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Earlier this month I reported on Rebecca Gomez’s dissertation critique of “learned helplessness,” when young people — often with foster care backgrounds — feel like puppets who move only when others move them. When we go back 150 years, to the 1870s, we find similar concerns that led poverty-fighters then to distinguish between two other “p” words: “poor” and “pauper.” One Buffalo pastor, S. Humphreys Gurteen, said poverty was a problem, but an underlying cause was not material. He worried about the “concentrated and systematized pauperism which exists in our larger cities.” Gurteen wrote regarding “paupers” — those among the poor who had given up on working — that, “If left to themselves and no kind hand is held out Read More ›

I mentioned last week the infamous Rat Pit in New York’s slums. Several Manhattan clergymen in 1868 rented it for two hours and tried to preach to the fans of battling rats. The New York Herald reported that the professionals preached over the heads of potential Water Street listeners: “What is wanted is a man of enthusiasm . . . rough language and homely bits of philosophy, who intuitively knows exactly the emotions which governs his hearers.” Answering that call was Jerry McAuley, the son of a counterfeiter who abandoned his family. McAuley’s mother, unable to control her son, sent him off to other relatives. At age 19 the riotous drunkard and local bandit went to the state penitentiary for Read More ›

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 …

The advent of Thanksgiving brings more stories about homelessness and more debate about its causes. Some advocates emphasize housing costs, as New York’s Charles Brace did during the Civil War era (see my May 3, 2024 column.) Others emphasize substance abuse and mental illness. That also is nothing new: New York City suffered not only through draft and racist riots in 1863 but homelessness in the 1870s, often among Civil War veterans suffering from what today we call PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder. The debate, even then, was not new. Starting early in the century, the street-level analysis was that some poor people became paupers — not just poor, but distraught and defeated — by getting drunk and staying drunk. What Read More ›

In this episode, Caitlyn McKenney is joined by Discovery Senior Fellow and former Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to discuss a new policy report we coauthored to address homelessness in Seattle. Read the report.

Just last week, a 19-year-old tenant allegedly stabbed her 73-year-old landlord to death. The murder took place in an apartment in White Center, a neighborhood south of Seattle. According to a news report, the landlord asked the tenant about unpaid rent before being stabbed twice. The suspect told authorities that her landlord struck her in the face and admitted to the stabbing one the phone with a 911-operator. Incidents like this are not representative of the vast majority of tenants, but they are not anomalies either. At an apartment community in Tacoma, an angry resident attempted to grab a hammer from a grounds-maintenance cart in an act of aggression towards a maintenance technician. According to an incident report, the resident Read More ›

Last week I wrote about Rebecca Gomez’s criticism of foster care. She accurately notes that “a large proportion of foster children will find themselves homeless upon exiting care. The majority do not attend college; do not have stable housing; do not obtain employment that provides a living wage; do not own a car; have never managed money.” Even if they’re not yanked from house to house, Gomez writes that foster children are “surrounded by treatment professionals including foster parents, case managers, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and special education departments. . . . They must gain the[ir] approval . . . to drive a car; take a trip out of state with their foster family; visit a sibling; participate in a contact 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 ›