When Your Horse is Dead
25/08/25 12:24
On July 24, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14321, titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets.” It was an initiative to get politicians, bureaucrats, religious leaders, NGO operators, and local citizens everywhere to come to terms with the out-of-control homelessness flood that is drowning America's urban centers, and now flowing into the suburbs and beyond.
Homelessness is one of America’s most confounding social issues. It’s been with us in one form or another since the United States became a country. In the 18th century, people without residence or resources were referred to as vagabonds and beggars. Those in similar circumstances in the 19th century were said to be vagrants and drifters. From the early to mid-20th century, folks wandering along the roadways, rail lines, riverbanks, and back alleys were labeled tramps, Okies, hobos, and bums. (You’d be hard-pressed to find someone in their 70s who, as a kid during the Eisenhower years, didn't at least once dress up as a hobo for Halloween. The grown-ups handing out the Hershey bars saw it as a snippet of Americana.)
Starting in pre-Colonial times, and running through the 1960s, this relatively small, penurious part of the population was primarily served by individual families, community churches, and institutions such as city/rescue missions, The Salvation Army, and private benevolent societies. (In my book, Invisible Neighbors, I address the many reasons why our system of solutions changed by the time we got to where we are today.) Beginning in the latter 20th century — when the number of down-and-out individuals started to really go up and off the charts — anyone left to the streets got funneled into a category we now simply called homeless.
One of the things the country had going for it in the first 200 years was that our collective core beliefs, and thus our civic systems, were anchored to absolutes. Our fundamental tenets were by and large based on Judeo-Christian values, so it was easy to work together to solve common social problems. That started to change by the time we hit the 1970s. By the time we got into the 2000s, those Judeo-Christian values that were once accepted, and then tolerated, started to be outright opposed. Today, as researcher George Barna explains it, America’s biblical worldview, based on theism, has been replaced by syncretism, which amalgamates perspectives from competing worldviews, like nihilism, postmodernism, secular humanism, Marxism, Eastern mysticism, animism, and more. Syncretism is not based on an authoritative truth, Barna says, but on personal comfort. While there’s nothing wrong with the desire to experience comfort, we run into problems when we violate our absolutes in order to obtain it. That is why finding solutions to today's social problems is so difficult. It's not just that we have competing methods; it's that we have competing philosophies. Even those who believe in God and understand the Christian gospel are highly influenced by syncretism. It’s hard not to be. This is one of the reasons we have such a divided country.
No one disagrees that homelessness has exploded in the last 25 years. It has indeed, for reasons too numerous to list in this article. The most recent causes include high barriers to housing, proliferation of cheap drugs, COVID-19, and unbridled immigration. Today, even the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which has advanced and applauded Housing First as the “silver bullet” to do what its name suggests, has now confirmed that despite throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at the problem, we are at the highest level of homelessness in our country’s history. Blame whatever or whoever you want, but the bottom line is abundantly clear: What America has been doing in recent years to fix the problem has certainly not stemmed the tide. The problem is plainly worse than ever.
So, what’s next? It seems logical that we should turn to an old Native American proverb: “When your horse is dead, it's time to dismount.” Attempting to spur on the deceased steed is sheer folly. To have the situation explained in more detail, watch the 86-minute documentary, Americans with No Address. (I wrote the chapter on adult homelessness in the documentary’s accompanying study guide.)
Saddling a fresh horse is what President Trump’s Executive Order is essentially seeking to do. But with what’s being vehemently espoused by those who have the most to lose by having the existing government programs dismantled or even augmented, it's easy to think that the upshot of Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets is that everyone who is homeless will suffer this same fate: They will all be sent to prisons or asylums. That doesn’t have to be the case — and I certainly hope the president, despite the brash rhetoric used in making certain points, doesn’t think that’s what must be enacted. Just as all homeless people entered into their current state of affairs through different doors, they can all exit via various doors, depending on their condition and desire. Each door leads to a different destination.
