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LA fires tragic reminder that ignoring homeless problem can't continue

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LA fires tragic reminder that ignoring homeless problem can't continue

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Last week, LAPD Officer Sean Dinse divulged that the Kenneth Fire— one of the six tormenting the Los Angeles basin— was under criminal investigation.

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A homeless individual, allegedly an illegal alien, was subdued by residents within minutes and miles of the fire’s origin. Witnesses reportedly saw him wielding a blowtorch while shouting, “I am doing this.”   

Later detained on a felony probation violation due to insufficient evidence, this individual appeared to harbor an intent to harm the community—an intent as unmistakable as the internal demons with which he struggles.

Consider this alongside the reality that, according to LAFD data, there were 13,909 fires in the L.A. region linked to homelessness. That’s nearly double the number reported in 2020.

MAN ARRESTED NEAR LA FIRES WITH POSSIBLE BLOWTORCH IS AN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT: ICE SOURCES

This juxtaposition underscores the escalating and enormous risk to public safety posed by our nation’s homeless policy— Housing First— that rejects a naked truth: mental illness, and substance abuse disorder, frequently accompany homelessness.

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Full-throated advocates of Housing First include Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and Supervisor Mitchell of Los Angeles County, who preside over the most devastating and costly wildfires in history and America’s most troubled state, county, and city regarding homelessness.

Fires are raging, lives are being lost, and communities are being devastated. It’s time to confront the undeniable truth: Housing First has failed as a primary approach to homelessness.

Homeless individuals face dense and often interwoven challenges, including underemployment or non-employment, the absence of a high school diploma, the unavailability of a support network, and for the female population in particular, domestic violence.

Predominantly, they also grapple with mental illness and addiction despite erroneous federal government data.

During my 13-year tenure as CEO of Northern California’s largest program for homeless women and children, a documented 77% of our women struggled with addiction and 60% with mental illness. In the broader homeless population, the federal government claims this number to be 37%, but the UCLA Policy Lab found otherwise… it is 78% of the chronically homeless that struggle with these issues.

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 LOS ANGELES WILDFIRES: HOMEOWNERS CONFRONT MAN THEY BELIEVE IS ARSONIST AS CELEBRITIES FUEL FIREBUG THEORIES

Faced with these challenges, many homeless individuals resort to criminal activity as a means of survival. Conversely, criminal behavior can also catalyze homelessness.

In my program, 55% of our women had criminal records. In the overall homeless population, estimates range from 20-70%. Based on front-line experience and a broader context where premature jail and prison releases have surged while rehabilitation efforts have diminished, the 70% estimate is much more likely.

The great news is that most homeless can build the resilience and skills necessary to transform their lives and overcome these complex challenges. I have witnessed this first-hand in thousands of cases, and my confidence remains unwavering.

Nevertheless, such profound transformation has not and will never occur under the nation’s Housing First approach.

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Adopted in 2013, Housing First is a public policy approach to connect the homeless to permanent housing as quickly as possible.

It was a great sound bite and hard to argue with… at least initially.

It meant that American taxpayers were on the hook to provide all homeless with housing for life— in the form of permanent housing— without any requirements such as sobriety, engagement in treatment services, or pursuit of work, ever.

LOS ANGELES IN HOT WATER FOR SPENDING HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS ON WORSENING HOMELESS CRISIS

Shelters with structured rules, transitional housing programs, and treatment services were rendered virtually obsolete. Their funding was eliminated to expand the number of “in perpetuity, unconditional housing vouchers.”

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Most non-profits serving the homeless bent the proverbial knee to the federal government approach, as the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is the largest funder of homelessness.

President Obama promised Housing First would end homelessness in a decade, Yet, 11 years later, the number of homeless Americans soared to the highest level ever recorded, accompanied by a 238% increase in the homeless mortality rate.

California— the only state to fully adopt Housing First (2016)— now ranks amongst the worst states in the nation.

Beyond these abysmal outcomes was the quiet release of the only long-term study of Housing First that demonstrated it to be ineffective and often deadly. Over the 14-year analysis, nearly half of the individuals died by year five, and only 36% remained housed after year five. 

Fires are raging, lives are being lost, and communities are being devastated. It’s time to confront the undeniable truth: Housing First has failed as a primary approach to homelessness.

