Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: I'm Alex Stone, former military service member and law enforcement officer, now CEO of Echelon Protected Services, one of the fastest growing private security firms on the west coast. And this is ride along, where our guests and I witness firsthand the issues affecting our community.
I believe our proven method of enacting meaningful change through compassion and understanding is the best way to make our streets a safer place and truly achieve security through the community.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: I'm Kevin Dauger, and I've been doing homeless street outreach for over 28 years now, primarily in Portland, Oregon. I'm also a drug and alcohol counselor, and I've worked in the system for a couple of decades. And I'm here with Alex today. We're about to do some boots on the ground street homeless outreach, engage with the homeless, hopefully find some people wanting to talk with us, ready for change, and help them get off the streets today.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Hey, welcome to the ride along. I'm Alex Stone, your host, CEO of Echelon Protective Services. We're here today with our. Actually a really good friend, not just a guest, Kevin Dalgren. We call him the houseless whisperer. He is the guru. He is the individual who has the secret sauce on the street in dealing with the houseless initiatives individually, one on one. But also up in big Salem, here in Oregon, that's our capital. Kevin, why don't you introduce yourself and tell the folks who you are and what you do?
[00:01:43] Speaker B: I appreciate it, brother. So, yeah. Kevin Dalgren worked in social services primarily in Portland, Oregon, the last 28 years, since the 1990s.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: That's hard time.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: It was hard time. I served some hard time. I worked at the city, the county, the state, nonprofit for profit, and faith based over the last 28 years. So what I say is I have a really strong understanding how the system works and how it really doesn't work, how we communicate and don't communicate. That, of course, I would say, is the biggest dysfunction with our system is that the counties and the cities do not know how to communicate. Nonprofits have no idea how to talk to counties. Faith based, oftentimes are left alone and doing some solid work and completely ignored. Basically, nobody's talking to anybody, but everyone's basically doing the same job.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Completely siloed. The entire industry completely siloed. Every sector, they're siloed within the sectors, and the sectors themselves are siloed from each other.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: And I really watched over time as this cause, this legitimate cause, became this multi now billion dollar industry. And it didn't feel that way in the 90s or even the early aughts it was really over this shift that happened the last eight or nine years where someone figured out how to capitalize on this legitimate cris.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: Before we get there, let's kind of go back in time a little bit. So Kevin Dalgren, how did he, that individual, get involved in homelessness and houseless initiatives?
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Well, I think just even at a young age, I just had this strong desire to make the world a better place, honestly. That's great, man. When you're ten years old, it's like you look around and I was the one picking up the trash and talking to people and not even knowing why. It's just something I was driven to do. Jump ahead. Ten years in my early 20s, living in a small studio apartment on southeast Hawthorne, my little brother ended up on the streets of Portland, Oregon, with a meth addiction.
[00:03:42] Speaker A: That's rough.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: And meth was king. Meth was killing people. And we were all kind of surprised because it wasn't the perfect household. But I also lived in the same room he did. And how was it that I was in my first year of college and he was on the streets and we're ten months apart? Long story short, I helped get him off the street with my older brother. He lived in my small studio apartment for about a year, ended up going through Oxford House and is to this day thriving. And his day to sobriety is actually the day he moved into my apartment in early 1994.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: So you've been really helping people transition off the streets since the mid ninety s?
[00:04:26] Speaker B: One hundred percent.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Wow, that's impressive. And do you feel like that's kind of been your model because everyone says this Kevin Dalgren, he has that tough love approach and it kind of makes sense because obviously you really love your brother.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: Absolutely. And it has to be tough love. I mean, another softer way of putting it is I want to empower these individuals, not enable them. Right. Empowerment means giving them structure, giving them opportunities, holding them responsible, giving them some accountability. I mean, that is tough love. People hate when I use that term, but I'm like, come on, all you hear is the word tough. But I also said love. Yeah, right. I mean, tough love is how you would raise a child.
You're not going to raise a child to be your best friend. You're going to raise a child to become eventually self sufficient and thrive on their own. Right. And that's sometimes what you have to do with the homeless because they lack structure and they lack maybe any sort of guidance. I mean, there's a lot of reasons why homeless and vendor mother streets nine times out of ten, there's definitely some barriers. There is. Somewhere along the way, someone failed them or they failed themselves. And our goal is to identify those barriers and to help them reach their fullest potential. And if we're lucky, they become self sufficient and leave the system completely, as my brother did.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: So you had success there. You moved forward working in local government.
[00:05:50] Speaker C: Yes. Right.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: And at some point, I would say about seven, eight years ago, like you're saying, the houseless population and just the overall issue.
[00:06:02] Speaker C: Right.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: Especially in the Portland metro area, it kind of came to the forefront, really, I would say, with the introduction of the heroin epidemic.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: Right.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: For me, as a police officer, I look at that intersection of drugs, and I think, for me, because before that, it seemed like they're always travelers. We always had folks, transient, transient travelers.
But with the introduction of these heavy new narcotics, especially these synthesized narcotics, people have literally, the homeless population that I deal with. They have no sense of agency. People that I dealt with ten years ago as a police officer, they might have been homeless, but they had the cognitive and I would say spiritual and emotional ability to make decisions for themselves. But this new wave of drugs has almost robbed them of that. And so for me, it became about that. What did you notice?
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Well, and what I would say, certainly right now, what we see, the homeless population, good 80% of the time, is with these new drugs. And I guess what we're talking about is fentanyl, is they've lost all rational thought and critical thinking. There's been a shift in even their mindset. Things have simply changed. I'm a jug and alcohol counselor, and I have been for a long, long time, but it was simply different. Ten years ago, it was different.
[00:07:29] Speaker C: Right.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: And these people are just simply, literally have lost their minds.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: They have no ability to make cognitive. They don't have the cognitive function of self agency anymore.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Correct. And so that's why I've been so vocal, like, why aren't we treating this like the real, true, legitimate crisis it is? And why do we continue to, say, supply these individuals with the means to continue to use, aka harm reduction? And that, to me, is completely insane. When you see a person completely knotted out or walking around like a zombie and you walk up to them with a smile on your face and hand them some straws and walk away, that's insane to me.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: And so where we live, so handing out paraphernalia such as needles, straws which are used to inhale the fentanyl smoke, if you're cooking a pill, a blue or a white. And so you're saying that the policy here locally has been harm reduction. Right.
Essentially that means providing paraphernalia.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Yeah. And this social justice movement is really a philosophy. It's a belief in bodily autonomy, a person's right to use a person's right to do whatever they want to their.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Body, which is really an extreme form of libertarianism.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: It's not even a liberal idea.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: It is, but they've taken it so far. The fact is, and I wrote this opinion piece in the New York Post a few months ago, which was excellent, and I called it, we are loving the homeless to death. And that's what it is. That's what bodily autonomy is, is we love you enough to give you every right to do whatever you want. But let's think about the person we're doing this to with no critical thinking, rational thought. They don't know how to stop. They can't. They're going to do it until they die. And we as a community, as a society, I believe, have a responsibility to finally just say, enough is enough.
[00:09:21] Speaker C: We do.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: And there's a threshold there legally.
I remember when I was in law enforcement, I took a phone call, or I took a dispatch, and the dispatch essentially was, hey, I'm at work. My wife is home. She's actively trying to commit suicide. Can you do a welfare check? So I'm on the phone. I get a 21. I get a phone call from the husband of the person attempting suicide, and no one's answering the door. And so I have permission to enter. So I go ahead and kick the door in, and I'm clearing the house, my firearms out. The lady comes from the kitchen, actually attacks me with a butcher knife open. I don't shoot her, thank God. And I'm like, hey, I'm law enforcement. I'm here to check on you. She drops the knife, and taking that forward, I get her into care, right? But doing an after action on that call, I realized that I had actually created my own jeopardy, because in Oregon, people have the right to take their own life. We have the right to suicide here. And so that is something that's not common to other states. And so the intersection for these two things coming together is that when law enforcement takes a call and they have a homeless person who is engaging in self harm, as a law enforcement agent in the state of Oregon and other states, you have the right to take that person into civil custody. It's called a police officer hold or a hold. But because that individual also has the right to actually harm themselves up until death. A lot of police officers that I've spoken with don't feel comfortable using force in order to get that person to a hospital because they feel they could be justifiably sued because we're taking that ability away for them to engage in self harm, which is almost pretty much illegal here.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: It's completely insane.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: This is an insane loop, right?
[00:11:22] Speaker B: We're all frontline workers. And the fact is we are hardwired. Hardwired to save people, to help people, to make the world a better place. And everywhere we turn, we have these moral dilemmas like, wait, am I doing the right thing? When in our mind we know it's the right thing, but then if we cross that certain line, somehow we're in trouble, not them, or we get in trouble for. It's insane.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: In fact, I would even argue that as individuals, if we're walking around and we see someone engaging in self harm and we don't attempt to help them, there's almost psychopathy there. We're almost acting as a sociopath or a psychopath by not helping them. If we don't have the desire to want to better that person's life, is there something wrong with us? And so as a society here in Oregon, as we're letting the homeless just die, just wilt on the vine right in front of us on the street. Intense.
