BODY BROKERS?! L.A.'s Homeless industrial Complex hits a new low
Santa Monica is so full of homeless junkies, and has been for years, that locals refer to it as Skidrow by the Sea.
It’s the home of the $1 million “homeless condo.” It’s where the George Floyd rioters were allowed to pick the downtown stores clean and light it on fire as cops were ordered to stand around and watch.
But even the jaded, cynical editors in the Magpie Flyer office (okay, it’s a basement) were shocked to learn about “body brokers.”
What are body brokers? According to NPR, “There are millions to be made in billing patients for unnecessary treatment and tests, according to officials investigating the problem. The first step for unscrupulous rehab centers: Recruiting clients who have good health insurance. That’s created a whole new industry — something called patient or ‘body’ brokering. The corrupt owner of a drug treatment center might pay $500 per week in kickbacks to the operators of sober homes who send them clients with health insurance.”
These body brokers FLEW IN homeless junkies from other states to fill up the empty apartment building on Ocean Avenue near Georgina in Santa Monica. The scam artists moved them in at night so people wouldn’t see. They didn’t have permits to do this, but did it anyway!
How did they get the keys to the building with no permit? Who let them in? You can’t install a bike rack without a permit in L.A. They took over an entire building for an unpermitted drug halfway house?
Then, they get to profit off taking these new “clients” to get city services, all while getting a cut off the top. The city makes money, the county makes money, and the broker makes money.
Guess who gets to pay? The taxpaying residents of Santa Monica and Venice, who are forced to live among a never-ending population of ranting, raving, often violent homeless people.
Who is paying the body brokers? Who in the government is profiting from out-of-state junkies coming here to use up precious resources? Who in Gavin Newsom’s office knows about this practice? Who is in charge of this program?
If we can uncover the link between the body broker network and Karen Bass or Gavin Newsom, maybe the entire house of cards that is the state of California can be brought down.
The building on Ocean Avenue was emptied of out-of-state drug addicts as soon as reporters showed up on the scene. One neighbor reported to the Flyer that the front door was open and only three E-Bikes remained in the front room.
But we are sure they will be back with another shipment of fresh bodies from other states.
We’re no good with numbers, but if your goal is to REDUCE the homeless population, why would you bring more homeless people with serious drug problems into Santa Monica? Seems like that might increase the population, right? Someone check our math!
Unless it’s a massive grift, and we’re the suckers who get to pay.