Gavin Newsom told Californians his $26 million drug program would get addicts into treatment.
Last week, two investigators walked into his Skid Row campus to see if that was true.
What they walked out with has Newsom refusing to comment and Trump's federal funding review looming.
Inside the Skid Row Care Campus: Free Crack Pipes and No Questions Asked
City Journal senior fellows Christopher Rufo and Austen Hufford arrived at the Skid Row Care Campus in Los Angeles to find what they described as an "apocalyptic wasteland" – addicts sprawled across open areas in plain sight, some smoking hard drugs while staff walked past.
Nobody greeted them at the entrance.
There was no ID check, no weapons search, no questions of any kind about why two strangers were walking through a taxpayer-funded facility.
That is not an accident.
County documents show the campus was deliberately designed to be "free from monitoring by law enforcement," staffed intentionally by people with histories of "substance use and sex work."
At a walk-up counter inside, an attendant sat before shelves lined with drug paraphernalia and opened the conversation the way a cashier might.
"What can I get you?" he asked. "We have oil burners, we have spray shooters, we have socks, we have petroleum jelly."
Rufo and Hufford walked out carrying drug-testing strips, syringes, and crack pipes – no ID required, no treatment referral, nothing.
One worker told them that while drug use is prohibited on campus grounds, they "wouldn't be bothered" if they got high right outside – as long as they didn't overdose.
City records show the campus pulls in an estimated $26 million per year in local, state, and federal taxpayer money.
One nonprofit operating the site, Wesley Health Centers, has watched its revenue more than double to $200 million over the past five years.
Another service provider, Homeless Health Care Los Angeles, has more than doubled its revenue since 2020 – hitting $27 million last year.
For the left-wing groups running this operation, the drug crisis is a cash cow.
https://twitter.com/christopherrufo/status/2082488404831621546
Four Homicides in Four Months Around Gavin Newsom's Skid Row Campus
The neighborhood around this taxpayer-funded enterprise has become a killing field.
LAPD officers have responded to the 400-500 block of Crocker Street nearly 700 times since January 1, 2026 – averaging six emergency calls per day.
Four homicides occurred on those two blocks in the first four months of 2026 alone – compared to zero during the same period in 2024.
Estela Lopez, executive director of the L.A. Downtown Industrial District, warned city officials about this campus long before the bodies started piling up.
"People are overdosing, people are fighting, people have lit fires," she told Fox News. "It's just mayhem, 24/7."
Drug dealers have moved in as well – a campus employee told investigators that dealers were "fighting over the guests."
LAPD Captain Kelli Muñiz didn't soften it when speaking to FOX 11 Los Angeles: "Any time you have four homicides in the same area, everybody should be alarmed."
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass acknowledged concerns about the site, then immediately deflected responsibility to Los Angeles County.
Newsom's office never gave a responsive answer.
The nonprofits running the campus ignored requests for comment entirely.
This is Democrat governance in practice – $26 million to build a free meth pipe dispensary while elected officials look the other way and people die.
California Harm Reduction Programs Face Trump Federal Funding Review
Biden's HHS tried to fund crack pipe distribution in 2022 under the banner of "racial equity," and the White House only reversed course after conservative journalists exposed it and Republican senators introduced legislation to stop it.
Newsom absorbed that lesson and built a permanent, full-scale version of what Biden tried to sneak through.
Trump signed an executive order directing reviews of all federally funded drug paraphernalia distribution sites, calling so-called harm reduction programs nothing more than cover for enabling illegal drug use.
Health and Human Servies followed with an explicit directive: federal funds cannot be used to purchase "pipes or other supplies for safer smoking kits nor syringes or needles used to inject illicit drugs."
The Skid Row Care Campus is listed as a federally funded health center.
Gavin Newsom built a meth mansion with taxpayer money, called it compassion, watched four people get murdered outside the front door, and then couldn't find a single thing to say about it.
Trump's executive order gives federal regulators the authority to pull every dollar from the Skid Row Care Campus – and Rufo is publicly demanding they use it.
Sources:
- Christopher F. Rufo and Austen Hufford, "A California-Funded Homeless Shelter Gave Us Meth Pipes," City Journal, July 29, 2026.
- Fox News Digital, "Taxpayer-Funded 'Meth Mansion' Under Fire as Crime Concerns Mount Around Homeless Campus," Fox News, June 1, 2026.
- FOX 11 Los Angeles, "$26M Skid Row Campus: Violence, Drug Use Surge at 'Meth Mansion' as Officials Stay Silent," FOX 11 Los Angeles, May 30, 2026.
- Ward Clark, "The Downfall of America's Cities: Gavin Newsom's Failed 'Harm Reduction' Programs," RedState, July 29, 2026.
- Jon Brown, "Blackburn Demands Answers Regarding Reports of Biden's Taxpayer-Funded Crack Pipe Distribution," Fox News, February 8, 2022.