The Dictatorship
Homelessness has hit record levels. The solution is right in front of us.
It seems only fitting that a year like 2024 should end with one last bleak milestone. Late last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released the top line numbers from its annual “point-in-time” homeless count, conducted on a single night last January. The headline makes for grim reading: Homelessness appears to have risen by 18% since last yearto the highest level since HUD began collecting this data in 2007. In other words, America’s already historic homelessness crisis has only become worse over the past several years.
Yet, HUD did register one bright spot in the darkness: Homelessness among military veterans has fallen to a record low. The story of how this happened can tell us a lot about what we need to do in order to end the larger crisis.
Progress on ending homelessness among military veterans slowed under Trump.
Though public efforts to combat homelessness receive some federal support, they tend to be coordinated at the local or regional level — if they are coordinated at all. Not so with efforts to house the homeless veteran population, which are overseen by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA follows an approach known as “Housing First,” which is exactly what it sounds like: program beneficiaries receive unconditional offers of permanent housing, along with access to voluntary “wraparound” services such as mental health care and addiction counseling.
Housing First is best understood in contrast with older “treatment first” models that treat permanent housing as a reward for submitting to treatment and exhibiting good behavior. A treatment first program may first transition an unsheltered person who struggles with addiction from the street into a shelter or sobering center, then require that person to demonstrate sobriety and “readiness” to receive permanent housing. A Housing First program will simply move that individual directly into permanent housing, on the assumption that someone who is stably housed has a better shot at defeating — or at least managing — their other personal demons.
Researchers have studied Housing First programs for decades, and have consistently found that they are effective in getting people stably housed. The success of the VA’s housing first programs reinforces this finding. The first of these initiatives, the HUD-VA Supportive Housing programstarted out in 1992 as a small program, but Congress significantly expanded its scope beginning in 2008. By 2016, the VA had cut veteran homelessness by nearly half.
What happened next further confirmed that the Housing First approach was critical to achieving those reductions. Though federal commitment to Housing First had originally been a bipartisan issue — it was under President George W. Bush that housing first became federal policy — the Trump administration rejected the approach. Predictably, progress on ending veteran homelessness slowed under Trump: homelessness among veterans fell 35% between 2012 and 2016, according to HUD point-in-time databut only dropped by 6% between 2016 and 2020. When President Joe Biden’s administration revived the Housing First approach, the decline resumed its rapid clip even as nonveteran homelessness rose.
The welcome news about veteran homelessness should serve as a reminder that Housing First is the most valuable tool we have for getting individuals back into housing. This is a lesson that many politicians, including many Democrats, seem to have forgotten. California, where I live and do most of my work on housing and homelessness, is a case in point. During the pandemic, buoyed by unexpectedly high income tax revenues and a massive infusion of federal relief aid, the state dramatically expanded its Housing First-aligned efforts to get people housed.
The biggest obstacle to expanding Housing First beyond veterans is a lack of, well, housing.
All told, California spent roughly $24 billion over the next few years on efforts to combat homelessness, including the widely acclaimed Homekey program that converted empty hotels and other underutilized real estate into homeless housing. In February 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration estimated that Homekey had created “over 15,300 units of housing to serve over 167,000 Californians.”
Needless to say, these investments did not end homelessness in California. Between 2020 and 2024, the state’s point-in-time counts registered an almost 16% increase in homelessness. This has led a number of observers — mostly, but not exclusively, from the right — to declare Housing First a failed strategy.
That verdict both elides the VA’s success and misdiagnoses the real problem with housing and homelessness policy in California — and the country as a whole. The challenge is one of scale. Homeless veterans are a relatively small, geographically dispersed population; the overall homeless population is much larger and highly concentrated in a handful of particularly expensive metropolitan areas. If we are going to end America’s modern homelessness crisis, cities and states must learn how to operate much larger Housing First programs at the regional level.
