Here's the truth. The insiders in Sacramento, Salem, and Olympia have been using social service non-profits, NGOs, and questionable charitable groups as passthroughs for their friends and pet constituencies for years. Billions have been gifted to insiders and friends. And now — at long last — actual taxpayers have gotten wise to the grift. You can thank independent journalists for highlighting these absurd expenses in a much simpler and understandable way than thick books or endless PDFs filled with intentionally confusing stats, opaquely written conclusions, and puffed-up executive summaries that don't reflect the data can ever do.
And now people living on the West Coast, Messed Coast™ want to know one thing: Where'd all that money go?
It all starts with ... Gavin
Because your longtime West Coast, Messed Coast™ correspondent has been highlighting this stupidity for years and chronicled it here and in my other writings, radio shows, and podcasts, I'm going to insist you stipulate that the Homeless Industrial Complex exists and began in earnest from about 2005-2010, when leftist leaders saw that a buck could be made by declaring and funding programs to "End Homelessness in 10 Years." Obviously, it was a smashing success — for grifting, I mean.
In 2005, then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom harrumphed and gesticulated that he would, by dint of his own signature on a proclamation, "end homelessness" by 2015. Other cities followed. Billions went down the toilet as a result. And by toilet, I mean the streets of the Tenderloin and other Skid Rows along the West Coast, Messed Coast™.
Here's a chart I "magicked" up on Perplexity AI, giving a conservative estimate of how much was spent on these programs since they started.
It's Gavin's fault. San Francisco's Teflon elite once again diminish quality of life for everyone else.
Bot boi
Maybe Newsom can buy more social media bot "followers" to highlight his "successful" solution to homelessness, to go with the ones he's purchased for his presidential run.
Nick Shirley exposes “Gavin Newsom is paying bots”
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) April 9, 2026
🚨 Gavin Newsom is PAYING FOR BOT FARMS creating massive engagement and support that is ALL FAKE
Reviewing the comments, account after account is fake, random photos or no posts, all low or no followers and repeating the same… pic.twitter.com/LeDLM9EpuE
Catch Up! West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Feds' HUGE Bust in 'Kingdom of Fraud' Leaves King Gavin Big Mad
It's personal
The homeless issue has been important to me. I admired the folks at the Union Gospel Mission who produced trackable spending and success outcomes with the people who chose to do the hard work to get off drugs and get a job. I talked about it a lot on my Portland radio shows.
Portland's secular activists went a different direction. The city built an apartment building for the bums and drunks to live and sleep in with no strings attached. It came complete with shopping cart parking. Stealing shopping carts is against the law, by the way. Not there.
In 2014-15, I was helping out at a mostly privately funded transitional housing place in Southern California. Our church group would come in and make dinner, fellowship with folks, and friendships would naturally come. I had weekly walks with a woman who lived there. We had a blast getting to know each other. Once, when she went on a bender, I picked her up from the drunk tank.
Our friend would drive his big van over there every Sunday morning to gather anyone who wanted to go to church and deliver them back afterwards. People started coming regularly.
Shockingly, we were even able to do a Bible study there, which counted as a required meeting by the people who lived there. Each person had to look for work, go to group sessions to problem solve, and be sober for the privilege of living there.
By 2016, that model was dead. The leftists in charge of the state government removed all barriers to entry. You could be drunk or high in the house. You didn't have to go to meetings. And outside influence from local groups diminished. Why go to a group to problem solve if you didn't have to get clean? We still showed up to cook and get to know people, of course.
BUT, it became dangerous. Just like the streets where drug zombies live today. Where nothing is expected, nothing is returned.
COVID killed everything.
What now?
Sure, the house is still there, and, to the extent they can under state changes, they're still helping people. The main thrust for it now, however, is to be a state surrogate and way station for people waiting for "permanent" housing vouchers, where "guests" can have their own apartment and use in the dark.
Don't Do It — West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Yeah, Don't Cold Plunge Barefoot in Seattle
Others, seeing all the grant money being lavished on these programs, began their own group homes and SROs. In Washington State, Democrats passed a law to require that these homes go into all neighborhoods to endanger those who moved out of their dirty cities.
The state is making it rain.
Now, extrapolate that experience and apply it to every state social services program: Free health care, free daycare, no strings, no worries about outcomes, no worries about other people's money.
Tin cup
Portland has blown its budget for years on homelessness. Now, after decades of no-questions-asked grift, the city is asking two other counties to help pay for the unsustainable spending.
Mayor Keith Wilson is asking Clackamas and Washington counties to contribute $10 million to help keep Portland homeless shelters open as the city faces a $15 million funding gap. @KGWNews pic.twitter.com/TL7aJx51dX
— Chynna Greene (@ChynnaGreene) April 9, 2026
Someone should tell the dysfunctional city to go pound sand.
Fraudifornia
The feds continue to hunt down the money.
BREAKING - Federal investigators have just revealed California Democrats stole millions in federal tax dollars through a $27 million homeless housing scheme involving former state senator Kevin Murray’s nonprofit and a $16 million inflated building sale from indicted L.A.… pic.twitter.com/Cg6saUoxik
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) October 16, 2025
Exorcise the demons
No wonder the Catholic Church is looking for more exorcists:
NEW: Saturday afternoon, horrified parishioners outside St. James Cathedral in Seattle say a homeless man who appeared to be "demon possessed" caused a massive disturbance outside the church steps.
— Jonathan Choe (@choeshow) April 5, 2026
Cops were called to the scene and tried to encourage this fella to leave on his… pic.twitter.com/w7lxizGHLI
Don't Blame You — West Coast, Messed Coast™ — I'm Afraid for Nick Shirley's Safety After California Fraud Exposé
Logical fallacy
And now that Portland and Seattle leadership have fully embraced Antifa riots and lawlessness, misspent millions, driven out people and businesses from the core part of the city, and made their cities more expensive places to live despite diminished quality of life, they've come up with yet another way to stick it people who at one point dared to hitch themselves to those cities' unicorn-pulled wagons.
They're considering taxing building owners for all of the vacant space they can't lease — in part because of the bad leadership in the city.
You can't make it up.
They haven't ruined everything — yet
But they're trying. See: Puget Sound "fishing."
Puget Sound / Olympia, Washington area (Eld Inlet), where two massive ''Steller sea lions'' decided to take over a small sailboat while someone was out fishing.
— Dane (@UltraDane) April 7, 2026
These two look like large adult males (or one big male and a large female). Together, that's like 10 big men casually… pic.twitter.com/T2KGp76wW6
Did you realize that the Schumer Shutdown is still going on? As we attempt to bring down a would-be nuclear power that has killed Americans and attempted to kill President Trump twice, the Democrats refuse to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security. They want to disembowel the Great Big Beautiful Bill in exchange for their support.
No sale.
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