What does that say about us as.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: A, you know, I said this recently, maybe a little too extreme, but when Molandlama county announced before they reversed their decision that we're going to start handing know foil and straws to our addicts. Right. And they'd already purchased the items I was asked to go on the media. And the first thing I said is, and kind of in a sarcastic way, because this is one of those rare moments where I was emotional, because I'm like, you're killing me here, right? I do this for a living. And this is just making me said, finally, Moloma county has a solution of how to end homelessness. Just, we're going to let them die. And I said this, but I also was like, I know this is what's going to happen, is that we're going to see a significant spike in overdoses and deaths. Now, fortunately, the public kind of revolted and they reversed their decision a few days later. But I said this really, while somewhat sarcastically, also, I knew, matter of fact, guaranteed there would be a spike in overdoses and deaths. And so I'm glad they reversed it. But I was also frustrated. Like, that's the best you can come up with? This is your solution?
[00:13:23] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: And you're right.
You're going to see a natural increase in death if you allow that to occur. Yes, that's a given. So take us through.
We can call it your business model, right? It's not really a business model, but when you're on the streets and you're engaging the houseless population, kind of take us through a regular contact for you.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: All right. And this is something I had to kind of develop on my own, because I'm going to just sadly admit I was not trained to do this. Right. Every nonprofit I worked for in the city, the county, and state, nobody told me this. I just sort of had to do this instinctually. I really learned what not to do and did the opposite.
[00:14:07] Speaker C: Right.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: I mean, that's what my approach is. So I can jump back to when I joined the city aggression in October 2018 after writing the mayor a letter with a nine point plan how to reduce homelessness. And he was impressed enough to invite me to city hall, and I love it. A few weeks later, I was hired. So that's how you get hired, folks, is just write the elected official letter. I didn't apply for the job, and I wasn't looking for a job, but I also liked what this mayor was doing and really just wanted to commend him for his outspoken beliefs on what his thoughts were on homelessness. And I was impressed.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: For the folks that aren't familiar with Portland, Gresham is a large suburb of Portland, and I would say there are excellent, beautiful parts of Gresham, but they're also lower income areas as well.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: Yes, it is a lower income area, and I'll say that in the four and a half plus years I was there, really, by month ten, we had reduced homelessness by over 90% in our city, and we had a higher per capita rate of homelessness than Portland, Oregon, in 2018.
[00:15:14] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: People forget that majority of the homeless were in the spring water corridor in east county.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: Giant green belt. Just this giant, beautiful green belt over.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: It's about 5 miles long and it's massive. And there was just several hundred homeless people and millions of pounds of trash. And within ten months, we had cleaned up every piece of trash and reduced homelessness by over 90 plus percent in just the first ten months.
[00:15:42] Speaker C: It's amazing.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: And we did this. And now this is to lead to how is our approach? It was all about our approach. And step one is this daily contact?
[00:15:52] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: I'm a big believer in regular. I prefer daily contact, but bare minimum regular contact. What this does is this starts with building trust, is the homeless are used to seeing outreach workers every once in a while, but then not for several weeks, months, or years. And they never expect to see you the next day, the next day, the next day. And what this does is this does build trust. It builds this rapport. Right. But also what it does is it deters negative behavior, because in any homeless population, 1015, 20%, let's just be perfectly honest, are up to no good.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: And that's any population?
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah, any population. They're causing most of the problems, and they're usually the ones victimizing the other homeless.
[00:16:31] Speaker C: Always.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: They have them addicted to drugs.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: There's a lot of sexual assaults. There's a lot of person to person crimes. A lot of all the bad things kicking indoors and porch pirates and stuff. Daily contact simply deters that behavior. What we saw in Gresham over the first year, my chief of police told me, is, Kevin, we've seen an 88% drop in all police calls related to homelessness the first year you started.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: It's amazing.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: 88%, because we simply were there every day. Witnesses and crime dropped, behaviors improved, all that thing. So I'm a big believer in daily contact because they get to know you, they trust you, and trust is huge. There's a strong mistrust in the system. There's a strong mistrust in you. That's always the challenge. The first time I meet a new homeless person is while most can eventually be very friendly, some are very standoffish and, like, who the hell are you? It takes time, but you go and you have that regular contact. Always be brutally honest with them. Right? I never sugarcoat anything. I'm brutally honest about what's working and what's not, how I can help them, how I can't help them. And what they're doing is, whether right or wrong, I will tell them that. I will call them out on things, too, and they respect it, because the secret is this, with my elevator speech is this is how to work with the homeless. Treat them like adults. You treat a homeless like an adult, not like a protected class or someone you have to tiptoe around and you're scared of offending them. You treat them like you would treat a brother, a friend, a neighbor, a coworker. Right. If they're respectful, I'm respectful. If they're not so respectful, I'm going to probably say something, right? It's no different. You treat them like an adult, and I promise you that is a big part of it.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: I would argue that treating someone like an adult, for me, means treating them with respect and self worth and treating them as if they have agency for themselves.
[00:18:24] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: That's called empowerment.
[00:18:26] Speaker A: That's empowerment, which is trauma informed, because when you traumatize in the psychology of trauma, the victim loses worth and they lose agency. This is what keeps them trapped in the cycle of trauma.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: And that's our goal, is to empower these individuals.
[00:18:43] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: And the fact is, 98% of the time, it's not happening out there. There's very few people, very few agencies that are actually out there. Empowering echelon is definitely one that is empowering.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: And that's why I love you guys and why I'm so happy to be here. But very few people are doing this. I travel the country now, and it's so frustrating because it seems so common sense to me.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: Yeah, me too.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: Like, come on.
I guess for me, I did this early on where, with my brother, right? I empowered him. And the tough love piece was like, oh, dear God, what the hell are you doing?
[00:19:23] Speaker C: Right?
[00:19:24] Speaker B: I was like, that's insane. Stop now. Right? And it worked. He listened to me. And so I'm a big believer in that. And that's kind of what we did in Gresham. This is what we've done in multiple communities. Now, obviously, the numbers speak for themselves, right. Is any person or agency or program that has empowerment, they simply have measurable results.
[00:19:49] Speaker C: They do.
[00:19:50] Speaker B: You all have actual measurable results. Many people can't even say that.
The fact is they won't even talk about it. Most agencies won't even bring up metrics. They're terrified because they're not actually making a difference up there, sadly.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: So, step one, engagement. Right? Step two, accountability. Empowerment through accountability. And then eventually what we notice is there's always present a step to get people away from that community.
Right? And so you got to transition them somewhere. So explain that process, how you would engage.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: Well, once you build that trust, you better damn well also come with resources.
[00:20:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: And here's the thing.
Virtually every homeless person has ambivalence.
Honestly. Every human has ambivalence. Everybody has ambivalence, but certainly homeless. Right? And because of that strong mistrust, ambivalence. Is this, right? With every decision they make, it's no. Yes, no, yes. It goes back and forth. The moment they say yes, the moment they're just like, I think I'm ready. I'm done with this. I hate this. You don't put them on a darn list. No, hey, wait for this. You help them that day, you help them immediately. You drop everything. Because that is the person that's going to. We're more likely to help them than anybody else we've encountered that day. Because if you can help even that one person and start doing that every day, you're going to see those measurable results over time. Right. It's complete disservice when a person walks into a program and says, I am done with this life. I'm used for your last time. I am. Ready? Ready. All right, great. Go on this list. You'll go in, in six months, or you can get in a detox in eleven or twelve days. That's insane to me.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: You have to be high when you go to detox as well.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: You can't show up a day sober.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: And it's not a perfect system because it's like, I have a heck of a time getting a person to detox.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Because one of the hardest things you can do.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: And it's frustrating. And by the way, if I were in charge and people always ask me this, what would you do if you were king for a day or something? I said, considering that this is an epidemic and that fentanyl is the worst, most powerful drug I've ever seen in my entire life, and 80 plus percent of every homeless person is currently using it, I would say we need to bare minimum, quad, triple the amount of detox facilities we have as temporary. It doesn't mean we have to have them for the next ten years, but we need them for the next one or two years. And if we treat this like the crisis, it is, all crisis eventually end. Which means let's do this now. Let's have emergency detox facilities in every district or wherever and get everybody ready off the streets right now who wants it? And so that was the biggest challenge for me in Gresham and other cities, is when they wanted help that day. What do we do right now? The good news is, and you're working.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: For an actual government, so the ability to have access should be much greater than just a local nonprofit going out.