While everyone’s situation is unique, the broad categories I share below explore, generally speaking, who’s out there, along with possible portals to their future.
First, there are the Unfortunate Victims. These are the multitudes who are desperately poor or are in dire straits. They have fallen through the gaping holes in society’s safety nets and are hanging by a thread. Some families have been dangling there for generations. They are experiencing homelessness because they have been abandoned, have wandered from their community, lost employment, just can’t make ends meet, have been displaced or evicted, or the like. They are couch surfing, sleeping in a vehicle, or staying in a shelter. Some are living in an encampment or “sleeping rough” elsewhere. On the whole, they are not mentally ill or addicted to hard drugs. These are those who will benefit from rapid rehousing, in whatever form it takes in the future. Government has an important role here that needs an all-hands-on-deck response. Red tape must be shredded to get more low-income houses built at an accelerated pace and a reasonable cost — which has been one of the most aggravating ongoing problems. Sensible rules must be put in place to get vouchers into the hands of those who urgently need to move in and are willing to be accountable for the resources provided.
These people also likely need additional education, job training, help finding employment that pays a livable wage, childcare, nutritional assistance, spiritual guidance (which is a specialty of faith-focused organizations), and counseling to help them get beyond what made them Unfortunate Victims in the first place. They also might need help shedding any victim mentality that could be haunting them. There are numerous NGOs that are ready and able to work together with the government to get this done. If there was ever a cause that could and should bring government and nonprofits together and work through philosophical differences to solve a pervasive problem, this is it.
Trafficking Escapees could fit into the Unfortunate Victims group, but they have come from such darkness and depravity that their level of PTSD and need for specialized care puts them in an entirely different category. They have already been imprisoned. They now need not only freedom, but also protection. Accessible online are numerous faith-focused groups committed to restoring those who have fled their human trafficking captors.
There is another group that could be considered Unfortunate Victims, but their situation is unique enough to give them their own category. It is the Formerly Fostered — those who have aged out of the foster care system. This is the group that needs help quickly. Statistics vary, but some studies have shown that nearly half of those who reach age 18 and have no continuing direction and assistance end up homeless. Again, the Internet is rich with resources and names of organizations that are ready to help those in this subset and provide purpose and direction. Also, the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees federal foster care policy and funding, needs to visibly demonstrate that they have taken on the mantle of making the transition from foster care to independent living as smooth as possible so we can rescue these people from potential homelessness and exit those who are already in it.
And then we have the Mentally Ill, which are myriad. When it comes to those suffering this fate, the outcry is that institutionalization is cruel and inhumane. That’s because when most people think of institutionalization, they think of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or Shutter Island. But mental health has come a long way since Ronald Reagan unlocked asylum doors in the 80s and sent people home to take psychotropic drugs (which, unfortunately, only about 30 percent did). Today there are places for those who are mentally ill to get help—modernized places where critical care, quality of life, and dignity are chief concern.
I recall an elderly woman I saw in an alley when I was doing a neighborhood walk with a city mission director. There was obvious psychosis as she was having an animated conversation with another person who wasn't physically present. The director told me she refused any help from concerned individuals at the mission. She slept on damp cardboard and picked daily through a dumpster for sustenance. Social services personnel were determined to honor her self-autonomy, so they allowed her to continue to live this appalling lifestyle. One must ask, is that real compassion? Wouldn't it be better for her to be in a warm, well-lit facility wearing clean and climate-appropriate clothing, surrounded by staff attending to her hygiene and nutritional needs, plus providing psychiatric care — even if she initially didn't want to leave her alley? Wouldn’t our cities be all the better for making life less scary for her and for passersby? There are hundreds of thousands of alley-dwellers like her who should be escorted to a more humane option. That is not incarceration, it’s human kindness.
None of the above groups — which include many military veterans — should be threatened with jail just because of their situation. But again, if people are going to make much-needed life changes, they do need services with accountability as opposed to charity and self-autonomy. The latter has led us to where we are today.
