New York City&#8217;s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, promised on Thursday to end homeless encampment sweeps when he takes over next month.
Mamdani said he would discontinue a priority enacted by current Mayor Eric Adams, who attempted to clear out &#8220;makeshift, unsafe houses&#8221; that have popped up throughout the city, The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/12/04/us-news/mamdani-to-stop-all-sweeps-of-homeless-encampments-as-nyc-mayor/">reported</a>. The mayor-elect will stop the sweeps despite city officials receiving more than 45,000 complaints about the homeless encampments so far this year.
Mamdani argued that the Adams administration&#8217;s policy has failed because it did not connect &#8220;homeless New Yorkers to the housing that they so desperately need.&#8221;
“We are going to take an approach that understands its mission is connecting those New Yorkers to housing,” Mamdani added. “Whether it’s supportive housing, whether it’s rental housing, whatever kind of housing it is, because what we have seen is the treatment of homelessness as if it is a natural part of living in this city, when in fact, it’s more often a reflection of a political choice being made.”
New York City currently <a href="https://portal.311.nyc.gov/article/?kanumber=KA-02253">urges</a> residents to &#8220;report homeless people who have established encampments on public property,&#8221; adding, &#8220;In New York City, obstructions and encampments are not allowed.&#8221;
Mamdani cruised to a landslide mayoral election victory over former New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa last month in part because of his focus on affordability and housing. Mamdani vowed to build more affordable housing in the city and said he would push to freeze rents in some apartment buildings.
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He did not specify how he would address complaints about homeless encampments or if he would remove the city&#8217;s online complaint portal. New York City&#8217;s homeless population has skyrocketed in recent years, largely due to the massive influx of illegal immigrants, <a href="https://www.osc.ny.gov/press/releases/2025/01/dinapoli-numbers-homeless-population-doubled-new-york">according</a> to the New York state government. In January 2022, an estimated 45,343 people were in the city&#8217;s homeless shelters. Just two years later, there were nearly 90,000.
Mamdani&#8217;s opposition to the sweeps is partly based on a 2023 audit released by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, which found that during Mayor Adams&#8217; homeless encampment raids, only a small percentage of homeless people removed from their makeshift housing accepted temporary shelter with the city, Fox News reported.
&#8220;The evidence is clear: by every measure, the homeless sweeps failed,&#8221; Lander argued.
The Adams administration has pushed back on the audit, saying that Lander&#8217;s findings took the data &#8220;out of context.&#8221;
“Cherry-picking numbers and sharing them out of context paint a disingenuous picture as these cleanups have actually connected more than 500 New Yorkers to safe, stable housing,” City Hall said on Thursday.
“New York City continues to have the lowest rate of unsheltered homelessness of any major city in the nation,” City Hall added.

Zohran Mamdani

Mamdani Sides With Homeless Encampments Over NYC Taxpayers

Homeless

Homelessness

New York

New York City

Politics

Social Issues

Former President Barack Obama’s approach to combat homelessness has been “a disaster on every level,” according to Texas Public Policy Foundation senior fellow Michele Steeb.
Steeb is an expert on homelessness and author of “Answers Behind the Red Door: Battling the Homeless Epidemic.” She said in an interview with Morning Wire that homelessness in the United States, and especially in California, has dramatically worsened since the federal government adopted “housing first” as its singular approach to homelessness.
The Bush administration first introduced the Housing First model to federal policy in 2008. The Obama administration massively expanded the policy in 2013, turning into the federal government’s “one-size-fits-all” approach to homelessness.
“Thankfully, the Trump administration has stepped in and said at the federal level, we need to reprioritize mental health treatment. Drug and alcohol counseling needs to be offered in conjunction with housing,” said Steeb, “and we need to clear these encampments because these encampments have become so dangerous. Not just for the individuals living in them, pets are now overdosing, women are being trafficked, and there&#8217;s spillover effects to the general public that have been devastating.”
The model, in theory, prioritizes stability. The Department of Housing and Urban Development under Obama’s housing first approach conditioned grant money to recipients on providing non-conditioned housing to the homeless. Providers cannot make requirements such as that a tenant stay sober or hold down a job in order to receive housing.
“Up until about 12 years ago, the federal government funded shelters, they funded transitional housing. They funded mental health and drug and alcohol treatment along with that housing,” said Steeb.
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It was under the Obama administration “that they said, you know what, we’re only gonna fund one thing now, and that one thing is housing subsidies, housing vouchers. We are not going to fund mental health treatment or drug and alcohol treatment or employment training. And we&#8217;re going to offer this housing to the homeless, subsidized housing for life with no conditions, none whatsoever,” she continued.
In practice, homelessness has drastically increased under the housing first approach. Those who are homeless have suffered even more as many of the conditions that contributed to their situation grow worse without proper treatment.
Housing first was designed for a very small segment of the homeless population, “but without any evidence, the Obama administration rolled it out,” said Steeb. “He literally promised it would end homelessness in 10 years. And 10 years later, 12 years later, exactly, we are at the highest point ever in our nation&#8217;s history, an almost 35% increase.”
A 2022 <a href="https://ciceroinstitute.org/research/housing-first-is-a-failure/">report</a> by the Cicero Institute found that homelessness increased by nearly 25% in areas that exclusively rely on the housing first model. The results are most apparent in California, where the state followed the Obama administration’s example and its homeless population has exploded, especially in urban centers such as San Francisco.
“California is the only state in the nation that followed the feds and said, all of our money on top of all of your money, the federal government’s, is now going to go to housing first. California has experienced a 40% increase since [2017] when they adopted this,” said Steeb. “California now has almost 50% of the nation&#8217;s unsheltered population, almost 40% of the overall homeless population in its cities have been ravaged by this.”

