Former President Barack Obama’s approach to combat homelessness has been “a disaster on every level,” according to Texas Public Policy Foundation senior fellow Michele Steeb.

Steeb is an expert on homelessness and author of “Answers Behind the Red Door: Battling the Homeless Epidemic.” She said in an interview with Morning Wire that homelessness in the United States, and especially in California, has dramatically worsened since the federal government adopted “housing first” as its singular approach to homelessness.

The Bush administration first introduced the Housing First model to federal policy in 2008. The Obama administration massively expanded the policy in 2013, turning into the federal government’s “one-size-fits-all” approach to homelessness.

“Thankfully, the Trump administration has stepped in and said at the federal level, we need to reprioritize mental health treatment. Drug and alcohol counseling needs to be offered in conjunction with housing,” said Steeb, “and we need to clear these encampments because these encampments have become so dangerous. Not just for the individuals living in them, pets are now overdosing, women are being trafficked, and there’s spillover effects to the general public that have been devastating.”

The model, in theory, prioritizes stability. The Department of Housing and Urban Development under Obama’s housing first approach conditioned grant money to recipients on providing non-conditioned housing to the homeless. Providers cannot make requirements such as that a tenant stay sober or hold down a job in order to receive housing.

“Up until about 12 years ago, the federal government funded shelters, they funded transitional housing. They funded mental health and drug and alcohol treatment along with that housing,” said Steeb.

Right now, DailyWire+ annual memberships are fifty percent off during our Black Friday sale. Join now at dailywire.com/blackfriday.

It was under the Obama administration “that they said, you know what, we’re only gonna fund one thing now, and that one thing is housing subsidies, housing vouchers. We are not going to fund mental health treatment or drug and alcohol treatment or employment training. And we’re going to offer this housing to the homeless, subsidized housing for life with no conditions, none whatsoever,” she continued.

In practice, homelessness has drastically increased under the housing first approach. Those who are homeless have suffered even more as many of the conditions that contributed to their situation grow worse without proper treatment.

Housing first was designed for a very small segment of the homeless population, “but without any evidence, the Obama administration rolled it out,” said Steeb. “He literally promised it would end homelessness in 10 years. And 10 years later, 12 years later, exactly, we are at the highest point ever in our nation’s history, an almost 35% increase.”

A 2022 report by the Cicero Institute found that homelessness increased by nearly 25% in areas that exclusively rely on the housing first model. The results are most apparent in California, where the state followed the Obama administration’s example and its homeless population has exploded, especially in urban centers such as San Francisco.

“California is the only state in the nation that followed the feds and said, all of our money on top of all of your money, the federal government’s, is now going to go to housing first. California has experienced a 40% increase since [2017] when they adopted this,” said Steeb. “California now has almost 50% of the nation’s unsheltered population, almost 40% of the overall homeless population in its cities have been ravaged by this.”

Seattle’s incoming mayor, Katie Wilson, will inherit a homelessness crisis that will define her ability to lead.

Seattle’s homeless population needs more than another round of aspirational promises. They need and deserve an operational reset grounded in compassion, accountability, and the courage to confront realities the city has failed to address for years.

She must replace press releases and ceremonial groundbreakings for housing that may never materialize with programs that support the homeless in reclaiming their lives from the grip of untreated mental illness, addiction, and dangerous encampments that have taken root throughout the city.

The scale of Seattle’s crisis is staggering. HUD’s 2024 Point-in-Time count identified 16,868 people struggling with homelessness in King County — 7,058 sheltered and 9,810 unsheltered — yet even this understates the emergency. It omits the thousands of K-12 students and their families couch-surfing or scraping together money for a few nights in a motel. And at the current 23% growth rate, Mayor Wilson will walk into office confronting a humanitarian emergency approaching 22,500 people.

Meanwhile, encampments proliferate, fentanyl deaths continue at historic highs, and families, businesses, and public workers bear the daily trauma of a system that is not working.

For years, Seattle has clung to the comforting illusion that more subsidized housing units alone will solve homelessness. Despite billions in public spending, housing pipelines remain clogged, construction timelines stretch into decades, and operating costs soar.

But for the majority of those living unsheltered — 78% of whom are struggling with serious mental illness or addiction — homelessness is not merely a housing shortage. It is the downstream consequence of untreated disease.

Often further complicating their illnesses is a condition called anosognosia that prevents them from recognizing their own illness. Consequently, they decline help not because they choose the street, but because their minds cannot see another path.

The mayor must change this trajectory.

If she intends to succeed where past administrations have failed, she must look to the Discovery Institute’s new report, which details exactly how cities can harness forthcoming federal reforms to drive real results. 

Her reset must include:

Prioritize transitional and treatment-based recovery models

Seattle must stop investing disproportionately in permanent supportive housing that takes years to build and rarely addresses root causes. It must instead prioritize transitional recovery housing that is staffed with clinicians, case managers, and vocational supports, and must require engagement in these services as a condition of stay.

Partner with high-performing recovery organizations

Non-profits such as We Heart Seattle and Union Gospel Mission Rescue Missions have a great track record in helping individuals transition to stability. These organizations know how to walk with people through trauma, detoxification, relapse, and rebuilding. Make these organizations central to the city’s strategy — not an afterthought.

Empower and deploy multidisciplinary “CARE+” outreach units

Combine mental health professionals, emergency responders, and trained law enforcement to intervene proactively, stabilize crises, and compel psychiatric or addiction evaluations when individuals pose clear risks to themselves or others. Washington’s Involuntary Treatment Act already provides necessary tools, but they must be used more consistently and, of course, humanely.

Enforce public health and safety laws to restore order while providing pathways to treatment

In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court affirmed that Seattle can ban public camping to restore order and safety for all residents. In tandem with this effort, the city must provide the homeless with restorative programs.

Demand performance, not platitudes, at every level of the system

Seattle must instill accountability at every level of the homeless system: from the individual, to the non-profit, to the government officials responsible for the homeless system.

It must measure outcomes and provide quarterly dashboards on those outcomes and the spending required to achieve those outcomes. Housing without treatment is a revolving door. Harm reduction without recovery is slow-motion abandonment. But it doesn’t have to stay this way.

Katie, you have the chance to lead Seattle into a future where compassion is not a slogan, but a force that restores people and the city they call home.

This is your moment. History will remember the mayor who chose courage over habit, transformation over stagnation. Seattle’s soul is waiting to be mended. Now is the time to lead the city there.

* * *

Michele Steeb is the founder of Free Up Foundation and author of “Answers Behind the RED DOOR: Battling the Homeless Epidemic,” based on her 13 years as CEO of Northern California’s largest program for homeless women and children. She is a Visiting Fellow with the Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative. Follow them on Twitter: @SteebMichele and @DiscoveryCWP.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

* * *

Right now, DailyWire+ annual memberships are fifty percent off during our Black Friday sale. Join now at dailywire.com/blackfriday.