Because of the prevalence of alcoholic beverages, legalized recreational marijuana in half of our states, and wide availability of other narcotics, the Substance Addicted group is one of the largest. Some people are homeless because they're addicted. Others become addicted once they are homeless to numb the effects of extreme weather conditions, high levels of noise, physical abuse, insects, and rodents, and more.
City mission staff around the country will tell you that hard drugs present the biggest challenges when working with the homeless population. There’s no end to what’s available on the street for the right price (or the right favor). Not long ago, fentanyl passed meth as the drug of choice, being cheap yet 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Now, fentanyl is routinely being mixed with xylazine, commonly known as “tranq.” From 2018 - 2023, the death rate from overdoses of this “cocktail” rose 6,000 percent! Harm-reduction programs employed by many cities also factor in here. Harm reduction, according to the Harm Reduction International website, “refers to policies, programs, and practices that aim to minimize the negative health, social, and legal impacts associated with drug use, drug policies, and drug laws.” The site goes on to explain that harm reduction hopes to help the Substance Addicted group “without judgement, coercion, discrimination, or requiring that people stop using drugs as a precondition of support.” Basically, it’s a plan to let drug addiction run its course by providing safe injection sites, clean needles — and clandestinely, even free alcohol and drugs as inducements to achieve community objectives in certain situations.
Advocates of harm reduction say that it reduces overdose deaths, prevents infection from contaminated needles, diminishes the stigma of drug use, and reduces emergency room visits. Opponents say it normalizes drug use and keeps Substance Abused homeless people in their state of dependency and despair indefinitely. I think it’s yet another sign of a society that has given up on its people. It also is an example of how syncretism is steering philosophy: Right and wrong are fluid concepts. Moral judgement is taboo.
I’ll be the first to say that those who are addicted on the streets do not need long prison sentences. They need housing — linked to compulsory treatment programs. That’s the way it was from 2007 to 2013. Over that period, based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s own statistics, the number of unsheltered homeless people dropped by almost a third. But in 2013, government policy shifted. Programs that required wraparound service participation were penalized. Speed of placement became the priority and the measuring stick. Interestingly, over the next five years, the number of unsheltered individuals rose by more than 20 percent. It’s no secret that there are plenty of treatment options in every city, starting with Citygate Network missions, Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Centers, and Adult & Teen Challenge programs. To get back to where we were, those with housing should work hand-in-hand with those in addiction recovery. Both need to throw open wide their doors and expand their operations if there is going to be an all-out effort to get a handle on things.
Admittedly, the difficult part is getting addicted individuals to want to enroll in a program. Many do reach a point of desperation and seek a different direction, but just as many do not. It would help immensely if leaders in certain cities started to again enforce what is called quality-of-life crimes, such as graffitiing, public intoxication, public drug use, public urination/defecation, solicitation for sex, and misdemeanor theft. Having no ramifications for such behavior is proving to be the downfall of so many metropolitan areas.
Those who, even when sober, adamantly spurn quality-of-life laws and reject addiction-recovery help would fit into the next subset.
This is the group that is Willfully Resistant. Even though they are not all Substance Addicted, they are against almost everything and refuse to accept housing, shelter, or any services and assistance, whether offered by the government, secular NGOs, or faith-focused nonprofits. They thumb their noses at ordinances. They have been known to set up their own tent or shack settlements, elect their own officials, and make their own rules. Woe to those who violate them. In a few cities, they receive protected status. In most cities, they are simply ignored because dealing with them — and the advocacy groups that regularly come to their rescue — takes too much manpower and money and creates too much negative press (which is especially bad when elections are on the horizon).
As harsh as it might sound to the ears in 2025, we must go back to making lawless street life uncomfortable for this group. I’m talking about those who choose to be homeless and want to live in a way that threatens the well-being and livelihoods of those who are housed, employed, and following social norms. And we must elect politicians who will stand against the outcries of the skittish and show that misguided compassion is actually harming homeless people. A group called the California Peace Coalition has said, “Many [of these people] require the threat of jail or other forms of coercion to stop breaking laws and get their lives together. This is not the same as long prison sentences. In fact, research shows that swift and certain consequences for lawbreakers are more effective than slow, uncertain longer sentences.”
