Free Republic

The Adams administration has inked a nearly $1 billion contract with the hotel industry for emergency shelter space — despite boasting that the migrant crisis is tapering off, The Post has learned. Taxpayers are on the hook for the $929.1 million reupped with the Hotel Association of New York City Foundation as the total city population still includes a whopping 86,000 people, including homeless individuals and asylum seekers. “These hotel units will be used by social services vendors to house emergency shelter clients who have entered the [Department of Homeless Services] shelter system,” the agency said in a notice posted...

The Center Square) – A nonprofit is in line to get McClean County tax dollars and private donations to build 50 cabin tiny homes for homeless individuals. Critics say similar projects haven't resulted in a decline in homelessness. At a recent City Council meeting, Bloomington city council member Sheila Montney pointed to data from Denver and Seattle, cities that have implemented similar low-barrier housing models. “The outcomes from Denver are significantly concerning to me,” she said, noting that 19 residents of micro-communities there had died, 258 returned to homelessness, 61 were jailed, and 105 had unknown outcomes, statistics she described...

Eleven people were stabbed in a church-run homeless shelter in Oregon that is directly across from the local police HQ, according to authorities. At least one member of staff at the Union Gospel Mission in Salem is among the wounded following the shocking scenes at around 7:15 p.m. Sunday, police said. The 11 wounded were rushed to a Salem hospital with “varying types of injuries,” police said. The suspect, who is in custody, had arrived at the mission the previous night and was about to check into the 150-person ministry again for a second night when he started brawling just...

Eleven people were hospitalized after being stabbed at a homeless services provider in downtown Salem, Oregon, on Sunday night, police said. A suspect was in custody after the violence at 7:15 p.m. at Union Gospel Mission, Salem police spokeswoman Angela Hedrick said. …… The suspect was described only as a man, and no identity was available. …… The incident took place at the Union Gospel Mission's 50,000-square-foot Men’s Mission, which opened in 2021 a few blocks north of the mission's old, circa-1960s facilities, according to the organization. It's across the street from the Salem Police Department.

A doctor in the south-central region of Los Angeles County is calling it quits after years of battling denizens of a rooftop homeless encampment that have continuously terrorized her and her employees, costing the general practitioner tens of thousands of dollars in the process. Dr. Tahani Soliman owns the building she runs her practice out of on the corner of Rugby and Zoe avenues in Huntington Park. A multi-level parking garage next door to her practice has reportedly been a hub for unhoused people, who are easily able to access her roof, camp out, steal electricity and scrap metal from...

The county plans to permanently close the west side of the flood-control channel between 17th Street in Santa Ana and Adams Avenue in Huntington Beach as it prepares to start maintenance of Orange County Flood Control District property along the trail, officials have said. Before maintenance begins, Orange County Public Works officials have been tasked with cleaning debris and trash from the former encampment in Fountain Valley. Puckett said officials found a .357 magnum containing three empty shell casings — indicating to authorities that it had been fired — near the camp. The Sheriff’s Department is investigating where the gun...

Grants Pass, Oregon has been known as a beautiful, predominantly conservative small city in Southern Oregon. A place that has welcomed retirees escaping California’s ongoing meltdown, and really a place for people of all ages who appreciate the natural beauty of the region and proximity to the Rogue River, which runs through town. The charms of the area were on full display at this year’s Boatnik celebration, an annual Memorial Day weekend event organized by The Active Club, a local nonprofit organization that contributes to the youth of Southern Oregon. Sponsors include the City of Grants Pass, Josephine County, and...

A Los Angeles business owner has found a novel way to keep homeless people from camping near his building: playing a children’s song on an annoying loop. “They played ‘Baby Shark’ all night long,” Tracy, a woman who lives in an encampment next door to the building at the corner of West 11th and Main streets, told NBC4 Los Angeles. “They’re doing everything they can to make us move or drive us crazy. But it’s doing the latter. It’s driving people crazy.” The building owners began playing the song through a loudspeaker pointed directly at the encampment, which Tracy told...

The number of homeless people in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties is higher than ever, according to the latest numbers from the national biannual homelessness count. Known as the point-in-time count, the federally mandated census takes place every other year and is focused on creating a snapshot of who is homeless on one night in January. It is broadly understood to be an undercount, but officials still view the data as useful in identifying national trends and making comparisons between jurisdictions. Surveyors identified 12,034 homeless people in the tri-county region this January, with 87% of them residing in Multnomah County,...

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday ordered cities across the Golden state to start cleaning up its homeless encampments, stating that the "time for inaction is over" and that the state has a lot of federal funding to help with the efforts. California has become known for having the highest homeless rate in the country with 187,000 homeless people as of 2024, who largely occupy cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. Los Angeles has the second highest homeless population in the country, behind New York City. Newsom laid out a plan to eliminate the homeless population from his...

