Exclusive: Inside Los Angeles' Hellish Homeless Landscape – Critics Say Democracy Is Far Off as Republicans Hold Hopeful Tours in Skid Row

Steve Hilton walked through the homeless encampments of Skid Row and accused California's Democratic leaders of fueling the crisis with billions in spending.

Steve Hilton toured Los Angeles' Skid Row and criticized California's handling of homelessness

LOS ANGELES - Surrounded by sprawling homeless encampments, drug use and trash-strewn sidewalks in the heart of Los Angeles' Skid Row, Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton denounced California's homelessness crisis as a "political scandal" and accused Democratic leaders of spending billions on taxpayer dollars.

No, this is not a crisis. This is a scandal.

Skid Row, the epicenter of California's homelessness crisis, is under renewed scrutiny after a massive federal drug bust on Thursday. The crackdown comes as voting is underway in the Nov. 3 gubernatorial election, with Hilton challenging Democrat Javier Besra in a race where homelessness and billions in taxpayer dollars have been key campaign issues.

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For years, Hilton has accused Democratic leadership of failing to solve California's homelessness problem despite spending billions in taxpayer dollars, while targeting state nonprofits and developers he claims have profited from the crisis.

"Real estate developers, and it's a real friendly game I've been told many times," he continued. We have a few real estate developers that are involved in this, and they're going to make all the deals to build these apartment units for people that don't help them at all, because the other part of it isn't going to be about drug addiction or whatever.

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"The thing about these nonprofits is that they're part of this philosophy, this ideology of harm reduction, all the things we've been talking about, which means they're not actually trying to solve the problem," Hilton said. "Because if they solve the problem, they don't get paid anymore. So they have an incentive to continue it."

In September, federal prosecutors charged the founder of a Los Angeles-area homeless nonprofit with wire fraud, alleging he misused taxpayer funds, including nearly $50,000 for a trip to Tahiti, after receiving more than $118 million in public funding through government contracts.

Federal and local authorities, including the FBI, DEA and LAPD, have arrested 23 of 28 defendants charged in a wide-ranging drug-trafficking investigation targeting alleged gang-affiliated dealers and independent operators accused of selling fentanyl, methamphetamine and other drugs in and around Skid Row.

Hilton argued that addressing homelessness starts with enforcing existing laws and removing encampments from California's streets.

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"My plan is very simple. How do we get clean streets in California. Number one, enforce the law, get people off the streets."

"To allow people to live like this, and not just the people who live like this, but all the people who don't live like this and have to experience this every day. The collapse of civilized life in their city is the opposite, it's cruel," Hilton said.

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When asked if he wanted to quit using drugs, he told Hilton, "I like to do drugs, but if I have to quit, I definitely will."

The woman, who said she's lived in Skid Row for five years, described moving from Syracuse, New York, to Los Angeles in part because she heard about methadone clinics in California. She also said that her ex-boyfriend was planning to find housing.

"I've heard about methadone clinics," he explained, saying he wanted access to methadone treatment.

Despite her admission of drug use, the woman said she was considering entering a treatment program in Tarzna, where she had heard patients could stay a year or more and receive methadone twice a day.

Steve Hilton launched an ad mocking Javier Becerra's "36 years" as a career politician in the California gubernatorial race.

Venus, a Skid Row volunteer who helps distribute food, criticized Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for her handling of the homeless, even as Bass joined local law enforcement officials to announce the results of an experiment.

"We all loved him from the beginning, but he lied about the homeless," Venus said, referring to the circumstances surrounding him on Skid Row. "What's up, Mayor Bass? We voted for you."

Venus later added, "He didn't do his job," saying Bass' commitment was to "get rid of the homeless. He never did anything. Nothing, nothing at all. Shame on him."

Hilton also took aim at his Democratic challenger, Becerra, accusing the veteran politician of taking California voters for granted while failing to offer solutions to the state's growing problems.

"If you can't work hard to get the people's vote, then you don't deserve the people's vote. He's not campaigning. He's backing out of every single debate. I mean, I've never seen anything like it. It's a complete disgrace to the voters and to California," Hilton said.

"I know everybody's saying, well, it's California, the Republicans can't win. I don't know. I think people are tired of it all," Hilton said. "And they're tired of Becerra taking them for granted, and I think we can win this election."

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The man, who identified himself as Adrian, said he had moved from Orange County and ended up in Skid Row after a medical incident.

"I am a patriotic American Communist, part of the Communist Party of America," Adrian said.

Adrian said he belonged to the Communist Party of America, distancing himself from the mainstream Democratic Party.

When asked if California leaders are doing enough to address homelessness, Adrian was blunt.

"Oh, definitely not," he said. "I have to be honest, I'm a leftist, and so the Democratic Party is not for me. I'm more of a leftist than they are."

Adrian said he lived on Skid Row for about a year after being fired from a medical facility and now volunteers at the Skid Row Care Campus, which he describes as providing treatment, medical services and community outreach.

"It gives them better things to do than do drugs all day," he says.

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