Homelessness

The following excerpt is from a Christianity Today article written by Marvin Olasky, the magazine’s editor in chief as well as a Discovery Institute Senior Fellow. Olasky makes reference to an article written by our Project Coordinator and Research Fellow Marsha Michaelis, titled “Washington’s Homelessness and Drug Policies Have Created a Culture of Death and Disorder.” Olasky provides further insight on this important topic with compassion and conviction. We encourage our readers to read the full article at Christianity Today.

Addiction is nothing new in our country. Sometimes it’s hidden away and people with abnormal habits can still lead mostly normal lives. But numerous studies over the years have linked substance abuse and homelessness.

One oft-cited study showed that more than four out of five chronically homeless people have had alcohol or drug problems. That’s over a lifetime, but another study tested 400 homeless people on the St. Louis streets and shelters for recent cocaine use: Most had detectable amounts.

Jeremiah is a formerly homeless man whom I met at Eden Village, a refuge for the formerly homeless in Springfield, Missouri. He told me about two vivid memories. The first was a one-time disaster: His home burned when he was a child, and Jeremiah made it out with his grandparents and stepdad. But his mom went back in for his sister and never came out.

KOMO News hosted a Town Hall on Western Washington’s homelessness crisis on July 13. The Town Hall panel included Daniel Malone, Executive Director of the Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC); Andrea Suarez, Founder and Executive Director of We Heart Seattle; Jon Scholes, President and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association; and Dominique Alex, CEO of Mary’s Place. Among the topics discussed were the root causes of chronic homelessness, whether current policies hurt or help the problem, Housing First and harm reduction, untreated mental illness and substance use disorder, and family homelessness. While Malone of DESC repeatedly emphasized the importance of housing and the role of affordability in homelessness, Suarez strongly advocated for a “treatment first” approach in order to tackle Read More ›

Another Hot Mess After only a month, homeless drug addicts have returned to the Arcade Creek drainage channel in North Sacramento. They’ve left another hot mess. This flows into some of the most important waterways in the city. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is once again tasked with enforcing this disaster. Taxpayer resources are being wasted again. Where are all the environmentalists in CA? Why isn’t Governor Gavin Newsom moving on this right now?

The final FIFA World Cup game hosted in Seattle ended in the disappointing loss of the United States to Belgium. But for Seattle, a city so overcome by drug addiction, mental illness, and street-level homelessness, the weeks-long event was a smashing success. Downtown sparkled as it welcomed visitors from around the world for the six games it hosted at Lumen Field, rebranded Seattle Stadium for the tournament. In addition to exciting games, soccer fans enjoyed a city with noticeably cleaner streets and few visible signs of homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness that are familiar to residents. But this is not what long-term success looks like. Mayor Katie Wilson and her team did not clean up the city. They simply Read More ›

San Francisco has experienced a dramatic 22 percent drop in unsheltered homelessness since 2024, while San Jose has seen a 23 percent decline since 2019. Streets are cleaner, and open drug scenes in San Francisco are noticeably smaller. Fewer RVs are parked near waterways in San Jose. What these two cities are doing differently than Los Angeles and Seattle can be summarized in two words: accountability and recovery. Often, when we think of the homeless, we imagine someone sleeping rough on the street, or perhaps in an RV or a car. But homelessness is defined in several ways. If you’re sleeping in a shelter, a car, or an RV, you’re sheltered homeless. If you’re in jail, you’re homeless. And depending Read More ›

At War Chinatown-ID is going to war with socialist Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson. CID leaders are now pumping out protest signs with a red X mark crossing out Wilson’s face. They say she’s dumped the city’s homeless drug addicts into their Asian American neighborhood to protect World Cup fans from secondhand fentanyl smoke and the human wreckage on the streets. I’ve got more from today’s demonstration coming up.

This Is Just the Beginning Chinatown-ID demonstrators came out in full force today, even bringing dozens of senior citizens to blast Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson. On this final day of the World Cup, they accuse Wilson of shoving homeless drug addicts into their community, costing them millions in tourism dollars. But CID organizers say this is just the beginning of their fight. Expect more protests until the mayor shows up to fix this crisis on the streets.

For more than a decade, America’s homelessness system has largely measured success by a single metric: whether someone is housed. In the process, what should have been a milestone on the journey to self-sufficiency became the destination itself. Housing is important, but making it the finish line set the bar devastatingly low for both the system and the people it serves. We now routinely confuse housing placement with transformation and occupancy with human flourishing. As a result, too many people remain trapped in addiction, untreated mental illness, dependency, and isolation, yet are counted as successes because the system measures where they sleep rather than whether they are healing, rebuilding, and moving toward self-sufficiency. This was never what most Americans envisioned Read More ›

Protest Season Chinatown-ID leaders are calling Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson a racist, a liar, and incompetent for allowing this Asian American neighborhood to spiral into chaos during the World Cup. On Wednesday, they marched and held a press conference to put Wilson on notice. Next Monday, they are going to war.

Enough is Enough Team USA will be playing on Monday in Seattle. Expect a mega protest against Mayor Katie Wilson and the city. Chinatown-ID residents accuse Wilson of pushing homeless drug addicts into their community so downtown tourists won’t have to see the street crisis. The CID has had enough.