Brian Samaniego

Brian Samaniego was born in Salinas and spent his early childhood in Prunedale with his stepfather and mother, and moved to Concord at 11 with his father and stepmother. Samaniego split his time between his parents, growing up around drugs from an early age. His mother was a heroin user when Samaniego was small, and his father used pills and frequently smoked marijuana.

The California native spent the majority of seventh and eighth grade in juvenile hall, and when he was at school, he had a tendency for skipping classes and getting into trouble. From there, he went to a California Youth Authority, then, freshly graduated from North Salinas High School in 1990, was arrested for selling cocaine in Chinatown, Salinas, and received a 16-year sentence, of which he served eight, in a Salinas county prison.

Although Samaniego explains that he bore witness to all the horror stories about prison, he also owes a part of his growth to his experiences there.

“It made me who I am today,” the ex-convict says. “I know that I didn’t ever want to go back, and a lot of the things I learned I did listening to people I met in there.”

Samaniego explains that there were a lot of intelligent people in prison who gave him advice; paying attention at a young age taught him lessons about morality along with the importance of treating others with respect. He also learned that he took life for granted, with his current values including honesty, good manners and courtesy.

After serving his time in prison, Samaniego returned to Chinatown. His friends, gang members, were already in town, and his friend’s uncle was a pimp in the area. They enticed him with the promise of easy money by selling drugs, and after two sales cases, his career in the drug trade was cut short. The member of the Chinatown Navigation Center housing program continues to stay in the area, and explains that since the ‘90s, Chinatown is no longer riddled with open bars, pimps and prostitutes.

It's now filled with tents and garbage.

"People misunderstand that a lot of people on the street are smart, and have a lot of skills. One rotten apple spoils the whole bunch, and people get the misconception that everyone’s on drugs or bad, and that’s not true."

Prior to joining the housing program about 60 days ago, he lived in Chinatown for five years and before that, he had a home and was a member of the city Covid Outreach Team and the Downtown Street team and was a student at Hartnell College. It was going well until he found his mother dead from a fentanyl overdose. Her house was gone and didn’t have a backup plan.

“Everything changed when my mother passed away,” says the only child. “It messed me up, and I’m still going through it.”

describes his mother’s death as one of the hardest points of his life, along with experiencing homelessness and trying to get his life back together. He doesn’t think prison was difficult in comparison. Throughout his recovery, he explains that listening to people and pushing everyone away, with the exception of his dog, Honeybee, healed him.

“It came to a point where it was either gonna destroy me or I have to move forward, so that’s what I did,” explains Samaniego.

A father to Honeybee, his chihuahua, as pictured, explains that when he was depressed, his dog was a reminder that he still had responsibilities and something to care about, and without her, Samaniego says that he wouldn’t be here or in a better state of mind. When he has bad days, Honeybee is always there comforting and remains with him at the Navigation Center.

“People misunderstand that a lot of people on the street are smart, and have a lot of skills,” says Samaniego. “One rotten apple spoils the whole bunch, and people get the misconception that everyone’s on drugs or bad, and that’s not true. There’s good and bad no matter where you go and what you do.”

Samaniego hopes to return to school and get housed, and tries to take one day at a time.