Barack Obama

12 Years Later, The Numbers Make Clear Obama’s Approach To Homelessness ‘Massively Failed’

Donald Trump

Executive

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 groundbreakings 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 <a href="https://kcrha.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Point-in-Time-Count-2024_King-County_final.pdf">16,868 people struggling with homelessness in King County</a> — 7,058 sheltered and 9,810 unsheltered — yet even this understates the emergency. It omits the thousands of K-12 students and their families couch-surfing or scraping together money for a few nights in a motel. And at the current 23% growth rate, Mayor Wilson will walk into office confronting a humanitarian emergency approaching 22,500 people.
Meanwhile, encampments proliferate, fentanyl deaths continue at historic highs, and families, businesses, and public workers bear the daily trauma of a system that is not working.
For years, Seattle has clung to the comforting illusion that more subsidized housing units alone will solve homelessness. Despite billions in public spending, housing pipelines remain clogged, construction timelines stretch into decades, and operating costs soar.
But for the majority of those living unsheltered — 78% of whom are struggling with serious mental illness or addiction — homelessness is not merely a housing shortage. It is the downstream consequence of untreated disease.
Often further complicating their illnesses is a condition called anosognosia that prevents them from recognizing their own illness. Consequently, they decline help not because they choose the street, but because their minds cannot see another path.
The mayor must change this trajectory.
If she intends to succeed where past administrations have failed, she must look to the <a href="https://www.discovery.org/m/securepdfs/2025/11/Local-Jurisdictions-Leverage-Homelessness-Reforms.pdf">Discovery Institute’s new report</a>, which details exactly how cities can harness forthcoming federal reforms to drive real results. 
Her reset must include:
<h3>1. Prioritize transitional and treatment-based recovery models</h3>
Seattle must stop investing disproportionately in permanent supportive housing that takes years to build and rarely addresses root causes. It must instead prioritize transitional recovery housing that is staffed with clinicians, case managers, and vocational supports, and must require engagement in these services as a condition of stay.
<h3>2. Partner with high-performing recovery organizations</h3>
Non-profits such as We Heart Seattle and Union Gospel Mission Rescue Missions have a great track record in helping individuals transition to stability. These organizations know how to walk with people through trauma, detoxification, relapse, and rebuilding. Make these organizations central to the city’s strategy — not an afterthought.
<h3>3. Empower and deploy multidisciplinary “CARE+” outreach units</h3>
Combine mental health professionals, emergency responders, and trained law enforcement to intervene proactively, stabilize crises, and compel psychiatric or addiction evaluations when individuals pose clear risks to themselves or others. Washington’s Involuntary Treatment Act already provides necessary tools, but they must be used more consistently and, of course, humanely.
<h3>4. Enforce public health and safety laws to restore order while providing pathways to treatment</h3>
In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court affirmed that Seattle can ban public camping to restore order and safety for all residents. In tandem with this effort, the city must provide the homeless with restorative programs.
<h3>5. Demand performance, not platitudes, at every level of the system</h3>
Seattle must instill accountability at every level of the homeless system: from the individual, to the non-profit, to the government officials responsible for the homeless system.
It must measure outcomes and provide quarterly dashboards on those outcomes and the spending required to achieve those outcomes. Housing without treatment is a revolving door. Harm reduction without recovery is slow-motion abandonment. But it doesn’t have to stay this way.
Katie, you have the chance to lead Seattle into a future where compassion is not a slogan, but a force that restores people and the city they call home.
This is your moment. History will remember the mayor who chose courage over habit, transformation over stagnation. Seattle’s soul is waiting to be mended. Now is the time to lead the city there.
* * *
Michele Steeb is the founder of Free Up Foundation and author of “Answers Behind the RED DOOR: Battling the Homeless Epidemic,” based on her 13 years as CEO of Northern California’s largest program for homeless women and children. She is a Visiting Fellow with the Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative. Follow them on Twitter: @SteebMichele and @DiscoveryCWP.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
* * *
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Seattle Street with Homeless Encampment and Space Needle

‘Humanitarian Emergency’: Seattle’s New Mayor Must Bring An End To The City’s Homelessness Crisis

'Humanitarian Emergency': Seattle's New Mayor Must Bring An End To The City's Homelessness Crisis

