New Report: How Extremists Infiltrated Homelessness Advocacy in America

Today, the Capital Research Center (CRC) released a new report in cooperation with Discovery Institute exploring how extremist ideological movements are exploiting America’s homelessness crisis, which can include hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people on any given night.

Using financial data, legal records, and original research, the report uncovers a vast network of homelessness advocates that spend billions in taxpayer dollars and philanthropic grants on everything but obvious solutions. The report demonstrates that counterproductive policies have been used for years which do not solve the homelessness problem, but rather exacerbate common root causes of homelessness, including mental health challenges and substance abuse.

The key findings of the report expose the groups that have co-opted the homelessness issue in order to advance their own policy agenda, which, if left unchecked, will result in radical transformations for the entire nation. Groups aligned with radical — and even extremist — worldviews, ranging from anti-police and anti-capitalist movements to groups that express support for foreign terrorist organizations. They include, among others:

  • Western Regional Advocacy Project: The Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP), a 501(c)(3), has received support from Tides-affiliated entities and has coordinated anti-sweep campaigns across cities, tying housing to anti-capitalist critiques in publications like Street Spirit, which labels U.S. governance “neoliberal fascism.” In fact, the nonprofit glorifies violence targeting law enforcement and is a state-level endorser of the Housing Justice platform.
  • Autonomous Tenants Union Network (ATUN): The group believes that “overthrowing capitalism” is required for solving the country’s homelessness problem. Its website states: “We fight for a world without landlords and without rent. We fight to build tenant power in order to end the immiseration of the poor and working classes that housing represents under capitalism and to contribute to the struggle to end capitalism itself.”
  • Right to the City Alliance: This 501(c)(3) nonprofit, known for its protests through the national Homes for All campaign, has engaged in joint endorsement of pro-Hamas 501(c)(3) nonprofits including the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance that declared, “From Palestine to Mexico, all borders and militarized violence have got to go!”

These are a few examples of actors exploiting structural vulnerabilities in the nonprofit sector — including lax oversight, complex funding channels, and even the legal system — to advance ideas that are not merely unorthodox, but deeply destabilizing for our country.

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New Details Suggest the California ‘FireAid’ Fundraiser Scandal is Even Worse Than People Thought

After the wildfires of California earlier this year, leaders in the state joined with a number of Hollywood celebrities and famous musicians and did a fundraiser event called ‘FireAid’ that managed to raise $100 million which they claimed would go directly to the victims.

Several weeks ago, an independent journalist did a deep dive into the funds and found that none of the victims had seen a dime of the money. Based on her research, she found that the money had gone to a number of non-profit organizations.

Now, the Washington Free Beacon has done an even deeper dive into the issue and it looks even worse. Some of the non-profits that received this money have absolutely nothing to do with the issue of fire recovery or even base their assistance on race.

From the Free Beacon:

FireAid announced in February that it would distribute the money it raised “equitably,” a promise it appears to have kept. Greenline Housing Foundation, for instance, received funds from a $4.8 million pool dedicated to health and housing. It noted on its website that no whites need apply.

“In order to qualify for a grant through Greenline Housing Foundation, applicants must be a Black or Hispanic person,” the group stated…

The same is true for the Black Freedom Fund, a Black Lives Matter-era nonprofit dedicated to fighting “systemic racism” and promoting “Black power-building.” The organization—which received money from a $7.6 million pool dedicated to “disaster relief”—stated in a 2023 grant proposal document that it would only assist groups “led and controlled by Black people” and “primarily serving Black people.”

My Tribe Rise, which also received cash from that pool, has a similar mission. Founded in 2019, the organization states that its mission is “to take the stigma out of gangs and to educate people about the positive changes that are possible when people come together to end violence and meet the needs of Black and Brown communities.”

Other groups that have received money through FireAid offer assistance to illegal aliens within California.

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