A holiday topic starting with the Dallas Morning News in Texas. "In 2021 the city’s office of homeless solutions launched an initiative to house 6,000 individuals, and despite the aggressive plan and $72 million, the office’s director said she doesn’t expect a significant change in the city’s homeless count. By 2025, Dallas wants to house 6,000 individuals – 1,600 more than currently exist – through its R.E.A.L Time Rehousing initiative. That’s no accident, according to Christine Crossley, director of the city’s homeless solutions office. When asked if the homelessness office could use more money to achieve that goal, Crossley grinned. 'I mean, always yes,' Crossley said to the question. 'I’m never going to turn down more funding.'"

The American Statesman in Texas. "On the same day Austin's second homeless strategy officer sent an email to her boss saying she planned to resign, Austin City Council Member Mackenzie Kelly sent an email imploring interim City Manager Jesús Garza to investigate living conditions at the city-operated Northbridge homeless shelter based on disturbing photos and videos shown to Kelly by a whistleblower at the facility. Andrea Gipson, a city employee hired in April 2022 as a program supervisor for the Austin Public Health Department, said she was placed on administrative leave July 31 after complaining about the state of the shelter. The Statesman reviewed some of the photos and videos captured by Gipson, which show housing units strewn with drugs and drug paraphernalia throughout trashed rooms, a gun and employees asleep on the job. One of the videos shows a room with an overturned bed, multiple cigarette butts scattered across a desk and open food containers and other debris on the floor."

"'It has come to my attention that there have been several deaths within the facility, reportedly linked to drug overdoses,' Kelly said in the email. 'Additionally, I have been informed that drugs are being sold and consumed by clients inside the building, along with reports of prostitution taking place on the premises. Disturbingly, there have been allegations of clients assaulting each other, and even the presence of weapons such as machetes, knives, and hammers. I have a photo of a gun that was found in a clients room there, as well as drugs that were on premises. Moreover, I've heard concerns that methamphetamine may be produced within the facility by clients. These issues, if accurate, are not only alarming but also deeply troubling.' Despite the money, time and resources invested, Austin's homeless population has grown to an estimated 5,000 people."

Westword in Colorado. "In the shade of a tree-lined stretch of sidewalk near East Colfax Avenue and High Street, about a dozen tents used to sit on a public lawn in front of 1535 High Street, the headquarters of the popular Gathering Place day shelter. By Thursday afternoon, the encampment and its residents were gone — the result of what police officials are calling a 'soft-enforcement operation,' which the city and Mayor Mike Johnston first denied and are now downplaying. Over the past year, hypodermic — and often bloody — needles have been found on sidewalks and alleys outside homes on the block. In mid-July, a young girl had to be taken to the hospital because she stepped on a needle at the Gathering Place, according to the group's records. The Gathering Place is located a few blocks from the Denver Center for 21st Century Learning, a school for students at risk of falling behind or dropping out. Neighbors have reported seeing children buying drugs at the encampment."

KTVZ in Oregon. "Deschutes County is using a $1 million state grant to seek proposals from those able to provide new shelter and housing for men who as a result of court sentences can have no contact with minors, and/or must register as sex offenders.Deschutes County Adult Parole & Probation has received a grant of just over $1 million under a state Emergency Order to purchase a four-plus bedroom property to shelter 'male justice-involved individuals' – those who have a restriction on contact with minors or who have to register as a sex offender. Deevy Holcomb, director of Deschutes County Community Justice, says sex offenders are more likely to end up homeless, due to the nature of their crimes. Overall, about 10% of those on parole or probation end up in a permanent cycle of homelessness and transitional outcomes."

KIRO in Washington. "The fentanyl crisis around the sound is gaining speed with no signs of slowing. Both King County and Snohomish County are seeing more people die from opioid overdoses this year compared to last. People who’ve stayed away from the drug for a while are also more likely to fall victim to it if they relapse. 'That’s when you’re the highest risk for overdose because you get out and you think you can use the same amount you have but your tolerance is lower,' said Dr. James Lewis, a Health Officer with the Snohomish County Health Department. That’s why the county is rolling out a Mobile Opioid Response Unit to bring treatment to the people who need it."