Democratic Socialism

Leftists

Mental Illness

Opinion

Seattle

Washington State

A coalition of officials from 20 states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over the government’s plan to overhaul an Obama-era approach to homelessness.
Nineteen state attorneys general and two governors joined the <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/court-filings/washington-et-al-v-united-states-department-of-housing-and-urban-development-et-al-complaint-2025.pdf">lawsuit</a>, <a href="https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2025/attorney-general-james-sues-trump-administration-protect-billions-dollars-fight">led</a> by New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James. The lawsuit seeks to stop reforms to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s &#8220;Continuum of Care&#8221; program funding, which provides grants to groups that provide housing to homeless people and families.
The Trump administration plans to significantly reduce funds allocated to so-called “Housing First” providers. Under the department’s current homelessness grant structure, nearly all funding goes to providers that offer housing without requiring tenants to stay sober, pursue job training, or participate in other support services.
“HUD has adopted new policies, without any meaningful public input, that reverse the agency’s longstanding support for Housing First policies and fundamentally undermine the goal of providing dependable housing,” the lawsuit states. “A Housing First model provides stable housing to individuals without preconditions like sobriety or minimum income. It is a model that Congress, experts, and, until recently, HUD itself, have agreed improves housing stability and health while reducing costs.”
The lawsuit argues that the Trump administration’s proposed changes to the Continuum of Care program “are unlawful several times over.”
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The Housing First strategy was introduced to federal programs under the administration of former President George W. Bush. Housing First was massively expanded under former President Barack Obama, who <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/economy/article24585973.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promised</a> in 2010 to eliminate homelessness within a decade with major reforms to the federal approach to homelessness.
Critics of Housing First say the strategy has led to a backsliding in efforts to combat homelessness in the United States. Critics argue that the approach falls short by failing to address the root causes of homelessness, such as economic insecurity, mental illness, and drug addiction.
A 2022 <a href="https://ciceroinstitute.org/research/housing-first-is-a-failure/">report</a> by the Cicero Institute shows that, contrary to the Obama administration’s 2010 aims, homelessness in the United States has significantly worsened in areas that rely on a Housing First approach. The study found that homelessness increased by nearly 25% in areas that exclusively rely on the Housing First model.
Rep. Andy Barr, a Kentucky Republican, is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-republican-congressman-wants-to-end-the-progressive-policy-hurting-the-homeless">leading</a> an effort in Congress to address the federal government’s reliance on the housing first model. Barr, who is running to replace outgoing Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), has introduced legislation to cut funding for housing providers that use the Housing First approach.
“Housing First policy shuts out providers who offer critical wraparound services that are often essential for helping individuals break the cycle of homelessness,” Barr said. “We need to abandon HUD’s exclusive reliance on Housing First in favor of an all-hands-on-deck approach to equip the best and most effective providers with the federal funds needed to end homelessness.”
The states suing include Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin, along with the commonwealths of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

20 States Sue To Block Trump’s Cuts To Failed Obama Homelessness Policy

20 States Sue After Trump Makes Cuts To Failed Obama-Era Approach To Homelessness

Courts

Housing

Letitia James

Americans support stringent public safety measures when it comes to violent crime and homelessness, according to a new poll first shared with The Daily Wire.
The Cicero Institute’s annual National Public Safety Poll found that 75% of Americans believe violent crime is either going up or staying the same, with only 18% of those surveyed believing it’s going down. Meanwhile, 61% said they would back court mandates for “treatment and stabilization” of repeat offenders with a “history of mental illness.” 
In addition, 64% of those surveyed said they want it to be easier for people to be entered into mental health facilities if they have “violent tendencies.”
“Americans have made their voices heard. They want safe streets for their families, accountable solutions for homelessness, and serious repercussions when our justice system fails,” Stefani Buhajla, Senior Director of Communications for the Cicero Institute, said in a statement.
The new polling data comes amid a nationwide discussion about how to tackle crime in light of President Donald Trump ordering National Guard troops and federal law enforcement agencies into Washington, D.C., and other cities throughout the United States, like Memphis. The Wall Street Journal reported that the surge in Memphis has been considered a positive move by “many” residents, despite major pushback in other cities where the policy has been floated.
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For those with mental illness who are facing a conviction for “aggravated murder,” 46% said life in prison should be considered, 18% said the death penalty, and 18% said both should be weighed as options, compared with 17% who said neither should be a consequence.
“Voters have lost patience with activist leniency that endangers communities. They rightly want violent individuals removed from the streets and overwhelmingly support removing incompetent judges who repeatedly let them off with a slap on the wrist,” she continued.
Other noteworthy numbers from the poll were 60% saying that federal investigations should occur if states have a history of releasing “repeat violent criminals.” And 63% said a judge should be booted from their job if they are “too lenient” on violent offenders.
The poll also revealed heavy support for better tracking of sex offenders and mandating treatment or job programs in order to get “taxpayer-funded housing.”
The poll surveyed 2,102 likely voters, and results were weighted based on demographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey Voting and Registration Supplement and the state election authorities.

