Investigation reveals billions in homeless funds fuel radical activism

For years, Americans have been told that “compassion” for the homeless meant writing ever-larger checks – more money, more programs and far less accountability.

Now, at last, we have some answers for why homelessness has exploded even amid a tripling of public spending.  

A groundbreaking investigation, “Infiltrated” – backed by more than 50 pages of documentation from the Capital Research Center in cooperation with Discovery Institute – pulls back the curtain on a vast system of corruption. It reveals how billions in taxpayer funds intended to lift people out of homelessness have instead bankrolled radical activism and anti-American political agendas, betraying both the taxpayers who fund it and the homeless they were meant to help.

Despite unprecedented resources, homelessness in the United States now stands at its highest level in U.S. history. “Infiltrated” details how the nation’s most prominent “homeless advocacy” organizations have been weaponized against the very people they claim to serve – redirecting compassion into ideology and dependency into power.

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It exposes how radical networks have quietly embedded themselves within leading homelessness nonprofits, sharing infrastructure, donors, and ideology.

What began as a movement rooted in compassion has metastasized into what can only be described as a Homelessness Industrial Complex – a sprawling web of nonprofits, bureaucrats and activists feeding off the very crisis they claim to solve.

They’ve built an empire of corruption draped in “evidence-based” slogans that shield politics, protect paychecks and betray the vulnerable.

The report lays it bare: these networks posture as defenders of America’s homeless, yet in truth, they have become their greatest exploiters, dependent on failure to sustain power.

The origins trace back to 2013, when the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) enshrined Housing First as federal doctrine. Promising to “end homelessness in a decade,” HUD stripped away requirements for treatment and accountability, effectively institutionalizing a policy.

The result? Spending soared. Grants proliferated. Outcomes collapsed.

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The Supreme Court’s Grants Pass v. Johnson case further exposed the rot. Over 700 nonprofits – collectively taking in $2.9 billion in government grants – filed briefs defending public encampments and opposing enforcement of anti-camping laws as “cruel and unusual punishment.” Their concern wasn’t compassion – it was the preservation of their money pot.

Private foundations joined the crusade.

Major philanthropic giants – Ford, Robert Wood Johnson and Gates Foundations – poured billions into Housing First and “equity” initiatives to promote ideology under the guise of helping the homeless.

Donor-advised funds masked the flow of money, enabling anonymous advocacy giving that blurred the line between charity and politics.

Meanwhile, coalitions like Funders Together to End Homelessness funneled vast sums toward upstream political causes – including the promotion of reparations and anti-policing movements… all under the moral camouflage of addressing homelessness.

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Donors and taxpayers thought they were funding solutions. Instead, their money fueled lawsuits, lobbying and ideological activism that deepened despair.

A prior Capital Research Center report, “Marching Toward Violence,” exposed deep overlap between homelessness coalitions and extremist networks – pro-Hamas organizations, Marxist movements and anarchist collectives sharing the same funders and infrastructure. Groups like the Western Regional Advocacy Project glorify violent fugitives such as Assata Shakur, while the Autonomous Tenants Union Network boasts about rejecting cooperation with mainstream nonprofits to preserve “revolutionary independence.”

They have hijacked the language of compassion to wage a political war against law enforcement, property rights and personal responsibility.

The outcome is measurable and devastating: billions spent, streets worse than ever, and a 77% increase in the death rate among the homeless, under the banner of “justice.”

For too long, the Homelessness Industrial Complex has thrived in darkness, remaining untouchable, unaccountable and unchallenged. But sunlight is finally piercing through.

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President Donald Trump’s recent executive order on homelessness marks the first serious course correction in over a decade. The complex’s all-out resistance – including a recently-filed lawsuit – only underscores its entrenchment and fear of being held accountable for real outcomes.

But the homeless can no longer wait.

If compassion is to mean anything, funding must be tied to measurable outcomes such as real reductions in homelessness. Every dollar should be used to restore human lives, not bankroll ideological causes.

The time has come to reclaim compassion from corruption by returning funding to what it was meant to do: restore hope, recovery and purpose.

The light is on. The truth is out. Now it depends on us to keep the pressure, hold the line and never let the darkness close in again.

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