Discovery Institute is pleased to join a new nonpartisan coalition of community leaders and advocacy groups from around the country challenging the failed policies on homelessness and addiction that have decimated cities throughout the country. North America Recovers is committed to compassionate alternatives that help those suffering move from desperation and despair to hope and recovery. Discovery Institute — through its Fix Homelessness initiative — joins an extraordinary group of local, national, and Canadian organizations in this new collaborative.
While diverse in their geographical and policy focus, all twenty members of the new North America Recovers coalition staunchly oppose “housing first” policy, which fails to acknowledge addiction and mental health as deeply interwoven components of homelessness. With support from Discovery and other coalition partners, North America Recovers has launched a public campaign calling on lawmakers to embrace addiction recovery for Americans, not addiction enablement.
As most Americans know, the crisis on the streets of our cities is not driven primarily by a lack of housing, but rather by a lack of services available to address its root causes — namely drug addiction and untreated mental illness. We owe it to those suffering to access the treatment they need and to help them realize their full potential as fellow human beings.
Discovery Institute President Steve Buri
Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness initiative was created to address the crisis of homelessness, addiction, and mental health across Seattle and our nation. The dominant “housing first” policy claims to be a compassionate response to homelessness, but in practice the policy silos suffering individuals into expensive housing with no aim of addressing the brokenness that brought them there. At Fix Homelessness, we believe that a truly compassionate response to homelessness acknowledges the dignity of every human being and desires to see them restored to their fullest potential. North America Recovers is an exciting next step in Discovery’s work to address homelessness.