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Discovery Institute Releases National Report on Homelessness
Confronting the Reality of Failed Federal Policy on Homelessness
and the Need for Reform
The problems linked to homelessness, including substance abuse, mental illness, and crime are increasing in America despite untold sums of government money spent to address this complex problem.
A new
report from Discovery Institute, says Congress and
Executive Branch need to focus more on untreated mental illness and substance
abuse to reduce homelessness, drug overdoses, jail overcrowding, and misuse of
emergency rooms. Dr.
Robert Marbut, a Discovery Institute senior fellow
and former Director of the Federal Interagency Task Force on Homelessness is
presenting this report on Capitol Hill this week.
The Institute's report recommends that Congress:
· eliminate
the Housing First policy and adopt the Housing PLUS Act;
· require
that supportive services such as addiction treatment and job counseling
services be combined with housing initiatives; and
· revise
the "IMD Exclusion" policy of Medicaid that limits care for mental
illness and is responsible for much suffering on urban streets.
"The housing first policy often results in a housing only
policy in many cases," says Dr.
Robert Marbut, a Discovery Institute senior fellow
and former Director of the Federal Interagency Task Force on Homelessness.
"A more diverse policy should include treatment for mental illness and
drug addiction. Congress should be measuring how many lives are improved and
how many people exit homelessness, rather than promoting how fast and
how many taxpayer subsidized housing are given out,"
adds Marbut. According to HUD's five categories of homelessness, there are
almost 1.2 million adults experiencing homelessness today. Additionally,
the Department of Education reports another 1.5 million children experiencing
homelessness.
The Discovery Institute report asserts that the policy
preference for "Housing First" has made matters worse, contributing
to rising numbers of families, children and adults experiencing homelessness.
"In essence," says Marbut, "we have created an
enormous federal homeless assistance program that is functionally equivalent to
HUD Section 8 housing - but with no rules. The success of federal programs
should not be measured by amounts of inputs - such as numbers of housing
vouchers delivered - but by the number of persons recovered from
homelessness."
"Only a few Republicans and almost no Democrats in Congress
so far have been willing to confront the reality of failed federal policy on
homelessness and the need for reform," according to Bruce Chapman,
Discovery Institute founder and Director of the White House Office of Planning
and Evaluation under President Reagan. "We are hoping for change in the
coming Session." [more...]
ABOUT THE EDITOR: Robert Marbut is a renowned expert on
homelessness and a senior fellow of Discovery Institute's Center on Wealth
& Poverty. Marbut has a PhD in Political Behavior and American Political
Institutions, and his career has been marked by bipartisanship having served as
Chief of Staff for San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros in the 1980s, as a White
House Fellow under George H. W. Bush, and most recently as the Executive
Director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness from 2019 to 2021
under both the Trump and Biden administrations.
