A Dangerous New Approach to Homelessness in the US

The most effective approach to homelessness is simply to house people. But some states — and the White House — want to lock them up instead.

JMSuarez, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

By Jeremy Saunders

No one wants people sleeping on our streets. For years, experts have agreed the best way to prevent that is to create more housing everyday people can afford, and to provide housing — coupled with supportive services for addiction, mental health, and other help — to those living on the streets.

That’s the one approach proven to work. Until recently, the state of Utah was a leader in it.

But now Utah has announced a new approach, with the Trump administration’s backing, that could erase this progress. And the Trump administration is proposing dramatic changes to housing funds that could force states across the country to follow suit — or lose the funds altogether.

That would be a disaster.

Utah is opening a large “accountability center” in the outskirts of Salt Lake City. Ostensibly the center will treat addiction and provide mental health services, but in practice this center will function like a jail where impoverished people who can’t afford housing will be sent against their will.

This “solution” was put forward by political appointees and business leaders, not actual homelessness experts. Local advocates warn this massive center won’t have the funds to provide treatment to the 1,300 people held there against their will. Instead, they worry it will only divert resources away from programs that actually work.

Experts have also raised concerns that the government advisor promoting this plan has a financial interest in the center: his firm has software that will get tax dollars to operate these internment camps.

Not long ago, Salt Lake was considered a model for solving homelessness, when a local housing program managed to get nearly the entire veteran homelessness population off the streets. They did this not by forcing homeless veterans into detention camps but by providing them with permanent, subsidized housing along with robust health and social services.

But supporters of this detention center have actually opposed moving people from the streets into housing with services onsite, calling these policies “permissive” — even though, when adequately funded and supported by elected officials, they actually work.

There are certainly “permissive policies” being pushed by politicians.

Landlords are permitted to profit off record high rents that fuel homelessness. Corporations are permitted to pay wages so low that full-time employees still can’t afford housing and groceries.

A ruling by our billionaire-backed Supreme Court permits cities to fine and jail people who are forced to live on the street because they can’t afford housing, even when there’s no available shelter.

And under the administration’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the wealthiest Americans are permitted to get trillions of dollars in tax cuts while everyday people are denied health care, food assistance, decent wages, or housing they can afford.

The Trump administration has actively promoted all of this. Laws are popping up across the country to make it illegal to be homeless. Rents continue to rise, along with the cost of living, without any increase in wages. And we are seeing massive cuts to food, health care, and housing that will only increase homelessness.

If we don’t act now to demand common sense solutions that actually work, we could be entering a period in our country that we will look back on with deep regret — where government policy leads to mass poverty and sickness, and those forced onto the streets are imprisoned.

Who won’t be locked up? Wealthier people who struggle with addiction and mental health issues. They’ll get access to the quality care they need — and if they relapse, they can get the same care they need again.

This is what all people deserve — and what research tells us works. We should bring back investments in actually housing people, not locking them up.

Jeremy Saunders is the Co-Executive Director of VOCAL-NY, part of VOCAL-US, an organization dedicated to ending homelessness and the overdose crisis. He’s worked on homeless issues for 18 years. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org