Between 2022 and 2024, the U.S. saw a record 43 percent rise in “sheltered homelessness”—staying in some sort of emergency shelter, as opposed to living on the street. That is shocking enough on its own, but according to a new study, a contemporaneous spike in asylum seekers accounted for a stunning 60% of that increase. “Asylum seekers”—as referenced in the study—are all recent immigrants seeking residence in the U.S., regardless of their legal status. Unsheltered homelessness has been on the rise since 2015, but sheltered homelessness had declined by 12% from 2007 to 2022 before its sudden 43% spike between...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday urged California cities to clear homeless encampments, escalating efforts anew to address the makeshift tents that line underpasses, parks and streets up and down the state. The Democratic governor unveiled a blueprint for a camping ban for cities and counties to follow in announcing more than $3 billion in grants for facilities to treat homeless people and others who struggle with mental health and substance use disorders. He used the occasion to exhort cities and counties once again to use the money and policy changes provided by the state to do...

President Donald Trump announced on Friday revealed plans on Friday to create the National Center for Warrior Independence at the West Los Angeles VA Campus. This new initiative is aimed at offering critical support and housing for homeless veterans. Trump also directed that money originally set aside for services and housing for illegal immigrants be reallocated to help America's veterans instead. The White House said its goal is to house up to 6,000 homeless veterans at the center by 2028.

An Episcopal congregation here, after facing months of backlash from some neighbors in response to its proposal for a 17-bed homeless shelter, now has been targeted by ersey]the town for possible public seizure of the 11-acre church property through eminent domain. The congregation, Christ Episcopal Church, says the property is not for sale, yet the elected town council on April 30, during a raucous and contentious meeting, agreed to begin the process of buying or seizing the church and five other properties to create two new town parks. The Rev. Lisa A. Hoffman, Christ Church’s rector, said that a Toms...

Homelessness keeps rising, homeless taxes keep rising and the money disappears. In Los Angeles County, spring is in the air and so are higher taxes. Beyond the usual punishing ritual of April 15, county residents also now face some of the highest sales taxes in the country. Sales taxes in the area have shot up from 9.75% to as high as 11.25% to fund still more services for the ‘homeless’. The permanent sales tax increase is supposed to raise $1 billion a year to replace the stolen billions spent by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Families will pay even...

Two teenage girls from Germany were detained, arrested, and deported at an airport in Hawaii after immigration officials said it was suspicious they had not booked a hotel room. Backpackers Charlotte Pohl, 19, and Maria Lepere, 18, arrived in Honolulu from Auckland while undergoing a round-the-world trip. The duo planned to spend five weeks in Hawaii before moving onto California and Costa Rica for the next legs of their journey. But despite having ESTA travel authorization, immigration officials accused them of attempting to enter the U.S. to work illegally, and they were placed in handcuffs and taken to a nearby...

A Southern California mayor is under fire for wanting to eliminate his city’s homeless population by giving them “all the fentanyl they want” — a shocking remark he reinforced by calling for a federal “purge.” Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris shared his controversial views during a Feb. 25 city council meeting when a resident took issue with the city’s attempt to address the homeless crisis by “enclosing” the unhoused at an abandoned golf course near a residential neighborhood. “What I want to do is give them free fentanyl,” Parris said as he interrupted the woman’s comments, according to footage of...

Officials at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) are facing scrutiny for refusing to release public records related to allegations of significant wrongdoing that led to $800,000 in taxpayer-funded settlements. LAist, a local news outlet, has been denied access to documents detailing wrongful termination and whistleblower retaliation claims filed by two former executives who departed the agency in 2024. The two executives are Kristina Dixon, former chief financial and administration officer, and Emily Vaughn Henry, former data and IT director. Their terminations occurred during Va Lecia Adams Kellum’s first year as LAHSA’s chief executive. LAist initiated its request for...

Afederal judge excoriated officials who were unable to account for $2.4 billion in taxpayer funds meant to go toward solving homelessness in Los Angeles.U.S. District Court Judge David Carter threatened to appoint a court-ordered receiver if officials didn't improve their efforts to account for the money spent, according to an LAist report. (snip) The judge gave them until May to fulfill their responsibilities or have a receiver take over the spending. While he acknowledged that they had inherited a "mess" from former officials, Carter demanded that they take accountibility.“I am your worst nightmare,” Carter told them. “I can make your...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — President Trump is vowing a new approach to getting homeless people off the streets by forcibly moving those living outside into large camps while mandating mental health and addiction treatment — an aggressive departure from the nation's leading homelessness policy, which for decades has prioritized housing as the most effective way to combat the crisis. "Our once-great cities have become unlivable, unsanitary nightmares," Mr. Trump said in a presidential campaign video. "For those who are severely mentally ill and deeply disturbed, we will bring them to mental institutions, where they belong, with the goal of reintegrating them...