The Department of Justice’s National Institute goes on to state that “the certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent than the punishment.” In other words, “if the chance of being caught and sanctioned is only five percent, and even if the threatened punishment is 20 years behind bars, committing the offense is still a safe bet by the numbers. But if the chance of being caught and sanctioned increases to 95 percent, even if the threatened punishment is only six months in jail, the likelihood of an individual committing the offense plummets.”
Unfortunately, the Willfully Resistant are the ones chasing away tourists and convention business. They are the ones causing downtown stores to board up or close down. In a way, they are like the motorist you see on a police show who, when pulled over, refused to present their documents, answer questions in a civil manner, or step out of their vehicles. Up to now, they have been allowed to roll up their windows and drive on. But because their actions are unlawful, and the Executive Order is about restoring law and order on America’s streets, these are also the ones who will end up in handcuffs, despite the predictable raucous protest of advocacy groups. It’s time to see if “swift and certain” ramifications, followed by monitored programs and services, will give us back our streets and other public spaces.
And then, we can’t forget about the Embedded Nefarious group. Cartels and gangs that rely on money from drugs and prostitution have been known to send their low-level soldiers into the encampments to live in tents and boxes and deal in narcotics and human trafficking. A study conducted in Los Angeles found that 17 percent of homeless youth identified as being a gang member and 46 percent as being gang affiliated. Others already in poverty continue to live on the streets and take advantage of those who are regularly in a stupor or mentally ill. These are criminals who need to be prosecuted.
One homeless subgroup that has grown significantly in the past several years is Misplaced Immigrants. Excluding the lawbreakers and foreign adversaries who slipped through, many aliens came into the country fearing for their safety in their homeland and hoping for the best in the United States Unfortunately, limited affordable housing options, a language barrier, and the inability to obtain credentials have narrowed their options. Moreover, reenergized enforcement of preexisting legal policy now has them stuck between trying to qualify for a U Visa or apply for asylum, or retreating to the shadows of homelessness or semi-homelessness and hoping they aren’t discovered. Unfortunately, while some states provide don’t-ask/ don’t-tell sanctuary, others are making it a crime for a homeless shelter to conceal, harbor, or shield undocumented immigrants for financial gain. It’s confusing for both the immigrants and those who are trying to help them. This subgroup will likely diminish on its own during the next few years, either because people will take government-sanctioned steps toward legal residency and maybe citizenship, or because they will self-deport or experience government-imposed deportation.
Executive Order 14321 is far from perfect, and there are a lot of questions to be answered involving capacity for services needed and capacity for love in the hearts and minds of fellow countrymen. Theism will have to do battle with syncretism because most of modern society doesn't want a God who says there are consequences for wrongful actions. Modern society, at least up ‘til now, wants comfort and self-autonomy for those living on the streets — even though these homeless people may not be able to fully grasp their situation or may be involved in abhorrent and criminal activity. Modern society has essentially been saying, “These people have a tough enough life. Let’s let them live as they desire on the streets, and let’s lift the penalties for any civil disobedience that may occur.” As a result, we have created what Christopher Rufo calls a “new class of ‘untouchables,’ permanently disconnected from the institutions of society.” However, while social media gives the impression that a sizable portion of the public sympathizes with those on the streets and wants city officials to leave them alone or go easy on them, a growing number of Americans are fed up. They want us to turn away from the insanity of perpetual hopelessness. They are comparing philosophies. They are exploring the soundness of a biblical worldview. This may be one of the reasons we are seeing younger generations embrace the Bible in what’s being called a new spiritual awakening. Maybe there’s a chance we will again find our lost absolutes.
It will be a tough slog to get the Executive order titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets” off the ground, let alone get it accomplished. Lawsuits can be expected. And we will have to fight toxic empathy all along the way. Even so, for the sake of all of us, especially those precious people created in God’s image living in inhumane conditions on the street, it’s time to saddle this new horse and ride it into battle.
