The Dark Side of America – Extreme Poverty and Drug-Filled Streets 🇺🇸

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]This is Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, California.

[00:00:04]More than 6,000 homeless people live here on the streets, intents and on the ground.

[00:00:10]Why do we have such a crisis? We are definitely in the center of hell.

[00:00:17]It's called Skid Row. You know, you're homeless. Someone's going to bring you food every day. You really never have to depend on yourself.

[00:00:28]California spent $22 billion to fix the problem and the money is disappearing.

[00:00:33]Not even the governor of California knows where the money went.

[00:00:38]The systems aren't working. The cause of homelessness is loneliness. It is the disconnection from community and family.

[00:00:48]California is the fourth largest economy in the world, surpassing Japan in 2024.

[00:00:54]Its economy alone is massive.

[00:00:58]Well, we're in Hollywood and this is right next to Hollywood Boulevard. We've got the famous Hollywood sign on the hill over here.

[00:01:08]There's just a lot of wealth here. This is where a lot of famous actors and actresses live because there are major film studios here.

[00:01:17]And what I find interesting is we are seven minutes away from Skid Row.

[00:01:22]extreme poverty and extreme wealth.

[00:01:26]There are now an estimated two million homeless Americans. We are in LA downtown and a lot of people are around us in the street.

[00:01:35]We're going to see their stories.

[00:01:38]Absolutely. Looking forward.

[00:01:42]What's the number of homeless people in Los Angeles currently?

[00:01:46]116,000 homeless unsheltered people come here to die. The homeless gather here in every place for the beauty of this district and the weather that is more than wonderful all year round.

[00:02:00]Describe what it felt like living in Skid Row for 7 years. It's not as bad as you think. You get to know everybody.

[00:02:09]Nobody ever goes to sleep.

[00:02:13]There's always somebody around. Being down here, honestly, is a give and take because though you're homeless, someone's going to bring you food every day.

[00:02:23]You really never have to depend on yourself. And most of the organizations that distribute food, clothes, and even free lodging are here.

[00:02:33]And they want to microchip us. Elon Musk.

[00:02:38]It's not one street only, but a full neighborhood composed of about 50 blocks. Its area is about one square kilometer.

[00:02:48]It is considered one of the most impoverished and homeless areas in all of America. It is a home for marginalized groups where homelessness, addiction, and poverty exist.

[00:02:59]So, this is like a feeding frenzy. It's almost animalistic.

[00:03:04]You have all these people diving at food as if they're starving.

[00:03:10]It's just this complete chaos just grabbing and scratching at food and stuff. This helps me understand what they really think of the homeless out here.

[00:03:20]Well, first, my name is Shotti Says. I'm a business owner. I've been in business for over 20 years and the problem has been the free money and free food.

[00:03:32]Since 2021, California has spent $22 billion to fix the problem. But how can you fix the problem if people and organizations are getting all this money?

[00:03:44]They're not going to want to fix the problem because they want to keep getting that money over and over. And this is taxpay money.

[00:03:52]And then there's another issue. Why Skid Row? Skid Row is called a dumping homeless area. Sadly, this is a sad word to say, but yes, some other counties put a bunch of homeless in a bus, pay them money, and dump them in Skid Row because that's the area where most of them are living.

[00:04:13]They have tents everywhere.

[00:04:15]All this craziness, it's unbelievable in the richest state in the world with GDP over $5 trillion.

[00:04:24]The problem is solvable, but politically it's not a good idea.

[00:04:30]The people living here are not all addicts. Each one has a story. Some of them are former soldiers who did not receive support after the war.

[00:04:41]Second World War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It ended with them here.

[00:04:48]And there are former prisoners who came out of prison and had no place to return to.

[00:04:54]And there are people who were evicted from their homes after losing their jobs or because of debts.

[00:05:01]There are mentally ill people who were abandoned by their families or medical institutions.

[00:05:07]And there are people looking for a new beginning, but they are stuck in a difficult reality.

[00:05:14]And there are drug addicts who are the majority.

[00:05:18]It's bad down here. It's bad with the drugs, the violence. It's just bad. And children live down here.

[00:05:27]I just got out of jail. I'm trying to get into the homeless hotel program, but they can't just go apply for it. They're just going around to encampments.

[00:05:39]And I don't go to encampments.

[00:05:41]I have a bunch of homeless people around. I have a tent and everything.

