'Old-school' junkie James says he's being 'paid to be homeless' in San Francisco
James, a self-proclaimed 'old-school' junkie who moved from Texas to San Francisco, has revealed the details of his lifestyle to Michael Shellenberger, author of 'San Fransicko,' a book about the gravity of homelessness, inequality and crime in the city of San Francisco.
James is a homeless man who sports a face tattoo and talked about how he practically gets paid by the government to be homeless. "This right now is literally by choice, literally by choice. If we’re going to be realistic, they pay you to be homeless here," James stated. James also revealed that he had made only one call to sign up for government assistance under which he now receives a number of food stamps and even a monthly allowance. He said the free money acted as motivation for him to remain homeless.
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"F*****g phone call bro... Two hundred food stamps and $620 cash a month. Forget about it. Why wouldn’t I do it? You know, it’s f*****g free money dude," he explained. "Why would I want to pay rent? I’m not doing s**t. I’ve got a f*****g cell phone that I have Amazon Prime and Netflix on," James further explained.
James also shared his opinion on the state of the drug market in San Francisco. He said the drug crisis in San Fransisco has taken a turn where it is purely disturbing and disgusting. He also revealed that dealers had been selling impure and potentially harmful drugs to satiate the customers' demands in the middle of the crisis. James also added that the San Fransisco law enforcement has been acting really negligently and letting drug dealers get away with their illegal and harmful trade, even though it is happening right in front of their eyes.
"I’ve talked to the cops here. 'I’m literally 10 feet away from the drug dealers talking to you guys, why don’t you go arrest them right now?”' he said. "And they’re like, 'arrest them for what?... San Francisco is a sanctuary city. We arrest the Hondurans and we put them in jail, they’re out two days later.' If they’re letting the Hondurans deal on the corner every day, somebody getting paid with fentanyl," James explained in the interview with Shellenberg.