[00:22:51] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: And so that was a little bit of my advantage is I did close friends with the mayor, and I was very close to, at the time, the city council, and I'm still very close to city council, but city councilors change, and right now they have a very divided city council. But back in the day, we were all very tight to the point where we would just wake up in the morning, text and be like, do you want to get breakfast? And so basically we treated each other like a family. And so I did have more of an advantage because a government can simply get things done faster. And they liked what I was doing, and so I was able to get a budget. So, for example, if detox wasn't open, I would put them in a motel and then we would send staff there to check on them literally 24 hours a day for three days and have our own damn detox. We did whatever was necessary to help that person break that cycle, especially when they are ready. And what we found is we were building this reputation where when you are ready and you are serious, you come to us, we will literally drop everything and help you. And that's what we did.
[00:23:58] Speaker C: Amazing.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: And we did it. And it wasn't perfect. It honestly became this logistical nightmare for me when everybody basically on the same day said, all right, I'm ready.
Because that's what happens when you have daily contact and you build that trust and everyone's like, I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready. So, of course, I didn't get everyone on housing day one. And of course some people had to remain in their tents. But we are still going out there every day saying, all right, so today, here's what we're going to do. We got you the phone, we got you this job interview. We got you these new shoes so you can do this. We were preparing them for success.
We kept at that hope, that hope alive. And I just got chills because I think about those moments when a person is just like, they've empowered themselves and like, Kevin, I am going to do this.
[00:24:42] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: And before you know it, they have more energy than you do and they are pissed. They are like, I'm done, I'm done, I'm done. And it is powerful.
[00:24:51] Speaker C: It is.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: And you see their potential and you feel so good that you give them this opportunity and they thrive, and that's what they want. They just needed the path, the guidance, the opportunity, and so that's what we can do. This is what we can do. People always, I guess, talk about the money thing. I was like, look, we have more than enough money right now, I believe, to solve this, we do.
We just need to reallocate it to the right programs, programs like Echelon and a few other smaller ones that are making true differences every day. We do this, we will end this crisis, folks, in months, not years. We will. This is a crisis. Treat it like one. And I'm a big believer that we can do this. Right.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: And that's exactly where I was going to lead that conversation to. So you're very popular for, I don't know if you coined the term, but I've heard you say it first, the homeless industrial complex.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: So the homeless industrial complex is basically these special interest groups that realize that they could monetize homelessness and make it really, even though they say nonprofit, it's for profit, because the salaries at the.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: Top of that pyramid are exorbitant.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a very profitable industry. The fact is, I challenge anybody to walk up to any homeless person who's actively working on getting out of homelessness, and they can name, minimum, five different people, five different agencies that are working with them that are basically doing the same thing. That is very common. They can name another five that said, well, I tried to work with them, but they won't call me back. Da da da.
[00:26:30] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: But I guarantee you this is because they had that one contact. That agency now has a check mark that says, oh, I work with Joe Smith. Right. And so now, at the end of the year, when there are requests for more money, they can say, Joe Smith is our client, even though they've only talked to him once for ten minutes. And then they're requesting an extra $10,000 a year to help that person. I mean, it's corrupt as hell. And the reason why I say this is because there's no accountability. There's no oversight, there's no metrics. There's no way of knowing what anybody else is doing.
[00:27:00] Speaker A: We don't even know how many beds are available currently.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: Yeah. And by the way, and here's the thing is, I mean, shelter beds, okay? And dirty little secret is that everyone always says there's not enough beds. That might be true, but I worked in these housing programs for decades, and we were never at full capacity.
[00:27:19] Speaker A: They can't be. In order to satisfy Martin v. Boise, the 9th district court decision out of the Idaho Supreme Court that limits the government's ability to move a houseless person, they have to have a place to put them. So anytime, let's say a city government or a county government wants to move a homeless camp tomorrow, and there's 100 people there, well, you have to maintain those 100 beds somewhere. So if these beds were capacity, it would actually limit the government ability to work with the homeless.
[00:27:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: And the irony of that, the system is worked in such a way. Well, that it creates gaps.
[00:28:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: And what's frustrating about that is, let's just say 100. If we lined up 100 random homeless people today in Portland, Oregon, if we're lucky, 40 would accept help today.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: Oh, I would say 15.
[00:28:13] Speaker B: Yeah, 15.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: That's our number.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: But what I'm saying is that it's extremely low. And I'm not saying it's no judgment against them, but there's a reason why they're not ready. The ambivalence, the middle of their addiction, their mental illness, their trauma. They're hiding from the law. There's a lot going on. And so these hundred beds are always remaining open. The sad thing is that there's also hundreds of other people out there right now. Low hanging fruit of people are like, I'm done. I'm ready. I need help. I want a job. I'm sick of this. What the hell? How do I get out of this situation? And we should be giving them that damn bed. The reason why we don't is because you mentioned the silo is nobody is talking to anybody. No one is communicating with anybody. We don't have this by name sort of list of all, every homeless person that everybody in the community has access to, not with open beds, and linked it to. We don't have that.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: No, there's no accountability there. And kind of going back to the beginning of what you had just said, our numbers are, when we go out and contact people, and this is the nonprofit loving one another and also echelon, there's about a 15% response rate that we would call positive wanting change. But what we've realized is if you engage that person for seven days in a row, the likelihood is that they were willing to accept change, meaning transition. Twice that week. You just had to be there every day.
[00:29:37] Speaker B: Exactly. That's the ambivalence. You have to be there every day. You don't know when that person is miraculously, that day being like, I'm done. I want help. And you help them because that's the moment. Because once you give them that opportunity and they go to the next step, even though they might still be at high risk of relapse, once you give them that new opportunity and you just work with them and work with, and work with them, they're less likely to go backwards. They're more likely to stay at least where they're at and continue to move forward.
[00:30:05] Speaker A: You're building agency. You're building that agency as you work with them.
[00:30:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And relapse is a part of recovery. And the reality is that the person we do help sometimes is going to fall backwards again. And two steps forward, one step back. But what happens is that because that trust is already established, the next time around, they're more likely to be more successful because they know we were there for them. And it can be frustrating at times because it's a lot of effort, but these are people that are broken. These are broken people, and we need to realize that. And I hate when people just say, pull them up with their bootstraps. They just got to da da da. I mean, these people have a lot of barriers. There's a lot going on. There's a lot of trauma, there's a lot of addiction, whether it's on them or somebody else. Why they got into it, it doesn't really matter. Our job is to solve this. And that means to solve a problem, you have to understand the problem. To understand the problem, you have to be immersed in it and spend every day with it. And that's why I spend so much time in the encampments, talking to the homeless, interviewing them. I mean, this is a big part of what I do and kind of what my focus has been the last, as you know, the last year and a half is I go into these communities and I give them a voice.
I'm so sick of the system, lying and saying, this is what a homeless person is. More housing ends homelessness. BS. If that's the case, we would have ended it decades ago. This is always the argument is you build enough housing for every homeless person, it's going to miraculously end homelessness. That is just not true.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: Yeah, and kind of speaking to that, when I think of the homeless industrial complex and the housing first model, I kind of call that whole thing the field of drains model. It's, if you build it, they will come. And the reality is you can build whatever you want, but they're not going to come. And the reason they're not going to come is that model.
What it does is that model for me, what we realized is that it communicates, you're not worth my time. You're not worth me getting out of my car, coming to see you in your tent or on the side of the street and having a conversation.
I'm going to make you a person with no worth and no agency. I'm going to make you abandon your tent. So you're going to get robbed, go steal a shopping cart, commit a crime, push that shopping cart back to your tent, take everything you own and put it in a stolen shopping cart, push it an hour down the street to my office, and then go and wait in line.
[00:32:38] Speaker C: You got to wait in line, of.
[00:32:39] Speaker A: Course, at least three or 4 hours. Right. With a 50 50 chance that you'll be offered any type of transition that day and that entire field of dreams. Homeless industrial complex housing, first model communicates. You're not worth my time. And people on the street, they will tell us this all the time.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: Well, yeah, oftentimes I'll tell these agencies, I'm sorry. Have you ever met a real life homeless person? Exactly. I get confused. I'm like, you created this for them.
Who in the heck would accept this? It's insane to me when I think that I'm like, you got to spend time with them. I've always said this is that if you want the homeless to accept a shelter, change the shelter system.
[00:33:21] Speaker C: Right?
[00:33:22] Speaker B: Yeah, you have to. I mean, you just do.
[00:33:23] Speaker C: You do.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: I worked in the shelter system. It was a large. The one I worked at for seven years was a large room with 91 men in this large room with bunk beds where everyone had one and a half feet of space. Basically. It was even worse in prison. In prison, you had at least only one other person in your cell with you. This was 90 other people.
[00:33:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: In prison, at least, you get a six x six x eight.
