Thread: Trump to move homeless to "Government facilities" at taxpayer expense

Trump pushing for major crackdown on homeless camps in California, with aides discussing moving residents to government-backed facilities

People walk by homeless people in San Francisco on Aug. 23, 2018. (Mason Trinca for The Washington Post)

By Jeff Stein, Tracy Jan, Josh Dawsey and Ashley Parker
September 10, 2019 at 2:06 p.m. PDT

President Trump has ordered White House officials to launch a sweeping effort to address homelessness in California, citing the state’s growing crisis, according to four government officials aware of the effort.

The planning has intensified in recent weeks. Administration officials have discussed using the federal government to get homeless people off the streets of Los Angeles and other cities and into new government-backed facilities, according to two officials briefed on the planning.

But it is unclear how they could accomplish this and what legal authority they would use.It is also unclear whether the state’s Democratic politicians would cooperate with Trump, who has sought to embarrass them over the homelessness crisis with repeated attacks on their competency.

Trump’s directive is part of his broader effort in recent months to shine a light on problems in California and a number of major U.S. cities, including Baltimore and Chicago. He has complained about what he says are years of failed Democratic leadership that have led to sustained poverty and crime.

Top officials representing the White House and Department of Housing and Urban Development arrived in California this week for a round of meetings. A particular focus has been the “Skid Row” section of Los Angeles, officials said. The president is directly involved with the initiative, officials said, and has asked for updates.

Among the ideas under consideration are razing existing tent camps for the homeless, creating new temporary facilities, and refurbishing existing government facilities, two officials said. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the planning hasn’t been publicly revealed.

The changes would attempt to give the federal government a larger role in supervising housing and health care for residents.

The talks are fluid and concrete plans had not been reached.

Trump repeatedly assailed Democratic politicians in California over the state’s growing homelessness issue, which he has called a “disgrace to our country.” He has also criticized liberal-led cities such as Baltimore as “rat and rodent infested.”

Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump

Speaking of failing badly, has anyone seen what is happening to Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco. It is not even recognizeable lately. Something must be done before it is too late. The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!

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Planning also involves officials from the Department of Health and Human Services. An administration official cited the need to act based on concerns about disease and sewage problems affecting the homeless.

A White House spokesman said Trump signed an executive order in June that pertained to affordable housing regulations, and that the administration is continuing to seek new solutions for homelessness.

Trump’s executive order created a new White House council on eliminating “regulatory barriers” that White House officials believe increase the cost of building new housing. Developers have said these restrictions drive up prices on housing and limit the supply.

“Like many Americans, the President has taken notice of the homelessness crisis, particularly in cities and states where the liberal policies are combining to dramatically increase poverty and public health risks,” said Judd Deere, a White House spokesman. “President Trump has directed his team to go further and develop a range of policy options for consideration to deal with this tragedy.”

Housing experts say homelessness in California has risen alongside housing and rental prices. That problem has been exacerbated by cuts to federal support for housing programs.

One Democratic congressman, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), criticized Trump’s push, saying “yet again this is bravado for Trump’s base with no interest in the actual policy experts’ recommendations to solve an issue.”

Breelyn Pete, an aide to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, told Politico that a “very large delegation” of Trump administration officials is in town to meet with the mayor’s office over the homelessness issue this week. Neither Pete nor the mayor’s office responded to requests for comment.

Trump previously hinted at potential unilateral federal action over homelessness, telling Fox News that he was “very seriously” considering acting on the issue.

“You take a look at what’s going on with San Francisco, it’s terrible. So we’re looking at it very seriously. We may intercede. We may do something to get that whole thing cleaned up. It’s inappropriate,” Trump told Tucker Carlson in July. “Now, we have to take the people and do something. We have to do something.”

California’s homelessness crisis has intensified. The number of families either sleeping on the streets or lacking adequate housing has “skyrocketed” for most major California cities, climbing by at least 25 percent over the past several years, said David Garcia, policy director at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Generally speaking, all the major cities have seen incredible increases. It’s a crisis,” Garcia said.

Should people have a right to sleep on city streets? Texas joins national battle over urban homeless crisis.

But the Trump administration may have already taken actions that have exacerbated the problem, critics allege, such as tightening immigrants’ eligibility for federal assistance, which risks putting more families on the streets, Garcia added.

California also lacks a “right to shelter” law that in other states gives homeless people temporary shelters, meaning a large percentage of California’s homeless population ends up sleeping on the street or in their vehicles, according to Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a nonprofit group.