Untitled design (61)

Americans Heavily Back Stringent Measures To Fight Crime, Mental Illness: Poll

Crime

National Guard

policing

public safety

Tennessee

Trump Administration

Numerous organizations have latched onto the homelessness crisis in the United States to advocate for &#8220;Marxist, anti-capitalist, or anti-American ideologies,&#8221; according to a report published last week by conservative watchdog, Capital Research Center (CRC).
In the 113-page <a href="https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/Infiltrated-Report-1.pdf">dossier</a>, CRC identifies multiple groups that are part of &#8220;extremist ideological movements advocating&#8221; for certain policies to address homelessness. The report refers to this network of leftist groups as the &#8220;Homelessness Industrial Complex,&#8221; which helps shape policies that are &#8220;counterproductive&#8221; and fail to address the root problems of the homelessness crisis.
&#8220;Many of the groups over time have moved away from a focus on directly serving people who suffer to advocacy, which is to say political fighting,&#8221; CRC President Scott Walter told The Daily Wire, adding, &#8220;Some groups have gotten seriously radical.&#8221;
The report, which CRC put together in cooperation with the Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank, combs through numerous organizations and highlights how they have pushed some of the most extreme leftist talking points. The report also analyzes the financial data of leftist networks and identifies how they have spent billions of dollars in their supposed effort to address homelessness, while the crisis has only spiraled further out of control.
Researchers with CRC looked into dozens of nonprofits that signed onto a Supreme Court amicus brief in last year&#8217;s Grants Pass v. Johnson case, opposing arrests and fines for homeless individuals who violated city ordinances. In that list of organizations, researchers found many groups that don&#8217;t focus solely on addressing homelessness, but also push radical leftism on other issues.
The National Harm Reduction Coalition, for example, supported defunding the police and told drug abusers that “no one knows what’s best for you better than you. Whatever drugs you use, we want you to be safe and healthy.&#8221; In 2022, the National Harm Reduction Coalition received 73% of its $12.8 million funding from government grants.
San Francisco Rising, another leftist organization that signed onto the Grants Pass v. Johnson amicus brief, is open about its political activism, calling itself an “electoral alliance” working “to build political power with working-class communities of color.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights filed another brief for the Grants Pass v. Johnson case, urging the court to oppose the city&#8217;s efforts to enforce the law against homeless individuals. The Center for Constitutional Rights <a href="https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/legal-group-israeli-colonial-domination-necessary-context">defended</a> Hamas&#8217; October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel, arguing that “Palestinian resistance fighters” had the right to “carry out attacks on military targets.”
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The Western Regional Advocacy Project, another nonprofit highlighted by CRC, espouses anti-capitalist rhetoric and has made <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CA_k3KChdZ1/">calls</a> to &#8220;Abolish Police.&#8221; The group&#8217;s executive director, Paul Boden, <a href="https://thestreetspirit.org/2025/05/07/the-roots-of-neoliberal-fascism-in-america-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/">wrote</a> an article in early 2025 arguing that the Trump administration is instituting &#8220;neoliberal fascism&#8221; in America.
&#8220;The essence of extreme radicalism is fury that America is a horrible place, and for those people, they want to exploit the homeless because they can point to the homeless as supposed evidence that the country is horrible,&#8221; Walter said. &#8220;If that is what you&#8217;re doing, you don&#8217;t want there to be fewer homeless people. You want their suffering as vivid and as widespread as possible. And if they were in an institution that was helping them with their mental or their substance abuse, instead of being out on the streets, that&#8217;s not very good for your PR campaign.&#8221;
Other far-Left groups that are involved in housing and homelessness advocacy have openly pushed Marxism. The Autonomous Tenants Union Network <a href="https://atun-rsia.org/who-we-are">says</a> that it fights &#8220;for a world without landlords and without rent&#8221; and then adds that it wants to &#8220;end capitalism itself.&#8221;
Stomp Out Slumlords, a D.C.-based member of the Autonomous Tenants Union Network, <a href="https://www.stompoutslumlords.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/SOS-2023-report_web.pdf">wrote</a> in 2023, &#8220;We’re not going to get to communism without moving people to talk to their neighbors first, and more importantly, doing it ourselves. Here in DC, exercising tenant purchase rights or pushing for rent freezes aren’t going to immediately decommodify housing, true. But these are the small-scale sites of disruption from which we can build working-class power into something much bigger.&#8221;
The Manhattan Institute&#8217;s Christopher Rufo, who has written extensively about America&#8217;s homelessness issue, said in the foreword to CRC&#8217;s report, &#8220;The rhetoric of &#8216;housing is a human right&#8217; and &#8216;abolish homelessness&#8217; is seductive, but it functions as a smokescreen.&#8221;
&#8220;Behind it lies a set of interests dedicated to dismantling enforcement, expanding bureaucracies, and keeping streams of funding flowing into activism rather than into effective service delivery to those in desperate need,&#8221; Rufo added.
The Trump administration has sought to address the homelessness crisis by focusing on law enforcement and rehabilitation. President Donald Trump also signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/ending-crime-and-disorder-on-americas-streets/">executive order</a> in July that aims to move &#8220;homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment&#8221; to &#8220;restore public order&#8221; and to redirect federal funds toward &#8220;Effective Methods of Addressing Homelessness.&#8221;
&#8220;Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens,&#8221; the order stated. &#8220;My Administration will take a new approach focused on protecting public safety.&#8221;
The Trump administration has faced backlash from leftist groups over its move to clean up homeless encampments. The Southern Poverty Law Center is another group that has inserted itself in the homelessness debate while advocating for leftist ideologies. The SPLC has frequently been slammed for smearing conservatives. CRC found that the SPLC often &#8220;engages in homelessness policy by submitting amicus filings that oppose enforcement.&#8221;
After Trump signed his July executive order, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/resources/guides/trump-executive-order-homelessness-faq/">argued</a> that the order &#8220;promotes unlawful and out-of-date approaches that are rooted in anti-Black racism and bias against people with disabilities.&#8221;
Walter said that rooting out the &#8220;Homelessness Industrial Complex&#8221; in the United States remains a &#8220;huge challenge&#8221; that &#8220;will take years.&#8221;
&#8220;It will take years because there&#8217;s so much money and inertia behind the current bad industrial complex on this,&#8221; Walter added. &#8220;So much of this is state and local, not federal. The federal money is often funding bad state and local things, so it&#8217;s not like the feds have no role or no leverage, But if Portland and Seattle and San Francisco and Los Angeles want to continue to be foolish and hurtful, it will not be easy to change because they are the tip of the spear for dealing with this.&#8221;

