Homelessness

On Sept. 16, the First Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to move forward with desperately needed reforms to the nation’s homelessness system. After months of litigation by the Homeless Industrial Complex to repeatedly block these reforms, the decision allows HUD to redefine success and fund the programs that generate the greatest success in moving the homeless toward recovery, restoration and self-sufficiency. And not a moment too soon. For more than a decade, federal homelessness policy has centered heavily on permanent housing placement, while the measures used to define and count homelessness have often obscured important differences between who is counted as homeless and who is being served through homelessness Read More ›

Independent journalist and Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jonathan Choe appeared on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, September 15, to testify before the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the invitation of Chairman Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.). The hearing was titled, “Fixing Fraud and Failure in Federally Funded Homelessness Services.” Several clips and excerpts of Choe’s videos covering the homelessness and drug addiction crisis were also presented to the subcommittee. Choe provided testimony based on his experience reporting on the homelessness crisis in West coast cities like Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He addressed the problems inherent in low-barrier housing facilities such as high rates of assaults, theft, sexual violence, drug use, and other criminal activity that result in Read More ›

Owning a home, or at least having one, has long been considered an essential part of the American dream. But what if Americans judged success not by whether people had housing, but by whether they discovered — or rediscovered — who they were created to become? Imagine the hundreds of thousands of people who could be strengthening cities like New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles had local leaders invested in systems designed to restore lives and cultivate human flourishing, rather than embracing the federal government’s Housing First approach adopted in 2013. Housing First made housing placement the primary intervention and measure of success, while removing expectations for treatment, sobriety, employment or progress toward self-sufficiency. In doing so, it too often Read More ›

SEATTLE, WA — Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative has released a new resource to help communities address homelessness. The 12-page Community Primer informs and equips readers to address homelessness within their own localities. Since the federal introduction of Housing First in 2013, homelessness across the country has skyrocketed: street-level unsheltered homelessness has risen by 36%, and total homelessness by 27%. With the advent of fentanyl, the problem has only worsened. This crisis all too often feels intractable. California, for instance, spent $24 billion on homelessness between 2019 and 2024, but homelessness only increased. The problem is that West coast cities and states have tied themselves to ideologies that do not address the underlying causes of homelessness. However, the crisis is Read More ›

Dying City Do not come to Seattle this Labor Day weekend. Unless you want to see mentally ill people running through the streets, homeless drug addicts destroying neighborhoods, and a black market of stolen goods being fueled by violent criminals. Sunday afternoon, I visited three hots spots in Chinatown-ID, SODO, and downtown. It’s worse than ever. Now you know why socialist Mayor Katie Wilson’s approval ratings are hitting new lows. She has lost this city.

What Happens Next? Pallet Shelter CEO Amy King says she is now exiting the homeless housing space. So what happens if these unique tiny houses start breaking down like an old dish washer? Will there be replacement parts? Who’s doing the repairs? Still tons of unanswered questions after King’s abrupt announcement that she’s shutting down Pallet. I spoke to King during the company’s grand opening in Seattle’s Inter Bay neighborhood in June. Aside from being a builder, she also led a successful workforce development program called Weld. So I asked King point blank why she would risk her reputation by aligning herself with some of the most notorious homeless housing providers in the region. She told me this time it Read More ›

Defunded Holy crap! Seattle’s homeless industrial complex is taking a massive hit. Pallet Shelter is going out of business. CEO Amy King announced that she is ejecting from this space saying “funding and political environments have shifted, and our customers have pivoted in how they approach this work.” In other words, low barrier “Housing First” projects that allow drug use are being defunded by the Trump administration. The homeless housing grift is starting to implode. This comes just a few months after socialist Mayor Katie Wilson went all in on these tiny house projects. Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 No Comment I reached out to King for comment. So far no response. It’s unclear what Read More ›

Underneath Las Vegas lies a network of tunnels intended to channel floodwaters. But they are also filled with hundreds of homeless people who have made the tunnels their home. Earlier this year, independent journalists Jonathan Choe and Kevin Dahlgren explored these tunnels. Now, they sit down with podcaster Sean Kelly on the Digital Social Hour Podcast to discuss what they found. Choe and Dahlgren also discuss broader topics around homelessness, such as why Housing First has failed to solve the homelessness crisis, how fentanyl has changed the crisis, the multi-billion-dollar industry homelessness services have become, and more.

Total Disaster It’s the city’s worst-kept secret. Seattle Public Libraries are being used as drug dens and hangouts for the homeless. Savanah Hernandez exposed some of the most problematic locations. Meanwhile, city leaders recently passed a $400 million property tax levy to fund this insanity.

“This Fire Could Have Been Prevented” Sources say the inferno that torched the Centennial Mills building in Portland’s Pearl District over the weekend may have been caused by homeless squatters. Kevin Dahlgren and I have been reporting on the ground and talked to witnesses who watched in horror as the historic 116-year-old abandoned structure went up on flames.