Free Republic

A Portland Democrat who once called for homeless individuals to be given housing suffered an ironic and cruel twist of fate last week. As The Oregonian reported, 51-year-old homeless man Vashon Locust was arrested on Tuesday after starting a fire that torched Portland City Councilor Candace Avalos’ townhome and car. He faces charges of reckless burning, second-degree mischief, and trespassing. These are all misdemeanors. According to a police affidavit obtained by the paper, Locust snuck into a shed near Avalos’ home on October 26 and attempted to use an electric outlet. When that failed, he set a fire to stay...

A new study from a pair of think tanks has found that massive amounts of money, taxpayer dollars that are meant to combat the ongoing homelessness crisis, are in fact being used to further the left’s political goals. This might explain why the homeless problem seems to get worse each year despite the fact that we throw billions of dollars at efforts to solve it. FOX News reports: A new study just exposed the corruption behind America’s homelessness crisisFor years, Americans have been told that “compassion” for the homeless meant writing ever-larger checks – more money, more programs and far...

“We would not eat.” That is how disabled U.S. Navy veteran Juan Saro described a life without the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP…About 1.2 million veterans are enrolled now, according to the National Council on Aging. More than 20,000 military families, 213,000 National Guard and Reserve members, and more than 1 million veterans, rely on such benefits, according to Veteran.com. Saro survived a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his time in the Navy. He later worked as a sixth-grade teacher. But COVID-related health problems made it impossible to stay in the classroom. The veteran now...

With the arrests and federal indictments of two California men announced on Thursday, we're now getting an idea of how California's billions of dollars to "end homelessness" vanished without a trace. Instead of helping to solve the problem of rampant tent encampments filled with addicts on the beaches and streets in California, things got worse. Where did all that money go? An audit in 2024 revealed that no one knew how the homeless money was spent. I wrote about this in "No Wonder Gavin Newsom Didn't Want an Audit to Track $24 Billion in Homeless Spending." The audit revealed that...

Federal investigators accuse Charlotte community activist Cedric Dean of exploiting homeless people to defraud Medicaid out of millions of dollars.

It's apparently the latest trend in Los Angeles. Homeless encampments aren't just popping up in parks and sidewalks anymore. Now, they're taking over some private lots, too. "It's just sketchy," said Samantha Rene, a Koreatown resident. The encampment sits at Hoover and San Marino Streets, right next to an apartment complex and close to a place of worship. Hoover Elementary School is just two blocks away, and many young students need to pass it to get to school. "Sometimes when I pass by, they're always like screaming, fighting or sometimes they're like doing this," said Jayleen Alas, a 4th grader,...

MADISON, Wis. -- Jaytona Lockhart is living on the streets of Madison. "I'm not gonna be homeless too long, you know what I'm saying? It's just for a season," he said. "I work myself into getting some resources to help me find some housing." Lockhart and others facing housing insecurity watch as the Dairy Drive tiny homes and the Veteran's Museum homeless encampment are shut down and the permanent men's shelter on the city's east side is built, all changing the landscape of homelessness in the community and highlighting a growing problem. "We have teams of providers that go out...

Screencap of Twitter/X video. Trump has had control of Washington, DC for a little over a week and it has already made a tremendous difference, and while partisans and talking heads on TV continue to describe this as ‘authoritarian’ many of the people who actually live there seem to appreciate it. In the video below, which has been shared widely on Twitter/X and other social media platforms, a young woman from Washington, DC marvels at what Trump has been able to do in such a short amount of time. You will not see this young woman featured on CNN or...

President Trump has taken extraordinary measures in the nation’s capital to fulfill an ordinary function of local government: keeping clean, orderly streets. His actions seem unusual because government officials in America’s cities long ago abandoned the basics. They have been led astray by academics and activists who promised them crimeless cities and an end to homelessness if only they established a right to housing and eradicated income inequality. These idealistic public-policy frameworks have failed to achieve the desired outcomes anywhere in the U.S. Instead, they’ve ushered in the worst homelessness crisis on record. President Trump’s strategy is straightforward: Everyone living...

