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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.
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.
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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.
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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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.
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.
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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.”
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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Alaska transportation officials on Tuesday identified the likely winner of a bidding process for building a $350 million vessel to replace the state’s 62-year-old Tustumena ferry.
The M/V Tustumena has been connecting communities along the Aleutian chain to Southcentral Alaska since 1964. Alaska leaders for years have been discussing plans to replace the ferry with a newer vessel.
But the process of constructing a new ferry has been repeatedly delayed and hampered amid shifts in state and federal administration priorities.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski was instrumental in adding funding to a bipartisan federal infrastructure bill in 2021 to build new ferries for Alaska. Funding from that bill, signed into law by former President Joe Biden, will be the primary way the state plans to pay for the new vessel.
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities said Tuesday that it is nearing the conclusion of a monthslong bidding process, and had identified a Louisiana-based shipbuilder to construct the new ferry at a cost of just under $350 million.
That is an increase from 2021, when Gov. Mike Dunleavy announced a plan to replace the Tustumena by 2027 at a cost of up to $250 million. Both the price tag and the timeline have since been altered. The vessel is not expected to be complete until 2029, according to the latest plan.
In a written statement, Dunleavy said Tuesday that replacing the Tustumena reflects his administration’s “commitment to rebuilding this critical transportation network.”
During Dunleavy’s eight-year tenure, ridership and state revenue from the Alaska Marine Highway System have seen significant decline, with an aging fleet and difficulty in recruiting and retaining workers.
After several false starts, the state began seeking bids for the construction of the Tustumena replacement in January. The bidding process was initially intended to conclude in May, but was extended to provide more time for bidders to complete their proposals, according to state officials.
The department did not share how many bids it had received or details on the other bids.
The requirements for the new vessel include a 330-foot-long ship with a range of 4,000 nautical miles, and a capacity of 250 passengers and 28 crew plus 58 vehicles. That would be larger than the current vessel, which has the capacity to carry 160 passengers and up to 34, 20-foot vehicles.
Transportation officials said Tuesday that Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors, the Louisiana-based shipbuilder, has a 14-day window to submit all remaining requirement documentation. The award won’t be formalized until that process is complete.
Thoma-Sea recently completed work on the Arctic Fjord, a Seattle-based factory trawler operating in the Bering Sea. The Alaska transportation department stated that the project demonstrates the company’s “ability to successfully deliver complex vessels designed for Alaska’s demanding operating environment.”
The ferry system’s Marine Director Craig Tornga said in a statement that the step toward constructing the Tustumena replacement vessel “represents more than a new ship — it represents renewed confidence in the future of the Alaska Marine Highway System.”
“The replacement vessel will provide improved reliability, enhanced safety, increased operational flexibility, and modern efficient systems that will better serve our passengers, crews, and the communities that depend on us. We look forward to working with the men and women of Thoma-Sea Marine Constructors to deliver a high-performance vessel,” Tornga said in a statement.
The Pocket Fire burning north of Sedona and sending smoke and ash into Flagstaff has been tricky for firefighters to access because of the steep and narrow terrain through canyons and along cliffsides. These same landscape features mean that many others watching the fire’s rapid progress from afar have worried with little information about which of their favorite hiking trails and scenic viewpoints near Oak Creek Canyon may not look the same again in their lifetimes.
On June 30, the fire perimeter had exceeded 15,000 acres after growing about 4,000 acres overnight. This expansion took the shape of a finger jutting to the west from near the southern edge of the fire while the northern edge broadened along Forest Service Road 9042, where firefighter crews worked to hold it.
For residents of Kachina Village, the community most in the path of the fire’s recent growth and one known to be particularly vulnerable to fire, that northern progress being redirected east and west along the firebreak road was something to celebrate.
For others, fears and questions about singed trails, camping spots, homes and businesses remain.
What is clear is that parts of the distant edge of the popular West Fork trail, which starts at West Fork Trailhead off of U.S. 89A through Oak Creek Canyon and follows West Fork Oak Creek as it twists and turns between stunning red rock canyon walls, are within the Pocket Fire’s active perimeter. The popular panoramic vista from the “Edge of the World” viewpoint in East Pocket off Forest Road 231 was also enveloped by the fire in its early days.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean these areas are unrecoverable as scenic and beloved recreation spots. Wildfires frequently burn discontinuously through forested landscapes, as embers send out new sparks to distant forest patches. So the damage severity from the Pocket Fire in many places is not yet known.
After the Dragon Bravo fire burned 150,000 acres near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in 2025, a Burn Area Emergency Response team concluded months later that only 1% of the 71,000 park-managed acres within the perimeter showed evidence of a “high severity” burn. The rest had better odds of ecological recovery.
