Along with news that the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness has been fired, The Washington Post is reporting that the Trump administration “plans a sweeping crackdown aimed at homelessness in California.” The Post notes that President Trump has previously promised to take action against California’s homelessness problem, arguing that homelessness hurts the quality of life and the “prestige” of some of its largest cities.” The paper also reports that, “[A]dministration officials have considered razing tent camps for the homeless, creating temporary facilities and refurbishing government facilities.”
As I wrote a few months ago when news of a White House initiative on homelessness was first reported, the president’s concern appears to have nothing to do with the humanity, suffering, and violated civil rights of the homeless population, and everything to do with his own aesthetic disgust at the dirtiness and poverty they represent, as well as a desire to embarrass California Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Given these origins, and the hints of plans to tear down homeless camps and round these unfortunate souls into government facilities, we appear to be at the cusp of a campaign of dehumanization and superficial solutions with parallels to the human rights-violating actions the administration has undertaken at the border. This time, though, it would be largely American citizens subject to federal abuse.
The idea that homelessness is something that requires a “crackdown,” as if homelessness were a crime, is a clue that we are far from seeking humane solutions to this crisis, and in the realm of targeting a vulnerable population for the sin of existing. After all, the actual solution to homelessness is known, and can be found in the word itself: it would involve giving those without shelter homes, along with the employment, health care, and other support that would allow our fellow humans to live and thrive. It is undeniable that at the federal, state, and local level to date, we Americans have collectively decided that we would rather not make these investments, whether due to cost, moral judgment that the homeless are each and every one deserving of their situation, or simple indifference. Now this immoral verdict has left a gaping hole in our social fabric and in our mutual solidarity, through which a cruel and twisted authoritarian like Donald Trump can issue sinister solutions of his own to homelessness: solutions which have nothing to do with recognizing their fellow humanity and honestly correcting our own collective failures, and everything to do with dehumanizing them, placing them out of sight, and cleansing our collective guilt and anger at the problem we refuse to take responsibility for.
In this homelessness ploy, we can see the familiar elements of Donald Trump’s authoritarian urges. Identify a certain group of people as the enemy and less than human; enact a solution that involves violating their civil and human rights; thrill his base with his willingness to enact their darkest impulses and prejudices. What is truly frightening about the homelessness plan is that it’s entirely possible that many who don’t support the president might nonetheless feel grateful to be freed of the burden of guilt and repulsion that homeless people cruelly provoke. This is a law-and-order play that invites good liberals to join the cruel calvacade of Trumpism, reassuring everyone that they have no responsibility for other Americans, that they are the true victims, that they deserve what they have and no one should be able to make them feel guilty about it.
It is shocking to me that this deeply sinister story is not getting more attention.