Utah advocate doubts long-term effectiveness of Trump’s homeless actions in D.C.

SALT LAKE CITY — On Monday, President Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., to crack down on crime and homelessness in the U.S. capital. 

In a social media post on Sunday, the president said homeless people in the area “must move out immediately.” He also said the federal government would give them someplace to stay, “but far from the Capital.”

It’s a questionable move said Glenn Bailey, executive cirector of the Crossroads Urban Center in Salt Lake City.

“The question is: Where will they go? I mean, he’s made a statement that he wants them out of town, far away from D.C., but I don’t really know what that means, or where that means, or what kind of housing that might be,” Bailey said.

There are about 6,000 people experiencing homelessness in Washington D.C., Bailey said, and their problems go much deeper than “appearances.”

“The issue is that these are people’s lives who are living under extreme circumstances and need our help, not just our outrage at their appearance and their lifestyle in public,” he told KSL NewsRadio.

For Bailey, long-term solutions look very different from, rounding people up, and moving them away from the public eye.

These include more housing opportunities, and services associated with the housing. 

And the bottom line, Bailey said, is money.

“Unless we’re willing to really invest money in solving the structural problem of homelessness in our communities, which means housing and which means support services for folks coming out of homelessness, I think we’re just kind of rearranging the deck chairs every time we do something like this,” Bailey said.

Contributing: Simone Seikaly, KSL NewsRadio

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