addiction

Across America’s streets, the homeless epidemic is claiming lives, fracturing families, and eroding public safety. Often deeply intertwined with mental illness and addiction, it has become a humanitarian crisis that traps vulnerable individuals in cycles of dependence and despair while destabilizing the communities around them. This crisis has been worsened by policies that elevate the notion of “freedom” over timely, life-saving intervention. Recent events make the consequences of that choice unmistakably clear. Continuing on the current path is neither humane nor responsible. Consider what unfolded in New York City over the holidays. A woman with a documented history of serious mental illness and homelessness was released from psychiatric care, only to purchase a knife hours later, then repeatedly stab a Read More ›

Michele Steeb joined a weekend edition of Morning Wire, presented by Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley and co-host Georgia Howe, to discuss the recent federal reforms that offer hope for our homelessness crisis. Steeb covers how faith-based programs used to spearhead the fight against homelessness, how the Obama administration changed the federal approach for the worse, and what the Trump administration’s recent reforms mean for the homeless and communities nationwide.

Seattle’s incoming mayor, Katie Wilson, will inherit a homelessness crisis that will define her ability to lead. Seattle’s homeless population needs more than another round of aspirational promises. They need and deserve an operational reset grounded in compassion, accountability, and the courage to confront realities the city has failed to address for years. She must replace press releases and ceremonial groundbreaking for housing that may never materialize with programs that support the homeless in reclaiming their lives from the grip of untreated mental illness, addiction, and dangerous encampments that have taken root throughout the city. The scale of Seattle’s crisis is staggering. HUD’s 2024 Point-in-Time count identified 16,868 people struggling with homelessness in King County — 7,058 sheltered and 9,810 Read More ›

Homelessness in California — and across America — has reached a breaking point. The crisis has climbed to the highest level ever recorded, even as billions more are poured into housing subsidies and bureaucratic programs that promise compassion but deliver only despair. No one bears the consequences more cruelly than the homeless themselves. Their death rate has soared by 77% in the country’s largest urban areas, a devastating indictment of a system that prioritizes housing units over human healing. Communities, too, shoulder the burden — streets overrun, neighborhoods destabilized and taxpayers funding a model that fails everyone it claims to help. President Donald Trump’s recent executive order marks the first real course correction in over a decade. By directing federal Read More ›

In a catastrophic miscalculation that exposes his continued attachment to failure, California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 255 on Oct. 1. It was a bipartisan measure designed to expand access to recovery housing for homeless individuals struggling with substance use disorders. His veto comes at a time when California’s homeless can least afford more failure. AB 255, authored by Assembly member Matt Haney, would have allowed up to 10% of state homelessness funds to support abstinence-based recovery housing. These programs integrate shelter with sobriety requirements, accountability and supportive services that help people reclaim stability. Newsom dismissed the bill as “unnecessary,” insisting that current guidelines already permit sober housing and warning against “duplicative” categories. His reasoning rings hollow. California mimicked Read More ›

Michele Steeb appeared on NTD News with host Don Ma to discuss President Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C., including the removal of homeless encampments. Steeb explains why it’s critical to address homelessness in D.C., the relationship between homelessness and crime, and why relocating the homeless outside of D.C. might be beneficial. She also discusses what effective treatment looks like for those homeless suffering from addiction and/or mental illness.

This year I’ve written about what I learned in Colorado Springs at the Springs Rescue Mission. But when I stayed there last year, I also thought of the pioneer who, starting in 1983, built a predecessor of SRM just up the highway in Denver. His name: Bob Coté, a six-foot-three-inch ex-amateur boxer who in his forties changed his life by not drinking his usual half gallon of vodka for lunch. Instead, he poured out the bottle’s contents and became in 1983 one of the original residents of a new program, Step 13. Bob became Director of Operation and then Executive Director, pouring what he had learned as a homeless alcoholic into a program that challenged rather than coddled men seen Read More ›

Caitlyn McKenney reacts to data shared by the Mayor of Normandy Park WA that shows the role of addiction and mental illness in homelessness. This data should inform policymakers in Washington as they consider a bill that would make it easier to sue cities for restricting public camping.

To understand why Springs Rescue Mission was so interesting to me, you should know something about the other three Christian homeless missions I have stayed at recently. Knowledgeable people call them model programs. That’s true, but each is different. The Orange County Rescue Mission (OCRM) in California is a beautiful place with an intensive, every-hour-occupied program in which individuals can advance over eighteen months or so from heavily regimented “freshman year” to a freer “senior year.” It’s perfect for men and women who are young enough and physically/mentally able enough to work again in the outside world. Eden Village in Springfield, Missouri is a beautiful strip of brightly-painted tiny houses in which beaten-down older people, some mentally disabled, can live Read More ›

The federal government is hoping you, the public, won’t notice that homelessness in America reached an all-time high last year. That was the impression given by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) when it quietly released the 2024 annual homelessness report on the Friday between Christmas, Hannukah, and New Year’s. Nationwide, 771,480 people were experiencing homelessness in 2024, an 18 percent increase from the year before and the highest number on record. The HUD administration attributes this record-setting number to a lack of affordable housing, systemic racism, and rising inflation. Impossible to hide, the report also highlights the strain caused by a surge in migrants and asylum seekers: “new arrivals” made up 13,600 of Chicago’s sheltered population and Read More ›