Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
The Secret Lives of Homeless People | Underground Society Revealed
Thu, 06 Feb 2025
Kevin Dahlgren reveals what it's truly like being homeless in America; as well as the secret hierarchy of homeless encampments. Kevin and Tyler Oliveira https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWFlpCBMyIk Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinvdahlgren YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCzD6YFm2wGo8qQ-2Enx46hQ Website: https://truthonthestreets.substack.com/ Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattcoxtruecrime Do you want to be a guest? Send me an email here: [email protected] Do you want a custom "con man" painting to shown up at your doorstep every month? Subscribe to my Patreon: https: //www.patreon.com/insidetruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69
Chapter 1: What is the homeless hierarchy in encampments?
is that the homeless have readily admitted to me that we are the judge juries and executioners in encampments because they've kind of been left alone to create their own community you leave them to their own devices and they're in the middle of nowhere eventually they're going to create their own community with their own rules this is why every encampment has a mayor you know most encampments have a homeless mayor that's in charge of everybody
I've personally been taken to grave sites in the middle of the woods where they showed me where the bodies are buried. If we were ever to do some kind of infrared thing throughout the country where there's homeless encampments, where you can kind of tell if there's been holes dug, you're going to find people buried everywhere, especially in the deep woods.
Hey, this is Matt Cox. I'm here with Kevin Dahlgren. He is a homeless consultant and he's got some interesting stories regarding homeless issues and it's going to be interesting video. Check it out. So I watched that video you sent me. Um, what, like, I know we, we texted about it, but what, what happened in, in the video?
Oh, and remind me which video. I know I sent you a few. Was it the one where I was attacked or was the short documentary I made with Tyler Oliveira?
Chapter 2: What shocking event did Kevin witness in Evanston, Illinois?
No, no. This was you had been talking to like a homeless guy and then a bunch of guys in coats came and just started beating on him.
Oh, right. That happened in Evanston, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago. And I was there assessing their homeless situation not two months ago. And I was sitting with a homeless guy, a senior citizen. who then got up and walked towards his bike to do something.
And I heard some commotion and turned around and he was having some words with these city employees, these contracted city employees. And really quickly, I saw it escalating. So I kind of turned on my camera thinking something bad is about to happen. And then what I sent you was this one minute, 11 second clip of these five city employees beating the hell out of this guy.
And it wasn't like it was some mutual combat thing. They had thrown him to the ground, stood around him and just kicked him in the head. Yeah. I mean, I couldn't even believe it.
and uh the whole time they're doing this they were being very threatening and stuff so anyway i was shocked but of course after this happened everyone basically said well kevin this is chicago and this is this is just normal and even when the police arrived they weren't
overly enthusiastic to take uh my report of what i had witnessed or filmed because they just said you know this is kind of a common occurrence i said well these are city employees not not not okay no one should be on the ground and just you know getting their head kicked in i don't know they said that he possibly was trying to urinate in a corner or something. I didn't see that.
All I know is that they had words. And honestly, it doesn't matter what the words are. And it doesn't even matter if this guy started it with words. We are trained professionals to de-escalate and not get triggered and keep the emotion out of it.
So when I work with, say, a homeless person, and they're just like, hey, Kevin, F you, or I'm going to da-da-da, it's not like I get heated and say, oh, yeah. Because what is that going to solve, right? You have to be professional. They were not professional. So I could... You know, basically, this was a group of people that were very poorly trained. So how often do you see stuff like that?
The violence I witness daily, all over, anywhere I go, because I go in the encampments, it's very, very common. You know, there's... Street justice is very common on the streets. I was in Bend, Oregon a couple of weeks ago, which is a beautiful city in Southern Oregon. And I was in the Deschutes Forest where there's maybe three, 400 homeless people.
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Chapter 3: How does violence manifest in homeless encampments?
And that was a rude awakening for me because when I entered the field, I was thought I was going to be surrounded by people who were
woke up every day ready to change the world and mostly you know what i found was a high percentage people i worked with were doing it because it was a job and that to me was a very backwards way looking at it because i've always thought of what we're doing homeless services or addiction should be a cause not a job Because meaning, you know, we should treat this like a crisis.
It is not a job and also have the belief that we can end this crisis. So I entered the field professionally in the, you know, early nineties after my brother got off the streets, went, you know, went back to school, just kind of studied all the right things. I needed a study to have that piece of paper to get my foot in the door in various places and then worked in that system for about 29 years.
and only just recently left it. And while I think there's still good people working in the system, I've been very critical of this system that once felt like a cause in the 90s became this multi-billion dollar industry. And it's something I've been very vocal about is it's a highly, highly profitable industry. And the fact is, the longer the people stay on the streets, the more money people get.