Homelessness is one of America’s most confounding social issues. It’s been with us in one form or another since the United States became a country. In the 18th century, people without residence or resources were referred to as vagabonds and beggars. Those in similar circumstances in the 19th century were said to be vagrants and drifters. From the early to mid-20th century, folks wandering along the roadways, rail lines, riverbanks, and back alleys were labeled tramps, Okies, hobos, and bums. (You’d be hard-pressed to find someone in their 70s who, as a kid during the Eisenhower years, didn't at least once dress up as a hobo for Halloween. The grown-ups handing out the Hershey bars saw it as a snippet of Americana.)
Starting in pre-Colonial times, and running through the 1960s, this relatively small, penurious part of the population was primarily served by individual families, community churches, and institutions such as city/rescue missions, The Salvation Army, and private benevolent societies. (In my book, Invisible Neighbors, I address the many reasons why our system of solutions changed by the time we got to where we are today.) Beginning in the latter 20th century — when the number of down-and-out individuals started to really go up and off the charts — anyone left to the streets got funneled into a category we now simply called homeless.
One of the things the country had going for it in the first 200 years was that our collective core beliefs, and thus our civic systems, were anchored to absolutes. Our fundamental tenets were by and large based on Judeo-Christian values, so it was easy to work together to solve common social problems. That started to change by the time we hit the 1970s. By the time we got into the 2000s, those Judeo-Christian values that were once accepted, and then tolerated, started to be outright opposed. Today, as researcher George Barna explains it, America’s biblical worldview, based on theism, has been replaced by syncretism, which amalgamates perspectives from competing worldviews, like nihilism, postmodernism, secular humanism, Marxism, Eastern mysticism, animism, and more. Syncretism is not based on an authoritative truth, Barna says, but on personal comfort. While there’s nothing wrong with the desire to experience comfort, we run into problems when we violate our absolutes in order to obtain it. That is why finding solutions to today's social problems is so difficult. It's not just that we have competing methods; it's that we have competing philosophies. Even those who believe in God and understand the Christian gospel are highly influenced by syncretism. It’s hard not to be. This is one of the reasons we have such a divided country.
No one disagrees that homelessness has exploded in the last 25 years. It has indeed, for reasons too numerous to list in this article. The most recent causes include high barriers to housing, proliferation of cheap drugs, COVID-19, and unbridled immigration. Today, even the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which has advanced and applauded Housing First as the “silver bullet” to do what its name suggests, has now confirmed that despite throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at the problem, we are at the highest level of homelessness in our country’s history. Blame whatever or whoever you want, but the bottom line is abundantly clear: What America has been doing in recent years to fix the problem has certainly not stemmed the tide. The problem is plainly worse than ever.
So, what’s next? It seems logical that we should turn to an old Native American proverb: “When your horse is dead, it's time to dismount.” Attempting to spur on the deceased steed is sheer folly. To have the situation explained in more detail, watch the 86-minute documentary, Americans with No Address. (I wrote the chapter on adult homelessness in the documentary’s accompanying study guide.)
Saddling a fresh horse is what President Trump’s Executive Order is essentially seeking to do. But with what’s being vehemently espoused by those who have the most to lose by having the existing government programs dismantled or even augmented, it's easy to think that the upshot of Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets is that everyone who is homeless will suffer this same fate: They will all be sent to prisons or asylums. That doesn’t have to be the case — and I certainly hope the president, despite the brash rhetoric used in making certain points, doesn’t think that’s what must be enacted. Just as all homeless people entered into their current state of affairs through different doors, they can all exit via various doors, depending on their condition and desire. Each door leads to a different destination.
While everyone’s situation is unique, the broad categories I share below explore, generally speaking, who’s out there, along with possible portals to their future.
