What America’s Founding Ideals Can Teach Washington About Homelessness

As America marks its 250th birthday, many of us are reflecting on the ideals that shaped our nation.

America was founded on the belief that we all have certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. The founders chose the word “liberty” deliberately—and the difference between liberty and freedom is essential to how we think about solving the homelessness crisis.

Liberty isn’t the absence of all constraint—it’s freedom organized so that it can be shared. The “freedom” of those in the homeless community, often suffering from drug addiction or mental illness, impinges on the liberty of everyone else—the freedom to pursue happiness in public spaces that belong to all of us: streets free of waste, and businesses not absorbing the theft and vandalism that accompany street disorder. A sidewalk, a park, a transit stop is a commons. When one party can seize it for themselves alone, no one else has liberty there either.

Washingtonians believe we have a responsibility to help those struggling with homelessness, addiction, and mental illness. Taxpayers have demonstrated compassion by investing billions of dollars over the years, hoping those resources would help people recover and rebuild their lives.

But compassion isn’t measured by how much we spend. It’s measured by whether people are actually getting better.

And that’s where Seattle is falling short. In a recent survey, the homeless population here increased 9% over the last year. By comparison, San Diego, Miami, and Honolulu—cities comparable in climate and housing pressure—all saw theirs fall by 10–20%. San Francisco’s was down 22%.

Allowing someone to remain trapped in addiction or untreated mental illness is not compassionate. If our policies leave people with less hope of recovery than they had years ago, then we have an obligation to ask whether those policies are truly helping the people they were designed to serve.

Real compassion means believing people are capable of recovery. It means connecting people with treatment, mental health care, stable housing, and the support needed to rebuild independent lives. Success should be measured not simply by dollars spent, but by lives restored.

The shift toward outcomes isn’t just a local instinct—it’s becoming federal policy. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently announced significant changes to federal homelessness funding, placing greater emphasis on treatment, recovery, self-sufficiency, and measurable outcomes. Regardless of politics, the principle is one worth embracing.

As America marks 250 years, the founders’ word was liberty—not unfettered freedom, but freedom enjoyed within the rules of a society we govern together, through the officials we elect to represent us. Compassion measured only in dollars is not yet a virtue; it becomes one when it produces recovery, restored lives, and streets that work for everyone. We should expect more of ourselves and our leaders—and make Seattle a city worthy of that founding promise: a shining city upon a hill.