And I am very unhappy that it's become this way. So I've been very much, very vocal about this problem and trying to get people to think differently about it and get people to start treating it like the crisis it is, which we definitely are not doing today.
So what do you typically, like what is your typical, I hate to say day because obviously this is probably not a typical day, but what, what's your typical month? Like, um, you know, like what do you do for organizations? What do you do when you go out to these places? Like, like how are you, how are you making a living? Well, I am,
Currently, I'm not. I am very boots on the ground. I am a strong believer. If you want to understand a problem, you go to the problem. You immerse yourself. You spend time, right? I absolutely hate all these so-called professionals that write books on homelessness and addiction that have no firsthand experience. It's not like you have to necessarily have been homeless or been an addict.
But you need to also devote your life to being around it and immerse yourself to understand that population. And it's almost non-existent. So every day, every day, I'm in some encampment somewhere interviewing the homeless.
And I've been doing this to try to then share with anyone who's willing to listen what the homeless think and what's actually going on because they've never really been given a voice.
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Chapter 4: What are the root causes of homelessness?
A lot of these major cities have decriminalized drugs. Right. And while your friend is in desperate need of intervention, a lot of these cities have a strong belief that he should have that right to use. And how dare us try to stop him? Because it's called bodily autonomy, which is a
more progressive way of thinking about things, that a person should have a right to do whatever they want and how dare we suggest otherwise. And that's why we're kind of in this crisis too, is because there's a strong, strong social justice philosophy about why a person is homeless or is using. And that's what kind of makes my job very challenging.
So I don't know what city your friend lives in, but I think there's a very good chance he lives in a community that strongly supports the decriminalization of drugs. No, he lives in Tampa. That's not what's happening. I mean, he's okay. So in that, so, so East coast, well, cause I'm the West coast guy. So Seattle, San Francisco, Portland, San Diego, that's a very big piece of it.
So it could be in his community. He's not simply supported in the right way, or maybe he's just not ready to accept the help either.
No, I think it's the combination of those two things. I think one, it's he's he's not ready. He gets ready. He knows what first of all, he knows what to say to get help. He's got the system down and he's got family that just keeps pulling him up, pulling him up, pulling him up, playing no matter what.
And, you know, the few times that, you know, we've spoken, I've been like, you know, don't help him. Let him be homeless. Let him hit bottom. He knows what to say to get you to help him, and he will clean up for a few weeks or a month or two, and he'll go right back to it.
That is the advice I give family. And you are spot on, Matt, because the fact is, It's difficult, but sometimes you have to let the person hit bottom because if a family will always take care of them and then they continue the same behavior year after year after year, you're not really doing any good. They have to sometimes get cut off.
And of course, then there's the fear of like, well, what if he dies? Well, he's dying anyway.
dying anyway and you need to know that and it sounds harsh but sometimes a person has to hit bottom I mean I have talked to countless family members where they now like and I'm talking these are people now in their 80s and 90s saying my 60 year old son has been you know I've been taking care of him my entire life or 70 year old son I'm like oh my god it's time to just say no and she's like but I'm scared he's gonna die I'm like yeah but
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Chapter 5: How does addiction impact homelessness?
Oh, listen, I've talked to this guy until he's blue in the face and he's so good. He's like, you know, I know you're right. You're right. It's like, stop, stop it. Don't do that to me.
Well, you got it, Matt. I mean, I watch you. You got a BS meter. You see, you're like, Matt, I'm like, you know, just stop.
Stop doing the whole telling me exactly what I want to hear. Um, what, what I was going to say, do you ever, do you ever watch soft light underbelly? Uh, yes. Mark. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I like, yeah. Sorry that. Yeah. Go on. I love that stuff.
No, no. I was going to say he's, he's amazing. And you know, have you ever seen the videos of him walking through? Cause I did a, an episode with him. Yeah. I was interviewed by him and you know, prior to going out to LA and, and meeting him, I had watched several of the episodes. Some of them, I just can't watch, you know, my, my wife will watch 10 of them in a row. Can't get enough.
And I'm like, it's, I can't watch them. It's depressing. It's, you know, and she just can't get enough of watching these things. And I, I just can't. But I had watched several. And what was so funny about that is, I remember listening to these people's stories and every once in a while you could hear sirens or someone in the background screaming or cars screeching.
And then I went out to LA and he picked me up and we drove to Skid Row because that's where his studio is. I had no idea. I remember watching it and I remember thinking, oh, he throws in sound effects. No, just outside the door are people fighting and screaming and sirens and everything. And if you see him walk through, I mean, he's gone through hell. Just doing the videos and being down there.