First, there are the Unfortunate Victims. These are the multitudes who are desperately poor or are in dire straits. They have fallen through the gaping holes in society’s safety nets and are hanging by a thread. Some families have been dangling there for generations. They are experiencing homelessness because they have been abandoned, have wandered from their community, lost employment, just can’t make ends meet, have been displaced or evicted, or the like. They are couch surfing, sleeping in a vehicle, or staying in a shelter. Some are living in an encampment or “sleeping rough” elsewhere. On the whole, they are not mentally ill or addicted to hard drugs. These are those who will benefit from rapid rehousing, in whatever form it takes in the future. Government has an important role here that needs an all-hands-on-deck response. Red tape must be shredded to get more low-income houses built at an accelerated pace and a reasonable cost — which has been one of the most aggravating ongoing problems. Sensible rules must be put in place to get vouchers into the hands of those who urgently need to move in and are willing to be accountable for the resources provided.
These people also likely need additional education, job training, help finding employment that pays a livable wage, childcare, nutritional assistance, spiritual guidance (which is a specialty of faith-focused organizations), and counseling to help them get beyond what made them Unfortunate Victims in the first place. They also might need help shedding any victim mentality that could be haunting them. There are numerous NGOs that are ready and able to work together with the government to get this done. If there was ever a cause that could and should bring government and nonprofits together and work through philosophical differences to solve a pervasive problem, this is it.
Trafficking Escapees could fit into the Unfortunate Victims group, but they have come from such darkness and depravity that their level of PTSD and need for specialized care puts them in an entirely different category. They have already been imprisoned. They now need not only freedom, but also protection. Accessible online are numerous faith-focused groups committed to restoring those who have fled their human trafficking captors.
There is another group that could be considered Unfortunate Victims, but their situation is unique enough to give them their own category. It is the Formerly Fostered — those who have aged out of the foster care system. This is the group that needs help quickly. Statistics vary, but some studies have shown that nearly half of those who reach age 18 and have no continuing direction and assistance end up homeless. Again, the Internet is rich with resources and names of organizations that are ready to help those in this subset and provide purpose and direction. Also, the Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees federal foster care policy and funding, needs to visibly demonstrate that they have taken on the mantle of making the transition from foster care to independent living as smooth as possible so we can rescue these people from potential homelessness and exit those who are already in it.
And then we have the Mentally Ill, which are myriad. When it comes to those suffering this fate, the outcry is that institutionalization is cruel and inhumane. That’s because when most people think of institutionalization, they think of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or Shutter Island. But mental health has come a long way since Ronald Reagan unlocked asylum doors in the 80s and sent people home to take psychotropic drugs (which, unfortunately, only about 30 percent did). Today there are places for those who are mentally ill to get help—modernized places where critical care, quality of life, and dignity are chief concern.
I recall an elderly woman I saw in an alley when I was doing a neighborhood walk with a city mission director. There was obvious psychosis as she was having an animated conversation with another person who wasn't physically present. The director told me she refused any help from concerned individuals at the mission. She slept on damp cardboard and picked daily through a dumpster for sustenance. Social services personnel were determined to honor her self-autonomy, so they allowed her to continue to live this appalling lifestyle. One must ask, is that real compassion? Wouldn't it be better for her to be in a warm, well-lit facility wearing clean and climate-appropriate clothing, surrounded by staff attending to her hygiene and nutritional needs, plus providing psychiatric care — even if she initially didn't want to leave her alley? Wouldn’t our cities be all the better for making life less scary for her and for passersby? There are hundreds of thousands of alley-dwellers like her who should be escorted to a more humane option. That is not incarceration, it’s human kindness.
None of the above groups — which include many military veterans — should be threatened with jail just because of their situation. But again, if people are going to make much-needed life changes, they do need services with accountability as opposed to charity and self-autonomy. The latter has led us to where we are today.
Because of the prevalence of alcoholic beverages, legalized recreational marijuana in half of our states, and wide availability of other narcotics, the Substance Addicted group is one of the largest. Some people are homeless because they're addicted. Others become addicted once they are homeless to numb the effects of extreme weather conditions, high levels of noise, physical abuse, insects, and rodents, and more.
