Free Republic

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) celebrated Wednesday as his state became the world’s fourth-largest economy — albeit one that cannot fix homelessness or protect its citizens from devastating wildfires. Newsom’s office cited data indicating that California had surpassed Japan and that only the U.S., China, and Germany had larger economies, in terms of total output. He boasted in a press statement: California isn’t just keeping pace with the world—we’re setting the pace. Our economy is thriving because we invest in people, prioritize sustainability, and believe in the power of innovation. And, while we celebrate this success, we recognize that our...

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...

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...

FUBAR inflation, catering to migrants, and high taxes are impoverishing New Yorkers. Details in this 16 minute videoditorial and the attached transcript.

The Seattle homeless population is the tragic result of failed policies. But it’s not just a problem — it’s a manufactured disaster, enabled and exacerbated by left-wing policies that have done nothing but invite more homelessness while refusing to address its root causes. A new study from the Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness explains how dire the situation truly is in Seattle. The study lays out in devastating detail how Seattle’s approach has not only failed but made everything worse. The city’s leaders, obsessed with progressive ideology over practical solutions, have created a system that draws homeless individuals from outside the...

Breaking: Pastor of Dad’s Place Found Guilty of Criminal Charge for Keeping Church Doors Open 24 Hours-a-Day Guilty verdict comes after relentless opposition from the City of Bryan, Ohio and as temperatures in area dip to near zero. Bryan, OH—Today, Pastor Chris Avell of Dad’s Place Church in Bryan, Ohio was found guilty of a criminal charge regarding a fire code violation filed against him by city officials. The year-long battle with the City of Bryan that has continuously attempted to shut down the church, Dad’s Place, resulted in a conviction for the caring pastor. Pastor Avell was fined $200...

Voters in Los Angeles are expressing skepticism of Measure A, a ballot initiative that would raise sales taxes in the county to provide more services to the homeless, expanding Measure H, which was passed by referendum in 2017. Measure H raised sales taxes by a quarter of a percent — and the homeless population kept rising. That rise was driven by a variety of factors, but access to generous services — like hotel rooms — may have been one of them. While opinion polls suggest that support for Measure A is near 50%, that is far lower than the nearly...

California has invested a staggering $24 billion over the past five fiscal years to address homelessness, a figure that underscores the state’s urgent effort to curb this intractable crisis. Yet, as this spending has increased, so has California’s homeless population. In the 2021-22 fiscal year, when the homeless population was estimated to be 172,000, California spent $7.2 billion, which equated to nearly $42,000 per homeless individual. The spending includes housing and rental assistance, physical and mental health outreach, case management, and funds to purchase motels and other types of temporary housing. In a scathing report released in April, the California...

Establishes the "winter moratorium on evictions act" to prohibit eviction of tenants from residential properties during the winter months. (November 1st to April 1st) An act to amend the real property actions and proceedings law and the real property law, in relation to prohibiting residential evictions during the winter months PURPOSE: This bill amends the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law to allow a moratorium to stay court eviction judgments to allow individuals to remain housed during harsh inclement winter weather months.

Illegal migrants flooding the US are contributing to what could be the highest number of homeless in the country since the data were first recorded, with cities draining their coffers to fund shelters, a report says. At least 550,000 people were reported homeless in January — the same month the US notched the highest number ever of border crossings, according to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal. The disturbing homeless figure was at least 10% more than January 2023, a year that had the highest overall annual tally since 2007, when the government started reporting its own figures, the...

Left-leaning media outlets like MSNBC are doing their best to protect Vice President Kamala Harris from scrutiny. As Ben Shapiro has been so keen on pointing out these last few weeks, it’s been nearly 30 days since Harris became the de facto Democrat nominee, and not once in that time has the media asked her an adversarial question. The media, which once loathed Harris, has provided nothing but glowing coverage of her. It hasn’t pushed her to lay out her policy proposals or explain how her new administration would be any different than the disastrously unpopular one she is currently...