He's been robbed multiple times. He's invested in many, many of the people that have come to him and pled for help. He's put them in hotel rooms and apartments. Some of them have just, I'm not going to say bled him dry, but they have just milked him for money until he finally just gives up on them. And he's like, yeah, it's definitely a situation where you're right.
You can't just throw money at the problem.
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Chapter 6: What is the importance of tough love in addiction recovery?
I haven't seen this because you didn't send this to me I forgot what I sent you but what I'll do is right after we talk I'll text it to you and if you want post the link and what we're doing here we'll post the link in the description but it's wild and what's crazy is we did this over one day because you know what every day is a documentary you go out to these camps and no matter what you're going to see something crazy
And, you know, we talked to a lot of people on the streets and addiction and really just, you know, like, so for example, in the first 10 minutes of us, even out there, a guy pulls a knife on us and chases us that we filmed. And it's like, you can't really make up, make this stuff up. It's like, what the heck now?
because I had, you know, the small camera crew with me and they're not really used to be in that kind of situation. I was like, well, let's just walk away. But the guy kept pursuing us and I got a little frustrated. So I just basically stopped and walked up to him and stood my ground and just said, stop. It was like, I've been here longer than you. You don't get to do this. And he walked away.
But I'm like, I was frustrated because I'm like, look, that's not going to solve anything. Right. And by the way, I had, done outreach in that encampment, uh, hundreds of times in a year and a half. And so everyone knew me and this was a new guy who sort of just took over who clearly was a little more violent. And I was not happy with that.
I'm like, you don't, how dare you pull a knife on anybody? That is not okay. It's just like, come on. So I was, I was pretty frustrated, but you know, we eventually left and did our, did the rest of the day, but it's a pretty cool video.
Is there a lot of violence or murders among the homeless? Or just violence?
I mean, murders happen, but there's a lot of violence in street justice. Right. You know, it's hard to prove a murder because, for example, fentanyl. Back in the day, when I worked at homeless shelters, if a homeless person wanted to off another homeless person, they would inject them with heroin and then they would die of an OD, right?
Now these days, it's fentanyl because fentanyl is 10 times easier because I can even share with you, I had a client just a couple months ago who was completely sober and had zero interest in drug use Someone put fentanyl powder in his drink and he died 20 minutes later. And... Do the police even look into it?
They don't because, think about it, a homeless junkie, I mean, it's just like, of course, it's a, what they call it is not even a suicide, it's accidental overdose. Now, I come across people overdosing every single day. So I carry with me Narcan, which is the opioid blocker, because fentanyl has basically replaced all other drugs. But murders, I wouldn't say are common, but are not also uncommon.
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Chapter 7: Can outreach programs effectively reduce homelessness?
Well, I've been... I still have the brain bruising. I was in San Diego a few weeks ago and got beaten down really hard and I filmed the entire thing. And, um, and it was brutal. Then I got kicked in the head. I've been stabbed twice. Uh, I've had, I've been attacked multiple times. I'm just kind of resilient, but you know, these things happen.
Now, of course the guy who attacked me, I, he was mad cause I was filming him, but I was only doing it because he was beating up another guy. Okay. And I went over there in a very respectful way, said, please stop. Just stop. Right. Because nobody else is doing anything. And this guy was weaker than him. And he was just this guy ended up getting hospitalized for a week. Right.
So I just said, please stop. And I'm filming it. And the victim was like, oh, thank you. And kind of stumbled away. And then this guy was also really pumped, walked right up to me and just said. And then I stood back up, punched me a second time. I stood back up. He punched me a third time, knocked me down, and then got and kicked me. Now, I don't live in San Diego. I didn't know everybody there.
So I also know it wasn't wise at that moment to fight back because I don't know if he had something else on him or who his friends were because there was good 30 people there. So sometimes you have to sometimes just know when not to duck, you know, and when to take a punch. And so it wasn't like it was... The way I paint it is I got off lucky because guess what? I got to go home.
But
I got to go home. They don't because the system isn't really set up to really help them in any real way. So that's all I want to say about that. Okay. Do you have any – do you have that video? Yes. Oh, it's in – actually, it's in that 18-minute documentary. So you'll watch it. I'll send you the link here in a minute, okay? Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay, perfect. Perfect. And share it.
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Chapter 8: What role does community support play in homelessness?
It's really cool. All right. Absolutely. Hey, thank you guys for watching the video. Do me a favor. If you liked the video, subscribe to the channel, hit the bell. So you get notified, leave a comment and I'm going to leave all of Kevin's links in the description, including the link for the 18 minute documentary, his social media links. And so, yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. See ya.