Marsha Michaelis

Project Coordinator and Research Fellow, Fix Homelessness Initiative

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.

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

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