A weekend topic starting with KTVZ. "Gov. Tina Kotek has pulled $2.7 million of the $18.2 million in emergency homeless response funds directed to Multnomah County and redistributed them to six other counties, including three in Central Oregon, due to the slow rollout by the state’s most populous county and its access to other funding. Kotek in March signed a $200 million Emergency Homelessness Response package that she said would help move 1,200 Oregonians without shelter into housing and create 600 new shelter beds by next January, OPB reported. Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson said their funding cut will 'not at all' impact the county’s response to homelessness. Vega Pederson said she had already considered returning some of the money to the state before Wednesday’s announcement. That’s mostly due to the county’s unprecedented influx of public funding meant to address homelessness – and its challenges getting those dollars out the door, OPB reported."

The Center Square on Washington. "The King County Regional Homelessness Authority is winding down its pilot program that focused resources on getting homeless people in the downtown Seattle area into shelters. Partnership for Zero was initially committed $10 million from the county's philanthropic communities, with approximately $5.1 million budgeted for the program in 2023 and $6 million in 2024 as part of KCRHA's budget. Staffing costs alone were set at $3.5 million in 2023 and $5.4 million in 2024. The agency also planned to use Medicaid reimbursements through the Foundational Community Supports program. The agency estimated up to 85% of Partnership for Zero costs would be reimbursed by Medicaid. Foundational Community Supports is a fee-for-service program that pays $112 for every recorded encounter between a service provider and a client, up to a maximum of six encounters per month. The agency said that the shut down of the Partnership for Zero program will result in layoffs soon."

My Northwest in Washington. "On the streets of Seattle, fentanyl can be purchased for as little as 40 cents, according to the Seattle Police Department (SPD). Seattle Times reporter Lauren Girgis wrote a story published last month on how fentanyl is flooding Seattle, finding many people are still trying to buy illicit, highly addictive opioid pills without knowing most are tainted with fentanyl. 'While open air drug markets — like the area around Third and Pine — are traditionally thought of as dealers’ playgrounds, DEA special agent Galvan said every distributor mastered social media use after the pandemic,' Girgis wrote."

"KTTH radio host Jason Rantz responded to the piece with one of his own, citing 'the country’s porous border' and the Washington Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate the state’s felony possession law in State v. Blake as 'obvious' reasons Seattle is drowning in fentanyl pills. 'It’s less obvious how and why fentanyl is in Seattle? Seriously?' Rantz rhetorically asked. 'Girgis and her editors are either shamelessly lying to protect their ideological bias or are so embarrassingly ignorant that it should disqualify the paper from tackling the drug crisis in the future.'"

The Dallas Morning News. "The fentanyl epidemic is a swift, shape-shifting adversary that kills in surges and spikes. For agencies trying to prevent outbreaks, fighting the drug is like battling a dragon in the dark. That’s because they lack a crucial tool: real-time data. Without it, they can’t deploy extra ambulances, police patrols, educational resources or cases of Narcan to head off the worst outbreaks. About 240 fentanyl deaths were recorded in North Texas this year as of June. The Drug Enforcement Administration calls fentanyl the deadliest drug threat in history. It is linked to more deaths of Americans under 50 than anything else."

The Hill on Texas. "Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced Friday that he is switching his party affiliation and becoming a Republican, citing disconnects with the Democratic Party on crime policy. Johnson announced the switch in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. It makes Dallas the largest city in the country with a Republican mayor, passing neighboring Fort Worth. In the op-ed, Johnson specifically cites crime and tax policy as reasons for breaking from Democrats. The Dallas mayor’s office is nominally nonpartisan, and Johnson has pushed for major police expansions and other anti-crime measures as mayor. 'Unfortunately, many of our cities are in disarray. Mayors and other local elected officials have failed to make public safety a priority or to exercise fiscal restraint,' he continued. 'Most of these local leaders are proud Democrats who view cities as laboratories for liberalism rather than as havens for opportunity and free enterprise.'"

The Boston Herald in Massachusetts. "A highly-publicized overdose death that occurred in a public housing unit with four children present didn’t really cause much of a stir at the Boston Housing Authority, where management says unresponsive person reports are 'pretty common.' The BHA administrator wasn’t notified, beyond being told that it was a 'lower priority call,' for what turned out to be a squalid scene that resulted in the death of a transgender person and four children being taken into custody by the state Department of Children and Families."

