Center on Wealth & Poverty

Update 3/5: The State Senate passed HB 2266, with amendments. The bill will now go back to the House to be reconsidered. A vote is expected the week of 3/9. Please call your local Representative today! Update 3/9: The House passed HB 2266. The bill will go to the Governor’s desk for signature. More than 20,000 people are living on the streets in Washington state, most of them suffering from an untreated mental illness and/or drug addiction. HB 2266 is currently moving through the Washington State legislature to make it easier to develop subsidized housing and emergency shelters in the style of the failed Housing First policy. This bill would override local ordinances and zoning laws, put residents in real Read More ›

The following article was originally published at Seattle Red 770 AM by author Jasneet Gill, covering one of Senior Fellow Jonathan Choe’s recent appearances on The Jason Rantz Show. Investigative reporter Jonathan Choe is raising concerns over Seattle’s homelessness crisis, claiming that Mayor Katie Wilson’s new approach is failing to deliver real results. Despite the Mayor’s recent public boasts about her progress, Choe argues that the city is actually stuck in a cycle of failed policies that are only making things worse as the 2026 World Cup approaches. Claims of success vs. reality During her State of the City address, Mayor Wilson took a “victory lap,” bragging about her ability to move people from the streets into housing. However, Choe’s Read More ›

Marsha Michaelis appeared on The Earthvox Podcast with Ryan Keogan. After discussing Michaelis’ journey from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation to homeschooling to her current position at Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness initiative, they then discuss her recent article exploring the kinds of solutions society could offer a family in acute distress, homelessness, and drug addiction. The conversation continues with problems with the Housing First approach to homelessness, how the Trump administration is addressing homelessness, the nature of compassion, and more.

On January 12, Epoch Times premiered a new episode of American Thought Leaders featuring Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jonathan Choe. Choe laid bare the overlap between far-left activist groups such as Antifa and the institutions that are supposed to be helping people out of homelessness (otherwise known as the Homeless Industrial Complex). “The homeless are being used,” Choe told host Jan Jekielek. “Antifa, the far-left activists, they want to keep the tent encampments on America’s streets to show that capitalism isn’t working.”

SEATTLE, WA — “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.” Following a newly-released reformed funding package from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Discovery Institute published an essential policy brief calling on local governments, Continuums of Care (CoCs), and service agencies to leverage these new federal reforms and make treatment and recovery central to local homelessness solutions. The brief outlines how “Housing First” and “Harm Reduction” policies failed the homeless by misdiagnosing the crisis as primarily Read More ›

United Gospel Mission of the Inland Northwest recently hosted Conversations on a Bench, during which CEO Phil Altmeyer spoke with people with diverse experiences of homelessness about the current state of homelessness in America. Discovery Institute was proud to participate in the event through the representation of Dr. Robert Marbut and Marsha Michaelis. Dr. Robert Marbut, Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness initiative, shared his experience working to bring people out of homelessness at the local and federal levels, the importance of data-driven research and solutions, why Housing First has failed, and much more. Watch his segment below: Marsha Michaelis, Project Coordinator and Research Fellow at Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness initiative, spoke about the compassionate response to homelessness, Read More ›

Earlier this month, and in cooperation with Discovery Institute, Capital Research Center published “Infiltrated: The Ideological Capture of Homeless Advocacy.” Since then, reporter and Senior Fellow Jonathan Choe presented the report directly to President Donald Trump, and now news outlets like Daily Mail and NewsNation are following up with their own reporting on the crisis. NewsNation NewsNation sent reporter Rich McHugh to Seattle, where he interviewed Jonathan Choe, We Heart Seattle founder Andrea Suarez, and Seattle Police Officers Guild president Mike Solan about the crossover between far-left radicals and industries purported to help the homeless. From the NewsNation report: A report from two conservative think tanks alleged that members of antifa, the decentralized antifascist movement, have embedded themselves within the Read More ›

Washington, D.C. — Today, the Capital Research Center (CRC) released a new report in cooperation with Discovery Institute exploring how extremist ideological movements are exploiting America’s homelessness crisis, which can include hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people on any given night. Using financial data, legal records, and original research, the report uncovers a vast network of homelessness advocates that spend billions in taxpayer dollars and philanthropic grants on everything but obvious solutions. The report demonstrates that counterproductive policies have been used for years which do not solve the homelessness problem, but rather exacerbate common root causes of homelessness, including mental health challenges and substance abuse. The key findings of the report expose the groups that have co-opted the homelessness issue Read More ›

Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jonathan Choe was recently invited to the White House, along with several other independent journalists, to discuss Antifa. He used the opportunity to present the new Capital Research Center report, “Infiltrated,” that was produced in cooperation with Discovery Institute.

Michele Steeb appeared on The Shaun Thompson Show to discuss homelessness. Steeb explains the pivotal shift in homelessness policy that occurred in 2013, the new direction President Trump is steering homelessness policy today, the financial corruption behind Housing First, and more.