•      "In order to reduce homelessness, policymakers at all levels must understand that chronic and long-term homelessness is not primarily a housing problem—it is a human problem. According to a 2019 report from the University of California Los Angeles analyzing data from 64,000 surveys, 75 percent of the unsheltered homeless have substance-abuse disorders, 78 percent have mental health disorders, and 84 percent have physical health conditions. In other words, these are not simply people who lack shelter; the majority are suffering from profound human pathologies. As homelessness threatens to become an entrenched problem in American cities, it is more important than ever for policymakers to have a clear understanding of the failures of current policy, as well as the potential for reform. In re-orienting the public response toward better outcomes, policymakers must begin with a simple premise: Any effort to reduce homelessness must address addiction, mental illness, and social pathologies—not just physical housing, lack of which is frequently a reflection of deeper problems." Source: Christopher Rufo, The Heritage Foundation

•      "I worry that what Housing First has done is taken a lot of people who are very much struggling and very much deserving of our compassion, though I think how we provide that compassion is up for debate,” he said, “but it also introduces people with serious drug problems, with serious mental illness problems, into communities with kids who are already in a very unstable situation. And now they’re having things like drug use normalized around them." Source: Former Senator J.D. Vance (Republican, Ohio), National Housing Conference

•      "The year-over-year increases in homelessness funding and in the number of people experiencing homelessness demonstrate the significant incompetence of HUD and the Continuum of Care Program…Now, communities are struggling with not knowing where public money meant to reduce homelessness goes and what it accomplishes. They struggle with increased drug use, untreated mental illness, crime, and destitution–particularly around homeless shelters and housing. Innovative programs that seek to address homelessness through requirements and performance measures are shut out of funding…Without reforms, more communities will see continued increases in human misery while non-performing governments and nonprofits get fat on millions of dollars in federal funding." Source: Paul Webster, Cicero Institute