The biggest obstacle to expanding Housing First beyond veterans is a lack of, well, housing. Where homes are scarce, like in California, it is more difficult and more expensive to get people off the streets and into housing. To make matters worse, the same housing shortage fuels the homelessness crisis in the first place: scarcity leads to higher rents, which leads to more low-income people running out of housing options they can afford. In cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, the lack of housing means that residents are becoming homeless faster than local Housing First entities can rehouse them. (In 2022, San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing estimated that four households became homeless for every one that it was able to place back in housing.)
The VA’s experience demonstrates that Housing First works, but California’s failures show that expanding the program on a large scale requires addressing basic market conditions. The United States cannot address its homelessness crisis without simultaneously tackling its housing shortage, particularly in high-cost metropolitan areas.
Without significant land use reforms that remove existing barriers to housing development — barriers such as restrictive zoning, complicated permitting rules and arbitrary requirements that increase construction costs — any large-scale Housing First program will resemble bailing out a sinking ship with a measuring cup. Unless we repair the hole in the hull, we’re only going to keep sinking.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Mint has begun producing a new $1 coin bearing President Donald Trump’s face to help celebrate America’s 250th birthdaythe Treasury Department said Wednesday.
The final design for the commemorative coinbeing released in the fall, was approved earlier this year by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were appointed by Trump. But the finished product unveiled Wednesday differs from that version in a few aspects, including that it is not made of gold but rather has a gold finish.
The coin is intended “to honor the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a post on X. “Featuring President Trump, it celebrates the strength of American values, and the promise of a nation dedicated to preserving freedom for all.”
The president on Wednesday told Fox Business Network that the move to put his face on a coin is “very unusual, but I was honored by it,” adding that “it’s very cute they gave me a coin.”
Trump, a Republican, has a penchant for putting his name and likeness in the historical record, following his renaming of the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center performing arts venue and a new class of battleshipsamong other tributes. The move to put his face on the gold coin has drawn criticism in particular because federal law prohibits the depiction of a living president on U.S. currency, though the treasury secretary has the authority to authorize the minting and issuance of coins in some circumstances.
The front of the coin features an image of Trump in a suit and tie and with a stern look on his face. Lettering on the top half of the coin’s arc spells “LIBERTY,” with the dates 1776-2026 on the bottom half of the arc. The words “IN GOD WE TRUST” are in the middle.
The reverse side depicts the traditional image of the bald eagle in the Great Seal of the U.S., with “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” on the top half of the coin and the Latin phrase “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” meaning “Out of many, one,” on the shield emblazoned on the bird’s breast.
Among the other differences from the design approved earlier this year is that Trump doesn’t have his fists resting on top of what is supposed to be a desk as he leans forward. The Treasury Department did not specify Wednesday why the final product diverged from the originally approved design.
The Treasury Department announced in March that it would be putting Trump’s signature on all new U.S. paper currency.
Traditionally, U.S. paper currency carries the signatures of the treasury secretary and the treasurer, not the president.
___
Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
The president couldn’t be decent even for 24 hours. Less than a day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Tuesday that it would pause most vehicle stopsDonald Trump posted on social media early Wednesday morning that “we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!”
“The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch,” he wrote on Truth Social. Shortly after, Trump reversed the pause on traffic stops.
ICE operates this way because we as a country have allowed it to happen.
In truth, suspending the stops wouldn’t have brought back Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Guerrerothe two Latino fathers killed by ICE agents during separate stops in a span of a week. They are two more victims of an administration that has terrorized immigrant communities relentlessly. The real issue isn’t whether the traffic stops are now ending or continuing — it’s that ICE agents are never held accountable for killing people.
As I have written in the pastICE operates this way because we as a country have allowed it to happen. ICE is now the country’s largest-funded enforcement agency. Just last month Congress passed $70 billion more in funding. Nothing will change until ICE is abolished.
“They’re just trying to cover for the fact that what they are doing shouldn’t be allowable in the first place,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said of ICE’s announcement Tuesdaybefore Trump’s post about traffic stops. “And the fact that they’re pausing it is to distract from the fact that in many of these instances they shouldn’t be allowed to do it in the first place.”
