Trump wants to return to the use of mental institutions and proposes tent cities to deal with people who are unhoused and have mental illness. Experts say it’s beyond the scope of federal authority.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
President-elect Donald Trump has promised a law-and-order approach to policy of all kinds. That includes the issue of how to help people struggling with mental illness, substance abuse disorder and homelessness. NPR’s Katia Riddle reports.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: In a short video on his campaign website, Trump says cities in the U.S. have been surrendered to people who are unhoused, drug addicted and, quote, “dangerously deranged.” To the American public, he makes this promise.
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DONALD TRUMP: We will use every tool, lever and authority to get the homeless off our streets.
RIDDLE: Quote, “urban camping will be banned,” he says, “violators arrested.” As to the question of where to put people, he suggests resurrecting mental hospitals.
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TRUMP 45TH US PRES/US PRES-ELECT: And for those who are severely mentally ill and deeply disturbed, we will bring them back to mental institutions, where they belong.
RIDDLE: Or relocate them to somewhere less visible than city blocks.
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TRUMP 45TH US PRES/US PRES-ELECT: 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.
RIDDLE: Both of these solutions have already been tried and failed, according to some experts.
KEITH HUMPHREYS: Independent of whether you think it’s a good idea, I just don’t see that happening.
RIDDLE: Keith Humphreys studies addiction medicine at Stanford University. He points out that the federal government has never been in the business of running these kinds of hospitals.
HUMPHREYS: Mental hospitals we almost entirely state-created institutions, state-funded, and states closed them.
RIDDLE: It’s been many decades since most states defunded them and ended this practice. There’s also legal questions around hospitalizing people indefinitely against their will since a Supreme Court ruling on the issue more than 20 years ago. As for the idea of setting up tent cities run by the government, that can worsen problems with homelessness and substance abuse, according to Humphreys.
HUMPHREYS: It may make everyone else feel comfortable like, oh, I don’t have to look at this ’cause they’re all in one place. But for the people who are in that one place, it’s really – turns into hell on Earth.
RIDDLE: Trump is not the first person to run on the law-and-order approach to public safety. Humphrey cites Richard Nixon. He campaigned on a pledge to end street crime. But Humphreys says the office doesn’t provide the authority to deliver on these promises.
HUMPHREYS: From Washington, you actually don’t have many law enforcement tools to affect street disorder in cities. You know, federal agents don’t do things like grab a homeless person off the street corner in Chicago who’s, you know, causing trouble because they’re mentally ill, or they’re addicted or both.
RIDDLE: To really have an impact on this issue, he says cities and states would need a massive new funding stream.
HUMPHREYS: And that your most potent tools actually end up being on the health side.
RIDDLE: Those proven public health tools are not the ones Trump says he’ll use to build a system that addresses homelessness and addiction. Katia Riddle, NPR News.
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