Discovery Institute

The scholars and Fellows of Discovery Institute’s innovative Fix Homelessness initiative applaud President Trump for signing Executive Order, “ENDING CRIME AND DISORDER ON AMERICA’S STREETS,” a decisive step toward dramatically reducing homelessness across the United States. As the nation’s leading think tank on homelessness policy, our organization has long called for the very action this Executive Order takes: rolling back the federal government’s failed, one-size-fits-all “Housing First” mandate. Despite President Obama’s 2013 pledge to end homelessness within a decade, the policy has led to a 34% increase in homelessness. The Biden Administration’s most recent Annual Homeless Assessment Report (December 2024) shows that unsheltered, street-level homelessness is growing at a rate that would double the crisis every five to six years Read More ›

Washington, D.C. — Homelessness reached the highest number on record nationwide in 2024 according to a report the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released on December 27 in a likely attempt to avoid public attention. Dr. Robert Marbut, Discovery Institute Senior Fellow and former Federal Homelessness Czar, says, “HUD spent over 3.16 billion on homelessness in 2024 and continues to attribute rising homelessness to unavailable housing and systemic racism, while ignoring the fentanyl epidemic and untreated mental illness.” According to the national Point-In-Time count report, homelessness increased by 18.1% since 2023 to the highest number on record. Of the 771,840 people experiencing homelessness, 274,224 are unsheltered. The data reveals a 32.9% increase in people experiencing homelessness from 2020 Read More ›

Discovery Institute Releases New Homelessness Data and Policy Approach for Seattle Seattle, WA- If the growth rate of unsheltered homelessness in King County remains unchanged, the population experiencing unsheltered homelessness will double from nearly 10,000 to a staggering 20,000 in less than three years. A new report from Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative offers policy recommendations and new data to address the crisis. A study performed by Discovery Institute found that 49.7% of people experiencing homelessness and enrolled in Seattle programs first began experiencing homelessness outside of King County. Data also reveals a dramatic redistribution of funding away from emergency and transitional beds towards permanent supportive housing without treatment requirements. Report co-author Dr. Robert Marbut, former Director of the U.S. Read More ›

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Grants Pass v. Johnson that city ordinances against public camping do not constitute “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment. The Court’s decision is a win not only for the small Oregon city of Grants Pass, but also for dozens of Western localities that had been hamstrung by the Ninth Circuit as they grapple with record high rates of homelessness. In response to the ruling, Robert Marbut, Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and former Executive Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, said, “The Supreme Court’s reversal of the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in the City of Grants Pass v. Johnson is a great first step in giving authority back to local Read More ›

Click below to listen to Jonathan Choe discuss the changing journalism landscape, crime in Seattle and the failure of “defund the police,” Seattle’s stalled revitalization efforts, and the fentanyl epidemic with writer and foreign correspondent David Josef Volodzko.

Download the report here. Shoddy Data Hid Failed State of Homelessness Program, Study Shows Seattle, WA – A study from the Fix Homelessness Initiative of Discovery Institute reveals the expensive failure of the government to run a now-defunct downtown outreach program in Seattle funded by the region’s leading foundations and corporations. It also reveals a lack of transparency from non-profits receiving millions in contracts from King County to address homelessness. “Information about the downtown program is hard to come by,” said Caitlyn Axe of Discovery Institute “But the data we have reveals ineffective use of millions in funding while private nonprofits are accomplishing far more with far less.” Axe’s research examined the multi-million dollar Partnership for Zero (PfZ) homelessness program Read More ›

Washington, D.C – Discovery President Steve Buri, Senior Fellow Robert Marbut, and Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith spoke at a Faith and Law forum on Capitol Hill. Below is a summary from faithandlaw.org. Watch the forum and read more here. For nearly a decade, federal policies meant to address homelessness have centered around “Housing First,” which begins with an assumption that the crisis is driven primarily by a lack of affordable housing. But is it really? Studies show that most individuals experiencing homelessness suffer from severe addiction, untreated mental illness, or a combination of the two. Others end up on the streets because they have no one to turn to, typically owing to broken familial relationships. It’s time for a Read More ›

After Senior Fellow Jonathan Choe spoke with Dunn Lumber owner, Mike Dunn, about the impact of theft on his Seattle stores, Mike Dunn joined Fox News to share. Watch the clip on Fox News here. Watch Jonathan Choe’s exclusive coverage here.

May 17, 2023 Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Congressman Andy Barr (R-KY), a senior Member of the House Financial Services Committee, unveiled legislation to reform the failed Housing First policy at a press conference at the House Triangle. The Housing Promotes Livelihood and Ultimate Success (Housing PLUS) Act of 2023 is intended to end the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) exclusive reliance on the so-called “Housing First” methodology, which recent U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness data demonstrates is a failed experiment. Specifically, this bill would prohibit the HUD Secretary from prohibiting, limiting or otherwise restricting award of Continuum of Care (CoC) funds to providers because they require wraparound services (e.g., job training, addiction treatment) or because they are Read More ›