Fix Homelessness | How to rebuild human lives

Homelessness and Drug Policy Expert Tom Wolf Joins Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative

_{Center on Wealth & Poverty
June 12, 2026
3
Homelessness}

SEATTLE, WA — “The homelessness crisis has been misrepresented as a housing problem. It’s not,” says Tom Wolf, homelessness and drug policy expert. “For many people living on the streets, the underlying issues are addiction, mental illness, or both.” Discovery Institute is pleased to announce that Tom Wolf has joined its Fix Homelessness initiative as a Senior Fellow. A leading advocate for treatment-centered responses to homelessness and addiction, Wolf brings both policy expertise and deeply personal experience to the role. Wolf’s journey into advocacy began with his own struggle. Following foot surgery in 2017, he was prescribed opioid pain medication. What began as a medical treatment developed into addiction, eventually leading to …

HUD Re-Issues New Homeless Grant Criteria, Freeing Cities to Ditch Housing First, Pursue Real Solutions

_{Center on Wealth & Poverty
June 16, 2026
2
Homelessness}

SEATTLE, WA — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently released its 2026 grant criteria for $4 billion in homelessness funding, with a major shift toward treatment, recovery, and renewed self-sufficiency for all who are able. “Federal reforms have finally created space for local leaders to put treatment and recovery back at the center of homelessness policy,” says Discovery Institute President Steve Buri. “Real compassion means helping people reclaim stability and dignity, not leaving them trapped in addiction and illness without a path to restoration.” Discovery Institute has updated its essential policy brief, calling on local governments, Continuums of Care (CoCs), and service agencies to leverage these new federal reforms and …

When Ideology Overrules Common Sense

_{Kevin Dahlgren
June 18, 2026
10
Homelessness}

For years, the political left has controlled the conversation around homelessness, addiction, and mental illness in most major West Coast cities. They control the nonprofits. They control the bureaucracies. They control the county commissions, the grant systems, the academic language, and most of the policy decisions. And yet the crisis keeps getting worse. That should tell us something. At some point, we have to stop judging these policies by their intentions and start judging them by their results. Because no matter how compassionate the language sounds, the outcome is obvious to anyone willing to walk the streets: more tents, more overdoses, more untreated mental illness, more open-air drug use, more crime, more suffering, and more people slowly dying in public. The problem is …

Homekey Audit Exposes California’s Real Homelessness Crisis: Failed Governance

_{Michele Steeb
June 15, 2026
4
Homelessness}

California lawmakers blocked legislation requiring a comprehensive audit of the state’s multibillion-dollar Homekey program. Fortunately, a nonprofit news site undertook the very investigation state leaders refused to demand. The newly-released findings sharply undercut Gov. Gavin Newsom’s repeated claims that his pandemic-era Homekey program has been a “phenomenal success.” Built on roughly 250 projects and more than 100 public-records requests, the two-year investigation exposed a familiar pattern in Newsom’s governance style: massive spending, glowing political rhetoric, weak oversight, and deeply underwhelming results. In a state already plagued by oversight failures involving Medicaid, hospice care, in-home supportive services, and homelessness …

Washington’s Homelessness and Drug Policies Have Created a Culture of Death and Disorder

_{Marsha Michaelis
June 10, 2026
4
Homelessness}

Timothy was dead for a week in Seattle’s Discovery Park, lying halfway inside the door of his tent, when an officer investigating rumors of “a body in the woods” finally found him on March 31. The coroner determined he died of hypothermia and exposure. Michael died alone in a tent, too, on April 9, in the middle of a crowded homeless encampment at Seattle’s Rotary View Park. A fire truck crew was flagged by someone who led them to Michael’s tent. They pulled him out to render aid, only to discover his body was already stiff. Michael’s pockets contained what was left of his fentanyl and crack cocaine. A responding officer put the drugs and some cash from Michael’s back pocket into an empty Narcan box sitting next to his body. Shawn died on …

“Homelessness” Meets the Simulation Theory

_{David Klinghoffer
June 8, 2026
4
Homelessness}

Soon the previously quiet, sweet, and leafy Seattle-area suburb where I live will have disturbed, fentanyl-addled zombies — aka, the “homeless” — living among us, in a facility of 178 residential units, near schools or outside your front door, courtesy of the virtue-signaling lawmakers in our state capitol of Olympia. What will follow is predictable: Mentally ill people defecating in the streets, hunching over in public to intensify the high of the drug, staggering around filthy and half-naked. How do insane things like this actually happen? I received a few insights by doing the other day what I should have done long ago, but didn’t: attending a mind-numbingly dull Public Hearing for our City Council’s Planning Commission. If you live in a blue state …

Housing First Is a Disaster. I Saw Sacramento’s Homeless Chaos Firsthand

_{Michele Steeb
June 2, 2026
5
Homelessness}

America’s homelessness crisis is routinely framed as a housing crisis. It is not. It is a crisis born from the collapse of accountability at every level of the system. Nowhere are the consequences of that collapse more visible than in California — and especially in its capital city, Sacramento. In 2016, California became the only state in the nation to formally adopt the federal government’s Housing First mandate as its sole taxpayer-funded approach to homelessness, directing billions in state and federal dollars toward subsidized-for-life apartments with no accountability for sobriety, treatment, or work — ever. Sacramento County followed in 2017, embracing the housing-only model, despite repeated warnings from frontline providers that housing alone would …