Federal officials have cleared about 75 homeless camps around the nation’s capital under President Trump’s effort to clean up Washington, DC — and they’re not done yet. United States Park Police have removed dozens of tents since the president penned the “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful” executive order in March, the Department of the Interior told The Post Friday. Authorities have also scrubbed up to 80 graffiti sites from Capitol Hill Parks as of Aug. 6, Interior officials said. Interior leaders, led by Secretary Doug Burgum, are revising guidelines so there is a no-tolerance policy for illegal...

The White House says those living in homeless encampments in the nation's capital will have two choices in the coming days: accept treatment at a homeless shelter, or go to jail. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the ultimatum during a Tuesday press conference as reporters prodded about President Donald Trump's federal takeover of Washington, D.C.'s law enforcement. She said many of the homeless encampments across the city have already been dismantled, and those that remain she expected to be dealt with this week. "Seventy homeless encampments have been removed by the U.S. Park Police," Leavitt said, adding that...

President Trump is holding a press conference this morning, where he is expected to make a major announcement on his plans to end violent crime and homelessness in Washington, DC. As The Gateway Pundit reported, President Trump announced over the weekend that he will hold a press conference this morning, and it will “essentially, stop violent crime in Washington, D.C.” ”It has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World. It will soon be one of the safest!!!” the President said. .... Snip.... The President is expected to begin his press conference in the White House briefing...

Hundreds of National Guard troops were expected to flood the streets of Washington DC as President Donald Trump threatens a federal takeover of the capital. The move came as Trump blasted the crime and homelessness in DC while deploying 120 FBI agents to work alongside D.C. police and other federal law enforcement officers in the nation's capital. 'The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital,' Trump posted on Truth Social. 'The Criminals, you don't have to move out. We're going to put you in jail where you belong,' 'Be...

Guest post by Joe Kovacs ‘Before the tents, squalor, filth, and Crime, it was the most beautiful Capital in the World. It will soon be that again.’ Saying the American public “is not going to put up with it any longer,” President Donald Trump is now providing some details about cleaning up the nation’s capital city of Washington, D.C. On Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said a news conference is slated for 10 a.m. Monday in the White House Press Briefing Room to address the matter. “I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was...

We’re having a News Conference tomorrow in the White House. I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before. The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY. We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong. It’s all going to happen very fast, just like the Border. We went from millions pouring in, to ZERO in the last few months. This will be easier — Be prepared! There will be no “MR. NICE GUY.”...

New York City has officially opened its first shelter for transgender and gender-nonconforming people who are homeless. Officials say it’s the only city-funded shelter of its kind in the country and will help 150 transgender New Yorkers as the Trump administration has rolled back rights for the trans community, barring access to medical care, military service and federal documents that reflect their gender identity. The city is fully funding the facility in Long Island City, which will cost $65 million to operate through 2030. “ We've watched so many other corporations and foundations and businesses just like completely turn their...

The public is fed up with having to climb over drug-addled zombies and mumbling, mentally deranged vagrants on the streets and in the subways. But New York City's far-left politicians insist the homeless should be catered to on their own terms, including providing them with clean needles to support their addictions, and medical care wherever they choose to sleep. The public's fears and disgust be damned. Last Thursday President Donald Trump took sides with the public. By executive order, he announced that federal funding for housing and social services would no longer go to the "failed programs" that facilitate the...

It’s a “housing crisis.” It’s because Republicans are evil and don’t care about the downtrodden. It’s because capitalism is cruel. It's because we don't throw enough money at the problem.We’re talking about the homelessness crisis, and the Democrats who are in charge of many of the cities hardest hit by the devastation will blame almost anything other than their own failed policies. But according to a study from researchers at the University of Chicago and Dartmouth College—not exactly institutions known as conservative bastions—there’s another reason behind the startling rise in the homeless population, and it’s not what Gavin Newsom, JB...

In a major move aimed at restoring law, order, and basic sanity and hygiene, President Trump is taking direct action to reopen mental health institutions and end the open-air drug chaos that’s turned once-thriving cities into poop-filled war zones.

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose and Policy. 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 overwhelming majority of these individuals are addicted to drugs, have a mental health condition, or both. Nearly two-thirds of homeless individuals report having regularly...