Trump demands homeless ‘immediately’ move out of Washington DC
www.independent.co.uk
‘We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital,’ president tells Washington’s homeless

Donald Trump has demanded that the homeless “immediately” move out of Washington, D.C. to make the nation’s capital “more beautiful.”

Trump reiterated his Saturday announcement that he’s set to hold a press conference at the White House on Monday, adding on Truth Social on Sunday that “I’m going to make our Capital safer and more beautiful than it ever was before.”

“The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,” he continued. “We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong.”

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      381·
      15 hours ago

      Yep.

      That’s his plan.

      He’s mentioned it a few times.

      https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-homelessness-policy-tent-cities-b2322102.html

      "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.”

      Now he has begun to act toward those ends.

      https://shelterforce.org/2025/02/14/trump-wants-to-force-homeless-people-into-tent-cities-can-he/

      There is no evidence yet that the Trump administration plans to use federal resources to create facilities like the one used in New Orleans before the Super Bowl.

      Ah, well, no, wrong, ShelterForce, see above public speech from Trump 2 years ago, or just look outside right now.

      https://homelesslaw.org/statement7242025/

      This Executive Order is rooted in outdated, racist myths about homelessness and will undoubtedly make homelessness worse.

      Specifically, this order:

      • Expands the use of police and institutionalization to respond to homelessness
      • Prioritizes funding for states that treat homelessness as a crime and end housing-based solutions
      • Cuts off funding for life-saving programs like harm-reduction.

      Today’s executive order, combined with MAGA’s budget cuts for housing and healthcare, will increase the number of people forced to live in tents, in their cars, and on the streets.

      My guesstimate is that within a year of Trump’s collapsing economy and cuts to all kinds of social programs (so, by Feb 2026), we’re looking at roughly 10 million homeless people.

      You know, just about the population of entire Chicago metro area.

      Was probably around 2-3 million back during Covid.

      No, the PIT count numbers of several hundred thousand, they’re wrong.

      Source is me, I used to be one of the people who contributed to that count, as a data analyst for a large nonprofit serving the homeless.

      The PIT methodology is a complete joke, it only counts people in shelters or at known permanent encampments (which are all illegal now), you roughly have to multiply it by 3x to 5x if you want to match the demographics of all the people who call in, say they are or will soon become homeless, and then we either can’t help them because we don’t have the resources, or they don’t want to come to a shelter full of traumatized poor people and would rather live in a car (also illegal now) or hop from motel to motel untill they run out of money (2 or 3 months on average).

      EDIT:

      Trump/MAGA’s insane response to Covid unironically may have actually killed enough people, disproportionately in red areas, that it actually caused his election loss, and then subsequent Jan 6th coup attempt.

      Now he’s gonna more directly kill millions of Americans, an order of magnitude more.

      • BotsRuinedEverything@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        3 hours ago

        I’m pretty sure the end game for the Republicans is to balkanize the United States and issue fiefdoms to billionaires. I can’t believe I’m saying this seriously, but I anticipate States beginning to seceed within a decade. It wouldn’t surprise me if gerrymanderig states into single party enclaves is the beginning. I’ve lived in Pennsylvania my whole life but I suspect my California birth certificate may become the most valuable asset I own one day.

      • OutlierBlue@lemmy.caEnglish
        9·
        14 hours ago

        Now he’s gonna more directly kill millions of Americans, an order of magnitude more.

        And he’s just getting started. We’re not even 7 months in to this.

      • greenfire@lemmings.worldEnglish
        2·
        13 hours ago

        How about trying an executive order to install universal Medicare/Medicaid throughout every US state & territory so none of our neighbors have to move & our communities & nation can remain intact.