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Free Up Foundation has developed a Human First public policy framework grounded in real-life experience and the understanding that humans are both complex and resilient.

The incoming Trump administration should adopt the Free Up framework as follows:

 1. Eliminate Housing First as the nation’s exclusive approach to homelessness.

2. Redefine success from “housed” to helping people realize their full, God-given potential.

3. Refund temporary residency programs that instill community, accountability, and growth. Shelters with rules, transitional housing programs, and sanctioned encampments, all of which facilitate the efficient delivery of treatment services should be included. (Only 10-20% of the homeless population are likely to need “subsidized for life” housing.)

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4. Fund and require (as needed) treatment services including mental health and substance abuse counseling, and employment training.

5. Ban unsanctioned encampments which are often plagued with crime, drugs, sexual abuse, and are increasingly the source of fires.

6. Re-engage the faith-based and law enforcement communities that were ostracized by HUD as it emerged as homelessness’ CEO.

7. Regularly measure and report progress towards success. Fund and reward success.

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Over the last decade, Americans conceded their authority to the hard-left’s approach to homelessness. Across the board, the more a region embraced Housing First, the more homelessness climbed and decimated everything in its path— the homeless, the taxpayers, public spaces, and public safety.

Free Up’s Human First framework will foster individual productivity and public safety while restoring normalcy and returning billions annually to the taxpayers who earned it.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM MICHELE STEEB

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West

‘Starry Night Murderer’ allegedly terrorizing people after early prison release, parole violations

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‘Starry Night Murderer’ allegedly terrorizing people after early prison release, parole violations

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A former Portland nightclub owner convicted in a notorious 1990 murder is back in jail, this time accused of domestic violence and a parole violation in Clackamas County.

Larry Hurwitz, also known as the “Starry Night Murderer,” was arrested last week in Sandy on allegations of harassment and fourth-degree assault and is being held on a parole violation, according to jail records. He was booked into the Clackamas County Jail, where bail was set at $500,000.

The Oregon Board of Parole confirmed to Fox News Digital that Hurwitz is serving lifetime post-prison supervision for his murder conviction and has no other underlying convictions under Board supervision. Parole officials said a warrant was issued in 2019, served in 2023, and that Hurwitz was extradited from California. 

Board records also show Hurwitz previously had his supervision revoked in August 2019 and served a 180-day sanction.

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Tim Moreau is shown in an undated photo. Moreau, a former employee of the Starry Night Concert Hall, was killed in 1990 in a case that later led to the conviction of nightclub owner Larry Hurwitz. (KPTV)

Hurwitz was sentenced in 2000 to 11 years in prison for the 1990 murder of his 21-year-old employee, Tim Moreau. Hurwitz was the former owner of the Starry Night Concert Hall in northwest Portland.

According to KPTV, the case was first exposed by veteran journalist Jim Redden in a 1990 Willamette Week investigative series titled “Missing and Presumed Dead.” The reporting examined the disappearance of Moreau, who worked as the promotions manager at the Starry Night club.

“He did in fact start this incredibly influential Starry Night club,” Redden told KPTV. “He could have climbed to the top of the entire business here in town. But he had this dark side that undermined everything he did.”

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GRANDSON CHARGED WITH MURDERING RETIRED GRANDPARENTS FOUND DEAD IN THEIR SOUTH CAROLINA HOME

Larry Hurwitz enters a courthouse during a court appearance in an archival image. Hurwitz, a former Portland nightclub owner, was convicted in the 1990 murder of employee Tim Moreau. (KPTV)

Redden told the outlet that from the beginning, he believed Hurwitz was responsible for Moreau’s disappearance, describing Hurwitz as an aggressive businessman with a reputation for selling counterfeit concert tickets at his own venue.

Prosecutors later argued Hurwitz killed Moreau alongside another employee, George Castagnola, to prevent the ticket scheme from being exposed. Hurwitz ultimately entered a no-contest plea. Moreau’s body has never been found.

After Hurwitz’s early release from prison in 2008, Redden told KPTV that Hurwitz continued to have run-ins with law enforcement, including a 2019 drug trafficking case in California.

