Voters See Through Failed Housing First Policies — Demand Real Solutions
Results from a new statewide survey reveal that an overwhelming percentage of Washington residents are demanding a change in how our state and local governments approach homelessness. After more than a decade of rising homeless rates while adhering to expensive Housing First policies, the public strongly supports changing the focus to one based on addiction/mental health treatment.
The survey further indicated that Washington voters strongly support the state adopting a new treatment-based strategy to address its never-ending homelessness crisis, particularly if it means keeping federal funding and avoiding tax increases.
The survey of 800 Washington registered voters was conducted September 5 – 9 for Napolitan News Service. It has a +/- sampling error of 3.5%.
When offered a choice between funding opposing homeless strategies (one focused on treatment versus one focused on housing) 62% favored (35% “strongly” and 27% “somewhat”) funding efforts that sought to alleviate addiction and mental health problems, while only 30% wanted to stay the course of providing more “free” housing.
The survey also had interesting results regarding President Donald Trump’s July 24 Executive Order on federal funding of local homeless efforts. The President directed federal agencies to cease funding controversial Housing First programs and instead invest those federal dollars in efforts that focus on addiction and mental health treatment. An overwhelming 83% believed our state should move to a treatment-based approach, while only 8% support maintaining the current housing-based strategy.
These survey results are a clear indication that even in very liberal Washington State, voters are frustrated by the progressive approach, which can only be described as a major policy failure. Taxpayers are tired of paying more to fund expensive, huge housing bureaucracies while watching the state’s homeless population grow more than 80% since Housing First policies were implemented in 2012.
The move to treatment-based approach stems from the fact that more than 75% of those who are homeless “self-reported” that they have destabilizing addiction and/or mental health issues. This number is most certainly far higher for many who refuse to publicly admit they have addiction and/or mental health issues.
Despite the obvious failure of Housing First policies and the strong public support to change to a treatment-based approach, it appears our state’s progressive leadership are refusing to alter their strategy. They have said they plan to file yet another taxpayer-funded lawsuit to enable them to keep wasting billions annually on an expensive strategy that has seen the state’s homeless population grow every year since it was implemented.
The Housing First approach continues to receive strong support from the Democrats’ primary special interest groups – government employee unions. Housing First requires the building of large housing bureaucracies, which need more dues-paying government employees. The unions then use these dues to support progressive candidates and organizations.
It is interesting to watch the progressives’ friends in the media begin to build the case for raising our taxes due to the Democrats’ unwillingness to abandon their failed homeless policy, which has increased the suffering on our streets.
On September 16, The Seattle Times detailed how Democrat state officials were pleased that homelessness numbers were still increasing but at a slower rate than previously recorded. After a decade that saw an 80% increase in the state’s homeless population and billions of taxpayer dollars being spent annually, The Times and progressive politicians want the public to believe that the 2.2% increase in the state’s 2024 homeless numbers (6.1% in King County) is some sort of moral victory.
The article continued its obvious bias by failing to provide facts on how bad the homeless situation in Washington has become. It never mentioned that a 2024 Biden Administration report revealed that our state has the third-worst homeless problem in the country. And tragically, our state has the nation’s most severe “chronic” homelessness crises, with thousands choosing to live with their addiction and mental illness over receiving the help that is currently being offered.
It is disappointing that The Seattle Times would post a substantial story (on a major policy issues that the newspaper has a team of reporters covering as part of its “Project Homeless”) without explaining:
- what policies are facing budget cuts
- how poorly these policies are currently performing
- why the funds are being cut
- who benefits from keeping these policies in place
It appears the newspaper has accepted the progressives’ narrative that success on the homelessness issue is determined by how much tax money is spent and NOT on reducing the number of people suffering on our streets. Their misguided objective is one of the primary reasons why homelessness continues to grow in our region – no matter how much money is spent.
While progressive politicians (and evidently The Seattle Times) keep demanding more money to build their huge, ineffective bureaucracies while even more people agonize on our streets, the public is clearly demanding a new approach that focuses more attention on the real problems – addiction and mental health.
Will current state and local leaders listen to the public and abandon their failed policies that are causing more people to be without shelter, or will they continue to listen to the few greedy special interest groups that financially benefit from the ongoing homelessness crisis?