Homeless crackdown equivalent to Whack-a-mole, activist says

By Michael Ashcraft --

The beaches of Venice are mostly free of tents and people sleeping outside as lots of homeless have been given either bus tickets or housing in cheap hotels, says advocate Mike Ashman.

But meth laced with fentanyl is killing addicts at a quick clip, and getting a roof over their head is only part of the solution, says the man who's become a fixture now in Venice handing out free food to the needy.

"People are taking methamphetamines cut with fentanyl, and it's just nasty," Mike told Patch. "It's really cooking their brains. They're walking zombies. They can't string together a sentence."

A month ago, Mike greeted one of his regulars, who stared back oddly without saying a word. Mike, who's used to dealing with addicts, figured the guy would sleep it off. Instead, he watched police putting him, first with convulsions, on a stretcher just hours later via YouTube live stream.

"His body went completely limp. I swore he was dead," Mike said but saw him again a week-and-a-half later and gave him a big bear hug.

The man considered himself to be lucky: "I'm so mad at myself for doing that stuff," he reportedly told Mike, who's been in Venice for three years with his non profit You Matter. "I lived through that one."

But Mike hasn't seen the man since. "I'm hoping he's got some help," Mike adds.

By Mike's tally, a homeless person dies every week from overdose. He gets the news from his regulars who come and tell him about so-and-so found dead in a bathroom or on a street, he says.

Since June the LA Sheriff embarrassed Los Angeles officials into taking action with the Venice homeless, peace officers and social workers have been getting the homeless, a crime risk and detriment to tourism, off the streets, Mike says.

They've been given housing in affordable hotels in Torrance, Lancaster, Riverside and Monrovia, he said. In some cases, they've been only given bus tickets, making the problem the equivalent of the Whack-a-Mole arcade game, he says.

Another problem Mike finds is that the housing is being given out with no discretion as to who's still using and who's trying to get clean. He says there are cases in which recently-cleaned addicts relapse because their surrounded by people who are using.

The relapse is often instant death -- if the reformed addicts uses his previous dosage. It would be too strong for him and kill him.

With the crackdown on the homeless and with Covid, Mike has witnessed his ministry of feeding the hungry go down and up. People are getting a roof over their heads but are still left to their own devices to get fed, so they find Mike, who hands out grub Saturdays, Tuesdays, Thursdays on the Rose Avenue Beach parking lot and on the basketball court.

Methamphetamine is a potent stimulant, but fentanyl has an even higher potency, thus making it more dangerous.

"You're literally just frying your brains out," Mike says. "It's extremely cheap. Once you're addicted, you overlook all common sense: 'This stuff is killing me. I want more of this stuff.'

"Out here, you swear you're watching 'The Walking Dead.'"

Michael Ashcraft teaches journalism at the Lighthouse Christian Academy in Santa Monica.