NYT Editorial Board: Trump's Vague Plans on Homelessness
Source: New York Times
Trumps Vague Plans on Homelessness
The president has noticed that people are living on the streets in California. Solutions are unlikely to follow.
By The Editorial Board
The editorial board represents the opinions of the board, its editor and the publisher. It is separate from the newsroom and the Op-Ed section.
Sept. 12, 2019
Donald Trump likes speaking in declarative sentences and promising to solve big problems. He revels in the appearance of activity and the development of vague plans.
And it is in this spirit that Mr. Trump has turned his attention to homelessness in California.
There is no question that California is in the throes of a crisis. In the states most populous county, Los Angeles, a county report in June found the homeless population had spiked to an estimated 59,000 a 12 percent increase over June 2018. Last year a United Nations investigation criticized San Francisco and Oakland for cruel and inhuman treatment of the homeless, which it called a violation of their human rights. The states homeless population was estimated at about 130,000 last year, equal to the entire population of Charleston, S.C.
The president, who said on Fox News in July that American cities were being plagued by homelessness and he was considering action to get that whole thing cleaned up, has now dispatched aides to California on a fact-finding mission. The Washington Post reported that the White House is thinking about sweeping the homeless from the streets of the Golden State and providing them with some kind of housing.
The basic problem is a housing shortage that has driven rents to levels that are unaffordable even for many people with full-time jobs. The state has taken some modest steps in recent years to allow more construction, while resisting bolder measures. Instead, California is trying to address homelessness by expanding the supply of subsidized housing.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/12/opinion/trump-homeless-california.html
FarRightLiberal
(5 posts)I'm not gonna criticize this one because SOMEBODY has to do SOMETHING or it's gonna hurt democrats EVERYWHERE. The OPTICS of the California homeless problem is NASTY, and if the optics don't improve, republicans will run on these pictures. I think whatever help we get, we really should take it, then we can offer criticism, or alternatives later.
LuvLoogie
(6,991 posts)trump shits his pants on the world stage. That's doing something.
Eugene
(61,865 posts)Doing something shouldn't mean doing the worst thing possible. Trump's instincts are authoritarian, namely lock them up. He blames the mentally ill for gun violence (repeatedly debunked). His solution: re-institutionalize them. The horror of kids in cages speaks for itself.
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)I can't wait to see your persuasive powers.
napi21
(45,806 posts)cages like he does at the boarder? What a JA!
czarjak
(11,266 posts)Kill em all (And DU, if you flag me for quoting an extremist, FU)
Skittles
(153,147 posts)why is he picking on California? Oh yeah.