{"id":85279,"date":"2025-12-07T18:57:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T18:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/85279\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T18:57:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T18:57:16","slug":"utahs-dangerous-new-approach-to-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/85279\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah’s dangerous new approach to homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Homeless<\/a>A homeless person\u2019s tent. (Photo courtesy of the city of San Diego)<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 coupled with supportive services for addiction, mental health, and other help \u2014 to those living on the streets.<\/p>\n

\"Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u00a0the one approach proven to work<\/a>. Until recently, the state of Utah was a leader in it.<\/p>\n

But now\u00a0Utah has announced a new approach<\/a>, with the Trump administration\u2019s backing, that could erase this progress. And the\u00a0Trump administration is proposing dramatic changes to housing funds<\/a>\u00a0that could force states like California to follow suit \u2014 or lose the funds altogether.<\/p>\n

That would be a disaster.<\/p>\n

Utah is opening a large \u201caccountability center\u201d in the outskirts of Salt Lake City. Ostensibly the center will treat addiction and provide mental health services, but in practice\u00a0this center will function like a jail<\/a>\u00a0where impoverished people who can\u2019t afford housing will be sent against their will.<\/p>\n

This \u201csolution\u201d was put forward by political appointees and business leaders, not actual homelessness experts. Local advocates warn this massive center won\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

Experts have also raised concerns that the government advisor promoting this plan has a financial interest in the center:\u00a0his firm has software that will get tax dollars<\/a>\u00a0to operate these internment camps.<\/p>\n

Not long ago,\u00a0Salt Lake was considered a model for solving homelessness<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n

But supporters of this detention center have actually\u00a0opposed\u00a0moving people from the streets into housing with services onsite<\/a>, calling these policies \u201cpermissive\u201d \u2014 even though, when adequately funded and supported by elected officials, they actually work.<\/p>\n

There are certainly \u201cpermissive policies\u201d being pushed by politicians.<\/p>\n

Landlords are\u00a0permitted\u00a0to profit off\u00a0record high rents that fuel homelessness<\/a>. Corporations are\u00a0permitted\u00a0to pay wages so low that full-time employees still can\u2019t afford housing and groceries.<\/p>\n

A ruling by our billionaire-backed Supreme Court\u00a0permits\u00a0cities to fine and jail people who are forced to live on the street<\/a>\u00a0because they can\u2019t afford housing, even when there\u2019s no available shelter.<\/p>\n

And under the administration\u2019s \u201cBig Beautiful Bill,\u201d the wealthiest Americans are permitted to get trillions of dollars in tax cuts while\u00a0everyday people are denied health care, food assistance, decent wages, or housing they can afford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

If we don\u2019t 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 \u2014 where government policy leads to mass poverty and sickness, and those forced onto the streets are imprisoned.<\/p>\n

Who won\u2019t be locked up? Wealthier people who struggle with addiction and mental health issues. They\u2019ll get access to the quality care they need \u2014 and if they relapse, they can get the same care they need again.<\/p>\n

This is what all people deserve \u2014 and what research tells us works. We should bring back investments in actually housing people, not locking them up.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Saunders is the Co-Executive Director of VOCAL-NY, part of VOCAL-US<\/a>, an organization dedicated to ending homelessness and the overdose crisis. He\u2019s worked on homeless issues for 18 years.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A homeless person\u2019s tent. (Photo courtesy of the city of San Diego) No one wants people sleeping on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[48074,969,1011,14367,13201,74,76,75,1695],"class_list":["post-85279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-accountability-center","tag-homeless","tag-housing","tag-jail","tag-salt-lake-city","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-trump-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}