• Economy - Economic systems - Mixed economies - Social economy - Nonprofit organizations - Cicero Institute
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• This is the main entry for the "Cicero Institute".
"Politics - Corruption - Political corruption - Industrial complexes - Medical-industrial complex - United States - Cicero Institute", "Politics - Corruption - Political corruption - Industrial complexes - Poverty industrial complex - United States - Cicero Institute", and "Society - Social issues - Discrimination - Discrimination against homeless people - United States - Cicero Institute" redirect here.
• "ABOUT US.
The Cicero Institute is a nonpartisan group of policy innovators with deep experience in government, legislating, research, technology, and entrepreneurship.
Together, we incubate, develop, and fight for policies that apply the principles of a free society and solve problems at the state level, impacting millions of Americans.
Just like the policies we advocate, we value experimentation, iteration, and honest assessment.
THE CICERO VISION & MISSION.
Since its founding, the United States has been a deeply entrepreneurial project.
The Cicero Institute exists to preserve that spirit by promoting innovative public policies at the state level that channel the best elements of building and entrepreneurship.
We're optimistic that by crafting and applying policies modeled on the most functional parts of American society, we can fix broken public systems that need urgent attention; and as a result, create prosperity, reinforce and build on the value of good governance, and preserve the promise of American liberty for future generations.
POLICY PRINCIPLES FOR A MORE FUNCTIONAL FUTURE.
Cicero policies are grounded in the principles of transparency, good incentives, and accountability - all hallmarks of a functional system.
The details and results of a policy should be transparent to the public; public institutions should be incentivized toward solving problems instead of perpetuating them; and those institutions must be accountable to the public.
The United States is a big country with many different jurisdictions.
These nonpartisan principles allow for adaptable policies that any government entity can apply to operate more like the most functional and innovative parts of American society, with real results.
Cicero policies can enable more affordable healthcare products, help solve our nation's homelessness epidemic, make government services more effective for those who use them, reform our broken parole & probation system, and do much more."
• see also: Economy - Wealth - Distribution of wealth - Billionaires - Joe Lonsdale
• Education - Academia - Higher education - Universities and colleges - Universities - United States - University of Austin
• Nature - Earth - Countries - United States - Government - Law - Model acts - Cicero Institute - Reducing Street Homelessness Act
• Economy - Economic systems - Mixed economies - Social economy - Nonprofit organizations - 501(c)(3) organizations - Cicero Research
• Politics - Corruption - Political corruption - Industrial complexes - Poverty industrial complex
• Politics - Political philosophy - Political theories - Political ideologies - Conservatism - Conservatism in Canada - Pacific Prosperity Network
• Society - Social issues - Discrimination - Discrimination against homeless people
• Society - Social issues - Discrimination - Discrimination against homeless people - Anti-homelessness legislation - Criminalization of homelessness
• Society - Social issues - Discrimination - Discrimination against homeless people - United States - Eric Adams
• (2022-08-03, https://ciceroinstitute.org/trump-is-right-about-homelessness/) "Trump Is Right About Homelessness." "President Donald Trump's return to Washington, D.C. took an unexpected turn when he spent more than ten minutes discussing how homelessness is ruining American cities.
The speech, delivered at the America First Policy Institute's summit, described how homeless tent cities and associated increases in crime are destroying communities across the country. ... As Trump said, homelessness is a public safety issue.
A Cicero Institute poll found that seven in ten Georgia voters think that homeless camps threaten public safety.
This concern is one reason why an even higher percentage of voters want the state legislature to ban street camping.
..."
• (2022-04-08, https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2022/04/08/homeless-camping-bans-are-spreading-this-group-shaped-the-bills) "Homeless Camping Bans Are Spreading.
This Group Shaped the Bills." "Georgia state Senator Carden Summers said he drove around Atlanta before presenting a bill earlier this year that would ban homeless encampments and cut state funding from cities that refuse to enforce the ban. ... But Summers did not come up with the bill on his own.
It's almost an exact copy of model legislation published online by the Cicero Institute, a Texas-based think tank that strives to find 'entrepreneurial solutions to public problems,' according to its LinkedIn page. ... in an increasing number of states, legislators are pushing Cicero's approach: state-sanctioned encampments with a six-month residency limit, a ban on permanent encampments and penalties for cities that refuse to remove them. ... The Cicero Institute was founded in 2016 by Joe Lonsdale, the billionaire co-founder of software company Palantir, whose technology has been used for a range of controversial projects including migrant surveillance systems, predictive policing and battlefield management.
Stateline found nine bills introduced in six states in the past two years with matching or similar language to the Cicero Institute's model bill, the 'Reducing Street Homelessness Act.' In addition to Georgia, lawmakers in Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin have introduced bills that are similar to or have portions identical to the institute's model legislation.
The model bill would make sleeping on public property a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and a month in jail.
