Tag: poverty

Delusional Seattle Democrats Blame Trump While Ignoring Their Role In Homelessness Crisis

In a recent op-ed, radio host Jason Rantz argues that Seattle Democrats outraged by President Donald Trump’s new homelessness executive order are ignoring their own responsibility for the crisis.

Trump’s order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” dismantles “Housing First” and “Harm Reduction” strategies, which Rantz calls failed progressive experiments that worsened addiction, street crime, and homelessness. He says local leaders in cities like Seattle and Spokane are “predictably outraged” because the policy is “a direct rebuke to the failed progressive experiments that have crippled Seattle, Spokane, and other left-wing cities.”

Rantz writes that Washington Governor Bob Ferguson called the order “misguided and harmful,” while Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said it was impractical. Rantz counters that their criticisms are hypocritical, as these leaders presided over a surge in encampments, crime, and drug use.

He is particularly critical of “Harm Reduction” programs that distribute drug paraphernalia at taxpayer expense, claiming they enable addiction. “In less than five minutes, I walked away with glass pipes and other fentanyl smoking equipment, no questions asked,” he said of a recent visit to a Seattle facility.

Rantz also dismisses “Housing First” as ineffective, arguing it ignores root causes like mental illness and substance abuse. He claims the program “merely relocates the dysfunction indoors.”

Trump’s order ties federal funding to enforcement of laws against public camping, open drug use, and street crime, which Rantz says restores accountability. “When we stop normalizing drug addiction and homelessness, we offer real compassion — access to treatment, mental health services, and genuine rehabilitation programs,” he writes.

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Trump Signs Executive Order Aimed at Helping Cities and States Get Homeless People Off the Streets and Into Treatment Centers

President Trump has just signed a new executive order which is intended to help cities and states get homeless people off of sidewalks and streets and into treatment centers. It’s part of his effort to make America safe again.

Homelessness has always been an issue in America but has exploded in certain blue cities in recent decades and the people who run these places seem unwilling or unable to deal with the problem.

For some reason, many liberals seem to think it is compassionate to allow people to continue to live in filth, addicted to dangerous drugs.

FOX News reports:

Homeless people can be removed from streets by cities, states in new Trump executive order

As part of his effort to “Make America Safe Again,” President Donald Trump signed an executive order to allow cities and states to remove homeless people off the streets and into treatment centers.

Trump signed the order, “Ending Vagrancy and Restoring,” Thursday afternoon.

The order states that the “number of individuals living on the streets in the United States on a single night during the last year of the Biden administration — 274,224 — was the highest ever recorded.”

It directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “reverse judicial precedents and end consent decrees” stopping or limiting cities and states from removing homeless individuals from the streets and moving them to treatment centers.

Though it is unclear how much money will be allocated to the effort, Trump’s order redirects federal funds to ensure that removed homeless individuals are sent to rehabilitation, treatment and other facilities.

Additionally, the order requires Bondi to partner with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to prioritize federal grants to cities and states that “enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering, and urban squatting, and track the location of sex offenders,” according to USA Today.

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World’s Poor in for Hard Time as Pope Leo Backs Green Agenda and Net Zero

On matters of Catholic dogma, the Popes claim to be infallible. But on the science around climate change and the political Net Zero lunacy they frequently talk out of their pontifical posteriors. Who can forget the late Pope Francis’s claim that humans are causing earthquakes, a suggestion that only the whackiest of climate alarmists can utter. Alas, the new Bishop of Rome is also capable of ruminating out of his rear end with Pope Leo XIV recently giving us his ‘world is burning’ sermon. At a recent ‘green’ mass at his summer estate in Castel Gandolfo, he added: “We must pray for the conversion of so many people inside and outside of the church, who still don’t recognise the urgency of caring for our common home.”

As a ‘lapsed’ Catholic, your correspondent has been the beneficiary of many such ‘conversion’ prayers. Fear works well if you are a schoolboy sitting at the feet of Sister Agnes, headmistress of St Anselm’s primary school in Dartford, with the fires of hell promised for missing mass on Sunday and the numerous Holy Days of Obligation. Papal fears of a world burning due to excessive holidays in Benidorm are a bit tame. After all, it has been done to the far limits of stupidity by the UN activist-in-chief Antonio Guterres. Come on Leo, I can’t help thinking, you can do better than that.

Needless to say the new Green Pope is all-in on the fake science of weather attribution. “We see so many natural disasters in the world, nearly every day and in so many countries, that are in part caused by the excesses of being human, with our lifestyle.” One can only pray that the new Pontiff gets around to reading the latest scientific assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, where little or no human involvement is observed in almost all natural weather events, now and forward to 2100. He might care to consider that deaths from natural disasters have plunged by 95% over the last 100 years, while the extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has led to a remarkable 15-20% ‘greening’ of the planet.