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Street Report

from Jonathan Choe

Drug Addiction and Homelessness in South Seattle

_{Jonathan Choe
June 18, 2026
1
Homelessness}

World Cup Fallout Homeless drug addicts have taken over several streets and abandoned houses in South Seattle. The attitude of entitlement is out of control with this crew. They hurled water balloons in my direction then claimed to own the area. This hot mess is right next to a massive pickleball facility and school for the blind. Neighbors can thank Mayor Katie Wilson for this fallout. She’s accused of pushing encampments into other parts of the city to protect World Cup fans. HAPPENING NOW: Less than 24 hours before the first FIFA World Cup match is played in Seattle. But parts of the city look like a zombie apocalypse. Mayor Katie Wilson is accused of pushing homeless drug addicts outside of the downtown tourist corridor so fans do not get upset or… …

Seattle Mayor Says Open-Air Drug Use “No Longer Tolerated”

_{Jonathan Choe
June 17, 2026
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Drug Epidemic}

Will She Follow Through? After Discovery Institute’s report on Seattle’s ongoing street crisis, Mayor Katie Wilson is finally admitting open-air fentanyl use and the black market of stolen goods in Chinatown-ID and North Beacon Hill are off the charts. Wilson now says arrests will be an option and lawless behavior will no longer be tolerated. We’ll have to wait and see. But I applaud Wilson if she follows through. This could save lives. Mayor’s Statement on 12th & Jackson and North Beacon Hill NEW: Seattle's first World Cup match is in the the books, but parts of the city look like a Third World country. That's because Mayor Katie Wilson is accused of sacrificing Chinatown-ID by pushing the city's homeless drug addicts into a …

Henry’s Taiwan Kitchen: The Real Cost Local Business Owners Pay for Seattle Homelessness Policies

_{Jonathan Choe
June 15, 2026
1
Community Impact}

“That Happen Every Day” Seattle Mayor Katie is accused of ignoring pleas for help from business owners victimized by crime in Chinatown-ID. Late Sunday evening, we stumbled upon a car prowler outside Henry’s Taiwan Kitchen. Owner Henry Ku intervened and nearly got into a fight. He says homeless drug addicts have robbed him multiple times this year. His son says, “Whatever the City Hall is doing, it’s f*cked up.” HAPPENING NOW: Less than 24 hours before the first FIFA World Cup match is played in Seattle. But parts of the city look like a zombie apocalypse. Mayor Katie Wilson is accused of pushing homeless drug addicts outside of the downtown tourist corridor so fans do not get upset or… pic.twitter.com/RyjnFLrbXe— Jonathan …

Downtown Seattle Sparkles for World Cup, Homeless Pushed to Outskirt Parks and Neighborhoods

_{Jonathan Choe
June 14, 2026
1
Homelessness}

Overlooked Communities Bearing the Brunt of Homeless Shuffle Less than 24 hours before the first FIFA World Cup match is played in Seattle. But parts of the city look like a zombie apocalypse. Mayor Katie Wilson is accused of pushing homeless drug addicts outside of the downtown tourist corridor so fans do not get upset or inhale second hand fetty smoke. Problem is, the addicts have all been pushed to vulnerable minority communities like Chinatown-ID. And business owners are pissed. …

Days Ahead of World Cup, Seattle’s Lumen Field Surrounded by Homeless Encampments

_{Jonathan Choe
June 11, 2026
1
Homelessness}

Worse Than Ever Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson wants these homeless drug addicts far away from the FIFA World Cup stadium in SODO. Imagine if fans and visitors saw the open-air drug use, tent encampments, and permissive street culture. What would they think of the city? We Heart Seattle’s Andrea Suarez and I are checking in on the city’s problematic hot spots. Right now, it looks worse than ever as Wilson pushes the addicts further away from the downtown tourist corridor. For whatever it’s worth, there’s another mega sweep scheduled for Friday in SODO. Will it make a difference? …

Unidentified Shooter Fires BB Pellets at Passersby Minutes Away from Lumen Field

_{Jonathan Choe
June 11, 2026
1
Crime, Law, and Order}

T-4 Days Until World Cup Comes to Seattle Just days before the FIFA World Cup in Seattle, someone is firing steel BB’s at homeless drug addicts near Dr. Jose Rizal Park. This area is just minutes from the stadium where soccer matches will be played. Neighbors say they are seeing a cluster of new tents after Wilson aggressively swept encampments near the downtown tourist corridor. The mayor is accused of trying to mask the city’s drug crisis by pushing addicts to other parts of the city like Beacon Hill, Chinatown-ID, and now the East Duwamish Greenbelt. As long as fans do not see the urban decay and human suffering, the Wilson administration likely believes that’s a win. …

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Our Mission

Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness initiative offers innovative research and compassionate solutions to the growing crisis of homelessness, addiction, and mental illness facing many American cities. Our mission is to serve as a resource for policy leaders, business owners, and neighborhood organizations trying to meaningfully reduce homelessness and to help those suffering realize their full human potential.

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Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative pairs journalism with research on homelessness, addiction, and mental illness. Our mission is to help city leaders, service organizations, and business owners meaningfully reduce homelessness and improve lives.

Resources

National Report

“Housing First” — and often only — has demonstrably failed. Congress and the Executive Branch must shift the focus onto untreated mental illness and substance abuse to reduce homelessness, drug overdoses, jail overcrowding, and misuse of emergency rooms. Herein we make policy recommendations to Congress to truly help rebuild human lives.

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Legal Guide

We have created a legal guide for cities to maintain compliance with the Martin v Boise decision. The guide outlines best practices for compliance and provides models for successful ordinances that balance enforcement, housing, and legal requirements. The guide is written by Joseph Tartakovsky, attorney for the City of Boise in the Martin v Boise case.

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Case Studies

We have created case studies of cities that have delivered cost-effective and rapid results on homelessness. We’ll show you how San Diego built an emergency shelter and moved 700 people off the streets, how Burien eliminated camping in public parks, and how Modesto reduced quality-of-life crimes associated with homelessness by 83 percent — all within 60 days.

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