Episodes

  • Why Cities Are Making It Harder to Help Homeless People

    Why Cities Are Making It Harder to Help Homeless People
    Dec 31 2025

    Cities across the country are making it harder to help homeless people, and what’s happening in Kensington, Philadelphia, shows exactly why this matters.


    In this episode, we talk with Sarah Laurel, Founder and Executive Director of Savage Sisters Recovery, about addiction, recovery, and why harm reduction services are under attack. Since our last visit to Kensington, the city has shut down services, increased police presence, and forced life-saving outreach into the night. These policies don’t reduce homelessness or addiction. They make everything worse.


    We also just released a new documentary where we followed Sarah and her team on night outreach in Kensington, documenting how police enforcement and new restrictions are changing what it means to provide help on the streets. The film is linked in the description and show notes.


    Before you watch or listen, please take a minute to fill out our short listener survey at https://invisiblepeople.tv/podsurvey. It helps us improve the podcast and reach more people with stories that matter.


    Kensington: Making It Impossible to Help Homeless People https://youtu.be/2xwFXkoXaB8?si=DQ6HItIsl1rTzc7k


    The Shocking Truth About America’s Illegal Drug Trade https://youtu.be/vlb5XhTDXAY?si=WQ32jz1lxwY32kvl
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    46 mins
  • Why Homelessness Messaging Isn’t Working — A Journalist’s Perspective

    Why Homelessness Messaging Isn’t Working — A Journalist’s Perspective
    Dec 14 2025
    Why do so many homelessness messages fail to reach the public — even when the solutions work?

    In this episode, I sit down with journalist and Invisible People writer Robert Davis for a thoughtful, honest conversation about homelessness messaging and why it so often falls flat. We don’t agree on everything, and that’s what makes this discussion important.

    We talk about why slogans and clichés don’t persuade people, how research gets lost without storytelling, and how anti-homeless narratives spread faster than the truth. Robert brings a journalist’s perspective on the collapse of legacy media, ethical reporting, and why human-centered storytelling still matters. We also dig into Housing First, public frustration, and what it really takes to change minds in a polarized world.

    This is a conversation about listening better, communicating more honestly, and rethinking how we talk about homelessness.
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    47 mins
  • Two Mayors Reveal the Truth About Homelessness in America

    Two Mayors Reveal the Truth About Homelessness in America
    Dec 3 2025

    When the Mayor of Allentown reached out to say he listens to Homeless Unfiltered, it confirmed something big: this podcast is reaching the leaders who are actively looking to learn, grow, and find real solutions to homelessness. In this episode, Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk and former Rockford, Illinois, Mayor Larry Morrissey sit down for an unfiltered conversation about what mayors are actually facing on the ground. We get into the truth about PIT counts, the impact of Grants Pass, the pressure to “clean up” homelessness, why cities stay stuck, and what approaches actually work. If you want a rare, honest look at how city leaders think about homelessness, this is an episode you’ll want to watch and share.
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    53 mins
  • What REAL Christianity Looks Like on Skid Row

    What REAL Christianity Looks Like on Skid Row
    Nov 19 2025
    What does real Christianity look like? For Pastor Blue, it looks like taking his shoes off, stepping into the mud on Skid Row, and loving people with no conditions attached.


    In this conversation, Pastor Blue shares his journey from the streets of Atlanta to living in a van in Hollywood to creating Blue Hollywood Street Sanctuary — a place he calls “a house of love and a home for all.” He talks about faith, redemption, service, and what it means to show up for people everyone else walks past.


    If you want to understand what real compassion looks like in the middle of a drug crisis and homelessness crisis, this episode is a reminder that love is more powerful than judgment — and that faith is something you do, not something you perform.
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    35 mins
  • She Watched the System Kill Her Friend — Now She’s Fighting Back

    She Watched the System Kill Her Friend — Now She’s Fighting Back
    Nov 11 2025

    Soma Snakeoil is a sex worker, artist, and activist leading The Sidewalk Project — a women-led harm reduction organization on Skid Row saving lives the system has abandoned.


    In this conversation, Soma shares the heartbreaking story of Jamie — a woman with developmental disabilities who was illegally released from care, dumped on the streets, and later died from a preventable medical condition. Her story exposes how hospitals, social services, and government systems keep failing homeless people.


    We also discuss harm reduction, patient dumping, sex work, art, and what it really means to show up for people everyone else turns away.


    🎥 Watch our documentary on The Sidewalk Project


    📰 Read: Documents Reveal Fatal Pattern of Patient Dumping at Los Angeles General Hospital
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    42 mins
  • The Shocking Truth About America’s Illegal Drug Trade

    The Shocking Truth About America’s Illegal Drug Trade
    Nov 2 2025
    This might be the most important conversation about drugs you’ll ever hear. Fernando Montero, an anthropologist from Columbia University, actually lived among drug dealers in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood to understand how America’s street drug economy really works.


    We talk about how the War on Drugs created the fentanyl crisis, why arresting dealers only makes overdoses worse, and Fernando’s groundbreaking idea of training drug dealers to save lives.


    It’s raw, brilliant, and unlike anything you’ve ever heard about fentanyl, addiction, and the drug supply. Watch or listen, and share! Everyone needs to hear this.
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    46 mins
  • Internment Camps for Homeless People — Disguised as ‘Help’

    Internment Camps for Homeless People — Disguised as ‘Help’
    Oct 23 2025

    Politicians are calling it “help.” In reality, it looks a lot more like forced labor and internment camps for homeless people.


    In this episode, I sit down with Eric Tars from the National Homelessness Law Center to unpack how billionaire-backed lobbyists and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are driving policies that punish poverty instead of solving it. From federal funding threats to communities being pressured to criminalize homelessness, Eric explains how America’s response to homelessness is turning into a human rights crisis — and what it will take to stop it.


    This isn’t fiction. It’s already happening.


    To learn more, visit https://housingnothandcuffs.org
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    40 mins
  • The War on Harm Reduction: “Recovery First” Is a Death Sentence

    The War on Harm Reduction: “Recovery First” Is a Death Sentence
    Oct 15 2025
    Harm reduction is under attack—and when harm reduction loses, people die. “Treatment First/Only” promises a simple fix, but addiction isn’t a light switch that a person can turn off. In this urgent episode, we break down what actually saves lives: treatment + harm reduction + housing. We cover overdose prevention centers (supervised consumption), syringe services programs (SSP), methadone and MAT, xylazine wounds/amputations, and real Housing First with wraparound care—plus why closing services creates more funerals, not safety.


    Today’s guest is Alixe Dittmore, Housing & Shelter Capacity Building Coordinator at the National Harm Reduction Coalition (NHRC). Real talk from Kensington to San Francisco—evidence over politics.


    For more information, visit: National Harm Reduction Coalition https://harmreduction.org


    CLICK HERE to watch our documentaries on harm reduction
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    46 mins