Made for More
America’s Streets Are Crying Out. It’s Time to Answer the Call
There comes a moment in every great nation’s story when silence becomes complicity. When the cries of the broken, the addicted, the mentally ill, and the abandoned echo so loudly through our streets that to ignore them is to betray the very soul of our republic. That moment is now.
Across America, sidewalks have become graveyards of human potential. Tents line the boulevards of once-great cities. Public parks, once filled with children’s laughter and community joy, now reek of despair. The mentally ill wander in torment. The addicted chase their next high in broad daylight. And the rest of us; citizens, taxpayers, neighbors; are told to look away. To tolerate the intolerable. To call this “compassion.”
But this is not compassion. This is cruelty masquerading as kindness. This is moral cowardice dressed up in progressive platitudes. And it must end.
Proverbs 31:8-9 commands us: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves… defend the rights of the poor and needy.” That is not a suggestion. It is a divine imperative. And for too long, our leaders have failed to heed it.
President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders; Ending Disorder on America’s Streets and Addressing Crime and Beautification in D.C.; are not just bureaucratic maneuvers. They are moral declarations. They are a line in the sand. They say to every American: “We will not surrender our cities. We will not forsake the vulnerable. We will restore order, dignity, and hope.”
These orders direct federal resources to dismantle encampments, enforce laws against public disorder, and compel action from local governments that have long abdicated their responsibilities. They acknowledge a truth that many have tried to suppress that the crisis on our streets is not merely about homelessness; it is about public safety, public health, and human dignity.
For decades, progressive policies have allowed the sickest among us to deteriorate in plain sight. They’ve called it “harm reduction.” They’ve called it “housing first.” But what they’ve really done is abandon the mentally ill and addicted to die slowly on the streets; while taxpayers foot the bill for a system that refuses to intervene.
Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.” That means confronting hard truths. It means recognizing that true compassion is not passive; it is active. It does not watch people spiral into madness and death. It steps in. It saves. It restores.
President Trump’s executive orders open the door to a new era; one in which compassion is measured not by inaction, but by the will to intervene. But make no mistake: these orders alone will not turn the tide. Relentless follow-through and accountability will be required at every level of government.
Success will demand more than slogans. It will require building new programs, staffing them with qualified professionals, and ensuring they are guided by the right interventions. It will require political will; real courage; to hold local leaders accountable, from social workers to judges to elected officials.
One of the most critical, yet least discussed, factors in this crisis is anosognosia; a neurological condition that prevents individuals from recognizing the depths of their own illness. Roughly 80% of homeless adults struggle with mental illness, addiction, or both. And among them, the majority live with anosognosia. These individuals will never “self-refer” to treatment. They do not believe they are sick. They do not seek help. They need intervention.
And yet, in too many jurisdictions, “compassion” is equated with laissez-faire neglect. Leaders refuse to enforce conservatorships and civil commitment laws. They refuse to compel treatment. They refuse to act.
Even when treatment beds are available, they sit empty. Not because there is no need; but because there is no will.
Take Seattle, for example. At the $244 million University of Washington Medicine’s Center for Behavioral Health and Learning; built to serve patients under the state’s Involuntary Treatment Act; only 35 patients a day are being served. Less than one year after opening, the facility laid off 32 staff members. Why? Because elected leaders refuse to compel treatment for the sickest individuals.
This is not a failure of capacity. It is a failure of courage.
Across the country, 41 states report shortages of social workers with master’s degrees. Thirty-six report shortages of licensed behavioral health counselors, including mental health therapists and addiction specialists. In California; an epicenter of the crisis; the shortages span nearly every behavioral health profession, from psychiatric nurses to addiction counselors.
But staffing shortages are only part of the problem. In places like Seattle, the issue is not a lack of professionals; it’s a lack of political will. Beds sit empty. Professionals lose jobs. Taxpayers bankroll a system that refuses to use the tools it already has. And the sickest among us spiral deeper into illness and risk of death.
The American Behavioral Health System in Port Angeles, Washington, recently faced the same problem. Facilities exist. Professionals are ready. But without the courage to compel treatment, lives are lost.
With the federal government now willing to fund and require treatment services, it must demand and monitor measurable results. Anything less will leave us with gleaming, multimillion-dollar monuments to inaction while the most impaired languish on barbaric streets.
Here’s what must happen:
· Occupancy Requirements: Facilities receiving federal dollars must operate at or near capacity. Beds must be filled. Lives must be saved.
· Workforce Investment: Funding must incentivize universities to train, recruit, and retain specialists for high-acuity patients. We need an army of healers ;trained, equipped, and ready to intervene.
· Accountability Metrics: State and local governments must meet clear performance benchmarks; or forfeit funding. No more blank checks. No more excuses.
📖 Matthew 25:40 reminds us: “Whatever you did for one of the least of these… you did for me.” That means we cannot look away. We cannot tolerate a system that leaves the most vulnerable to rot in the name of “freedom.” We must act.
Leaders at every rung of the system must embrace and follow through on “compassionate compulsion”; intervening when people cannot or will not seek help themselves. They must replace over-reaching harm-reduction experiments with genuine harm elimination.
President Trump’s executive orders chart the right course. But only relentless follow-through will deliver results. That means building treatment beds, staffing them with qualified professionals, and ensuring they are occupied by those in need.
More than a million homeless Americans are battling mental illness and addiction. They deserve a real chance at recovery. And their communities deserve the safety and stability that comes when disorder is replaced with care and accountability.
As the nation’s largest funder of homelessness programs, the federal government must hold local and state agencies to account; or risk watching this opportunity slip away and the crisis deepen beyond repair.
This is not just a policy debate. It is a moral reckoning.
James 2:17 says, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” We cannot claim to care about the vulnerable while refusing to act. We cannot claim to love our neighbor while stepping over their broken body on the sidewalk.
The time for action is now.
Let us rise with courage. Let us speak with clarity. Let us act with conviction. Let us restore our streets, our communities, and our national soul.