Leftist Groups Exploit The Homelessness Crisis To Push ‘Anti-American Ideologies,’ Watchdog Says

Leftist Groups Are Using The Homelessness Crisis To Push 'Anti-American Ideologies': Watchdog

Anti-American

Leftism

Marxism

Congressman Andy Barr has a plan to fix how the federal government deals with homelessness.
The Kentucky Republican is expected to introduce legislation that would drastically reduce the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s support for so-called Housing First policies to counter homelessness, according to documents reviewed by The Daily Wire. Critics say the approach has exacerbated homelessness while cutting off government aid to groups that prioritize targeting root causes, such as mental illness and drug addiction.
“Housing First policy shuts out providers who offer critical wraparound services that are often essential for helping individuals break the cycle of homelessness,” Barr said in a statement. “We need to abandon HUD’s exclusive reliance on Housing First in favor of an all-hands-on-deck approach to equip the best and most effective providers with the federal funds needed to end homelessness.&#8221;
Barr, who is running to replace outgoing Senator Mitch McConnell, says his Housing Promotes Livelihood and Ultimate Success Act would do just that.
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“The Housing PLUS Act ensures federal funds are reaching providers who are helping people transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency, without unneeded restrictions.”
Barr has introduced similar legislation in the past, but this is the first time he has done so with Republicans in control of Congress and the White House.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development awards grants from its Continuum of Care program to providers seeking to care for the homeless. Those providers include privately-run charities, government agencies, and others. They aid the homeless by offering no-cost housing, but in many cases, they place conditions on housing, such as mandatory job training or addiction treatment.
The Housing First approach has largely frozen out providers that only offer conditional housing, however. The approach prioritizes stability over treatment. HUD effectively bans requirements to maintain housing, such as sobriety or engaging with caseworkers, in order for providers to qualify for federal grant money.
The Housing First model was first introduced in 2008 under the Bush administration, but massively expanded five years later. Under President Barack Obama, Housing First became the federal government’s “one-size-fits-all” approach to the entire United States homeless population, Texas Public Policy Foundation senior fellow Michele Steeb told The Daily Wire.
“Mental illness and addiction are [problems that] about 80% of the overall homeless population struggle with,” Steeb said. “What HUD did [under Obama] was they defunded those services. Those services used to be funded and provided with housing up until 2013, but HUD defunded those services, and they put all of that funding instead into more housing subsidies.”
Critics of the approach argue that it fails to care for the entire person and does little to address the root causes of homelessness. In fact, far too many recipients fall back into homelessness. A 2022 <a href="https://ciceroinstitute.org/research/housing-first-is-a-failure/">report</a> by the Cicero Institute found that homelessness increased by nearly 25% in areas that exclusively rely on the Housing First model.
An earlier version of Barr’s bill sought to allocate no less than 30% of HUD grant awards for Continuum of Care to housing providers that provide or condition their services on “wraparound services,” such as treatment for addiction. The current version has bumped that allocation to no less than 50%.
“By redirecting federal resources toward programs that provide treatment and recovery for those experiencing homelessness — nearly 80% of whom also battle mental illness or addiction — the Housing PLUS Act confronts a humanitarian crisis a decade in the making and ends the cycle of despair and decline of individuals and communities,” Steeb said in a statement.