City mission staff around the country will tell you that hard drugs present the biggest challenges when working with the homeless population. There’s no end to what’s available on the street for the right price (or the right favor). Not long ago, fentanyl passed meth as the drug of choice, being cheap yet 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Now, fentanyl is routinely being mixed with xylazine, commonly known as “tranq.” From 2018 - 2023, the death rate from overdoses of this “cocktail” rose 6,000 percent! Harm-reduction programs employed by many cities also factor in here. Harm reduction, according to the Harm Reduction International website, “refers to policies, programs, and practices that aim to minimize the negative health, social, and legal impacts associated with drug use, drug policies, and drug laws.” The site goes on to explain that harm reduction hopes to help the Substance Addicted group “without judgement, coercion, discrimination, or requiring that people stop using drugs as a precondition of support.” Basically, it’s a plan to let drug addiction run its course by providing safe injection sites, clean needles — and clandestinely, even free alcohol and drugs as inducements to achieve community objectives in certain situations.
Advocates of harm reduction say that it reduces overdose deaths, prevents infection from contaminated needles, diminishes the stigma of drug use, and reduces emergency room visits. Opponents say it normalizes drug use and keeps Substance Abused homeless people in their state of dependency and despair indefinitely. I think it’s yet another sign of a society that has given up on its people. It also is an example of how syncretism is steering philosophy: Right and wrong are fluid concepts. Moral judgement is taboo.
I’ll be the first to say that those who are addicted on the streets do not need long prison sentences. They need housing — linked to compulsory treatment programs. That’s the way it was from 2007 to 2013. Over that period, based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s own statistics, the number of unsheltered homeless people dropped by almost a third. But in 2013, government policy shifted. Programs that required wraparound service participation were penalized. Speed of placement became the priority and the measuring stick. Interestingly, over the next five years, the number of unsheltered individuals rose by more than 20 percent. It’s no secret that there are plenty of treatment options in every city, starting with Citygate Network missions, Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Centers, and Adult & Teen Challenge programs. To get back to where we were, those with housing should work hand-in-hand with those in addiction recovery. Both need to throw open wide their doors and expand their operations if there is going to be an all-out effort to get a handle on things.
Admittedly, the difficult part is getting addicted individuals to want to enroll in a program. Many do reach a point of desperation and seek a different direction, but just as many do not. It would help immensely if leaders in certain cities started to again enforce what is called quality-of-life crimes, such as graffitiing, public intoxication, public drug use, public urination/defecation, solicitation for sex, and misdemeanor theft. Having no ramifications for such behavior is proving to be the downfall of so many metropolitan areas.
Those who, even when sober, adamantly spurn quality-of-life laws and reject addiction-recovery help would fit into the next subset.
This is the group that is Willfully Resistant. Even though they are not all Substance Addicted, they are against almost everything and refuse to accept housing, shelter, or any services and assistance, whether offered by the government, secular NGOs, or faith-focused nonprofits. They thumb their noses at ordinances. They have been known to set up their own tent or shack settlements, elect their own officials, and make their own rules. Woe to those who violate them. In a few cities, they receive protected status. In most cities, they are simply ignored because dealing with them — and the advocacy groups that regularly come to their rescue — takes too much manpower and money and creates too much negative press (which is especially bad when elections are on the horizon).
As harsh as it might sound to the ears in 2025, we must go back to making lawless street life uncomfortable for this group. I’m talking about those who choose to be homeless and want to live in a way that threatens the well-being and livelihoods of those who are housed, employed, and following social norms. And we must elect politicians who will stand against the outcries of the skittish and show that misguided compassion is actually harming homeless people. A group called the California Peace Coalition has said, “Many [of these people] require the threat of jail or other forms of coercion to stop breaking laws and get their lives together. This is not the same as long prison sentences. In fact, research shows that swift and certain consequences for lawbreakers are more effective than slow, uncertain longer sentences.”