The News Tribune in Washington. "Opioid-related overdoses are the most common cause of accidental death in Pierce County, taking more lives than traffic or firearm fatalities and inflicting younger people at faster rates across Washington, according to the local health department. Fentanyl, a fast-acting synthetic opioid prescribed to treat severe pain, has become a particular problem. It's up to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'Poisoning' is a rephrasing of the oft-used and synonymous term 'overdose,' placing onus on the drug."

"Jason Chudy, spokesman for ATF's Seattle Field Division, said that while the vast majority of the agency's investigations are related to firearms, 'in many, many cases, drugs are involved in that.' 'Fentanyl is obviously a big, big concern,' he said, adding that investigators will wear respirators and gloves if they know they are going to be dealing with the synthetic opioid. 'The problem with fentanyl is fentanyl could be in anything.'"

NBC Los Angeles in California. "In a Highland Park neighborhood, a black tarp suggests a home under remodel. Feet away, a concrete slab shows what could have been left of it. Homeowner Liliana Nava was home around noon on Aug. 14 - one of the few luckier details. 'I heard the neighbor banging on the metal fence,' said Nava. 'I looked out the window and she looked a little distressed. I ran down and she just said, 'Fire!' She says investigators told her the fire likely started on the other side of her fence, by neighbors living in an encampment. Because there was no suspect, there will be no arrest. And, she says, no arson investigation. 'If it was somebody that had something to lose, or somebody that had an address, then you would point the finger,' said Nava. 'They would take them to court and go through the process. But because they're homeless, they don't care.'"

The Independent on California. "Even though Elon Musk very publicly moved to Texas a few years ago, he still frequently, albeit sometimes inaccurately, weighs in on the state of San Francisco and its well-documented public safety issues. Over the weekend, he made perhaps his biggest gesture yet, threatening to go to 'war' with the 'snakes' supporting a lawsuit challenging San Francisco’s homelessness policies. 'They want war? Let’s give it to them,' Mr Musk wrote on X. 'We cannot let these snakes win or San Francisco will end up like Detroit.' The 'snakes' in question? The global law firm Latham & Watkins, LLP, which has been assisting a coalition of housing advocacy groups, as well as the ACLU of Northern California, who are suing San Francisco, alleging the city is conducting sweeps of unhoused people without offering them adequate shelter."

The New York Post. "San Francisco’s once-trendy downtown area has descended into a drug-addled hellscape — where addicts regularly overdose in city-funded 'dens of death.' Historic hotels in the Tenderloin neighborhood are now the face of the progressive California city’s deterioration. Around 20,000 rooms in about 500 hotels have been converted from coveted tourist destinations into roach- and vermin-infested 'Single-Room Occupancy' (SRO) housing for vagrants."

"Many of the century-old buildings are now overrun with drug-addled 'zombies' high on fentanyl and the flesh-eating animal tranquilizer dubbed 'tranq,' residents told The Post during a tour on Tuesday. 'It’s like living in a prison, but worse,' Robert Blackburn said of his squalid room in one of Tenderloin’s SROs."

From KPNX TV. "An old motel on the historic Route 66 is expected to be converted into affordable housing for individuals experiencing extreme poverty and homelessness. Catholic Charities Communities Services recently announced it had obtained $4.5 million in grant funding to buy the Route 66 Motel in northern Arizona and repurpose the 25-room building into affordable housing. The motel was built in 1963 along the section of Route 66 that cuts through Kingman. 'Housing insecurity has grown considerably in recent years, in particular in rural Northern Arizona communities. In response to this crisis, we are placing an increased emphasis on more underserved populations within our state,' said Steve Capobres, executive director of Housing for Hope."

