On Sept.16, the First Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to move forward with desperately needed reforms to the nation’s homelessness system.After months of litigation by the Homeless Industrial Complex to repeatedly block these reforms, the decision allows HUD to redefine success and fund the programs that generate the greatest success in moving the homeless toward recovery, restoration and self-sufficiency.And not a moment too soon.TRUMP WANTS TO HELP 146,000 MENTALLY ILL WHO ARE HOMELESS.
DEMOCRATS WANT TO STOP HIMFor more than a decade, federal homelessness policy has centered heavily on permanent housing placement, while the measures used to define and count homelessness have often obscured important differences between who is counted as homeless and who is being served through homelessness programs.An unhoused individual rests on a bench in Reynolds Square on Tuesday, Oct.21, 2025.
(Richard Burkhart/Savannah Morning News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)Success will now be measured by whether people are getting better: recovering, working, reconnecting and reclaiming their lives.Getting here required that HUD officials confront a series of gimmicks that helped sustain the old system — promises, definitions and measures of success that painted a very different picture than what was happening on America’s streets.SEATTLE MAYOR SAYS SOBRIETY WON'T BE REQUIRED AT NEW HOMELESS SHELTERThe first gimmick was in 2013 when President Barack Obama declared Housing First the predominant federal approach, promising to end homelessness in a decade by prioritizing permanent housing placement without requiring treatment, sobriety or other preconditions.The promised end never came.By 2025, despite a 151% increase in taxpayer-funded beds, homelessness surged 27% and chronic homelessness by 81% — reaching the highest levels ever recorded in our nation’s history.The problem was that we defined success...