To prevent a need for too much of that in one of the Sedona area’s most treasured spots, though, crews on the Pocket Fire have worked out a “really solid plan to protect all of our identified values and to keep fire out of the bottom of Oak Creek Canyon,” said operations section chief trainee Clyde England of the Southwest Incident Management Team in his morning briefing about the fire on June 30.
England emphasized that crews were focused on keeping the fire out of the West Fork drainage, by conducting backburning efforts and building a buffer on the east side, while limiting progress north toward Kachina Village. They are also working with the Arizona Department of Transportation to remove hazard trees along the roadway, so there is “one less risk we have to worry about” if the fire does jump down into Oak Creek Canyon.
“I want to reiterate that the threat component is still there, as fire is coming down into West Fork,” England said. “There is still a potential for the fire to find some fuels and get some alignment with the winds out of the canyon. We don’t anticipate it. That’s why we still got a big presence up there, just in case some unforeseen event pushes some fire out up on the ridge into that (eastern) corner.”
Another area the team is watching is along the southern edge of the fire in Dry Creek near Bear Sign Canyon, the site of a popular 7-mile hiking trail that passes through “a carpet of ferns with views of white Coconino sandstone cliffs,” according to a nearby business offering lodging for hikers. England said the team has been able to “insert people” into that area over the past few days to build hand lines and work with helicopters on bucket drops to help prevent the fire from spreading to the Seven Canyons area and Enchantment Golf Resort.
The historic Fernow Cabin, a former U.S. Forest Service guard station, is also safe so far, England said, thanks to defensive firing by crews over the weekend that will continue for a few more days to keep the structure intact.
On the northwest edge of the fire, a containment line along Forest Service road 231 is “looking really good,” England said, with a recent expansion of the fire map there reflecting defensive fire efforts rather than wildfire growth. That effort will help protect the power lines to communities in Oak Creek from damage. Fire retardant drops and reinforced dozer and hand lines have helped prevent the fire from progressing over the 536 or 535 roads.
“If we can get it down in this canyon, use the weather patterns, the fuels, the rocky terrain to our advantage, we can find a way to choke that out,” England said. “So our ops are all looking good, our confidence is there.”
Addressing the southwestern corner of the Pocket Fire perimeter, England struck a more somber tone, acknowledging expansion of flames across Round Top Mountain toward Secret Canyon.
That’s the reality of wildfire in the American Southwest, scientists say, in an age of the drying and warming influences of climate change combined with ever-expanding human development and juxtaposed against federal funding cuts.
“The anticipation is that some of this fire will be on the landscape for a while,” he said. “There’s just no access and no way to get folks into that country. You might see that fire and that smoke for a while.”
Joan Meiners is the climate news and storytelling reporter at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Send tips or questions to joan.meiners@arizonarepublic.com or follow her work on Instagram at @joan_bikes_arizona.
Have a news tip? Contact The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com at newstips@arizonarepublic.com.
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) California voters will face a high-profile “billionaire tax” measure on the November ballot, a proposal supporters say would raise new revenue, but critics warn could push some of the state’s wealthiest residents to leave.
If passed, the measure would impose a one-time 5% tax on California billionaires living in the state as of Jan. 1, 2026.
Tal Eslick, owner of Vista Consulting, said, “I think there is this effort, especially on the part of progressive state leaders, to somehow, you know, go after billionaires or maybe even the trillionaires that may exist in the future.”
Billionaire tax measure heads to California’s November ballot, with Kern County watching (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Political analysts say a proposal like this could encourage some of California’s wealthiest residents to relocate, potentially taking investment and business activity with them.
Eslick said, “And for that matter, they can come back occasionally to visit and do a little bit of business, but live in a state that is a little more accommodating for them from a tax standpoint.”
Questions have also been raised about what the impact could be for Kern County if billionaires leave the state.
Sherod Waite, CEO of Moneywise Guys, said, “It’s questionable how much revenue would actually be generated from the tax and how much revenue would be lost from those people exiting the state. It’s questionable. It’s a gamble.”
Waite said billionaires leaving could reduce state revenue that could be used in Kern County.
Billionaire tax measure heads to California’s November ballot, with Kern County watching (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
“Think of all the support services that the state offers to the entire state, including us here in Kern County, that are paid for by tax dollars,” he said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has been outspokenly against a state wealth tax and is instead proposing a national tax policy that would tax anyone with a net worth of $100 million.
Newsom said, “It’s time for a national billionaire’s tax and a new social contract. Just think of this, just ten percent of people own 2/3’s of the nation’s wealth.”
Eslick said Newsom’s position can be difficult to square.
“It’s a naturally confusing sort of position to be opposed to the tax in California but be supportive of it at a national level. But I think that’s him walking a treacherous political road,” he said.
Billionaire tax measure heads to California’s November ballot, with Kern County watching (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
In a statement regarding the measure, Assemblyman Stan Ellis said in part, “This would hurt Kern’s energy, Agriculture, manufacturing, and working families through lost investment, fewer jobs and unstable state funding.”
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