Paul Webster - Cicero Institute

Michelle Dewitt tried to get her son into a mental health facility, but there were no beds. She petitioned a court for involuntary commitment, and a hospital held him for 14 days before releasing him back to her care. With no other options –– the family dropped him at a homeless shelter. She later saw him walking the streets. August 22, 2025 –– he boarded a Charlotte train without purchasing a ticket.

The dysfunction in our cities is not accidental. It is often the product of a philosophy that views chaos as a means to undermine faith in America.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a convict fakes insanity to escape a prison sentence, lands in a psychiatric ward, and leads the patients in rebellion against the nurse who runs it. It won 5 Academy Awards. It also became a powerful piece of propaganda the deinstitutionalization movement used: the asylum as prison, the patient as hero, the cure as escape. A generation came away convinced that mental illness was noble resistance and the asylum an instrument of oppression. Today the U.S. has fewer than 40,000 psychiatric beds. More than half are filled through the criminal justice system. The number of mentally ill homeless people is the highest on record. The movie ended. The patients are still outside.

$225 MILLION a year—that’s what California stands to LOSE in federal homelessness funding if its Continuums of Care don’t adapt to HUD’s new reforms. Our new report breaks down the exposure: ciceroinstitute.org/research…

The Housing First model has presided over the highest levels of homelessness in recorded history.

“Thank you for putting me in a hospital; you saved my life.” That’s what involuntary treatment looks like when it works. Not pleasant. Worth it. Thank you @DeborahGeesling for sharing your family’s experience and story.

The homelessness industry lost in court. Now it’s trying Congress –– Their new ask: $5.1 BILLION. Not gonna happen. Every single day. Every game you play. We'll be watching you.

The homelessness industry lost in court. Now it’s trying Congress. HUD reformed the homelessness funding process to pay for outcomes instead of activity. The National Alliance to End Homelessness and a group of providers sued to stop it. After a months-long fight, the 1st Circuit (one of the most progressive in the nation) cleared the reforms. NAEH’s new ask: a $5.1 BILLION appropriation for HUD’s homeless assistance grants, an $800 million increase from last year, plus language requiring HUD to automatically renew every expiring grant for another year, without requiring providers to reapply or compete. The whole point of the new competition is to stop automatically funding the same failed thing over and over. Automatic renewal is the thing being reformed. HUD is shifting federal funding to pay for outcomes. The homeless industrial complex’s response is to push for EVEN LESS accountability. Our analysis of 1,458 HUD-funded homeless NGOs found that compensation went up 118% from 2013 to 2024. Homelessness rose 31% over the same period. An industry that doubled its pay while the problem grew is now asking Congress for a raise and an exemption from the rules.

Prop 47 didn’t just reduce penalties. It cut the single most reliable path from addiction to treatment: the justice system. Treatment admissions fell 20%. Unsheltered homelessness rose 10%. Our Senior Fellow @Hopestreetco in @CityJournal on what California’s experiment actually showed:

OPERATION SAVE SKID ROW: “The homicide rate in Skid Row is more than 10 times the rate of the rest of the greater Los Angeles area.” Patrick Grandy of the FBI says the drugs were distributed with the sole purpose of keeping this vulnerable population addicted, and preying on that addiction.

The system had them. The system released them. Then they killed. Andrew Goldstein, schizophrenic and hospitalized more than a dozen times, pushed Kendra Webdale in front of a subway train. It produced Kendra’s Law. Rigoberto Lopez, homeless with a psychiatric history, stabbed four people on the A train and killed two. Martial Simon, diagnosed with schizophrenia and hospitalized at least 20 times, shoved Michelle Go in front of a Times Square train and killed her. DeCarlos Brown Jr., diagnosed with schizophrenia, was held for 14 days under a court order, then released. He became homeless and fatally stabbed Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train. Same pattern. Same revolving door. The results keep getting people killed. ciceroinstitute.org/research…

Roughly 8 in 10 released prisoners reoffend within 6 years — often committing worse crimes. This is a major public safety problem. Prisons are paid to fill beds, not to stop people from coming back. Our report breaks down how to measurably cut recidivism. ciceroinstitute.org/issues/p…

OPERATION SAVE SKID ROW: Patrick Grandy, FBI Assistant Director Los Angeles Field Office –– says drug dealers selling to the homeless population would have victims beaten, stabbed, or killed when they didn’t pay. He says the homicide rate in Skid Row is more than 10 times the rate of the rest of greater Los Angeles, and that these dealers took advantage of those suffering from homelessness, addiction, and mental illness.

OPERATION SAVE SKID ROW: Cicero was on Skid Row yesterday. Our team, led by @dkurtzz and @Hopestreetco, walked Skid Row and was horrified by how openly drug dealers preyed on vulnerable homeless people. Grateful that authorities are stepping in and saving lives through enforcement.