Wearing green vestments for his special mass in the new ecological education centre at the summer residence, Pope Leo urged the world to recognise what he called the urgency of the climate crisis, and “hear the cry of the  poor”. But the poor are not crying, at least not for the rich Western elite fantasy of Net Zero. Many in the developing world see hydrocarbon use as the key to lifting them out of grinding poverty. They are aware of the enormous increase in staple crops that has occurred over the last 60 years due to the use of hydrocarbon-enabled fertilisers. They can feel the extra food in their bellies – to deprive them of the natural stored energy of the Earth at this stage in their development would, in Sister Agnes’s often spoken words, be wicked.

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Macron’s Globalist Economic Betrayal: Poverty Levels Rise to Unprecedented Levels in France

Under Emmanuel Macron’s leadership, France is grappling with a poverty crisis not seen in three decades. Instead of fostering self-reliance and growth as promised during his presidential campaign, his policies have fueled dependency on temporary government handouts, leaving millions in dire straits as those crutches are withdrawn.

According to the latest data from INSEE, France’s national statistics agency, poverty shattered records in 2023. A staggering 9.8 million people—roughly 15% of the population—fell below the monetary poverty line, defined as monthly income under 60% of the median (about €1,288 for a single individual). That’s an alarming increase of 650,000 people in just one year.

“This marks an unprecedented surge in nearly 30 years,” observed Michel Duée, director of INSEE’s household resources and living conditions division. To find comparable levels, one must look back to the economic turmoil of the early 1970s.

The root cause? The abrupt end to short-term “exceptional aids” like inflation bonuses and back-to-school payouts introduced in 2022 to prop up purchasing power. As these fiscal band-aids expired, reality hit hard.

Hardworking self-employed individuals and micro-entrepreneurs have borne the brunt, their livelihoods eroded by bureaucratic hurdles and economic stagnation. Meanwhile, indicators of hardship are exploding, utility shutoffs for unpaid power and gas bills have skyrocketed and rental evictions are surging at an unprecedented rate.

Most heartbreakingly, single-parent families, predominantly led by dedicated mothers raising children alone, are suffering the worst. Their poverty rate jumped nearly three percentage points from 2022 to 2023, dragging more children under 18 into destitution.

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US food poverty doubles in 4 years – Axios

Food insecurity among American adults has nearly doubled since 2021, Axios reported on Sunday, citing data from Morning Consult. The striking statistic comes amid steep cuts to federal food assistance programs in the world’s largest economy, fueling concerns about the welfare of millions.

US President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” signed into law last week includes $230 billion in cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the next decade. The legislation imposes stricter work requirements, extending mandates to individuals up to age 64 and reducing exemptions for parents.

The proportion of US adults reporting that they sometimes or often do not have enough to eat has been steadily rising in recent years, according to the survey.

In May, 15.6% of adults were classified as food insecure, nearly twice the rate recorded in 2021. At that time, expanded SNAP benefits and an enhanced Child Tax Credit had helped reduce poverty and increase access to food.

The increase in food insecurity comes as the US economy shows signs of strength and stock markets hit record highs.

John Leer, chief economist at Morning Consult, noted a problem: “There’s such a disconnect now between record highs on Wall Street and elevated levels of food insecurity.”

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California Rolls Back Environmental Restrictions on Urban Housing

California legislators took a rare step in the right direction on Monday when they passed a law rolling back the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) restrictions on building housing in urban “infill” areas.

Calmatters.org explained:

With the passage of a state budget-related housing bill, the California Environmental Quality Act will be a non-issue for a decisive swath of urban residential development in California.

In practice, that means most new apartment buildings will no longer face the open threat of environmental litigation.

It also means most urban developers will no longer have to study, predict and mitigate the ways that new housing might affect local traffic, air pollution, flora and fauna, noise levels, groundwater quality and objects of historic or archeological significance.

Supporters of the rollback noted the acute housing shortage in California, due partly to CEQA regulations and other bureaucratic obstacles that discourage building and that keep many young buyers out of the market.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the rollback as part of his overall $322 billion budget package, which aims to reduce a $12 billion deficit through a series of cuts, including blocking new illegal migrants from enrolling in Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid.

In a statement, Newsom hailed his budget and CEQA rollback bills as part of “[a]dvancing an abundance agenda,” picking up on the new buzzword introduced by liberal wonk Ezra Klein, who argued in a book earlier this year that Democrats should focus on economic growth.

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Homelessness Reaches Record High in Bay Area County

Santa Clara County’s total homeless population rose by 8.2 percent to a record high of 10,711 people, according to early results from the county’s latest point-in-time count.