AOC is right, and restoring the stops proves her point. There have been many instances. In March of last year, 23-year-old Ruben Ray Martinez was killed by an ICE agent helping route traffic in South Padre Island. The Department of Homeland Security said Martinez tried to run over the agent, but the video didn’t support that claim.
In January, the nation mourned the deaths of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three shot in her SUV as she left a protest, and Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse killed during another protest. The federal government withheld the evidence in both cases — body camera footage, hard drives, even Good’s bullet-riddled SUV — from state investigators until this week. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he was “deeply troubled” that it took that long.
This is a pattern of manipulation: stripping away every detail of a human’s life until all that’s left is “illegal alien.”
“There have been at least 10 deaths involving encounters with immigration agents since Trump launched his deportation campaign,” The Associated Press reported. Nobody has been charged in a single one of those deaths. Guerrero’s also marks at least the 18th time in the past year that federal officers have fired at people in carsaccording to an MS NOW database. That’s on top of at least 22 people who have died in ICE custody this year alone, along with 33 last year.
The Trump administration claimed that Guerrero was a threat to “public safety” instead of a loving husband and parent to a 3-year-old daughter. It’s the same narrative this administration is trying with Salgado Araujo, who has been in this country for 35 years and raised three sons (who all earned college degrees). A week after his death, the FBI even said it was searching Salgado Araujo’s van for drugs. Never mind that, as the New York Times noted, there was “no prior suggestion that Mr. Salgado Araujo or the others in the van had been involved with drugs or had any relevant criminal history.”
This is a pattern of manipulation: stripping away every detail of a human’s life until all that’s left is “illegal alien,” because it’s easier to kill someone once you have already decided they were never fully a person to begin with. Dehumanizing immigrants is official government policy, and people are dying under it.
“Let’s be clear: it never was about documented or undocumented people — what we’re seeing is pure xenophobia and racism. Our community has been targeted and persecuted with zero accountability,” Voto Latino’s Beatriz Lopez saidcalling for the resignation of DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
While the government is in the hands of the prejudiced, the most American things we can do are to reject government talking points when the video evidence says otherwise, and to uplift who the victims really were.
“He had a great vision for getting ahead, so many dreams to fulfill,” Guerrero’s father, Omar Durán, told The New York Times. “My son is a wonderful son — I don’t know why they did that to him.”
Masked agents should not get to decide whether Salgado Araujo and Guerrero get to live.
“He was a hard-working family man who never wanted his name to be known by anyone outside of his family. He wanted nothing else in life but to provide for his wife and see his sons become great people,” said Ronaldo Salgado, Salgado Araujo’s sonlast week at a press conference.
“He did not deserve to die,” Ronaldo added.
Masked agents should not get to decide whether Salgado Araujo and Guerrero get to live. Current ICE tactics have communities terrified. It’s part of why half of Americans support abolishing ICE. Immigration as continued militarized enforcement will only lead to more deaths. It may be hard even to visualize a country without ICE, but as Amy Gottlieb, U.S. migration director for the American Friends Service Committee, noted earlier this yearan ICE-less world can include “legal services, case management, social services, and other community-based support” that would help “navigate immigration processes while keeping families together — creating stability in our communities rather than chaos.”
Immigration policy through continued militarized enforcement will only lead to more deaths. What country do we want to be? One that values humanity, or one that wants to dehumanize people who believe in this country’s promise? This is the choice each American has to make. Are you for killing innocent people in broad daylight, or are you for decency and compassion? The America I believe in would choose the latter. So enough with the dehumanization, enough with the deaths, and no more ICE.
Julio Ricardo Varela is the founder of “The Latino Newsletter” and co-editor of “Pressing Issues from Free Press.”
The Dictatorship
Ken Paxton hasn’t debated a rival in more than a decade. Talarico is now challenging him to one
This is the July 16, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter.Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.
