A San Francisco-based activist is trying to crowdfund his move out of the Tenderloin neighborhood, which he compares to a "zombie apocalypse" and says has become uninhabitable.
"Every night I go to sleep to the sounds of sirens. Every morning I wake up to people screaming," Darren Mark Stallcup told Fox News. "My apartment has been broken into three plus times in the last year. I've had to fight off burglars with my own two bare hands."
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Stallcup has documented the drug and homeless crises in San Francisco for years on Twitter, sharing videos of trash-strewn streets, people appearing to overdose or behave erratically under the influence of drugs, violent altercations, shoplifting and more.
"I have two jobs, but as you and I both know, this Biden economy, it's making everything really expensive and it seems like moving is unaffordable," the 26-year-old Bay Area native said. His videos have gotten thousands of comments online, so he figured he'd see if people might be willing to "chip in five bucks" to help him move.
Stallcup started a GoFundMe with the goal of raising $6,000 to cover first and last month's rent in a new home, as well as the cost of moving. As of Thursday morning, it had raised about $1,400.
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He wants to move to a safer neighborhood, but said he won't leave San Francisco altogether.
"I might potentially be the last Republican in San Francisco and I can't abandon ship. Only rats leave a sinking ship," he said. "And I can't help but feel like if I leave San Francisco, I'm going to let these corrupt Democrats win."
Overdose deaths have soared in San Francisco, and the Tenderloin has been called the epicenter of the region's fentanyl crisis. Mayor London Breed declared an emergency in the neighborhood in 2021, but little has improved since then.
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San Francisco saw 647 drug overdose deaths last year, a slight increase from 2021, and is on pace to surpass that figure again this year. A fifth of the deaths occurred in the Tenderloin, according to the medical examiner's office.
"It seems as if my apartment building is surrounded by bodies, fecal [matter], needles, crack pipes, tents," Stallcup said. "I am personally witnessing a fentanyl genocide."
"I am struggling with both my physical and mental health, even my spiritual health, because I'm surrounded by chaos and death on a regular basis," he added.
To hear more from Stallcup, click here.
