Snohomish County is first in WA to end ‘Housing First’ funding preference; fentanyl exposure to children now lands you jail time
EVERETT — The Snohomish County Council on June 10 approved two ordinances aimed at expanding treatment-focused approaches to addiction and housing while protecting children from fentanyl exposure, but postponed a third measure that would have carved out dedicated funding for behavioral health facilities. “These ordinances represent a step in the right direction for our fight […]
Music, comedy and second chances collide at Everett’s ‘Punchlines with Purpose’
EVERETT — The Everett Historic Theater will come alive on July 18, with Punchlines with Purpose – a one-night event that will combine stand-up comedy, live music, and fundraising for the Second Chance Foundation, a nonprofit that helps individuals experiencing homelessness, addiction, and mental health challenges. Punchline with a Purpose is sponsored by The Tulalip […]
Nate’s Corner: Why Housing First policy is failing Snohomish County
For decades, governments at the local, state, and federal levels have approached homelessness and addiction with good intentions. At this point, billions of dollars have been poured into programs, outreach efforts, and services intended to help our struggling neighbors escape the throes of addiction. But today, it is clear that what we are doing is […]
Beyond the False Binaries: A Pragmatic Path Out of Homelessness and Addiction
Forced rehabilitation rarely delivers better long-term results than voluntary approaches, but the opposite extreme—unconditional support without any expectations—fares no better. Housing First has proven effective at one critical task: keeping people housed. Studies consistently show one- to two-year retention rates of 70 to 90 percent, far exceeding traditional treatment-first models. A stable, lockable home can […]
Big Tech on the hook: Jury slams Meta and YouTube for addicting kids, awards $3M in historic verdict
LOS ANGELES—A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday found Meta and Google’s YouTube liable for negligence in designing addictive features on their social media platforms, awarding $3 million in compensatory damages to a 20-year-old woman who said she became hooked as a child. The case now moves to the potential punitive-damages phase, the jury’s initial award […]
SCOUT Program: How embedded social workers and law enforcement are tackling homelessness
Homelessness affects every community, from large urban metros to small rural towns and everything in between. Many factors can lead to individuals living on the streets, including but not limited to mental health challenges and substance abuse. What we’ve learned over years of working on this issue is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to […]
John Braun commentary: The continuing insanity of the homelessness ‘emergency’
The line about “insanity” being defined as doing the same things over and over, and expecting a different result, is sometimes attributed to Albert Einstein. An online search indicates the saying more likely originated in a Narcotics Anonymous publication many years ago about the difficulty of overcoming a drug addiction. If so, insanity is an […]
The hidden reality of developmental trauma in homelessness
This is an interesting and challenging question to answer. So, I first want to explore how Academia defines homelessness based on my research, trying to understand the answer to this same question: Academia has spent decades debating how to define homelessness. Whether to count only those literally on the streets and in shelters or include […]
