the people of California who have to pay for all the fraud and scams here actually want.

[00:08:25]Scammers want the largest crisis possible so they can point to it and say, "See, we need more money. See, the good work we do isn't going far enough.

[00:08:32]Something politicians are all too eager to get behind. And now regular people are starting to figure all this out and they're either leaving or they're sticking around and complaining about it while they pack their bags. Why did you reach out to Channel 7?

[00:08:48]>> Because I've been reaching out to the council office for the past 2 years with no results. It's not only hurting me, it's hurting all the other businesses in the area. We deal with a lot of aerospace companies, you know, and their first questions, you know, what's going on outside. Andy Roy, >> aerospace, this is aerospace companies have to be here. This is where they are.

[00:09:08]This is where your aerospace company is.

[00:09:10]Does anybody wonder why Tesla and SpaceX and all this stuff are not here. I know there are geographic reasons for why SpaceX is where it is, but come on. This is not a place that's going to attract aerospace companies, even though California is on the coast. No wonder this place has problems. And this is a big issue for California because it's businesses that are paying 80 grand a month that sustain places like California. And if they leave, it's over. No one's going to come in and take a place that was previously occupied for $80,000 a month and pay anything close to it if it forces them out. And why is this happening? Well, California is not bright enough to figure out how to make their streets clean and safe. The two things the law-abiding care about. But what they are really great at is using what the streets look like to make people feel like they need to do more.

[00:09:58]Even though they're already doing more than many other people in this country pay to live where they live.

[00:10:04]>> Israel Gambert has a medical device company next door.

[00:10:08]>> We service people with disabilities. So we have people, you know, pull in and it's not a very comforting uh experience. And just take a look a few blocks down Montigue Street when it hits San Fernando Road.

[00:10:21]>> The homeless people have more rights than we do. If we park their car outside, you know, we get cited. They don't get cited.

[00:10:28]>> The Ooh, look at that. See, you have a two-tier justice system here. You have business owners like this guy who if they need a parking spot, they're going to get a ticket if they take one where they're not supposed to park. Meanwhile, you have a vehicle here which could have a license plate on it, doesn't and it's just allowed to be on the street perpetually. That's crazy. But you know something, it really exposes the other issue that these blue state unaffordability bastions have. If you're law-abiding, they're coming for you. If you're lawless, well, you're protected.

[00:11:00]And that's because in these places, the lawless, no matter what their lawless activity is, it is viewed as something that should be excused. Yet, if you're fortunate enough not to be in dire straits, you obey the laws, you put a license plate on your car, you have a business, it's registered, it's legit, if there's garbage outside the business, who's responsible for cleaning it up. If you park your car where you're not supposed to or you drive it down the highways, they're going to hit you. They hit the law-abiding. They're very good at tracking down people who are willing to obey the law. Those are the people who get punished, the lawless, who either obey the law or unable to pay these fines. Well, no system exists to hold that accountable. And what happens?

[00:11:37]It just grows. Something should definitely be DONE TO HELP THE PEOPLE living in these street shacks on the street, but that's not how the system here is designed to work. It's not designed to help those people. It's designed to help well-connected nonprofits, but not the people who those nonprofits exist to serve.

[00:11:51]>> They don't get sighted.

[00:11:52]>> The business owners here say at night, this street is completely dark. And no surprise there. Take a look. It's clear that some of these electrical wires are being cut and there are cords running into some of the trailers >> with utility cords now across the street and street lights rewired rubbing and cooking.

[00:12:12]>> What's going on here? You have people tapping into the power grid to power things on the street which is completely illegal and it's just allowed to go on.

[00:12:22]That's just allowed to happen. That's very dangerous. And what does that do to people's electric bills? You've got the law-abiding who are living in a business in a home or have a business which has a utility bill. And if the power company's getting robbed between where the power comes from and where their business is, guess whose rates are going to be higher, all the people that live in these neighborhoods. So you're pinching the law abiding every way possible.

[00:12:46]You've got crime that's out of control.

[00:12:48]You've got a homeless industrial complex that just grows every single year.

[00:12:53]Doesn't solve anything. People are expected to pay for that and now their utility bills are going up. We got the highest utility bills. We got problems here that should not exist if you had law and order, which is the solution for unaffordability. Unaffordability comes from the fact that things are happening which shouldn't be allowed to happen at all. But what are local politicians doing? WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO say about the crisis we're watching right here?

[00:13:15]>> Do you feel her office is being receptive and listening to your concerns?

[00:13:19]>> Not at all.

[00:13:20]>> Well, that's contrary to the actual work of what we've delivered in that area.

[00:13:23]The council member says her office has helped move 67 people from 22 RVs along this long row.