[00:33:48] Speaker B: And the fact is, overdoses and murders were actually. Sexual assaults were very common in the shelter system, and they are, and it continues. Why would a person who we found in the Springwater corridor next to a creek on five acres want to live in this tiny little heck hole? So we have to rethink everything, and that's why I go out there and try to tell people, this is what a real life homeless person looks like and sounds like, and this is what they're sharing with me. This is what they want. This is why I give them the voice. Now, of course, because this goes against the narrative of our friends in the social service agency that we don't always see eye to eye with.
At least the new thing I'm hearing lately is Kevin hires actors to portray the homeless, because there's no way a homeless person would ever say this. And I've been hearing this a lot.
[00:34:46] Speaker A: That's just ridiculous.
[00:34:47] Speaker D: By leaders.
[00:34:48] Speaker B: I know, leaders of major programs in the Pacific Northwest, executive directors saying that I hire, and I'm like, well, that's an impressive production because I have all these extras in the back that look like homeless and all these tents. And I'm also on Broadway, so somehow I've managed to stop traffic for an hour. This was a multimillion dollar production, so I'm very impressed with myself. And I'm just like, it's insane because they can't believe this homeless person is saying this.
The most recent one was this is. I have all these homeless saying, I like law enforcement, I like the police, I like security because I feel safer. And also, guess what? I like that they own me sometimes and call me out on my BS. I get it. I'm up to no good. And sometimes I need that structure, right? And this person came out of nowhere who runs this major program in California and said, there's no possible chance that a homeless person would ever say this because all homeless hate cops. I'm like, are you kidding me?
[00:35:51] Speaker A: That's insane.
[00:35:51] Speaker B: Most homeless strongly support our law enforcement, especially women. They feel safer with law enforcement.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: They want more.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: Most of the households that I contact, they would prefer more law enforcement 100%.
[00:36:05] Speaker B: I mean, it's a high percentage actually are drawn to the police because the police actually, if you actually work with them, they're social workers with guns. They're very compassionate people. And I've worked with the police for many, many decades. And so, of course I have strong love for these people and they're out there doing some seriously pain in the butt work and don't get any love. But the fact is, in my experience doing this for decades, the homeless appreciate the police because what the police are giving them is showing them accountability, structure, but also some tough love.
[00:36:37] Speaker A: So we're about to hit the streets. We're going to meet up with Bach. We're going to patrol with him for a little bit and hopefully we'll engage some houseless and maybe get someone into a shelter. How do you feel about that?
[00:36:47] Speaker B: I love it. I mean, I'm all about making a real difference every day and not just talking about it, but actually showing from step a through z how to actually help a person off the streets. And you know what? I guarantee we could probably find somebody.
[00:37:01] Speaker C: Let's go. Let's do it. All right.
We took a call last time we were out with Bach. Someone swung on him. He had sprayed him and we called.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Loving one another out. So Spencer came out and then.
[00:37:24] Speaker C: We worked all day and we got him into unity.
[00:37:27] Speaker D: That's cool.
[00:37:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:37:28] Speaker D: Into the first four pez.
[00:37:31] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: I worked at unity for one year, dude.
[00:37:35] Speaker C: Really?
[00:37:36] Speaker A: We used to have 15 beds here.
[00:37:39] Speaker C: At the Greyhound filter. Nice.
[00:37:41] Speaker A: And then they took those away because.
[00:37:42] Speaker C: We were like, oh, we don't work with private entities.
[00:37:44] Speaker B: And we're like, but you need a.
[00:37:46] Speaker D: Private public collaboration to end this crisis.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: I mean, obviously we've shown the public isn't going to be able to do.
[00:37:53] Speaker D: It on their own.
[00:37:54] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:37:56] Speaker B: I always go over here because this is already the hotspot, the encampment right.
[00:38:02] Speaker D: Behind OdOT, that little green space.
[00:38:06] Speaker B: I was there a few days ago and guy pulled a 44 magnum on me. Oh, crazy, fucking terrifying. Now 22, I'm like, yeah, shoot me.
[00:38:16] Speaker C: Who was it?
[00:38:19] Speaker B: Og Mike.
[00:38:20] Speaker C: Okay, we'll talk to him.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: Well, here's the thing. He pulled it technically on the other guy. He just was waving around like he was acting fucking crazy.
And it was nerve wracking because he was completely out of his mind. And literally for about three minutes, I was about 80% confident he's definitely going to shoot one of us.
[00:38:40] Speaker D: And I was like, fuck this. And he was like, I want my rain back. It was some dumb little squabble over something. And I'm realizing, wow, wrong place, wrong time. Kevin. I did not want to be there.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: But I know a lot of them.
[00:38:53] Speaker D: Down there and they're actually quite cool. And this is why I didn't report.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: Them, because, I hate to say it, even though he has a gun, I.
[00:38:59] Speaker D: Have to maintain that trust.
[00:39:01] Speaker B: So I didn't say anything. And they all have guns anyway.
[00:39:04] Speaker D: Or not all.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: I think four of them down there have guns. Everyone has knives, but he's carrying a nice fucking piece, I'll tell you that.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: Most people have guns.
[00:39:14] Speaker C: You have to that. I mean, it's scary.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: Again, ultimately, I wasn't too worried about being shot because the fact is, the homeless, they're also not stupid. They're not going to shoot someone for no reason.
[00:39:25] Speaker C: I love it.
[00:39:26] Speaker D: This is the spot to go. This is where you go. This is where you learn the truth, dude.
[00:39:30] Speaker C: This is old town, baby.
Every building right here that you can see is a client.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: All right, we're in old Town Chinatown.
[00:39:38] Speaker C: We're stepping out. We're hooking up with Bach. Going to get him micked up, and we're going to go on patrol. See you there.
Cool.
Michael Bach. Kevin Dalgren.
[00:39:59] Speaker E: Kevin.
[00:40:00] Speaker D: I'm the Kevin Dalgren.
[00:40:01] Speaker C: Right. Yeah, true.
[00:40:03] Speaker E: Great. Merchant Hotel. Looks like it needs some attention. Everywhere else is pretty squared away.
[00:40:08] Speaker C: Yeah. Those folks in your subway, did they move down to subway?
[00:40:11] Speaker E: I haven't seen anybody move further down. There's still that, like, platform thing. And then there's a couple of people up in a couple of doorways that looked like they were smoking.
I haven't forgotten about that subject.
[00:40:27] Speaker C: We're doing a documentary about houselessness in Portland and how hard it is and how do you transition. How do you survive and how you. Yeah, I was actually homeless for two years as an adult and as a child with my mom in the car for about a year and a half. I've been down in prison for three years. My kids need a roof. I don't. I have a lot of. I feel that, bro.
I have to pay that I can't see them like that. They need it. I'd rather be this way than halfway house, dude, halfway house is rough, bro.
I'm Alex. Freddie.
So I don't have to come up on anybody. I don't drive because I can't see yet. I have money. Look, I. I don't want. I lost enough vehicles, but I'm not going to ever kill anybody.
[00:41:11] Speaker D: Out of my discussion.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: If any of you, y'all want to.
[00:41:13] Speaker C: Talk to us, let us.
[00:41:19] Speaker E: This is the gentleman who was just moved. This is Alex.
[00:41:21] Speaker C: Alex, the job thing, it kind of fits itself. If I have a place to live and a safe place to keep my stuff, I'm a car salesman.
Somebody need a car? I'm going to handle business. And done. You don't need a lot of education and you don't have to have a degree.
[00:41:40] Speaker D: Has anybody out here approached you and talked about housing?
[00:41:43] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:41:44] Speaker C: And it's three weeks for some, three years for others.
[00:41:49] Speaker D: But you are ready that day?
[00:41:51] Speaker C: Ready whatever you need to do to make it happen for me.
[00:42:00] Speaker D: Have you heard of the Bybee Lakes help center on North Portland?
It's the program. It's built out of, actually, the old jail, but never uses a jail. It's a reentry program, helps people break that cycle. And that's important to know. It's not a shelter. It actually, reentry breaks that cycle. Homelessness. And their number one mission is to make sure you never return to homelessness again. And it's a solid program.
[00:42:24] Speaker C: It's the nicest facility in Portland.
[00:42:26] Speaker E: We're a referral agency, man. So if it's something you want, we can make a phone call and get.
[00:42:30] Speaker C: You know, man, I'd like to know more about it before I just commit to.
[00:42:33] Speaker D: Oh, you should ask more.
[00:42:38] Speaker C: It sounds. And it's new. Yeah.
[00:42:40] Speaker E: Within the past, what, two years?
[00:42:41] Speaker C: Yeah, probably finished in the past year.
[00:42:43] Speaker D: And it's not for everybody because the fact is you have to be ready and you have to want it. And for a lot of people out here that we just walked past, there's a lot of barriers they're not going to right now qualify, but they may eventually qualify. You very likely qualify more than most people out here.
[00:42:57] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:42:57] Speaker B: So that's something.
[00:42:59] Speaker C: Problem is a place to keep my stuff and man changing for work.