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Family members of Tim Moreau walk together inside a courthouse in an archival image. Moreau was killed in 1990 in a case that later led to the conviction of former Portland nightclub owner Larry Hurwitz. (KPTV)

“He was arrested in California on a drug trafficking charge down in Huntington Beach, California, with four kilos of cocaine and $320,000 in cash and was convicted on that,” Redden said.

Redden told KPTV that while the current arrest appears less severe on its face, it could still have broader implications.

“On the surface, it is a much smaller arrest. It’s domestic violence,” Redden said. “But I don’t think that the full story has come out yet. The investigation is ongoing, and there could be some connections to previous cases.”

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The Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office told Fox News Digital it cannot comment on the specifics of the case, citing an ongoing investigation. Prosecutors said the parole violation process is separate from the criminal case and is handled outside the DA’s office.

Hurwitz is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 4. His trial is set for March 19.

Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.

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San Francisco, CA

SF changes method to count unhoused; advocate believes it’s political, will lead to undercount

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SF changes method to count unhoused; advocate believes it’s political, will lead to undercount


SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — For the first time in more than two decades, San Francisco is changing the way it counts the number of unhoused individuals on its streets.

“This is a major change. We’re going from nighttime count to early morning count because we feel we’ll be reaching more people at night people. I was homeless for 18 years. You could never find me,” said Del Seymour, Co-chair San Francisco’s Local Homeless Coordinating Board.

Thursday’s ‘Point in Time’ count will now happen from 5 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Historically, it happened overnight.

Another change, community volunteers will not be involved. Instead, it will only be trained city employees and outreach workers. The Coalition on Homelessness sees that as a lack of transparency.

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“They’re not allowing any volunteers on the count. And so, they’re relying on city outreach workers, who in our experience, when they did the RV count, they missed 1 in 5 RVs. It means that it’s not open. And you don’t have the observers and the people participatory process that I think is really important to make sure that everything’s going well,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, Executive Director SF’s Coalition on Homelessness.

MORE: Mayor Lurie talks affordability, homelessness and bringing business back to the SF

We sat with Emily Cohen HSH’s Deputy Director of Communications, who said they made the change to improve visibility.

“We will be identifying vehicles that appear to be occupied and trying to assess if somebody is living in that vehicle. Certainly, if there’s a tent on the street, we make assumptions about how many people are in those tents and try to put together the most accurate picture possible,” said Cohen.

Luz Pena: “Why are volunteers not part of this count?”

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Emily Cohen: “To help ensure consistency and transparency of the count, we are relying heavily on trained outreach workers and city staff to conduct the count. Those two groups have always been a part of the count. But in the past, we have had more general volunteers, but we’ve had some training challenges with that in the past, so we’re sticking with, city staff and trained outreach workers this year.”

This time around, the city will also conduct a survey that will include questions like ‘are you homeless?’ and ‘what led to you being homeless?’

Luz Pena: “Do you believe this new method will lead to a more accurate count?”

Emily Cohen: “I think that these improvements will help us ensure an accurate count.”

Our data team aggregated the city’s PIT count data and found that between 2009 and 2024 the number of homeless individuals rose by nearly 30 percent.

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MORE: Counting San Francisco’s unhoused — and why you never ask if they are homeless

Some homeless advocates believe the new change is political and could lead to an under count.

“We’re really worried with, you know, a, you know, political intervention on the count, that there could be a false under count and we could show a decrease that in reality is not there,” said Friedenbach.

MORE: Formerly unhoused San Jose Columbus Park residents adjusting to restrictions in new home

In the Fiscal year 2025 to 2026, the city is projected to get $62.8 million or 7.4% of the total budget from federal sources. The city’s Homelessness and Supportive Housing Department will continue with this method for the next 10 years to build up a strong data set.

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“We are working very closely with all of the outreach teams in the city, with city staff to go cover every square inch of the city and county of San Francisco to visually count everyone who we assume is experiencing homelessness,” said Cohen.


Copyright © 2026 KGO-TV. All Rights Reserved.



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Denver, CO

Contract for National Western Center pedestrian bridge advances

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Contract for National Western Center pedestrian bridge advances


Members of the South Platte River Committee voted on Wednesday to advance a $12.7 million contract with Ames Construction to construct a new pedestrian bridge at the National Western Center. City officials say the project will improve east-west campus and GES connectivity by spanning nine railroad tracks and connecting to the RTD N Line Commuter […]



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