Housing

Violence at Plymouth Housing A manhunt is on for a homeless murder suspect with ties to the controversial Plymouth Housing/PorchLight complex in Bellevue. Cops say 28-year-old Samuel Hitchcock killed a 54-year-old man on the 13800 block of SE Eastgate Way last week. While the motive is unclear, witnesses say the victim was sleeping in the bushes of an office building which is right next to the homeless campus. Plymouth and PorchLight continues to attract all kinds of crime and open-air drug use to this area. It also triggers the most 911 calls in the city.

DESC “Bamboozles” Communities The latest Downtown Emergency Service Center building in Burien has turned into the epicenter for crime, chaos, and death. Over the weekend, two more people died of drug OD’s inside units. Then an alleged fentanyl dealer was arrested in front of this building preying on vulnerable residents. Since it’s opening last year, the Bloomside leads the city in 911 calls and is a constant drain on emergency resources. Now elected officials are warning other communities to ban DESC and other “low barrier” permanent supportive housing saying they’ve been “bamboozled.” This is exactly why President Trump signed an executive order last week pledging to defund Housing First and “harm reduction” in America’s cities. Here is a preview of Read More ›

Trump’s executive order will severely cripple America’s homeless industrial complex. But these grifters will not go out without a fight. Lawsuits and protests are already planned. Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Dr. Robert Marbut Jr. and I break down what happens next.

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 ›

Standing on an Oakland street flanked by legislative allies, California Gov. Gavin Newsom made a sweeping promise in 2021: California would eliminate family homelessness within five years. Backed by an unprecedented $75 billion budget surplus and $27 billion in federal stimulus, his administration committed $12 billion to the crisis, including $3.5 billion for housing units and rental subsidies. His strategy? Double down on Housing First—a one-size-fits-all policy California adopted in 2016 after the federal government’s 2013 embrace of it. Housing First promises permanent, taxpayer-funded housing with no expectations—no sobriety, no treatment, no work, ever. Somehow, the governor missed the glaring reality that under Housing First, homelessness in California exploded by 34%, and unsheltered homelessness by 47% between 2017-2021. Fast forward Read More ›

Out of Sight, Out of Mind The Trump administration is in the process of defunding “permanent supportive housing” for homeless drug addicts across the nation. That’s because data shows these “low barrier” tax funded facilities just warehouse individuals and invite more crime into neighborhoods. In some instances, case workers irresponsibly place addicts on the same floor with drug dealers. Listen to this former Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) resident describe what’s really happening inside.

Federal Funding to Be Re-Allocated With even more federal funding cuts on the way, one of the biggest players in WA’s homeless industrial complex is crying poverty. That’s because the days of top executive salaries and zero accountability could be coming to an end. The Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) has received millions of taxpayer dollars for pushing the failed Housing First model along with “harm reduction” policies. But for more than a decade, this approach has led to record homelessness in the region, more crime, and countless drug overdose deaths behind closed doors. So Trump administration sources are telling me the hammer will finally be dropped on this madness. Expect federal funding to be re-allocated and pushed toward housing Read More ›

Today’s biggest public policy error concerning homelessness emerges from the fallacy that everyone deserves his own apartment and that true compassion means providing one. The federal government’s “Housing First” mandate sits on the materialistic assumption that an apartment is the appropriate response to addiction, mental illness, loneliness, and purposeless living. Thirty-six years ago, I came out with a book entitled The Tragedy of American Compassion. It included seven ways to fight poverty in alphabetical order. The first two were Affiliation and Bonding: restoring social ties that were broken or weaving new ones. Many recent trends have battered affiliation and bonding, but they are still key. Falling into addiction instead of falling in love is a frequent failure. Although some are Read More ›

Discovery Institute Research Fellow Caitlyn McKenney appeared on [un]Divided with Brandi Kruse this week to discuss McKenney’s op-ed in The Seattle Times, “Sensible WA Tenancy Laws Will Help Housing Stability.” McKenney argues that nonsensical laws protecting tenants from eviction cause harm to housing stability. This is substantiated by emergency funding applications from Seattle affordable housing units, documenting the assaults, unsafe and unsanitary conditions, drug use, arson, and other criminal activity occurring without any recourse. “Instead of mandating rent control, lawmakers should provide housing stability by enacting smart landlord-tenant laws,” writes McKenney. Watch McKenney and Kruse discuss.