KDVR in Colorado. "Some Denver business owners are growing impatient amid what they call an increasing presence of encampments in the downtown area. 'I don’t think they’re very violent in the daytime, but at nighttime, you hear gunshots,' Chakra Tattoo owner Maze Garcia told FOX31. Entrepreneur Natasha Butler opened the Little Bodega store near 22nd and Welton streets six months ago. She told FOX31 she has noticed an increase in crime since an encampment appeared across the street. 'I’ve had people running in and out and just take whatever they want,' Butler said. Mayor Mike Johnston’s plan is to transition 1,000 people living in encampments to stable housing by the end of the year. 'It’s doable. I don’t know — how much money are you going to throw at it? And how many of these people are going to be willing to conform?' Garcia said."

The Modesto Bee in California. "Several downtown Modesto businesses have had windows or glass doors smashed over the past week, according to police. Two windows also were smashed at the building that houses the Stanislaus County Registrar of Voters and the Public Defender's Office. The man who smashed two floor-to-ceiling windows at the Subway at 10th and J streets early Friday also entered the restaurant and stole containers of chicken and American cheese, as well as soft drinks and bags of Cheetos, store manager Mandip Bains said. She said the man also nabbed about $12 in change from the cash register. In another incident, a man threw a rock through the glass door of The Chartreuse Muse gallery around 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, according to gallery director Kelly Troxler. She said the man was disheveled and shirtless. Troxler said the man grabbed a bar code scanner from the gallery and then threw it down."

"The other business hit by vandalism was Urbano California Bistro. Urbano owner Noe Sanchez said the front and rear glass doors to his business were smashed, with the rear door smashed twice this week. He said it cost $350 to repair and replace them. That's $1,050 in total. 'It's sad for us,' he said. 'We are trying to keep a living. This is a family business.'"

KSWB in California. "San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan has joined efforts to get the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a federal court case out of Oregon that could reshape rules surrounding how cities can address homeless encampments. On Thursday, Stephan’s office submitted a brief as an 'amicus curiae,' or 'friend of the court,' to support the case City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Gloria Johnson, et al. that is angling to be heard by the highest court in the land. The lawsuit, which was brought by three unhoused residents in the small Oregon town of Grants Pass, sought to overturn city ordinances that restricted camping and sleeping in public through fines and other regulations. Last year, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the homeless plaintiffs, saying in its decision that it was a violation of the Eighth Amendment to punish people for sleeping in public when there is nowhere else for them to go."

"The decision built on a 2018 precedent set by the Ninth Circuit court in the case of Martin v. City of Boise, which held that the 'cruel and unusual punishment' clause of the Eighth Amendment narrowly prevented governments from imposing criminal penalties on homeless individuals 'for sitting, sleeping, or lying outside on public property' if there is no accessible alternative. However, Grants Pass is attempting to get another opinion, filing an appeal last month to get the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case."

"This comes several days after San Diego city officials also voted 6-2 to join the case during a closed session meeting. The city will be joining Seattle and other metro areas within the Ninth Circuit court jurisdiction in their petition, which has yet to be officially filed. 'What we’re seeing is a disturbing trend of courts really tying the hands of cities and consequently, limiting our ability to welcome people into the shelter system,' San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria told FOX 5 after the vote. 'These kinds of rulings probably only make sense in a courtroom, but not necessarily in real life.'"

The Arizona Republic. "Phoenix has until Nov. 4 to permanently clear its largest homeless encampment, known as 'The Zone,' a judge ruled Wednesday afternoon. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney set the deadline as part of his post-trial decision in Brown v. City of Phoenix, which was filed in August 2022. Residents and business owners near the downtown Phoenix encampment argued it is a public nuisance that subjects their properties to damage, litter and crime, and the city was not doing enough to fix the problem. While the order does not tell the city how to clear The Zone, it requires the removal of all tents and makeshift structures by the deadline and demands public property be kept clean. The Zone surrounds the Human Services Campus at South 12th Avenue and West Madison Street. The campus is home to more than a dozen nonprofits that serve people experiencing homelessness."