[00:43:05] Speaker D: That makes sense to me.
[00:43:07] Speaker C: Have to show up neat, orderly, shaved up and, man, not dirty hands. They're not going to go for that. So they're going to expect you. Cool.
[00:43:15] Speaker D: It's actually. There's a lot of nature, an amazing garden. And it's away from basically the chaos.
[00:43:20] Speaker C: Most definitely.
[00:43:21] Speaker D: It's incredible. I mean, you hear birds chirp. It's amazing. You go there and like, I don't want to leave. It's really a gorgeous area. So we'll talk more about it.
[00:43:28] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. Thank you.
[00:43:29] Speaker E: And I appreciate it.
[00:43:30] Speaker C: Cool. We're going to get a flyer. We're going to come back. All right. Thanks, Ken folk. Right. Oh, man. We'll be back for you.
[00:43:34] Speaker E: Thank you, buddy. Appreciate it.
[00:43:36] Speaker C: Where's your van at?
[00:43:37] Speaker E: I'm clear over at the surface for in Davis.
[00:43:39] Speaker C: We'll go grab that. We're going to grab that and come back. All right.
[00:43:43] Speaker E: I may be out of that particular paperwork, so I can actually get Spencer or Tiffany to come by. Let me take a look here.
[00:43:52] Speaker C: Yeah, you call tiff. That'd be good because he's ready, man. I think we get him in right after someone is swept. The anxiety of all that, you know what I mean? That's like the opportune time that I've noticed.
[00:44:04] Speaker D: My biggest concern is this. I hear this all the time, is they weren't offered real help.
[00:44:08] Speaker E: Good.
[00:44:09] Speaker D: This is a person who clearly is motivated. Why have we not dropped everything and use every resource to help him? That makes me crazy.
[00:44:18] Speaker A: He's definitely not on drugs.
[00:44:19] Speaker E: Gentlemen, just across from Lansu, clearly there.
[00:44:22] Speaker C: Might be mental health issue, but it.
[00:44:23] Speaker E: Didn'T show like a good candidate for.
[00:44:25] Speaker C: That on the street right there.
[00:44:26] Speaker E: The thing is, he would really go for a good personal contact.
I don't.
Okay.
[00:44:39] Speaker D: Hey, ma'am, can I ask you a quick question, dear?
[00:44:42] Speaker C: What?
[00:44:42] Speaker D: I'm an outreach worker out here, so I got a question. Were you just swept and you're just moving locations?
[00:44:49] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:44:49] Speaker D: So that happened. I'm curious because this is something we're not really okay with because I bet you weren't really offered a real solution. Were know, like, all right, well, we need to do this, but we're going to get you into housing. And I don't know if that happened. I doubt that happened. Where they offered you housing. Did that happen?
Because I see this a lot is people get moved around and this is just whack a ball. And this is my friend Alex. And this is a good example of whack a ball.
Yeah, she was asked to move, and so she's moving. But what services were you offered to get off the streets? How were you helped? So you don't have to do this once a week.
[00:45:28] Speaker C: Offer to take you anywhere?
No, they offer you to get into any type of resource center, into housing or anything. They even try to get you on a list. Did they ask you where you're going to move so they could contact you in the future?
Nothing, right.
[00:45:44] Speaker G: Well, I don't know.
[00:45:46] Speaker F: I signed a registration card for a.
[00:45:49] Speaker G: Park recreation in Washington county.
[00:45:51] Speaker D: Oh, you're thinking about switching county.
[00:45:53] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:45:54] Speaker G: Yeah, I was hoping that some.
I don't know, maybe others like to block out their whiskey.
[00:46:03] Speaker D: Well, let me ask you this, because I'm sure it's a question no one's asked you. What's it going to take to get you off the streets? What is it that you're looking for?
[00:46:10] Speaker E: Your brother in Christ. Right in front of you. Man, I'm so glad we met.
[00:46:12] Speaker D: Can I ask you, a person?
[00:46:13] Speaker E: So glad we met.
[00:46:14] Speaker D: Do you have a history of addiction? We had not met. You know what saying I'm use at all. Have you used recently?
[00:46:20] Speaker E: You got the boat, correct?
[00:46:21] Speaker D: No judgment.
[00:46:22] Speaker E: Okay. We still got a long way to go.
[00:46:23] Speaker D: The reason why I'm asking is, are you interested in what treatment, recovery, or.
[00:46:28] Speaker E: Deep in the right direction?
[00:46:29] Speaker D: Is that something that matters?
[00:46:30] Speaker E: The boat in the right move. Okay.
[00:46:32] Speaker D: And if you're not actively using, then.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: We can go down.
[00:46:35] Speaker D: But I've just never met you, so I'm not sure I did.
[00:46:40] Speaker E: I'm more excited to see you like this.
[00:46:42] Speaker D: Have you considered treatment or recovery?
Because I think that might be the first step. That might be a big.
[00:46:49] Speaker E: Totally good.
[00:46:50] Speaker D: We're going to where you camp.
[00:46:51] Speaker E: Do what we need you from where you're at to a spot. That's better, man. I heard that you were headed out to. What is it?
[00:46:57] Speaker C: Teen champed to the pit.
Were you headed to the pit?
[00:47:00] Speaker G: Okay, well, this is Carrie and I.
[00:47:02] Speaker C: Sign up for it.
[00:47:06] Speaker D: And what is your name, dear?
[00:47:08] Speaker G: Angela.
[00:47:08] Speaker D: My name is Kevin.
[00:47:09] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:47:11] Speaker D: Angie, Kevin, Alex and I will talk to you again. This is already.
Well, it's nice.
[00:47:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:47:25] Speaker D: Well, I hope so. We'll try to find her. Okay. And we're going to talk to you again, Angie. Okay. Nice to meet you.
[00:47:32] Speaker E: The guy back here in the.
[00:47:35] Speaker D: And if you can think of her name.
[00:47:39] Speaker C: Yeah, we just got about a detox.
[00:47:41] Speaker E: Outstanding. Good man.
[00:47:43] Speaker C: Good.
I know, man.
Your YouTube video changed my life. It didn't touch me. It really did. I'm really excited that you're getting back in October. I just want to say that I found this the other day. I was heading down to get some crack the other day. Is that St. Michael?
Armor of God on the board? Let me go.
[00:48:23] Speaker E: No. Not gonna.
[00:48:28] Speaker C: Matter what I say, no matter how far you.
I was at my mom's. I seen this little thing. It's just a little card with Jesus on it. And I look at the clock, and it's three, three three. I don't know if you know, angel sign, whatever it is.
[00:48:52] Speaker E: Numerology type stuff.
[00:48:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
Cool.
Yeah.
[00:48:57] Speaker B: So victory outreach is taking right now.
[00:48:59] Speaker C: So we worked with Sam the other day.
[00:49:00] Speaker A: He actually took a swing at Bach.
[00:49:02] Speaker C: And Bach pepper straight him. And then I think he was still coming down a little bit. We were able to get him in unity. We were talking about in the car, and then they bounced. And so now he's going to go into victory outreach.
[00:49:14] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. They're good.
[00:49:15] Speaker C: People love that program.
[00:49:16] Speaker D: They're great.
[00:49:16] Speaker C: My friend, Kevin.
[00:49:17] Speaker D: Nice to meet you, brother Kevin.
[00:49:19] Speaker C: All he does is work with the houseless and try to get people to transition, and that's what we're out here doing today.
[00:49:24] Speaker D: I've been out here for a couple decades.
First person I housed was my little brother, who was sleeping near here with a meth addiction back in the day. It's my very first person I housed.
That was thousands and thousands of people ago.
[00:49:39] Speaker C: Are you ready to go to victory outreach until we get you into union on Friday? Okay.
[00:49:43] Speaker E: Hey, dude. So stoked for you, dude.
[00:49:47] Speaker D: I'm proud of you.
[00:49:47] Speaker E: I'm so stoked for you, bro.
[00:49:50] Speaker D: These are solid people.
[00:49:51] Speaker E: It, bro, this is so good.
[00:49:53] Speaker D: This is solid people. That's awesome.
[00:49:55] Speaker B: Damn. This is awesome.
[00:49:56] Speaker E: Yeah. Huge.
[00:49:57] Speaker D: Have you thought about what you want to do when you recover and get stable? You want to do outreach?
Well, I say this. You have a lot to teach next week. You have a unique perspective and come out here and inspire others.
[00:50:12] Speaker C: We would love to have you come work with us. That'd be great. Or with me.
[00:50:18] Speaker D: Yeah, or with me. I love that. Look at that. We all run our different programs. You would be solid. Let's take care of yourself first. That's step one.
[00:50:28] Speaker C: I turned 37 yesterday. I got to do it.
I want to see my son. I haven't seen my son in over a year.
[00:50:34] Speaker E: Look at you. Goals, man. Make it happen.