According to a Pew Charitable Trusts study, rising rental prices are directly linked to an increase in homelessness in the United States.As Statista's Ann Fleck reports, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s homelessness data and Apartment List rent data from 2017 and 2022 shows that of the six metro areas where homelessness increased the most, rents had also risen faster than the national average.These were Sacramento, Fresno, Raleigh, Phoenix, Austin and Tucson.You will find more infographics at StatistaMeanwhile, four areas that saw declines in homelessness also saw below-average increases in their median rents.The writers of the report explain:“There...

The Supreme Court decided on Friday that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors, even in West Coast areas where shelter space is lacking. The case is the most significant to come before the high court in decades on the issue and comes as a rising number of people in the US are without a permanent place to live. In a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, the high court reversed a ruling by a San Francisco-based appeals court that found outdoor sleeping bans amount to cruel and unusual punishment. The majority found that the 8th Amendment prohibition does...

Over the past three years, millions of migrants have come pouring into this country looking for a better life. They were promised that things would be so much better once they got here, but for so many of them that has turned out to be not true at all. There just aren’t enough resources to care for the vast number of migrants that are arriving, and as a result many quickly find themselves homeless. It is a tragedy of monumental proportions, and it is getting worse with each passing day. Just look at what is happening to the city of...

Jarun Laws lived in his car in a restaurant parking lot near downtown Denver. He worked there as a cook until 2020, making about $400 a month. That was barely enough to cover his car payments and child support — and not even close to what he would need for rent. The 51-year-old occasionally spent part of his paycheck on weekend stays at a cheap hotel, where he could spend time with his children. He struggled to afford food, clothes, and medicine — and he had been experiencing homelessness for nearly a decade. That changed when Laws enrolled in The...

The battle against homelessness in the Portland, Oregon, area reportedly came with a high cost in 2023, with most of the money going to temporary shelter, services, and housing placement. ECOnorthwest’s analysis found in the counties of Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas, “local governments and nonprofits” shelled out $531 million for homeless interventions, Fox News reported on Thursday. “The huge increase was driven in part by nearly $90 million in federal pandemic relief funds, as well as a regional homeless tax approved by voters in 2020, the report shows,” the outlet said.

A disabled Canadian man is now celebrating his “deathaversary” after escaping being euthanized by his government over his crushing debts. Amir Farsoud was due to be euthanized by the Canadian government’s “assisted suicide” program because he was struggling to pay off his financial debts. Farsoud said he was booked into to be killed under Canada’s “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAID) law after being faced with the grim choice of death or homelessness. However, just before he was scheduled to be euthanized, people raised enough money to improve his financial situation and he narrowly avoided death. A year and a half...

California Governor Gavin Newsom was called out by a reporter after he continued to dodge questions about blowing the state's $24 billion spending on the homeless. The Golden State's budget deficit is at least $45 billion, a shortfall so large it prompted Newsom to propose painful spending cuts impacting immigrants, kindergarteners and low-income parents seeking child care in a state often lauded for having the world's fifth-largest economy. California spent $24 billion tackling homelessness over five years but didn't track if the money was helping the state's growing number of unhoused people, a damning report says.

As the U.S. economy slows down, those at the bottom of the economic food chain are being hit the hardest. Homelessness is surging, the number of Americans living in poverty is rising, and more Americans are considered to be among “the working poor” than ever before. Unfortunately, we are witnessing a historic economic shift right now, and economic conditions are only going to get even more harsh during the months ahead. Needless to say, that is really bad news for all of us. According to a report from Harvard University, approximately 650,000 Americans were homeless at some point last year....

“We’re talking about sleeping … that is a basic function,” said the nation’s first Black female justice. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argued that it is “cruel and unusual” to punish unhoused individuals for sleeping in public spaces. “We’re talking about sleeping … that is a basic function,” Justice Jackson said during Monday’s oral arguments in a case that could result in the criminalization of homelessness. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard more than two hours of arguments in the case of Grants Pass v. Johnson. The justices listened to both sides of the case to determine whether...