Speaker McCarthy Holds Signing Ceremony To Nullify ESG Rule

This Republican Congressman Wants To End The Progressive Policy Hurting The Homeless

Kentucky

WASHINGTON—Hundreds of protestors convened in DuPont Circle Saturday to denounce what they called President Donald Trump’s fascist takeover of Washington, D.C.
“What we see happening in front of us with a Trump fascist takeover of D.C. is launching to a whole other league of a Trump fascist takeover of society,” Sam Goldman, one of the event’s organizers, said at the opening rally.
These protestors are seething over Trump’s federalization of the metropolitan police and activation of the National Guard to quell the crime that the president has called “totally out of control.”
One of the rallying cries was against Trump’s use of law enforcement to remove homeless people from encampments in the streets, which the protest organizers have called a “Nazi Cleansing of The Homeless!”
When asked whether Trump had any reason to federalize the city’s police, one middle-aged man at the protest replied, “Abso-fu***ing-lutely not. Not a f***ing reason. The hypocrisy of it all.”
As the protest went on, an older gentleman sitting on a bench said a group that provides free meals to homeless people in DuPont Circle was forced to relocate across the street to accommodate the hundreds of demonstrators in the park. About a dozen homeless men and women gathered to receive meals there across the street from the protestors.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-962315" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_150337_012_saved-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_150337_012_saved-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_150337_012_saved-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_150337_012_saved-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_150337_012_saved.jpg 1968w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></div>
In the park, an elderly black woman rocked back and forth on a bench near the rally organizer’s stage. A group of young men sat as far from the noisy rally as they could, smoking joints or cigarettes.
DuPont Circle sits squarely on Connecticut Avenue, which runs right into the White House and falls on what is considered to be the “good side” of the nation’s capital. But it’s also where a well-known DOGE employee was recently beaten bloody by about 10 teenagers who wanted the staffer’s vehicle.
Despite events of that nature, the protestors who gathered over the weekend denied that D.C. had a crime problem.
As they gathered and began chanting, D.C. police officers assembled at the outskirts of the park on bicycles and in cruisers. Once the hundreds of protestors began filing down Connecticut Avenue towards the White House, the police ensured that none of the  First Amendment fighters were mowed down by the city’s notoriously bad drivers.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-962323" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_162158_017_saved-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_162158_017_saved-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_162158_017_saved-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_162158_017_saved-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_162158_017_saved.jpg 1968w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></div>
One of the protestors shouted in the fray that she hated the police, a consistent rallying cry heard throughout the day. Another rally goer humorously commented, “But these ones” — the police escorting the demonstrators towards the White House — “are alright: they’re protesting with us.”
Days before the protest, the D.C. Police Union, which represents roughly 90% of the capital’s officers, endorsed Trump’s move to crack down on crime in the city. The union said it agrees “that crime is spiraling out of control, and immediate action is necessary to restore public safety.”
As the protestors marched down the city streets with the police escorting them and protecting their First Amendment, one man commented that “The rule of law is gone at this point because anything Trump does is against the law and he doesn’t care.”
The protesters themselves did not always match the seriousness of their rhetoric. One protester brandished a baguette, while another held a poster of Princess Leia holding a sub sandwich instead of a gun.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-962317" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_160148_006_saved-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_160148_006_saved-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_160148_006_saved-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_160148_006_saved-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_160148_006_saved.jpg 1968w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></div>
Both of these rally goers had apparently adopted the weapon of 37-year-old Sean Charles Dunn, a former Justice Department employee who slapped a federal agent across the chest with a sub sandwich while calling them “fascists” and yelling, “F*** you!”
In response to the video of the incident,  Jeanine Pirro, who oversees the federal court for the D.C. area, said, “We’re going to back the police to the hilt, so there, stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else.”
The protestors took a route in front of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and the Washington Monument, where a National Guard convoy was parked. The bicycle police had to restrain the protestors from accosting the guardsmen.
One woman, who lives in Warrenton, Virginia, and came into the city for the protest, said there was no crime problem in D.C. at all.
“I don’t live in D.C. — I live outside — but when I come in, I have never been frightened.
“There’s no emergency here,” the woman, who lives an hour outside D.C., told The Daily Wire. “It’s made up.”
Upon arriving at the White House fence, the protesters continued to shout and blow their whistles.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-962319" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_161825_001_saved-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_161825_001_saved-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_161825_001_saved-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_161825_001_saved-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_161825_001_saved.jpg 1968w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></div>
After the protest began to disband, this reporter went to find some water and had to step around a homeless man sleeping in front of a Peet’s Coffee across the street from the White House.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-962321" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_165855_002_saved-768x576.jpg" alt="" width="768" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_165855_002_saved-768x576.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_165855_002_saved-300x225.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_165855_002_saved-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/20250816_165855_002_saved.jpg 1968w" sizes=" (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px" /></div>