Cowboy State Daily in Wyoming. "A growing homeless population has the city of Casper taking notice, with what Mayor Bruce Knell estimates to be a population of around 200 people now roaming the city’s streets and parks, causing a situation he describes as 'a mess.' One of the most glaring examples is destruction Knell said homeless people have done to the local Econo Lodge motel, which is vacant and had been previously foreclosed due to flooding. What the homeless people squatting there did to the property would cost millions to fix and is much worse than any damage caused by water, Knell said."

"'They destroyed everything,' he said. 'It’s horrible.' The city had to condemn the property and the bank that owns the motel was forced to board it up to keep squatters out. 'It was inhabitable, and it was unsafe,' Knell said."

The Center Square. "In states like California, Colorado, Washington and Arizona, cities this summer are spending millions buying hotels and converting them to shelters for the homeless. The spending on homelessness is fueled by the federal pandemic money and a national movement led by the White House to address the problem of how to house the estimated 582,000 people in the U.S. are homeless. Michele Steeb, formerly of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and Stephen Eide of the Manhattan Institute stated housing homeless has become a 'fascination' with government in a 2022 commentary."

"'In the homelessness debate, the fascination with housing, including the technical details of how to finance and build as much as possible, has displaced interest in solutions to the problems of untreated mental illness, addiction, and chronic health conditions,' they stated in the commentary. 'Without a focus on treating these diseases, hotel conversions are a distraction posing as an innovation.'"

The Chicago Tribune in Illinois. "Behind a thick black curtain at O’Hare International Airport where a security guard with a German shepherd stood watch, dozens of migrants sprawled on the hard tile floor, awaiting placement to Chicago-run shelters, some saying they’d been there for weeks. The men and women, many with children, ate Popeyes and ramen and washed their clothes in the bathroom sink. Toddlers used brooms as toys. The lucky ones slept on cots, but most made do with thin blankets spread among bags and piles of trash. The ongoing crisis is an extraordinary challenge with no obvious parallels in recent years."

"'Nobody could have been prepared for something like this,' said Todd Bensman, senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. 'The onslaught was so massive … that you almost can’t really blame sanctuary cities for being unprepared.'"

The New York Post. "The migrant services company DocGo is looking to use its multimillion-dollar deal with City Hall to springboard to a massive $4 billion contract with the feds. CEO Anthony Capone said at a trade conference in Boston last month that DocGo’s $432 million no-bid emergency contract with the Big Apple has given it the 'credibility' to go up for the federal arrangement to provide medical services to migrants. DocGo was awarded an emergency contract by Mayor Eric Adams’ administration in March."

"'Now that we are one of the largest care providers for asylum seekers in the country,' Capone said at the Canaccord Genuity’s 43rd annual growth conference in August. 'It gives us enormous credibility. And we have references from the city who handles the largest amount.' 'Our application is a lot stronger,'” Capone said of the for-profit company."

The Lebanon Reporter. "All that it has taken to explode the lazy cliches that have defined the progressive position on the issue is a heavy flow of illegal immigration. If immigration is an unalloyed good, this influx should be a boon to New York City and its future. Why stop at 100,000 if the city could have 200,000, or 300,000? If immigration has no cost, why is New York spending $5 billion this year absorbing this flow? According to Mayor Eric Adams, New York City 'is being destroyed by the migrant crisis.'"

"There you have it – immigration, in and of itself, has the power to bring a great city to its knees. Long gone are the days when Adams pledged during his campaign to 'lift up immigrants as high as Lady Liberty lifts her torch in our harbor, as a beacon of hope for all who come to our shores.' Now, he sounds a lot like Donald Trump, or a late Roman emperor getting undone by an influx of Vandals and Goths."

From CTV News. "With British Columbia on pace to break the annual record for drug toxicity deaths again – drug policy experts and the province’s chief coroner continue to press for an expansion of safer supply alternatives. According to the latest numbers released by the BC Coroner’s Service, 198 people in the province died from tainted street drugs in July. The total from the start of year to the end of last month is 1,455 – a record for that time span. 'The toxicity of the unregulated market is ongoing and unmitigated. It is putting lives at risk every day,' said DJ Larkin, executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition."

