Fix Homelessness How to rebuild human lives
Author

Wesley J. Smith

Robert-Marbut-2022
Photo by Nathan Jacobson, © Discovery Institute

Robert Marbut on America’s Homelessness Crisis, Strategies for Uplifting the Homeless, and Effective Government Policies

[The following is a podcast episode originally published May 23, 2022, at Humanize, a podcast hosted by Wesley J. Smith at Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.] Homelessness has reached crisis proportions. Few issues of human dignity are as heart wrenching as the wretched scenes in our most prosperous cities — San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle — where one can drive down main thoroughfares and be confronted with tent encampments lining streets that provide scant shelter for thousands of destitute people. The crisis is as multifaceted as it is seemingly intractable. What is the role of mental illness in the crisis? What about drug addiction? Is the rising cost of housing part of the problem, and if so, Read More ›

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Jim Palmer of the Orange County Rescue Mission on causes and cures for America’s homelessness crisis

[The following is a podcast episode originally published November 1, 2021, at Humanize, a podcast hosted by Wesley J. Smith at Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism.] In this episode of Humanize, Wesley J. Smith speaks with Jim Palmer, the president of the Orange County Rescue Mission about the many causes and potential cures of America’s seemingly intractable homeless crisis. It is a crucial, if disturbing, conversation that touches upon the most existential needs of people and our mutual responsibilities to each other. Homelessness has reached crisis proportions in which even our most prosperous cities — such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle — witness thousands of people living in squalid tent encampments lining streets that provide scant Read More ›

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City homeless tents, poor people
Image Credit: Supremetones - Adobe Stock

One Doctor’s Prescription to Solve Homelessness Would Continue the Catastrophe

A doctor named Katherine A. Koh — who treats homeless people with Harvard Medical School’s Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program — cares deeply about her patients. But her policy prescriptions to help them become the formerly homeless will just keep the ongoing catastrophe rolling along. In the New England Journal of Medicine, she tells of the tragic death of one of her patients and the indifference of society to the tragedy. From “Invisible Deaths: Mortality Among People Experiencing Homelessness“: Jack died on a street corner. A larger-than-life figure, he stood more than 6 ft, 4 in. tall, exuded charismatic energy, and embraced the role of “king of the streets.” Then, at 49, he died without warning on a …

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Front side of typical american porch colonial house with white traditional columns and pillars, beautiful garden in the back and forest
Front side of typical american porch colonial house with white traditional columns and pillars, beautiful garden in the back and forest

Wesley J Smith on the Origins of the Homelessness Crisis

Wesley J. Smith joins Dr. Elaina George on Liberty Talk to discuss the origins of the homelessness crisis. Listen to the podcast episode below:

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What the Homeless Owe Us

Do we love our homeless countrymen and women enough to insist that as we provide roofs over their heads, they also diligently engage in programs to restore themselves to lives of dignity and personal self-respect? We often hear about what “we” — i.e., society —owe the homeless. But we rarely discuss what the unhoused owe us. It’s time for that to change. This is a matter of great urgency. Some of our (once) most prosperous and beautiful cities — San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, etc. — are imploding under the pressure of squalid homeless squatter camps, populated largely by openly drug-addled or mentally ill people who befoul the sidewalks with human waste, litter the streets with needles used to shoot Read More ›

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West Hollywood Homelessness Wild Tents Camp
West Hollywood Homelessness Wild Tents Camp

‘Housing First’ Caused the Homelessness Catastrophe

Homelessness is a national disgrace. Large swaths of some of America’s (once) most beautiful cities are squalid squatter camps. Visit San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, or Los Angeles and you will see miles of homeless people living on the streets in tents—many openly drug-addled and soiling sidewalks with used needles and human waste. Read More ›