D.C. Protest

The People Protesting Trump’s D.C. Takeover Don’t Seem To Know What’s Going On

Protest

Washington D.C.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams proposed a new law on Thursday that would make it easier to get drug addicts safely off the streets and into treatment.
The “Compassionate Interventions Act” <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/633-25/mayor-adams-new-proposal-further-support-new-yorkers-struggling-substance-use">would</a> allow doctors to involuntarily commit drug addicts in New York City.
If the law passes, a doctor would be able to bring someone &#8220;who appears to pose a danger to themselves or others due to substance use&#8221; to a hospital and allow a judge to mandate treatment if the person is unwilling to enter treatment voluntarily.
Public drug use on city streets &#8220;degrades quality of life and leaves a feeling of disorder among many city residents,&#8221; Adams&#8217; office said in a press release.
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Today, we&#8217;re launching our &#8216;End Culture of Anything Goes&#8217; campaign to improve quality of life and support all those struggling on our streets.
We&#8217;ve made great strides to change the culture and laws preventing people with severe mental illness from getting the help they needed. <a href="https://t.co/bnuPywvBzd">pic.twitter.com/bnuPywvBzd</a>
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1954875741851537823?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
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A total of 37 other states <a href="https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/research-studies/addiction-research/involuntary-commitment?utm_source=chatgpt.com">allow</a> drug addicts to be involuntarily committed.
&#8220;While we have made our system work better to address severe mental illness and homelessness, we often hear from New Yorkers that there are still too many people in need of help,&#8221; Adams said in a statement.
This week, Adams launched his &#8220;End Culture of Anything Goes&#8221; campaign aimed at cracking down on drugs and homelessness in the Big Apple.
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&#8220;Our administration refuses to turn our backs on New Yorkers in need, and with today’s announcement, we’re laying out a vision that will help get everyone the support they need. In the name of public safety, public health, and the public interest, we must rally to help those in crisis because ‘anything goes’ is worse than nothing at all,&#8221; the mayor said.
Also on Thursday, Adams announced he would invest another $27 million in substance abuse treatment, including more teams on the ground that engage with drug addicts and new programs to help people finish treatment once they start.
New York City struggles with pockets of drug addiction, such as &#8220;The Hub&#8221; in the Bronx.
The South Bronx area around Roberto Clemente Plaza is home to harrowing scenes of dozens of drug addicts shooting up in public, sometimes spilling blood onto the sidewalk, then tweaking and standing doubled over while drug dealers sell their wares brazenly in broad daylight nearby, all while trash and needles pile up.
A total of 366 &#8220;active substance users&#8221; were <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/12/24/us-news/bronxs-the-hub-is-drug-riddled-business-as-usual-after-post-exposes-junkie-wasteland/">recorded</a> last fall when the NYPD, sanitation workers, and health department workers teamed up to try to clean up &#8220;The Hub.&#8221;
The city teams arrested 35 people and put 47 people in homeless shelters, but the area remains a hot spot for public drug use to this day.

Homelessness On The Rise In New York

NYC Mayor Eric Adams Proposes Law To Involuntarily Commit Drug Addicts

Eric Adams Proposes Law To Involuntarily Commit Drug Addicts

Drugs

Eric Adams

President Donald Trump promised on Monday to clean up crime and vagrancy in the nation&#8217;s capital by shifting more responsibilities over the district to the federal government. 
Trump made the announcement during a press conference at the White House, where he laid out a number of executive actions he was taking to fight violent crime, decrease homelessness, and otherwise clean up Washington, D.C. 
“I&#8217;m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation&#8217;s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse,” Trump said. “ This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we&#8217;re gonna take our capital back. We&#8217;re taking it back.” 
Trump on Monday invoked Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act and declared a public emergency. This granted him to move the D.C. Police Department under the control of the Justice Department. DEA Administrator Terry Cole will head the department, per Trump&#8217;s orders. 
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and U.S. District Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro all appeared alongside Trump at the news conference.
The president also added that he was sending 800 National Guard troops to patrol the streets of D.C. Last week, the administration sent 500 federal agents into the district, including from the FBI, ATF, DEA, Park Police, the U.S. Marshal Service, the Secret Service, and the Department of Homeland Security. 
“The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on earth,” Trump said, adding that “the only language” that criminals understand is when you “knock the hell out of them.” 
The president added that he would like to see Republicans in Congress move to end cashless bail in the district, saying that the policy led to lawlessness in the streets. Trump added that he planned to improve infrastructure in the district and crack down on homeless encampments. 
“We&#8217;re going to replace the medians that are falling down all over the roads. We&#8217;re gonna replace the potholes,” he said. 
Burgum, who briefly spoke during the conference, said that Park Police had cleared over 70 homeless camps from D.C. since March 27. 
“We’re going to be removing homeless encampments from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks, which now a lot of people can&#8217;t walk on,” Trump said. “We&#8217;re moving the encampments away, trying to take care of people. Some of those people, we don&#8217;t know how they even got there.”

President Trump DC Public Safety Emergency

‘We’re Gonna Take Our Capital Back’: Here’s Everything Trump Is Going To Do To Clean Up D.C.