NBC Chicago in Illinois. "Chicago officials have signed a nearly $30 million contract with a private security firm to relocate migrants seeking asylum from police stations and the city’s two airports to winterized camps with massive tents before cold weather arrives, following the lead of New York City’s use of communal tents for migrants. GardaWorld Federal Services and a subsidiary sealed the one-year $29.4 million deal with Chicago on Sept. 12. Some of those questions surround the company’s role in the crisis. GardaWorld is not only contracted to build the tents, but has also been responsible for bussing migrants to the city, a conflict that has raised eyebrows, including those of Ald. Ray Lopez."

"'I don’t think we know enough about any of this situation, least of all who we are getting in bed with to address the migrant situation,' Lopez said. 'Just finding out that we’re paying the same company responsible for shipping them here, to now be in charge of taking care of them, is like having the fireman both set the fire and extinguish it at the same time.'"

Illinois Radio Network. "Some say there needs to be more transparency when it comes to how Chicago will continue to pay for non-citizen arrivals coming to the Windy City. The city of Chicago projects a budget gap of $538 million for the coming fiscal year. According to NBC Chicago, $200 million of the gap comes from care for nearly 14,000 non-citizen arrivals. The city also projects another $250 million to cover costs till the end of the year. Paul Vallas, who finished second in a runoff election to Mayor Brandon Johnson in April, told The Center Square that there has been no transparency regarding taxpayer funds that have gone to non-citizen care."

"So far, Chicago and Illinois taxpayers have set aside $94 million for migrant housing. The state budget has $550 million in taxpayer subsidies for the health care of migrants over the age of 65. Taxpayers have also paid another $56 million to Favorite Healthcare Staffing, a Kansas-based company who has been tasked with taking care of the non-citizens. Some of their employees were being paid up to $195 per hour, according to NBC Chicago. Vallas said policymakers need to address immigration policies if they wish to fix this problem. 'Just because the mayor does not mind that this is being done does not mean the taxpayers should bear the brunt. There needs to be some regulation of interstate commerce,' Vallas said. 'This is the trafficking of people, so the federal government's got to secure the borders and protect the borders to slow this infusion.'"

The Daily Mail. "Asylum seekers in New York City have been raking as much as $3,000 a month working without work permits while living free-of-cost at The Roosevelt Hotel, where they get free food, bedding and even cleaning services. The city is currently paying about $385 a night per migrant family that needs housing and feeding. According to Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, asylum seekers are costing the city roughly $10 million every day. DailyMail.com spoke to asylum seekers outside the Roosevelt on Friday, just hours after several buses arrived, and learned many of the migrants living in the shelter have been working as delivery drivers illegally, using dozens of scooters without plates that have become a common sight outside the iconic location."

"Melvin Pinto, 30, said the men get the money for the scooters by finding work at places like Home Depot and going house to house offering handymen services. Others have been selling empanadas or umbrellas on the streets. When asked why they decided to come to New York City, Pinto said it was because of the support the city offers migrants. 'Honestly its because of the support they give us … we don’t have relatives here,' Pinto said."

The Associated Press. "Beleaguered by a continuing influx of asylum seekers, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is further tightening shelter rules by limiting adult migrants to just 30 days in city-run facilities — to help ease pressures on the city's already struggling shelter system and perhaps dissuade more migrants from coming. In May, Adams issued an executive order that unilaterally relaxed the city’s right-to-shelter rules, which is now the subject of a legal battle. Earlier this week, Gov. Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat, backed the mayor on the matter, saying in an interview on CNN that the right to shelter was never meant to 'be an unlimited universal right or obligation on the City to have to house literally the entire world.'"

From Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "New York is hardly alone. Cities across the U.S. are experiencing crises in social services and severe budget shortfalls because of the unprecedented migrant influx. Chicago is facing a $538 million budget shortfall for 2024 with more than a third of that shortfall resulting from the migrant crisis, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. And according to Axios, the city of Denver is in the midst of a budget crisis after spending more than $23 million to provide services to migrants since December, with costs of up to $1,000 per migrant per week."

