Trump reveals new homelessness policy: Tent cities for rehabilitation and jail for those who refuse

Trump wants to ban urban camping ‘wherever possible’

Former President Donald Trump has released the outlines a new homelessness policy based on banning urban camping, setting up tent cities, and sending people who decline “treatment” to jail.

Mr Trump has increasingly focused in his current campaign for the White House on rising levels of homelessness in major cities and is taking a characteristically authoritian approach to dealing with them. In a new video, Mr Trump proposes banning camping wherever possible; arresting anyone found sleeping in unsanctioned areas outdoors; and presenting people with a choice: either agree to enter treatment programmes or go to jail.

“Violators of these bans will be arrested, but they will be given the option to accept treatment and services if they’re willing to be rehabilitated,” Mr Trump said in a recent video. “Many of them don’t want that. But we’ll give them the option.”

Mr Trump’s new conception of homelessness and its effect on American urban life echoes talking points from Republicans and conservative candidates in muncipal elections during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Crime was a particular issue of emphasis for Republicans during the recent midterm elections and has likewise been a major issue in campaigns for mayor and city council, and district attorney positions in cities like New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles over the last year-plus.

But Mr Trump’s broader emphasis on crime, law and order, and police control dates back to his first run for president. Throughout his career as a politician, Mr Trump has frequently painted grim pictures of large, diverse US cities and favoured tough-on-crime, punitive approaches to dealing with social issues.

To combat homelessness, which is driven first and foremost by high housing costs, Mr Trump is proposing opening large “tent cities,” or camps, where homeless people would be forced to live if they did not want to go to jail.

“We will then open up large parcels of inexpensive land, bring in doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, and drug rehab specialists and create tent cities where the homeless can be relocated and their problems identified,” Mr Trump said in the video. “But we’ll open up our cities again, make them livable and make them beautiful.”

It is unclear as of yet how Mr Trump would fund his plan. The operation of the “tent cities” alone would likely require a vast amount of money, as would the employment of doctors and social workers to work with houseless people.

The plan would also likely attract the opposition of civil rights groups over the extent to which it would coerce people into recieving treatment or living in camps. Bans on public camping in US cities largely have not gotten people off the streets, but rather forced people to move away from needed social services.

Mr Trump, despite his recent criminal indictment and multiple impeachments during his first term in office, is the leading Republican candidate for president in 2024.