[00:50:36] Speaker C: Make it happen.
I do have. I was a commercial concrete finisher for a while. I had a nice car. I was doing good. Like the video. You saw the video? Yeah, that's right. Staying out here, I'm living in my car, trying to get my dad off heroin. My dad lives right there.
And my car got stolen by this booster chick. And then that's the first day I tried crack.
What's about victory outreach? So you can't smoke.
[00:51:06] Speaker D: On the straight leg?
[00:51:07] Speaker E: Straight leg, straight down.
[00:51:08] Speaker C: But they'll surround you with you.
[00:51:11] Speaker D: Yeah, they got all that.
[00:51:12] Speaker C: I got them a heavy bag and everything.
[00:51:14] Speaker D: Well, one thing I learned in my school, and I'm a drug and alcohol counselor, is you got to replace that desire for that addiction with something of equal intensity. And what you just mentioned is exactly that your son. What is more stronger than your drug? What's more powerful than that? It's your son. It's getting back in your son's life. That's what you got to remember every single day. That is your goal. That's your new addiction. Right?
[00:51:35] Speaker E: Your son's got a good father in you.
[00:51:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:51:37] Speaker E: He's got a good father in you.
[00:51:38] Speaker D: This is awesome.
You're young to me because I'm 50, so you're a kid. So you're going to recover from this. You're going to get into outreach and be like, wow, that's crazy. So remember this moment, brother.
[00:51:53] Speaker C: Next thing you know, you have a house and a car and some woman.
[00:51:55] Speaker E: That won't be quiet.
I'm just joking.
[00:52:04] Speaker D: Oh, it's a burning tree.
[00:52:10] Speaker C: Paid you to do that shit, buddy. Down there.
[00:52:16] Speaker D: Oh, was that him?
[00:52:20] Speaker C: Thanks for helping us out the fire, bro.
[00:52:22] Speaker E: Appreciate it. Hey, my man. Brother. Hey, bro. I'm going torch this thing. Can I?
Okay.
[00:52:31] Speaker C: That'S.
Yeah, let's see, bro.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: Always, man.
[00:52:41] Speaker C: Always.
Oh, you know, somebody was playing with whatever cigarette, and he caught the tree on fire.
[00:52:59] Speaker B: Now you're fucking famous now, dude.
[00:53:05] Speaker C: And if you wait for the fire department, next thing you know, the whole block will be on fire. So you might as well just do what you can while we're here.
[00:53:16] Speaker D: Someone was just playing with matches, caught the tree on fire. Luckily, we are here to take it out. Echelon, that is.
[00:53:24] Speaker C: What are you going to do, man?
We'll go over here and say hi to Terrence.
[00:53:49] Speaker D: So, I don't know if we're being recorded or filmed right now, but I want to say this is that.
[00:53:56] Speaker C: The.
[00:53:56] Speaker D: 20 minutes we stood there, virtually every homeless person approached us, shook your hands and hugged you, saying, how's it going, brother? Because they know you. I was telling Alex, this in our podcast earlier today is that I did a two year project asking the homeless, when's the last time a homeless outreach worker has ever talked to you? Now, the first year they said zero, 95% of the time.
[00:54:18] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:54:19] Speaker D: Now, what I hear virtually every day is, yeah, there's only one you, Kevin, or echelon.
That's what I hear. Or loving one another. So there's only a very few people actually out here every day doing the work, and that was very indicative. The fact is everyone approaching you guys, and you've obviously built this trust and rapport for them to comfortably walk up to you. I love that. That's the first step to ending this crisis. I think it's just beautiful.
[00:54:46] Speaker E: We're going to be hanging left here, and then there's a caddy corner to the south.
[00:54:52] Speaker C: You okay, bro?
[00:54:53] Speaker E: All right, my man.
[00:54:55] Speaker C: You good?
[00:54:56] Speaker E: Hey, TJ, you good, brother here?
You feeling all right?
[00:55:05] Speaker D: Hi, sweetie.
[00:55:07] Speaker E: There you go.
[00:55:07] Speaker D: Hi, beautiful.
[00:55:08] Speaker E: Hang in there, budy.
Sure.
Sometimes I'm a walking deposit one. You want one? Why not? My name is Michael.
[00:55:18] Speaker C: I'm Daniel.
[00:55:19] Speaker E: Hi, Daniel.
[00:55:20] Speaker G: Rachel.
[00:55:21] Speaker E: Hi, Daniel and Rachel. I'm Michael. You guys having a good.
[00:55:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:55:25] Speaker G: Yeah, we actually are.
[00:55:26] Speaker C: Recovery wonder.
[00:55:32] Speaker E: I've known Fiji for years.
[00:55:33] Speaker C: Me, too. Yeah.
[00:55:35] Speaker E: Been out here a long time with him, talking to him, couraging him to keep going and keep the boat. Correct. Directionally correct.
[00:55:40] Speaker D: So you guys are CRMs?
[00:55:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:55:42] Speaker D: And where did you get your certification?
[00:55:44] Speaker G: I got mine through peer recovery solutions.
[00:55:46] Speaker C: And he got awesome. That's dope.
[00:55:48] Speaker D: Beautiful. And so are you working with anyone.
[00:55:50] Speaker G: Out here trying to find jobs right at this moment?
[00:55:53] Speaker D: Mental health of Oregon is hiring Mhaio. Central city concerned is hiring. Especially if you're a CRM.
[00:55:59] Speaker G: Yes. Okay.
[00:56:00] Speaker D: Definitely very important. You've been there. You have that experience. You know how to recover.
[00:56:05] Speaker G: I also just applied as a direct support specialist for default.
[00:56:12] Speaker D: Beautiful.
[00:56:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I just got it on the MacBook website today. That's awesome. Official now.
[00:56:17] Speaker D: Oh, MacVille. Cool.
[00:56:18] Speaker C: Good job.
[00:56:19] Speaker G: Certified on the 14th.
[00:56:22] Speaker D: It's where I got my drug and alcohol degree. Or, I mean, that's actually. That's the governing board, but that's that.
[00:56:26] Speaker G: We're both waiting to hear back for internships for our CADC.
[00:56:32] Speaker D: Beautiful. I went through that.
I have the CADC where now I get to supervise other caDCs need to be a CADC because that's the rule. You have to go through 700 hours of supervision.
[00:56:47] Speaker C: Really?
[00:56:47] Speaker D: And so I do that. Supervision, yes.
[00:56:49] Speaker C: Is that CADC?
[00:56:50] Speaker E: Two or three?
[00:56:51] Speaker D: Both. It's two and three, and so I'm the next level. You have to just take that extra couple of tests and stuff. But it's not too bad.
[00:56:58] Speaker G: Your Cadc one is 1000 hours, and.
[00:57:01] Speaker D: So my Cadc two and three took 7000 hours. But don't be intimidated because it just goes by. It's not that big of a deal.
[00:57:10] Speaker G: Not that intimidating. The 40 hours, it's a lot harder.
[00:57:13] Speaker D: But I'm very proud of you. That's powerful. And just keep your.
I love that. And you're just. Guys are just kind of hanging out, talking to people you already know.
[00:57:26] Speaker G: Yeah. Right now we're just between jobs that we sell papers to get us through from street routes.
[00:57:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:57:34] Speaker D: You got to hustle. Do what you got to do, right?
[00:57:36] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:57:38] Speaker D: How does it feel to be on the other side?
[00:57:40] Speaker G: It actually feels amazing. And really, there's just been, like a personal experience as of late. There was an ex of mine that we didn't work out because I chose recovery, he chose active addiction.
[00:57:54] Speaker D: Are you happier?
[00:57:56] Speaker G: Yes, I am, actually.
[00:57:58] Speaker D: And that was obviously a rhetorical question, but that's important for you to remember that. So even on your darkest days where.
[00:58:04] Speaker G: You'Re like, man, my worst day sober is still better than my best day high.
[00:58:09] Speaker D: My worst day sober is better than my best day high. That's solid.
That's pretty damn good, and I love that.
[00:58:18] Speaker G: Well, now I can track exactly where my money's gone. My money's gone.
[00:58:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Right.
[00:58:23] Speaker G: Yeah, I know where it went.
[00:58:25] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:58:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:27] Speaker G: Other than just like, hey, my money's gone. Where'd it go?
[00:58:29] Speaker D: And your life isn't just complete chaos where it's literally never ending hustle from the moment you wake up to the moment you sleep. I mean, that's what it is.
[00:58:39] Speaker G: And I lived in Austin during my.
Okay, I almost went to prison. I got caught with less than a gram of meth, but they were like.
And I almost went to prison for.
[00:58:50] Speaker C: All five to ten years.
[00:58:52] Speaker D: So you dodged that bullet.
[00:58:53] Speaker G: I dodged that bullet, but it still wasn't my wake up call. It was finding out my children had been taken away from their father by CPS. And my son told me, I need you. And that was my wake up call.
