Michele Steeb: America’s Homeless Crisis Drastically Increased Due to Obama’s ‘One Size Fits All’ Policy
America’s homeless crisis has dramatically increased over the past decade because of an Obama-era policy that incorrectly implemented a “one size fits all solution,” says former CEO of Saint John’s homeless shelter, Michele Steeb.
In an interview with The Epoch Times’ “Crossroads” program, Steeb, who is also the author of “Answers Behind the Red Door: Battling the Homeless Epidemic,” said Obama’s “Housing First policy” had ultimately failed and led to an increase in the unsheltered population across the country.
Housing First is an approach first launched under President George W. Bush and dramatically expanded into a one-size-fits-all policy under President Barack Obama in 2010, when the administration released its Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness (pdf), called “Opening Doors.”
April 30, 2021
Voters in Austin, Texas are headed to the polls to cast their vote in a May 1 election that will decide whether the city reinstates a public camping ban.
Austin’s homeless population has grown significantly over the last decade as the city has grown, housing prices have risen, and local officials have relied on outdated and failed federal programs and policies to try to curb the crisis. The city of Austin, led by a zealously left-wing city council and mayor, Steve Adler, has followed in the footsteps of west-coast cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles, all of which have exacerbated their homelessness problems through bad public policy that encourages homelessness and its attendant problems of drug abuse, public disorder, and crime.
People First: One Size Does Not Fit All
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Homelessness is a rapidly growing challenge throughout the United States.
HUD is the largest funder of homelessness. Its funding is largely distributed through counties and through an additional layer of bureaucracy created under Housing First called Continuum of Care boards (CoCs). More than 230 counties and CoCs across the nation followed HUD in adopting Housing First as their one-size-fits-all policy, including ECHO, the CoC that oversees Austin’s HUD funding.
Housing First was initially introduced by HUD in 2008 to address the chronically homeless those struggling with severe mental illness and addiction, largely the ones we see on the streets. The idea was to get them off the streets and into housing as quickly as possible as “the system” was incurring significant costs due to them living on the streets.
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‘We Really Want To Figure This Out.’ Sacramento City, County Government Divided In Struggle To Confront Homelessness Crisis Listen Update RequiredTo play audio, update browser or Flash plugin.
A vigil is held at the Sacramento County Administration Building on Feb. 5, 2021 for six unhoused people who died in a recent storm.
Andrew Nixon / CapRadio
Sacramento City Hall and the Sacramento County Administration Center are separated by just one city block. But advocates for the area’s homeless residents say there’s a larger divide between city and county leaders when it comes to providing emergency shelter during cold winter months one that was exposed last month when six unhoused people died in a powerful storm.
Homelessness: The Data, the Flawed Policies, and the Path Forward – Ricochet ricochet.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ricochet.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.