The measure also would prohibit state funds from going to any municipality or nonprofit in cities that fail to enforce encampment bans.
And it would create state-sanctioned homeless encampments where displaced people can stay for up to six months.
Georgia cities and advocates for homeless people strongly opposed the bill before state senators tabled it last month (2022-03). ... The Georgia Supportive Housing Association, an advocacy group, led a coalition of groups opposed to Summers' bill.
Mariel Risner Sivley, executive director of the association, said the bills inspired by the Cicero Institute would criminalize homelessness and hide rather than house those experiencing homelessness. ... Model bills are widely used by corporations, industry groups and think tanks looking to advance special-interest campaigns.
A 2019 investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, USA Today and The Arizona Republic found 10,000 bills almost entirely copied from model legislation introduced nationwide in eight years.
More than 2,100 of those bills were signed into law.
..."
• (2022-07-28, https://www.curbed.com/2022/07/donald-trump-homelessness-rick-caruso.html) "Trump's Grotesque Plan to 'End Homelessness' Is Already Mainstream Policy." "The only way you're going to remove the hundreds of thousands of people, and maybe, throughout our nation, millions of people ... and help make our cities clean, safe and beautiful again," Donald Trump said this week (2022-07-26) at a quasi-homecoming rally in D.C., "is to open up large parcels of inexpensive land in the outer reaches of the cities ... and create thousands and thousands of high-quality tents." ... The practice of getting unhoused people out of shared public space by forcing them to accept shelter under threat of incarceration isn't new.
Robert Marbut, a pioneer in so-called warehousing policies (and a Trump housing-policy appointee) has spent decades advising cities - for thousands of dollars an hour - to adopt his "velvet hammer" approach to homelessness: Criminalize it, erect massive shelters, and control access via drug testing, work requirements, and curfews. ... In fact, nine bills introduced in six states since 2020 feature strikingly similar language to a model bill - the "Reducing Street Homelessness Act" - pushed by a Palantir-backed, Texas-based think tank called the Cicero Institute.
One of the Cicero Institute's efforts even managed to overturn policy in a city which had already opted for a more progressive approach: In 2021, a Texas law was passed that made street camping illegal in Austin's public spaces, despite the ongoing efforts by its Democratic leaders to decriminalize homelessness. ...
• (2022-10-10, https://invisiblepeople.tv/private-prisons-for-homeless-criminalization/ ; discussion: private-prisons-for-homeless-criminalization) "Private Prisons Are Behind the Push for Homeless Criminalization.
The Cicero Institute Is Lobbying States to Abandon Housing First Initiatives and Instead Adopt the 'Reducing Street Homelessness Act', Which Criminalizes Homelessness" "In a way, the prison industrial complex is the mother of all NIMBYs.
They truly take the philosophy to the extreme.
Not only do they want certain people not in their backyards, they want them to be entirely sequestered away from society in an inhumane but profitable cage.
Given this connection, it should be no surprise when I tell you that the private prison industry is the single most powerful force pushing for homeless criminalization laws nationwide. ... The people and institutions behind the push for widespread homeless criminalization laws would prefer you to believe that we're seeing waves of identical rhetoric all across the country simply because the people are finally speaking out and finally voicing the opinions they've always had.
But that's not the case.
'The people' are reading off of the same cue cards.
The real voice behind these voices is The Cicero Institute, a conservative think tank founded by billionaire Joe Lonsdale.
He is significantly invested in the private prison industry through his venture capital firm, 8VC.
The Cicero Institute has dedicated a ton of its time and money toward countering the Housing First method, which is about as strong a testament to its effectiveness as you can get.
They've even partnered with PragerU to produce emotion-driven, facts-light 'documentaries' on Youtube.
Why are they trying desperately to get states to abandon the Housing First method?
Because it works.
Housing First keeps people off the streets and out of prison, which means fewer profits for billionaires like Lonsdale.
Influencing public opinion is just one arm of The Cicero Institute's approach to expanding the criminalization of homelessness.
The stronger arm is their lobbying arm. ... Lobbyists from The Cicero Institute are currently pressuring lawmakers in states around the country to adopt laws that sacrifice their citizens at the altar of prison profits. ... Lobbyists from Cicero call their proposal the 'Reducing Street Homelessness Act' because, of course, they do.
It includes specific language designed to turn anyone sleeping in public into a criminal - at law enforcement's discretion, which means enforcement will be uneven.
It also proposes that states divert funding for permanent housing solutions into temporary encampment projects, a phenomenon we see all over and I've written about before.
The proposal would also force unhoused people with mental illnesses into either prison or prison-like mental health facilities.
Again, it would be the police, with little to no psychological training, deciding who is and is not mentally ill.
But the most insidious part of all this is that it prevents even experienced advocates and social service providers from providing meaningful assistance due to the constantly looming threat of arrest any time an unhoused person interacts with the system. ... "