"The New York Post recently reported that upwards of 150,000 migrants got notices to appear before immigration judges in July, more than three times the number the Biden administration admits to under its 'special parole program' for asylum seekers (a program Congress never authorized in the first place). The Post called the policy a 'charade,' and that is precisely correct: 150,000 illegal migrants a month (1.8 million a year) is a rate that no country can sustain."

"The result of this de facto open border policy has been a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions. As I discovered when I visited the border crossing hotspot of Yuma, Arizona, in early June, we have essentially shopped out our immigration policy to the drug cartels. It isn't only border communities that have been caught in the crossfire. Civil disorder is encroaching into the interior of the U.S. as destitute migrants flood American cities, overwhelming humanitarian resources."

Durham Region in Canada. "The Region of Durham is receiving funding from the provincial government to assist with asylum seekers, but Ajax council is calling on the federal government to step up. The provincial government announced on Sept. 18 it’s providing urgent assistance to a rapidly growing number of asylum claimants and other at-risk populations. The province is investing an additional $42 million through the Canada Ontario Housing Benefit (COHB) in 2023 and 24. 'This is a federal responsibility,' Ajax Mayor Shaun Collier said at the council meeting. 'They are approving immigration and I’m happy to have immigration — absolutely — but if they’re going to allow this, we can’t be having our homeless grow by 40 per cent in one day because asylum seekers come here and we can’t house them.'"

"In August, hundreds of asylum seekers found their way to Ajax and ended up spending some time on the street when there was nowhere to house them. Many had immigrated from places such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan. Collier said the region still has not received its share of funding from the federal government for the Afghan and Ukrainian refugees that were brought to the area last year."

CTV News in Canada. "Saskatoon’s community support officers are saying they responded to record numbers of calls over the summer, with services to help those struggling with addictions and mental health issues only dwindling. A report from community support program supervisor Rob Garrison says staff saw a record 367 calls for service in the month of June, and nearly as many in August. According to the report, staff and local businesses are concerned with the widespread level of drug use in their service area. 'Open drug use is rampant in our patrol areas,' Garrison wrote. 'We regularly encounter people consuming drugs either by needle or inhaling. Many of the calls for suspicious persons are regarding people using drugs in doorways and parking lots of businesses and service providers.' Property owners are frequently left to clean up needles and other paraphernalia, the report said."

"In response, the Saskatchewan government said it’s spending a 'record' amount on mental health and addictions services, including adding more addiction treatment spaces and extending a pilot program for overdose outreach teams. Despite 'record' spending from the province, Saskatoon reported a record year for the number of homeless encampments in the city, with 452 identified by the fire department as of Aug. 1."

CBC News in Canada. "Criticisms are mounting to a plan by New Brunswick Public Safety Minister Kris Austin to force some drug users into treatment against their will, with experts warning it could lead to more overdose deaths if implemented. A group of 10 experts, including physicians, treatment workers and professors, has written an open letter saying forced treatment could lead to vicious withdrawal symptoms and decreased drug tolerance, leading to a higher chance of accidental overdoses once patients are released. They also argue the proposal will alienate users from the health-care system because they'll fear being forced into treatment, leading to potentially fatal outcomes in emergency accidental overdose situations."

"In an earlier interview with Austin, CBC News asked what he thought of experts' criticisms of involuntary treatment. 'All of these quote unquote experts that seem to think that things like incarceration, and you know, recovery facilities are not effective, what I would say is, you know what we're doing now is not effective — keeping people on the streets,' Austin said. 'I mean, we're getting overdoses on the streets regularly.'"

From The Star. "We are serial complainers but dare not wish for the coups rocking West Africa. Increased fuel prices. That is the only thing Kenyans are discussing at the moment. And why not, after fuel prices shot up by more than Sh20, crossing the highest threshold of Sh200 per litre! But let us not worry because we are in good company. The Canadians are done with Justin Trudeau so much so they are pleading for him to step down. The housing crisis in Canada has reached its peak and Canadians and immigrants are finding themselves facing harsh economic realities. Meanwhile, JT's buddy Macron is not having a great time either. The French people barely recognise him as their leader as they eagerly await his D-Day (Departure Day). Elsewhere, Americans are trying hard to hide the fact the country is possibly run by a senile 80-year-old man."