Marsha Michaelis

Marsha Michaelis is a Project Coordinator and Research Fellow for the Fix Homelessness Initiative of Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth & Poverty. She interned with Discovery in the late 90’s while studying at Seattle Pacific University, then spent more than a decade directing communications and education reform at a Washington State-based think tank. She left the office to raise and educate her four children, spending another decade directing various homeschool programs and teaching classes from kindergarten through high school. Marsha has written as a columnist and freelancer for numerous state and national publications, most recently and currently for her county’s monthly newspaper. She and her family live in northeast Washington state.

Archives

HB 2266: Call Your Legislator Today

_{Center on Wealth & Poverty and Marsha Michaelis
March 2, 2026}

More than 20,000 people are living on the streets in Washington state, most of them suffering from an untreated mental illness and/or drug addiction. HB 2266 is currently moving through the Washington State legislature to make it easier to develop subsidized housing and emergency shelters in the style of the failed Housing First policy. This bill would override local ordinances and zoning laws, put residents in real danger of increased crime and lawlessness, and leave the homeless housed but without the real help they need. “It is good to want to help them,” says Discovery Institute Project Coordinator and Research Fellow Marsha Michaelis. “Wanting to help people is good. Wanting to make sure that no one is free to disagree with your particular idea about how to help …

HB 2266: Call Your Legislator Today

_{Center on Wealth & Poverty and Marsha Michaelis
March 2, 2026}

Lawsuits Delay Homeless Reforms and Leave People on the Streets

_{Marsha Michaelis
February 4, 2026}

Even as many volunteers are taking to the cold streets to try to find and quantify the number of homeless Americans living there now, two lawsuits filed late last year in a federal District Court are blocking millions of dollars from reaching the neediest people. The first lawsuit was filed by the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), and the second by a coalition led by Washington State’s Attorney General Nick Brown. The lawsuits seek to stop the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from redirecting a larger share of public dollars to treatment-based homeless programs. Both suits seek to force the continued pretense that permanent subsidized housing projects will end homelessness. These efforts fail the smell test. First, nothing says …

Marsha Michaelis Talks Homelessness on The Earthvox Podcast

_{Center on Wealth & Poverty and Marsha Michaelis
January 28, 2026}

Marsha Michaelis appeared on The Earthvox Podcast with Ryan Keogan. After discussing Michaelis’ journey from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation to homeschooling to her current position at Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness initiative, they then discuss her recent article exploring the kinds of solutions society could offer a family in acute distress, homelessness, and drug addiction. The conversation continues with problems with the Housing First approach to homelessness, how the Trump administration is addressing homelessness, the nature of compassion, and more. Listen on Apple Podcasts …

Homeless Family’s Outrageous Situation Suggests Unique Remedy

_{Marsha Michaelis
January 15, 2026}

A note to readers: This is an uncomfortable story, as are my conclusions about how society might best address the situation it describes. I prize individual freedom and limited government, and recognize that sanctioning government force in the application of law can be a slippery slope. Yet, neglecting justice to avoid the risks of misapplying it is also a harmful slippery slope, and we see the destructive effects of that error in every city with permissive policies toward drug use, prostitution, and disorder. Ultimately, I can’t ignore the fact that children have a natural right to the dutiful care of their parents. With a wise and creative application of law, it may be possible to uphold a child’s rights even as his parents are subject to justice. Many details would …

Don’t Let a Book by Experts Silence Your Common Sense: “Homelessness is [Not] a Housing Problem”

_{Marsha Michaelis
January 13, 2026}

A book written and applauded by experts can tempt you to doubt your common sense and quietly surrender intellectual ground at a crucial moment, especially if it makes a bold claim and you haven’t read it yet. Consider Homelessness is a Housing Problem by authors Gregg Colburn (an assistant professor at the University of Washington) and Clayton Page Aldern (a Seattle-based data scientist and policy analyst). The book’s attractive cover claims the authors have used “accessible statistical analysis” to “test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city—including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility—and find that none explain the variation …

Good Dreams Destroyed by Bad Homeless Policies

_{Marsha Michaelis
December 11, 2025}

Of all the things a citizen should reasonably expect from her city, the “quiet enjoyment and protection of her civil rights and liberties” (so phrased by the great English jurist William Blackstone) is certainly foremost. Linda Biel, a citizen and business owner in the city of Spokane, is being denied that. Like most citizens of Spokane, when Linda pursues her dreams life in the city gets better. She pays taxes, creates jobs, provides desirable services, improves and expands her business in response to the community, and engages helpfully with her neighbors. Linda’s dream is good: She loves beauty and wellness, and long-imagined building and operating her own sophisticated downtown spa. She worked hard over many years, studying business and mathematics and …

On Homelessness, HUD Is Right to Move Away from Failed “Housing First” Policies

_{Marsha Michaelis
October 1, 2025}

In a memorable scene from “Casablanca,” actor Claude Rains plays a corrupt police chief ordered by the Germans to shut down a popular nightclub after patrons indulge in a disfavored patriotic song. “But I have no excuse to close it!” protests Rains. “Find one,” is the curt reply. Rains orders everyone to leave immediately. When the nightclub’s owner Rick (played by the unforgettable Humphrey Bogart) demands to know “on what grounds,” Rains exclaims: “I’m shocked, shocked, to find that gambling is going on in here!” He then cordially thanks the staff member who hands him his night’s winnings. In a similar show of manufactured outrage, executives at the National Alliance to End Homelessness filed a …