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The Consequential Link in Ending Street Chaos: Compassion Plus Accountability
By Michele Steeb, Visiting Fellow with the Discovery Institute's Fix Homelessness Initiative
America's streets have reached a breaking point. Encampments sprawl across sidewalks, untreated mental illness and addiction fuel disorder, and public spaces once vibrant with life have become zones of despair.
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President Donald Trump's recent executive orders - Ending Disorder on America's Streets and Addressing Crime and Beautification in D.C. - finally confront this decade-long humanitarian crisis head-on. By directing federal resources to dismantle encampments and enforce laws against public disorder, these orders mark a long-overdue acknowledgement: the nation's crisis is one of homelessness, but also one of public safety, public health, and human dignity.
For too long, progressive policies have allowed the sickest among us to deteriorate before our eyes, abandoned in the name of "compassion." The president's bold actions open the door to a new era - one in which compassion is measured not by inaction, but by the will to intervene, save lives, and restore communities.
But make no mistake: these executive orders alone will not turn the tide. Relentless follow-through and accountability will be required across all tiers of the new system. Success will demand building new programs; it will also require they are adequately and professionally staffed, guided by the right interventions for people who are too sick to self-refer, and backed by the political will to hold local leaders - from social workers to judges to elected officials - accountable. [more...]
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.