The Department of Justice’s National Institute goes on to state that “the certainty of being caught is a vastly more powerful deterrent than the punishment.” In other words, “if the chance of being caught and sanctioned is only five percent, and even if the threatened punishment is 20 years behind bars, committing the offense is still a safe bet by the numbers. But if the chance of being caught and sanctioned increases to 95 percent, even if the threatened punishment is only six months in jail, the likelihood of an individual committing the offense plummets.”
Unfortunately, the Willfully Resistant are the ones chasing away tourists and convention business. They are the ones causing downtown stores to board up or close down. In a way, they are like the motorist you see on a police show who, when pulled over, refused to present their documents, answer questions in a civil manner, or step out of their vehicles. Up to now, they have been allowed to roll up their windows and drive on. But because their actions are unlawful, and the Executive Order is about restoring law and order on America’s streets, these are also the ones who will end up in handcuffs, despite the predictable raucous protest of advocacy groups. It’s time to see if “swift and certain” ramifications, followed by monitored programs and services, will give us back our streets and other public spaces.
And then, we can’t forget about the Embedded Nefarious group. Cartels and gangs that rely on money from drugs and prostitution have been known to send their low-level soldiers into the encampments to live in tents and boxes and deal in narcotics and human trafficking. A study conducted in Los Angeles found that 17 percent of homeless youth identified as being a gang member and 46 percent as being gang affiliated. Others already in poverty continue to live on the streets and take advantage of those who are regularly in a stupor or mentally ill. These are criminals who need to be prosecuted.
One homeless subgroup that has grown significantly in the past several years is Misplaced Immigrants. Excluding the lawbreakers and foreign adversaries who slipped through, many aliens came into the country fearing for their safety in their homeland and hoping for the best in the United States Unfortunately, limited affordable housing options, a language barrier, and the inability to obtain credentials have narrowed their options. Moreover, reenergized enforcement of preexisting legal policy now has them stuck between trying to qualify for a U Visa or apply for asylum, or retreating to the shadows of homelessness or semi-homelessness and hoping they aren’t discovered. Unfortunately, while some states provide don’t-ask/ don’t-tell sanctuary, others are making it a crime for a homeless shelter to conceal, harbor, or shield undocumented immigrants for financial gain. It’s confusing for both the immigrants and those who are trying to help them. This subgroup will likely diminish on its own during the next few years, either because people will take government-sanctioned steps toward legal residency and maybe citizenship, or because they will self-deport or experience government-imposed deportation.
Executive Order 14321 is far from perfect, and there are a lot of questions to be answered involving capacity for services needed and capacity for love in the hearts and minds of fellow countrymen. Theism will have to do battle with syncretism because most of modern society doesn't want a God who says there are consequences for wrongful actions. Modern society, at least up ‘til now, wants comfort and self-autonomy for those living on the streets — even though these homeless people may not be able to fully grasp their situation or may be involved in abhorrent and criminal activity. Modern society has essentially been saying, “These people have a tough enough life. Let’s let them live as they desire on the streets, and let’s lift the penalties for any civil disobedience that may occur.” As a result, we have created what Christopher Rufo calls a “new class of ‘untouchables,’ permanently disconnected from the institutions of society.” However, while social media gives the impression that a sizable portion of the public sympathizes with those on the streets and wants city officials to leave them alone or go easy on them, a growing number of Americans are fed up. They want us to turn away from the insanity of perpetual hopelessness. They are comparing philosophies. They are exploring the soundness of a biblical worldview. This may be one of the reasons we are seeing younger generations embrace the Bible in what’s being called a new spiritual awakening. Maybe there’s a chance we will again find our lost absolutes.
It will be a tough slog to get the Executive order titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets” off the ground, let alone get it accomplished. Lawsuits can be expected. And we will have to fight toxic empathy all along the way. Even so, for the sake of all of us, especially those precious people created in God’s image living in inhumane conditions on the street, it’s time to saddle this new horse and ride it into battle.
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