[00:05:47]I set it up by myself.

[00:05:50]I've always been a cook.

[00:05:53]I sold drugs right here for about 2 months, 24 hours a day. This is a police station and I find it the safest place to sell drugs. Actually, I was formerly homeless. I just got my apartment.

[00:06:10]Sick and tired of being sick and tired.

[00:06:13]You can actually leave the streets. You don't have to live here.

[00:06:19]You can go to that big tall building right there. You can go inside of there, go through a 90-month program, and they'll put you into that bigger building behind there.

[00:06:30]Do not look at the body, what people are doing, how they physically look. It's all here, bro. It's all perception.

[00:06:40]If you grab anybody right now, anybody, and you grab them and you say, "You know what? I got you."

[00:06:48]And in your mind, I'm going to pick them up. We're going to get them a shower.

[00:06:52]We're going to get them something to eat. We're going to put them in a place to stay.

[00:06:57]You come back in one week. There may be a tent in the middle of that apartment.

[00:07:02]It's mental.

[00:07:05]But most of the people that you put up in there can't end up paying their rent and they come right back outside.

[00:07:12]They imagine here so they can bathe.

[00:07:16]About 15 months I have filed some paperwork for housing I don't qualify for.

[00:07:23]Sometimes not always.

[00:07:27]We came for the American dream but this is not the American dream. In reality, we came here to be unemployed, discriminated.

[00:07:36]We just want to work here. We are not here to harm anyone. We simply want to work for our children.

[00:07:45]We arrived here 3 months ago and people told us about this place. So, we come here every day because here we can get help as we look for a job.

[00:07:55]We crossed the jungle. It was difficult to cross Mexico. We were kidnapped, but we are alive thanks to God.

[00:08:04]At least we have the permit to work here, social security.

[00:08:08]And all the news that we see daily of Trump saying those things will not be valid anymore.

[00:08:14]We live in fear every day because we want the only thing we want is to work.

[00:08:19]But somehow we are being accused with all the news. The fear because of the place where we are.

[00:08:25]Ice might suddenly appear here. But we're going to move forward and ask God for help. That's the only thing that we ask of God.

[00:08:35]After you prick the needle, drug addicts, they have a designated place to throw the needle so no one uses it again and diseases spread.

[00:08:43]Stories of people we are listening to.

[00:08:46]There are poor people here. It really ended in them in a way.

[00:08:51]Wait a minute, brothers. Now we will go back to the video, but we were still filming. Look at this traditional dress.

[00:09:00]We are filming the Aura farming.

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[00:09:59]America is the richest country in the world. It allocates huge budgets, but effectively it does not reach the needy.

[00:10:08]It suffers from unfair housing policies.

[00:10:11]It lacks a comprehensive free health system.

[00:10:15]It contains a strong capitalist individual economy that isolates the weak.

[00:10:22]I'm the queen of Skid Row. My name is Stephanie Arnold Williams. I've been here for 13 years because you can never end homelessness.

[00:10:32]I call it the White House because the government is not doing their job properly. This is the White House community center.

[00:10:41]You can drop off food, donations to the homeless, and welcome to the White House.

[00:10:47]This is my bed. This is where I sleep every night. I've been here for 13 years now.

[00:10:55]We also just see there's not a lot of hope here. A lot of people come to California and get trapped here and end up dying here.

[00:11:05]So, not a lot of hope, not a lot of help, unfortunately.

[00:11:09]As you can see, this is a line of people. They're at the mission hoping to get in for the night and also get fed.

[00:11:17]Overall, this is a legitimate crisis.

[00:11:20]Just look around.

[00:11:23]So, most of these people up here has mental and they can't sign themselves in. So, that's what started all this.

[00:11:32]The government makes more money now off of putting people in these homes. And now we got all these things with a nonprofit organization because that's corporations.

[00:11:41]Since 2014 till now.

[00:11:45]It's sad but it's true as they want to.

[00:11:48]When you get free money, free food, nobody tells you what to do.

[00:11:53]And you're living in beautiful weather, green grass, comfortable places. I know.

[00:11:58]Why would I want to not be homeless?

[00:12:01]And there's another problem that nobody talks about.

[00:12:05]Some of the really dangerous criminals are homeless. They're hiding into being homeless because they don't have to have an address, no name, no ID, nothing.