[00:59:03] Speaker D: Your son needed you.
[00:59:05] Speaker G: I'm done.
[00:59:07] Speaker D: I love that. I'm very proud of both of you. No, I'm seriously just. From bottom of my heart. My little brother was a meth addict on the streets of Portland, Oregon, and slept near here, and he got off the streets, and he's thriving now.
Makes a better living than me. And his date of sobriety was the day I got him off the streets. So it's possible for anybody.
[00:59:26] Speaker G: Hell, yeah.
[00:59:27] Speaker D: And I'm very proud of you, too. So make sure you apply. And I'm sure since we're all actually out here doing this boots on the ground stuff, we're going to run into you.
[00:59:36] Speaker G: Yeah.
[00:59:37] Speaker D: My name's Kevin. Rachel and I do outreach out here more independently. But this is echelon Security Services and also loving one another.
[00:59:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:59:45] Speaker G: Nice. All right, Rachel.
[00:59:47] Speaker E: Michael again, nice to meet you. One more time.
[00:59:51] Speaker C: Hey, nice to meet y'all.
[00:59:53] Speaker F: Nice to meet you.
[00:59:53] Speaker C: Congratulations.
[00:59:54] Speaker G: Thank you.
[00:59:55] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you. You're doing all the hard work.
[00:59:57] Speaker D: Proud of your brother. Proud of you, sweetie.
[00:59:59] Speaker G: Thank you.
[01:00:00] Speaker D: Take care.
[01:00:00] Speaker G: Have a great day.
[01:00:01] Speaker C: You, too.
So again, another thing, merchant. This is our building and this other one isn't. I don't even know who owns that.
[01:00:10] Speaker D: Is this our thing right here?
[01:00:13] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:00:14] Speaker D: And we're going to work with them on.
[01:00:17] Speaker E: Hey, buddy.
[01:00:18] Speaker C: You okay, my man?
[01:00:19] Speaker E: You all right?
[01:00:22] Speaker C: Howdy, howdy, howdy.
[01:00:24] Speaker E: Okay. Do you want a cigarette?
[01:00:26] Speaker C: I like those camo pants, bro.
[01:00:28] Speaker D: Morning.
[01:00:28] Speaker C: I do with that shirt.
[01:00:30] Speaker D: I'm on a little documentary on homelessness out here in Portland. It's chaos out here, brother.
[01:00:35] Speaker E: Yeah. I'm Michael. Yeah. Take a minute if you need to get recovered. Up.
Little hot out.
[01:00:41] Speaker D: I want you to meet Alex. It's going to get worse, actually, on the streets.
[01:00:48] Speaker E: Michael.
[01:00:48] Speaker C: Alex.
[01:00:53] Speaker E: Okay, cool.
[01:00:57] Speaker C: Damn.
[01:00:58] Speaker E: Yeah. Yeah.
Not specifically, but because I do it all the time. What's your name, man? Young Michael. Nice to meet you, too. Yeah. Hope you're doing good.
[01:01:14] Speaker D: The best thing going to not knowing.
[01:01:17] Speaker C: So if you mind your own.
[01:01:18] Speaker G: You know what I'm saying?
[01:01:19] Speaker C: They say you can live a long life, right? But the key thing is this, if it doesn't apply, don't reply. It can save your life. Because that's the type of bullshit. They're all down here, man.
[01:01:30] Speaker D: Well, let me ask you this. Why do you think this crisis has gone so bad? Why do we have such a. Homeless cris got out of control?
[01:01:37] Speaker C: It's not the voters fault, but the.
[01:01:39] Speaker G: Voters voted for a lot of things of change.
[01:01:43] Speaker C: They didn't create this madness, but I think they helped it a little bit.
[01:01:50] Speaker D: Well, it's fair to say they enabled it. Exactly.
[01:01:53] Speaker C: Yes.
[01:01:54] Speaker D: It's not like it was really necessarily deliberate, but they're also not making any effort to stop it.
And why not?
[01:02:00] Speaker C: You had that.
[01:02:02] Speaker D: There's a little bit of business attached to it. There's a lot you could absolutely.
[01:02:07] Speaker C: Hook them up.
[01:02:08] Speaker D: Getting the money.
So what I call that is the homeless industrial complex. There's a lot of agencies out here that are really benefiting from this when there's very few, like echelon and loving one another, that want to end this. Cris want to break that cycle. And honestly, many ways, just work ourselves out of a job, to be honest.
[01:02:28] Speaker C: That's right.
[01:02:28] Speaker D: We want to end homelessness.
[01:02:29] Speaker G: So everybody's got a strategy, right?
[01:02:31] Speaker C: But what they need to have is.
[01:02:32] Speaker B: A suggestion of change.
[01:02:34] Speaker C: You know what I'm saying? Most people are keen to not listen to what you tell me to do, but give me a suggestion. Mr. Bill didn't tell you what to do in AA.
[01:02:43] Speaker B: He gave me a suggestion of his life.
[01:02:44] Speaker C: That's right.
[01:02:45] Speaker D: For change.
[01:02:45] Speaker C: That's right.
[01:02:47] Speaker D: She's about to get off the streets. She actually recognizes me from some of my videos.
[01:02:51] Speaker C: How are you?
My name is Alex.
[01:02:54] Speaker F: What's your Yuki?
[01:02:55] Speaker C: Miyo Yuki. Cool. Kevin.
[01:02:57] Speaker F: All the time.
[01:02:58] Speaker C: Oh, that's awesome. That's dope.
[01:03:00] Speaker F: I just recently got off the street.
[01:03:02] Speaker G: Well, not recently.
[01:03:03] Speaker F: It's been three years.
[01:03:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:03:04] Speaker F: And, yeah, I used to stay over here. I used to stay by the convention center.
[01:03:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:03:09] Speaker F: But I work for central city concern.
[01:03:11] Speaker C: That's awesome. Are you serious? You do good job.
[01:03:14] Speaker F: Yeah, I'm getting my apartment in August.
[01:03:17] Speaker C: Where are you staying at right now?
[01:03:18] Speaker F: In a sober living house.
[01:03:20] Speaker C: Oh, that's dope.
[01:03:20] Speaker F: I've been there for a year.
[01:03:22] Speaker C: Has you been clean for a year?
[01:03:23] Speaker F: No, three years.
[01:03:24] Speaker E: Good for you.
[01:03:25] Speaker C: Amazing.
[01:03:25] Speaker E: Good for you.
[01:03:28] Speaker C: How did that process start for you?
[01:03:31] Speaker F: I was incarcerated August 5 for a drug related crime.
[01:03:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:03:36] Speaker F: I was under the influence of methamphetamine, and I was drinking, and I was really deep in my addiction.
I committed a crime of theft in.
[01:03:49] Speaker C: Order to purchase narcotics.
Yeah, right. Exactly.
[01:03:55] Speaker F: And there's more to it, too. I was homeless, so I was stealing food and cooking on the streets.
[01:04:02] Speaker C: How long were you on the streets?
[01:04:03] Speaker F: For like, a year and a half.
[01:04:04] Speaker C: Year and a half? So you transitioned from prison? No, I was county.
[01:04:09] Speaker F: I was on the streets.
[01:04:10] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay.
[01:04:11] Speaker F: And then August 5, I got arrested, and I went to jail, and I was in jail for two years.
[01:04:16] Speaker C: Is that your first time in jail?
[01:04:18] Speaker F: No, I was in jail for two years. I got out last year, and I went to the Silver living house. It's actually a house for Latinas.
[01:04:26] Speaker C: Oh, that's dope. I like that.
[01:04:28] Speaker F: And it's through institute Latino.
[01:04:31] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:04:32] Speaker F: And they have helped me a lot.
[01:04:34] Speaker C: That's amazing. Yeah. Wow.
[01:04:35] Speaker F: And city central concern has also helped me a lot.
[01:04:38] Speaker D: Awesome.
[01:04:39] Speaker E: Good.
[01:04:39] Speaker C: That's amazing. And now you're working for them. How long have you been working for Central City concern? April, congratulations.
[01:04:45] Speaker F: Thank you.
[01:04:45] Speaker D: And you're just smiling that hope.
[01:04:47] Speaker C: I know.
[01:04:48] Speaker D: I love it. It's amazing because it's just amazing to talk to you, because we're talking to so many people that are so far gone right now. But anybody can recover, and anybody can be where you're at and you're still moving forward. I mean, that's amazing and that's inspiring. That's why I wanted you to share that because this could be you. We were hoping this video inspires other.
[01:05:10] Speaker B: People who see it on the streets.
[01:05:11] Speaker D: That anybody can change.
[01:05:14] Speaker E: There's life in your eyes.
[01:05:16] Speaker D: That's what it is. Life in your eyes. I love that.