“And who is my neighbor?”
— Luke 10:29
A CONVERSATION WITH JAMES TALARICO
Two ICE shootings in nine days have put immigration enforcement at the center of the Texas Senate race. Democratic nominee James Talarico joined “Morning Joe” to discuss border security, the fear in Hispanic communities, and what his grandfather — a Baptist preacher in South Texas — taught him about loving thy neighbor.
MB: Do you believe there should be robust border security?
JT: Absolutely. We have to protect our immigrant neighbors while also securing our southern border with commonsense policies. That means more Border Patrol agents, more surveillance technology, more immigration judges — not this crazy border wall through Big Bend National Park.
JS: Would you agree Democrats made a big mistake not focusing enough on border security?
JT: No question. I’ve called out President Joe Biden for failing to secure our southern border. National Democrats took the border for granted — we stopped showing up, and that’s why people along the border started looking for alternatives.
JS: You’ve been traveling the state, knocking on doors. What are you hearing from Hispanic communities?
JT: So many young people are showing up at our town halls, many of them Hispanic. They tell me they’re worried their parents aren’t going to come home at the end of the day.
The president promised to go after the criminals, and that’s something I support. But that’s not what’s happening. ICE should be cracking down on the cartels, not our communities. ICE should be deporting violent criminals, not small-business owners. ICE should be hunting down human traffickers, not moms and babies.
WG: How are you going to reverse the 30-year trend of Democrats losing statewide in Texas?
JT: The first words out of my mouth when I launched this campaign were that the real fight in this country is not left versus right — it’s top versus bottom. None of us can afford the basics: groceries, gas, utilities, childcare, prescription drugs.
We are trying to take on the megadonors who increasingly control our politics — and the puppet politicians who do their bidding.
WG: Republicans have gone after you personally — calling you a vegan, questioning your “Texas swagger.” How do you answer that?
JT: I think it’s funny. I’m the eighth-generation Texan in this race. Ken Paxton was born in North Dakota, raised in California, and I think transplants like Ken Paxton can become Texans. Texas is a state of mind, as John Steinbeck wrote.
And when I first heard the low-T thingI had to look it up — guys my age aren’t really worried about that. People realize we’re being played by these politicians who want to throw nicknames at each other. They’re ready for a serious senator who’s going to bring both parties together to get this economy back on track.
JS: Ken Paxton spent the Fourth of July on Westminster Bridge — celebrating 250 years of American independence with the British. How about you?
JT: I was with an American treasure — Willie Nelson — at his annual Fourth of July picnic in Austin.
A Tale of Two Fourth of Julys
Talarico and Nelson in Austin. Go”https://www.instagram.com/p/DaZYpSypCGw/”>James Talarico on Instagram
Paxton in London, July 4, 2026. Via @TheLincolnProject on YouTube
JS: Your opponents attack your faith. Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan — a man is left in a ditch, his own people pass him by, and it’s a despised foreigner who saves him. How is what we’re seeing right now the antithesis of that?
JT: My granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas. When I was little, he told me that as Christians, we’re supposed to follow the two commandments Jesus gave us: Love God and love your neighbor. It’s that commandment to love thy neighbor that got me into public service. I’m trying to love my neighbor through public policy.
And the parable of the Good Samaritan has so much to offer us at this moment. Jesus picked a Samaritan — not just an enemy, but a religious enemy. He lifted up the heretic and said, that is where salvation comes from.
MB: We understand you have a message for Ken Paxton.
JT: Ken Paxton hasn’t appeared on a debate stage in more than a decade. He refuses to answer basic questions — like why he gave an Epstein-style sweetheart deal to Adam Hoffman, an admitted child predator, or how he became a multimillionaire on a government salary.
So I am challenging Ken Paxton to three televised debates. I’ll be on that stage because I answer to the people of Texas. Ken Paxton answers to his billionaire megadonors. We’ll see if they let him show up.
This conversation has been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.
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