SEC SCOTT TURNER: Blame drugs and mental illness, not President Trump, for the chaos gripping our streets

President Donald Trump is bringing peace and stability back to D.C.’s crime-ridden streets. He is ending the chaos in our capital, restoring beauty to the city and making the district safer for all Americans.

The president’s commonsense policy has also exposed the depth of misguided anger toward our men and women in uniform, with the most recent example being the bitterness shown by activists against the National Guard. Unfortunately, this hostility toward those who defend against lawlessness goes beyond street mobs harassing the brave men and women fighting crime.

In 2024, the Biden administration published a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program, which was designed to fund organizations working to address homelessness. We quickly found that, like many department programs, this one had strayed from its original intent, becoming a mismanaged slush fund that enabled endless government-supported homelessness rather than delivering real solutions.

Members of federal law enforcement walk past a homeless woman outside of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., Aug. 14, 2025. (Reuters/Nathan Howard)

What we uncovered exposes the severity of the waste, fraud and abuse under the Biden administration, as well as its disdain for law enforcement. The NOFO revealed an administration that prioritized awarding HUD funds to groups that refused to helpfully cooperate with law enforcement.

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Biden’s HUD rewarded groups that "…minimize(d) use of law enforcement to enforce bans on public sleeping, public camping, or carrying out basic life functions in public places."

That policy was rooted in a worldview that treats law enforcement as the enemy. From the "defund the police" rhetoric to "don’t work with the police" policies, this animosity toward those who enforce the law has become deeply embedded in the Democratic Party.

But let’s be clear: the real enemy when it comes to helping Americans living on the street is not those who risk their lives to uphold law and order, it is the cycle of endless government handouts that bankroll homelessness while ignoring its root causes.

Those root causes are addiction and untreated mental illness. And they’re on full display in our cities. Sprawling encampments, public drug use and random violent attacks wreak havoc in the major cities Americans call home. Every day, overdoses claim lives and the most vulnerable fall victim to violence.

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This status quo is unacceptable. That’s why HUD is driving a paradigm shift to end this crisis.

At HUD, our responsibility is both to the most vulnerable Americans and to taxpayers whose hard-earned dollars we’re entrusted to steward. No one should suffer on our streets, and no one should walk them in fear.

The Biden administration spent four years denying the commonsense reality that street-level homelessness is a public safety crisis driven by addiction and mental illness. During that time, more than $12 billion of working Americans’ taxpayer dollars was funneled into the CoC program with nothing but record high rates of homelessness to show. In cities like Los Angeles and New York, billions more in local resources have been wasted.

How did we get here? Through failed leadership that demanded blind fealty to "Housing First" – an ideology that promotes fully subsidized housing, forever, with zero strings attached.

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But our goal is to let HUD use real proven effective strategies, and there is no evidence that giving free apartments to the homeless without preconditions or participation requirements – like job training or treatment – leads to good outcomes.

There is evidence, however, that countless lives have been lost to overdoses in HUD-funded housing because of this failed ideology.

According to HUD’s most recent data, residents were twice as likely to die in "permanent supportive housing" for the homeless than to move into unsubsidized housing, and the death rate of heads of households in these units went up by almost a third from 2019-2022. Local governments report that they’re more likely to lose people to overdoses in isolated subsidized housing and hotel rooms than outside on the streets.

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Another tragic failure of progressivism’s response to homelessness has been the systematic exclusion of faith-based organizations. That policy changed when Americans elected President Trump, because this administration recognizes that the very first organizations to serve the homeless in this nation were Christian ministries – and that they continue to be core partners in this mission to this day.

I’ve walked the halls of shelter programs, transitional housing, and recovery centers where life transformation happens every day because of the faith of the men and women who serve there, who clothe, feed and care for those made in God’s image. These faithful servants empower the vulnerable to take steps to recover and become self-sufficient. 

I’ve witnessed the power of faith firsthand, and HUD will continue to support this vital work as a key part of our campaign to tackle homelessness.

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The paradigm has shifted, and my message is this: to the organizations restoring self-sufficiency to broken lives, HUD wants to partner with you. To the working Americans who have entrusted us with your resources, HUD is wisely stewarding every dollar. To the law enforcement officers protecting our communities, HUD recognizes you as critical in making our streets safer. To the men and women who have come out of addiction and homelessness, HUD sees you as proof that recovery is possible.

And to everyone caught in the throes of addiction on our streets, recovery is possible for you too.

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