The count used data taken in one night in January 2025, and it serves as the main data source to determine federal funding and homelessness estimates within the county.

The total number of people experiencing homelessness rose from 9,903 in 2023 to more than 10,000 now, consistent with expert observations that “more people are entering homelessness than exiting homelessness in the region,” the report states.

Among the homeless population, the number of sheltered individuals increased by 30 percent, which the county attributes to better use of available shelter beds and more shelter capacity overall.

“Even as we face extraordinary challenges and threats to critical federal and state funding for safety-net services, the County continues to make significant investments in both shelter capacity and permanent housing to combat homelessness in our community,” County Executive James R. Williams stated in a statement.

The investments include approximately $446 million in funding to address homelessness in the 2024–2025 fiscal year. With this funding, the county was able to move more than 8,000 homeless individuals into housing from 2023 to 2025.

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Narrative Busted: Immigration Costs France 3.4 Per Cent of GDP, Think Tank Finds

Immigration has failed to produce the promised economic panacea in France and has rather resulted in a negative strain on the economy, costing the nation an estimated 3.4 per cent in GDP, a think tank has claimed.

The Observatory of Immigration and Demography (OID) argued that immigration has not only negatively impacted the social structures within France but has also come with a “budget deficit” in which taxes collected from immigrants only make up 86 per cent of what they cost the taxpayer, Le Figaro reported.

The OID think tank attributed this imbalance to the fact that just 62.4 per cent of working-age immigrants are actively employed in France, the worst performance of any EU nation except Belgium at 61.4 per cent and well below the EU average of 67.5 per cent. In contrast, native French workers have a 69.5 per cent employment rate.

This means, according to calculations from the think tank, that if immigrants had the same employment rate as the native born population, the French GDP would be 3.4 per cent higher than it currently stands and taxable income would be one and a half points higher.

Observatory of Immigration and Demography director Nicolas Pouvreau-Monti said: “Immigration maintains a vicious circle which harms employment and the French economy: it aggravates the structural problems of employment in France, degrades public accounts and indirectly penalizes exposed sectors of the economy.”

Pouvreau-Monti said that while public discussion of immigration is often centred around specific sectors which have frequent short-term labour shortages, such as in the hotel and restaurant, and construction industries.

However, the OID founder said that the “short-term vision prevents us from thinking about the best way to make these professions more attractive for people looking for work.” Meanwhile, such immigration is often focused on low-skilled labour rather than on high-skilled workers that drive innovation.

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California City Makes Homeless Eligible For Arrest If They Refuse 3 Offers Of Shelter

The San Jose City Council in Northern California voted June 10 to render homeless individuals, who refuse three offers of shelter, in violation of trespassing laws and able to be arrested.

The council members voted 9–2 in favor of amending the city’s encampment code of conduct with a “responsibility to shelter” provision.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a Democrat, introduced the proposal, which is among the stricter anti-encampment laws introduced since the Supreme Court in 2023 made it simpler for cities to ban homeless people from camping on public property. Mahan said that, if the city has enough shelter and interim housing, homeless people should be required to move into them.

Vice Mayor Pam Foley said getting people housed is the first step to getting them the help they need.

“We cannot expect to adequately treat mental illness, addiction, or unemployment effectively if someone is living outdoors,” Foley said during the City Council meeting. “Stable shelter, whether through interim housing, safe parking, or safe sleeping sites, not only connects people with critical services and job training, but ultimately paves the way toward permanent housing.”

Foley said the updated Code of Conduct demonstrates that San Jose is dedicated to reducing homelessness and restoring access to public spaces.

“When shelter becomes available, choosing not to fill those spaces only sets us back,” she said. “We must ensure that every opportunity to move people indoors is used to its fullest potential for both their sake and for the broader San Jose community’s well being.”

The city will not make arrests merely for refusing shelter, but, rather, for trespassing. The goal of the code of conduct revision is to enhance engagement with the homeless community.

Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who voted “no” on the proposal, fears the code of conduct revision could lead to a situation where the city has de facto criminalized homelessness, pointing out that the policy says somebody who simply declines shelter could be arrested. He noted that there are many reasons one may deny shelter, including unsafe shelter conditions or incompatibility.

“I think that by including arrest language in this policy, there could be unintended consequences,” he said at the city council meeting.

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Colorado man handed 210-year sentence for abusing children at Haitian orphanage

A Colorado man was sentenced to 210 years for sexually abusing children at the Haitian orphanage he founded and ran for decades.

According to court documents, 73-year-old Michael Karl Geilenfeld founded St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in 1985 and operated the orphanage for over two decades.

The home cared for orphaned, impoverished, and vulnerable Haitian children. according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The DOJ claims Geilenfeld repeatedly traveled from the U.S. to Haiti, where he not only sexually and physically abused boys in his care.

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