‘We're Gonna Take Our Capital Back’: Here's Everything Trump Is Promising To Do To Clean Up D.C.

Department of Justice

Doug Burgum

Pam Bondi

Pete Hegseth

Violent Crime

White House

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to crack down on homelessness across the country. 
The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/ending-crime-and-disorder-on-americas-streets/">executive order</a> aims to make it easier to house homeless people with serious drug addictions and mental conditions in humane “long-term institutional settings” and encourages states to enforce existing laws against public drug use and squatting.
“Endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe. The number of individuals living on the streets in the United States on a single night during the last year of the previous administration — 274,224 — was the highest ever recorded,” the order states. “Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order. Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens.”
As part of the order, Trump directed his administration to seek to reverse federal and state judicial precedents and consent decrees that prevented the commitment of “individuals with mental illness who pose risks to themselves or the public” into “appropriate facilities for appropriate periods of time.”
The order also encourages his administration to offer grants that motivate states to crack down on public drug use, urban camping, loitering, and urban squatting. 
Trump also directed his administration to stop funding programs that promote “harm reduction” or the “safe consumption” of drugs. During the Biden administration, there was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-sent-the-black-community-crack-pipes-social-media-erupts-in-response-to-crack-pipe-racial-equity-initiative">public outcry</a> after a report said that the administration was distributing free crack pipes in “safe smoking kits.” 
In 2024, homelessness reached its highest total since 2007, when data collection began, <a href="https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/IF/PDF/IF12985/IF12985.1.pdf">according</a> to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. On a single night in 2024, there were roughly 771,480 people without homes, including 274,224 who had no shelter at all. California had the largest homeless population in the country, with <a href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2024-AHAR-Part-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimates</a> placing the total around 187,000. 
The Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/scotus-rules-in-favor-of-oregon-citys-ban-on-homeless-encampments">ruled</a> last year that local ordinances restricting camping on public property do not violate the Constitution’s prohibition against enacting cruel and unusual punishments under the Eighth Amendment.
On Friday, Trump was asked about a group of homeless people camping outside the Treasury Department. 
“I think it’s terrible and we’ll have them removed immediately,” he told reporters. “We’ve got to get the mayor to run this city properly. This city has to be run. You know, I have the right to take it over, and I think it’s terrible.” 
&nbsp;
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REPORTER: &#8220;I saw homeless people sleeping right outside the gates of the White House&#8230;&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a>: &#8220;I think it&#8217;s terrible and we&#8217;ll have them removed immediately.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/iC2NX8RgOh">pic.twitter.com/iC2NX8RgOh</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1948742404699250752?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Trump has long <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-gives-d-c-mayor-ultimatum-on-unsightly-homeless-encampments?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Gives+D.C.+Mayor+Ultimatum+On+‘Unsightly+Homeless+Encampments’">threatened</a> to strip the authority of Washington D.C. from Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser. Bowser has previously said that homeless encampments are “not technically permitted in the District” and has signaled she would be open to working with the White House to address the problem.

TOPSHOT-US-SOCIAL-HOMELESSNESS

Trump Moves To Get Homeless Off The Streets, Into ‘Appropriate Facilities’

Katy Perry recently filed a temporary restraining order against a homeless man she says has visited her California home uninvited, per a report from <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2025/06/30/katy-perry-restraining-order-homeless-man-santa-barbara/">TMZ</a>.
The 40-year-old singer claims Ross Elliott Hedrick, 43, visited her Santa Barbara estate multiple times in May. TMZ reported that the first time Hedrick showed up on Perry’s property, he carried a butane lighter and an aerosol can. He was reportedly arrested but returned a week later. On his second visit, he allegedly threw a blanket over the security fence. The TRO also requests protection for Perry’s partner, actor Orlando Bloom. The news comes as rumors of the couple’s breakup are swirling.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Perry requested a court order for Hedrick to stay at least 100 yards away from her, Bloom, her properties, her job, and her car.
Perry’s security company reportedly believes Hedrick will continue attempting to make contact with the pop star and provided screenshots of Ring video showing Hedrick at her estate.
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Though Perry and Bloom haven’t publicly confirmed their split yet, multiple sources have reported that the pair is breaking up after nine years together.
“Katy and Orlando have been suffering through the same problems that have plagued them for years,” a source said, per <a href="https://people.com/katy-perry-orlando-bloom-problems-years-before-split-exclusive-11764457">People</a>. “[They had] too much going on in their lives, which makes it hard to find time for each other and iron out disagreements. When they don’t communicate properly, their relationship dips to a low level.”
Perry has been having some issues with fans negatively reacting to her latest album and current “Lifetimes Tour.” Videos of the singer dancing onstage prompted viewers to question the choreography and overall quality of the show, especially in comparison to Perry’s past efforts.
The Grammy Award nominee also got mocked for joining Blue Origin’s first all-female flight crew, with critics saying the 11-minute space flight was not a big deal.
Perry referred to her many critics as “unhinged and unhealed.”

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