[00:13:32]>> Look, I see a lot of RVs here. 67 people might sound like a lot. I'm glad they helped someone, but they're not doing enough. They need to do more. But the problem is their policies don't allow them to do more. In many of these places, they've got policies that just allow people to live on the streets full-time. And that right there is inhumane. It's done in the name of humanity, telling people, "Hey, you can live on the streets as long as you want.

[00:13:55]You can live in the subway in New York.

[00:13:56]You can live in an RV in California.

[00:13:58]We're just going to let you do that. We believe in freedom and autonomy."

[00:14:02]Meanwhile, the folks that are living in these situations, they don't know that there are better options out there for them. And they may be in a situation where they think that those options are wrong for them. And nobody is allowed to stage an intervention and do what you or I would do if we had a family member that was living in a situation like this. We had a family member that was living in an RV in California, we would fly over there and we would get them out of there. We would help them. But the state can't do that because its laws don't allow it. In fact, its laws say that, "Oh, that's wrong." Meanwhile, as all of the fraud in California has come to the surface over the last several months, something incredible has happened. Local politicians who are just bewildered that things they're doing every single day don't exactly look that great optically and are now being exposed. Well, instead of helping people and doing what they should do to protect the general public and going after these fraudsters, they're doing something else to make sure that their schemes continue in perpetuity. Listen to this.

[00:14:59]>> YouTuber Nick Shirley calling out a proposed California bill that he claims would criminalize investigative journalism, including his v viral effort to expose fraud in the state. The author of this bill, which is California Assembly Bill 2624, is Democratic Assemblywoman Mia Bont.

[00:15:17]And if her last name sounds familiar, it is. In fact, her husband is the attorney general of California Rob Bont. So, Republicans have nicknamed this bill the Stop Nick Shirley Act and it aims to quote protect the privacy and stop the payer funded organizations around recording and nicknamed this bill the stop Nick Shirley act and it aims to quote protect the privacy and stop the harassment of those who provide services to immigrants. It would put into place restrictions. Okay. So, the wife of the attorney general, the person who's supposed to prosecute fraud, has a bill in the assembly which is going to stop people from harassing organizations that aid immigrants. Now, this is a sanctuary state. They don't know who's an immigrant here legally, illegally. They don't check immigration status, which means this affects every business. And now the goal is to STOP SOMEBODY WITH A camera from seeing something on the side of the road, recording it, and giving their opinion on what they see happening. If you see a daycare center and only grown men enter that facility once or twice a week, park their BMWs outside, you never see any children there. Oh, you better not better not film that place. That's going to be a criminal offense. Now, if you film that place and put that on the internet, that's not investigative journalism. That's harassment. And the goal here is to shut that down because that's exposing this entire system of corruption >> and recording and posting content including names and workplace or home addresses of those who work for these taxpayer funded organizations. Anyone who posts these videos or photo could be subject TO A $10,000 FINE jail time and even forced to take the content down.

[00:17:04]So, you take a photo of what you perceive to be criminal activity, which is being committed in public and being funded by the government, and that could cost you $10,000.

[00:17:15]>> Nick Shirley, who built a large online following investigative alleged fraud, says the bill could end up criminalizing investigative journals.

[00:17:24]>> That's what it does.

[00:17:26]For instance, if this bill is passed, the quality learing center that was in Minnesota would be protected from being exposed.

[00:17:34]>> Wow, that is absolutely crazy.

[00:17:36]>> That's wild.

[00:17:38]>> So, Assemblywoman Mia Bont says this is about protecting privacy and preventing harassment and doxing for the workers who work at these taxpayer funded organizations who again provide services to immigrants. She said, "Doxing is not when you are filmed in a business with a public entrance located on the side of the street that welcomes in customers.

[00:18:00]Doxing is when someone gives out your personal address, your first name, your last name, and where you live. It has nothing to do with exposing a government business, which is regulated, where everything is online, who owns it, and whatnot." It's almost like they're making up justifications for why they need a law that would protect fraudsters and criminals. individuals who were investigating were journalists. This this bill has ensures that we protect lawful free speech and opportunity for criticism.

[00:18:28]>> California Democrat politicians not only won't do anything about the fraud, but they're going after the people who are trying to uncover these crimes and the waste of taxpayer money. It is shameful and all these politicians ought to be called on the carpet, >> but they're on the take. That's the problem. They're getting money. This bill has already passed through the first committee and if it does become law, Republican Assemblyman Carl Deayo, who you just heard from at the end there, says this, this is sure to face a legal battle.

[00:18:54]>> But in the meantime, it's going to pass.

[00:18:57]They will have a legislative session to stop the exposition of criminal activity in their state, but they will not have a legislative session to stop criminal activity in their state. Isn't that interesting? That's why the law-abiding have such a problem in California.

[00:19:10]That's why people are leaving. How do you live in an environment that is going to punish every single thing that is done to improve the place? Let me know.