"B.C.’s Chief Coroner is also calling for a rapid expansion of safer supply in an effort to save lives. 'It’s taking too much time, frankly, because we are in a crisis where we are seeing six people die every day,' said Lisa Lapointe. 'It's hard to imagine any other cause of death in this province where six people would be dying every day and there isn't a massive public health response.'"

The Evening Standard in the UK. "Fresh concerns have been raised over the lack of accommodation for London’s homeless, as new data reveals how families with children are increasingly left in B&Bs for extended periods. Statistics from London Councils, a cross-party grouping of the capital’s borough authorities, reveal a 781 per cent increase in homeless families placed in bed and breakfast accommodation beyond the legal six-week limit. The figures come as more than 60 organisations, politicians and experts have now signed an open letter to Housing Secretary Michael Gove, calling for action on homelessness in London. The Government says it has committed £2bn to tackling the crisis and that B&Bs should only be used 'as a last resort.'"

The Daily Mail. "With Britain facing a permanent migrant backlog costing taxpayers up to £5billion a year in hotel bills alone, the asylum industry has proved to be a lucrative business opportunity for a host of companies who have cashed in on the Government's demand for housing and processing services. The Mail on Sunday can reveal that these fatcat bosses are part of an industry known as 'Asylum Inc' where groups of lawyers, landlords, hoteliers and security firms benefit financially from the shambles of the Government's flawed asylum policy."

"More than 60 firms have such contracts – ranging from stock exchange-listed giants to hotel groups, transport firms, language-testing companies, technology corporations, creches, a host of digital intelligence firms, consultants and childcare services. Such companies will inevitably reap more dividends as the Homes Office continues to struggle with the cross-Channel small boats crisis, with a record 175,000 foreigners waiting in the UK for a decision on an asylum claim. That number increases daily with more than 20,000 crossing the Channel this year so far, including 5,369 in August, a new high for any month on record."

"Those benefiting from this vast immigration and asylum processing system include a jet-setting former travel agent and an Essex-born caravan park operator who have raked in millions of pounds. Debbie Hoban is the boss of Leeds-based Calder Conferences, which is among several companies contracted by the Home Office to organise accommodation for asylum seekers. According to accounts filed with Companies House, these money-spinning taxpayer-funded deals have helped to provide a hefty payday for the 64-year-old, who last year received nearly £2.2million as one of Calder's directors. She and her husband Peter have used profits to fund a lavish lifestyle which has included a string of exotic trips to events such as the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and jaunts to Dubai, Bhutan and India's Taj Mahal."

"Graham King, the former small-time Essex businessman is boss of Clearsprings Ready Homes, a company that holds exclusive contracts to house asylum seekers across southern England and Wales. In 2021, the firm's takings from the Home Office, which controversially come out of the Government's foreign aid budget, soared to around half a billion pounds. The 56-year-old's personal share of the profits is well over £25million, meaning that he received more than the former British colony of Ghana did in foreign aid. Since landing his first government contract in 2000, King has profited handsomely from housing migrants, taking numerous luxury holidays while sending his son and daughter to a £44,000-a-year boarding school and purchasing a listed mansion in rural Essex."

"Alex Langsam is the founder of the budget hotel group, of who watchdog Which? said in its ranking of the UK's best and worst hotels: 'Rundown, dirty and once again the worst hotel chain in the UK. Avoid at all costs.' The company makes millions of pounds from taxpayers by housing asylum seekers across thousands of its rooms, sometimes alongside paying guests. Britannia is estimated to house one in ten people seeking asylum in the UK and reported a pre-tax profit of £33 million in the year to March 2022. Langsam, 85, who lives in a ten-bedroom former hotel in Cheshire worth £3.4 million, is estimated to be raking in £100,000 per day in profit, building up a fortune of nearly £250 million."