Complicating matters, California has enacted a number of restrictive zoning laws that drive up the cost of housing by constraining the state’s supply, she said, although some state lawmakers are pushing to relax those limits.

“Skid Row” holds about 5,000 homeless people, an 11 percent increase from last year, according to statistics published in September by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

"Homelessness in California is absolutely a crisis that demands action from the federal, state and local level,” Yentel said, “but it’s hard to imagine the Trump administration is acting in good faith to solve it when they have made so many efforts in the last two years to worsen the crisis.”

The White House this year proposed cutting the HUD budget by 20 percent, eliminating the programs that build and preserve homes for the lowest-income people, Yentel said. It has also proposed cutting federal rental assistance for a quarter of a million families as well as evicting 55,000 children from subsidized housing.

Trump’s directive comes amid his feud with California politicians, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who represents San Francisco.

Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump

Speaking of failing badly, has anyone seen what is happening to Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco. It is not even recognizeable lately. Something must be done before it is too late. The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!

127K
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Trump called California a “disgrace to our country” at a rally earlier this year, and has fought with the state’s Democratic lawmakers over a number of issues ranging from homelessness to protections for immigrants.

At a rally this year, he said: “What they are doing to our beautiful California is a disgrace to our country. It’s a shame."

https://beta.washingtonpost.com/busi...ed-facilities/

D.C.'s homeless encampment 'cleanups' are only making things worse

https://www.washingtonpost.com › opinions › local-opinions › 2019/04/19

Apr 19, 2019 - According to data from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, the D.C. government “engaged” homeless encampments ...

Seattle-area council member proposes $1M busing program for homeless

California exports its poor to Texas, other states, while wealthier people move in

Gov. Newsom Asks Trump for Housing Vouchers to Aid Homeless

POSTED 11:57 AM, SEPTEMBER 16, 2019, BY ASSOCIATED PRESS, UPDATED AT 03:57PM, SEPTEMBER 16, 2019


Los Angeles financial district skyscrapers are seen behind a tent encampment on Sep. 23, 2015, in downtown Los Angeles. (Credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)


California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday asked President Donald Trump to approve more housing vouchers as Trump’s administration weighs in on the most populous state’s massive homelessness problem.

Members of the administration visited Los Angeles last week to view the city’s sprawling homeless encampments after Trump told his staff to develop policy options to address the national crisis of people living on the streets.

The Democratic governor and officials representing California cities and counties sent the Republican president a letter asserting that “shelter solves sleep, but only housing solves homelessness.”

Their letter asks Trump to provide 50,000 more housing vouchers through two existing programs and to increase the value of the vouchers to account for high rents. That would help “a significant proportion of our unsheltered population,” including thousands of military veterans, they wrote.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a Democrat, invited Trump in July to tour the city’s streets. Garcetti estimated that 36,000 people in the city are homeless on any given night, while thousands sleep on streets in other California cities.

Newsom’s office could not immediately say how much more the voucher proposal would cost.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development officials did not immediately comment.

The California officials also asked Trump to create a program to encourage landlords to work better with voucher holders.

“Pairing more vouchers with an increase in the fair market rent value of the vouchers, you have the ability to make a meaningful difference in the lives of so many who suffer on our streets,” the officials wrote.

They defended California’s attempts to deal with poverty while contrasting the administration’s “significant cuts” to public housing and community grant programs. They asked Trump to also work with Congress to increase funding for 300,000 new housing vouchers nationwide.

https://ktla.com/2019/09/16/gov-news...-aid-homeless/

WORK FOR VOUCHERS!

Trump’s California fundraisers are drenched in cash — and secrecy

California governor signs bills to speed homeless shelters

SEP. 26, 2019 5 PM

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed legislation giving cities and counties new power to speed up the building of supportive housing and homelessness shelters.
The Democratic governor signed 13 pieces of legislation dealing with homelessness on Thursday.

It comes as President Donald Trump criticizes California’s handling of the issue, blaming homelessness for water pollution .

One law that takes effect immediately lets Los Angeles bypass parts of the California Environmental Quality Act to build supportive housing and shelters. Another adds Orange and Alameda counties as well as San Jose to the list of places that can declare emergencies and build shelters on publicly owned land.

A third allows projects that convert hotels into housing to bypass environmental reviews.

Newsom says the bills give local governments more tools to confront the crisis.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...eless-shelters