[01:05:20] Speaker C: If you could tell a woman on the streets one thing, right, that had no sense of agency, no sense of worth, they're just beat up on the streets. They don't know what to do. What would you tell them?
[01:05:33] Speaker F: It sounds so overly used all the time. Like, if I can do it, you can do it. I was really bad. I was injecting drugs right there. Just sitting down, like a lot of people are doing. And I never thought that I would ever get clean. I never thought I could.
[01:05:48] Speaker C: That's awesome.
[01:05:48] Speaker F: But I know that I can now.
[01:05:51] Speaker C: That's great. And so when you're at Central City concern, you plan on engaging in this type of work? You're going to work with people on the street. What's your plan?
[01:05:59] Speaker F: I'm actually going to be taking a mentor certificate class. It starts today.
[01:06:05] Speaker E: Nice.
[01:06:07] Speaker D: I love that.
[01:06:08] Speaker G: Today.
[01:06:08] Speaker F: Yeah.
[01:06:09] Speaker C: Well, thank you for taking your time to meet with us and talk to us. Thanks, Kevin, for starting that conversation.
[01:06:14] Speaker D: Well, it's a pleasure meeting you.
[01:06:15] Speaker E: I'm Michael, by the way.
[01:06:16] Speaker F: Michael, nice to meet you.
[01:06:17] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:06:18] Speaker C: I'm gonna give you a hug.
Awesome. I'm so happy for you.
[01:06:22] Speaker D: I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna get a photo of you guys.
[01:06:25] Speaker C: She's doing awesome job.
[01:06:27] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:06:27] Speaker D: I'm very proud of you. I'm very proud of you. Really.
[01:06:31] Speaker F: Okay. See you guys later.
[01:06:32] Speaker D: Take care.
[01:06:34] Speaker C: We're doing the documentary. Yeah. We're off trying to get people in housing today. We just sent a guy to victory outreach. We're going to try to get someone else into five lakes later. You know jazzy. You know Jazzy on the street. Okay.
[01:06:45] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:06:46] Speaker C: Are you homeless?
[01:06:47] Speaker D: Currently?
[01:06:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I just got released at a OSP. Yeah. Damn, bro. Today or when? Last Friday. Last Friday. So you just been staying on the streets up here on the left. I know it. I know it. Have you heard of Victory Outreach?
Victory Outreach? They help people coming out of prison, transitioning. It's a residential program, and it's faith based. It is faith based, but, man, they have, like, an 85% success rate.
Would you be interested in hooking up with them?
[01:07:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:07:19] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:07:19] Speaker E: Let's do it.
[01:07:20] Speaker C: Do you know Spencer? Big Spencer walks around, big white dude walks around, looks like a giant polar bear.
[01:07:27] Speaker E: Always around here, man.
[01:07:29] Speaker C: So we work with a nonprofit called loving one another. Do you have a phone number? Yeah.
[01:07:33] Speaker E: Oh, that's good.
[01:07:34] Speaker C: You want to give him?
Give or a call. He'll contact you. And he literally is just taking someone out there right now.
Are you still on paper?
That's good. It's easier to get into Victor outreach if you're on. Good. Yeah.
[01:07:51] Speaker D: What do you die from?
[01:07:53] Speaker C: It's a program. I mean, you can stay up to two years. They can describe it better. The guy who runs it's Alejandro. My cousin works with Alejandro.
[01:08:01] Speaker D: Wow.
[01:08:01] Speaker C: But I don't see him. He was right here, but he walked away.
[01:08:04] Speaker E: But you want me to just get JJ?
[01:08:06] Speaker D: So he really ultimately died of fentanyl?
I am so sorry.
[01:08:10] Speaker C: But, yeah, it's a program. It's residential. They also give you work. Sometimes they come down to work with us.
They actually get paid to go do jobs all the time. A lot of companies will hire them, and so it's a great program. We work. We've seen a lot of people graduate.
[01:08:26] Speaker E: Hey, brother, are you anywhere near second in cooch?
[01:08:29] Speaker B: If you want.
[01:08:30] Speaker E: I can't see.
[01:08:31] Speaker B: Where are you?
[01:08:32] Speaker D: Interview for a minute. I'll put you up and be like, oh, there you are with your friend and stuff.
[01:08:36] Speaker E: Hey, when you're done, can you swing by right here? Okay.
[01:08:39] Speaker C: Yeah. Actually, I'll talk you over there. Yeah, let's do it.
[01:08:41] Speaker D: Alex, I'll be 1 second with him.
[01:08:42] Speaker C: 1 minute with him.
[01:08:43] Speaker D: Actually.
[01:08:48] Speaker C: This is my cousin. He's an Og.
Oh, thanks, bro. This is Orlando. This is my cousin Jay.
He's interested in victor. Oh, that's what's up, dog? Give me a second. I'll put you down.
Cool. So JJ is going to buy him a sandwich, and he's going to hook him up with victory outreach right now. So my cousin JJ's.
He's entourage. We call him entourage around here. And he's an Og. He's been on before.
He was in that life for years, and now he's running his own business. And doing his own thing.
Something happened to him.
We're going to get three people to leave being houseless and on the streets into a program today.
[01:09:44] Speaker A: And we've been out here for like 2 hours.
[01:09:47] Speaker C: And what it requires is it just requires people getting out of their office space.
[01:09:52] Speaker D: Well, I'm so sorry that happened, brother.
[01:09:53] Speaker C: And actually doing some work.
They teach it in psychology. That third eye, your spiritual eyes. So use it.
[01:10:01] Speaker D: He was sharing with me. This is his friend who died, fentanyl complications.
[01:10:06] Speaker C: So sorry, bro.
[01:10:08] Speaker D: But this is also a reminder to him to stay clean.
[01:10:10] Speaker C: He's good, bro.
I love the sound. Yeah.
[01:10:15] Speaker E: Gal across the street in the white shirt just lost her husband.
[01:10:19] Speaker C: Hey, it's good to meet you.
[01:10:20] Speaker D: Interesting.
[01:10:24] Speaker C: Hey, man, thanks for talking to us. Thank you.
All right, so this is just a regular foot patrol. We're not doing anything different than we would do anywhere else. We're just walking around old town.
[01:10:37] Speaker D: So many stories. Yeah, like we can't even get more than three blocks and everybody has a story.
[01:10:44] Speaker C: Yeah. The lady just across the street, Buck, told us her husband, right, just overdosed on fentanyl.
[01:10:49] Speaker D: And the guy we were just talking to is holding the ashes of his friend in a small vial who died.
[01:10:56] Speaker B: Of fentanyl overdose right along.
[01:10:58] Speaker C: Podcast today's awesome guest, Kevin Dalgren. We call him the houseless whisperer. He's literally a genius. You've seen him work the streets today in old town Portland. We're also here with Michael Bach. Bach is, we call him like, he's basically the street commander of Echelon.
This neighborhood has historically housed about 10% of Portland's entire homeless population, around anywhere from 250 to 400. Folks just live in this like 40, 50 block radius. And so, as you've seen today, we've made a lot of contacts. We're able to help three people transition. We met a guy named Orlando, just got out of penitentiary five days ago. He's going to victory outreach. We got Sam, Sam took a swing on Bach a couple days ago. We got him into unity, which is a crisis center that day. He's going to be transitioning today to victory outreach. And then we're able to get someone into bibe lakes, and Spencer's working on that. Spencer working with the street crew with Loa. And so I'll tell you, man, it's been a busy day. Kevin, what are your thoughts on this wrap up?
[01:12:00] Speaker D: Well, amazing success stories today. And what it took was boots on the ground outreach, something I'm a big believer in. The echelon model is daily contact you're building that trust, building that rapport. A good dozen homeless approached you today and just hugged you because they know you, they like you, they trust you. That's what it takes. It's going to them, talking to them, getting to know them, building that rapport. Really an incredible day. While we saw a lot of tragedy, we also saw a lot of hope. We met people off the streets who were addicts. We met people that are really, really trying. And so, yes, there's the chaos. It's easy to see the chaos, but in that chaos is also just a lot of hope. There's a lot of people who are holding on that small piece of hope, and that's what our job is. Our job is to help them maintain that hope or give them that hope back.
[01:12:46] Speaker C: That's right.
[01:12:46] Speaker D: And that's what you got to do. That is outreach. We were out here for a couple of hours, seemingly. I think the only people out here doing this is certainly in this neighborhood. If anybody else, and of course, I have to ask, without mentioning names, where is everybody? This is a legitimate crisis. We had a tree on fire an hour ago. People are using around us left and right. This is a legitimate crisis. And my question is, why aren't we treating it like one? They are. I am. Everyone else, maybe not so much.
[01:13:15] Speaker C: Kevin, thanks for being on the ride along today. Bach, you're the best. I love riding with you. Thanks for letting us share your shift with you. And for anyone out there, take the ride along challenge, ride along podcast if you want to. Come on, let us know. Hit us up.
