Neel Kashkari ‘Homeless in Fresno’ Vid Stirs Political Emotion, Debate

Question to our readers: What do you think of this video? Are you more or less incline to vote for Neel Kashkari in November? SOUND OFF BELOW!

By Brian Hews

Neel Kashkari spent a week on the streets of Fresno recently to document the plight of being homeless in California.

Kashkari is running against entrenched Governor Jerry Brown in the upcoming November 4 General Election, and the 10 minute documentary had already generated around 40,000 views on You Tube within six hours.

“I wanted to see first-hand what life is really like for many of our friends and neighbors,” Kashkari told his Twitter followers on Thursday afternoon.

“Sacramento politicians love to say that we’ve made a California Comeback. As the state with the highest poverty rate in America, I wanted to see for myself if this is true,” Kashkari asks in the documentary.

Kashkari, clean shaven at the beginning of the documentary, and slowly transforms into an unshaven, sweaty, hunger and emotionally drenched individual going door to door to get any type of work he can muster.

Kashkari wrote in an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal the following about his time on the streets of Fresno:

“California Comeback!” is the favorite slogan of Sacramento politicians cheering a temporary budget surplus provided by a roaring stock market. But California also has the highest poverty rate in America at 24%. Is California back? I wanted to see firsthand what that comeback looks like for many Californians.

So, last Monday morning I took a Greyhound bus from Los Angeles to Fresno. With only forty dollars in my pocket (and no credit cards), a backpack, a change of clothes, and a toothbrush, I planned to find a job and earn enough money to get by. I am an able-bodied 40-year old. Surely I could find some work?

While the politicians who run California pat themselves on the back and claim a “California Comeback,” they willfully ignore millions of our neighbors who are living in poverty. California’s most vulnerable deserve leaders who will fight for them. And it’s a fight that Republicans should lead. We have the policy ideas to rebuild the middle class and give every Californian, and every American, real economic opportunity.”