https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2025/09/14/18879866.php
Donald Trump deployed the National Guard against homeless peopleUS President Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency in Washington, D.C., and sent the National Guard to the capital. His latest authoritarian coup is primarily directed against homeless people.
By Jan Tölva
[This article posted on 8/21/2025 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://jungle.world/artikel/2025/34/trump-gegen-obdachlose-nicht-gegen-obdachlosigkeit.]
An aid worker talks to a homeless woman in front of Union Station in Washington, D.C. In the background is a vehicle carrying National Guard troops, August 18.
Homelessness is a condition that no Western industrialized nation has yet managed to eliminate. The average homelessness rate in OECD countries is 0.25 percent of the total population, although there are significant variations between countries. The US is by no means at the top of the list; with a homeless rate of 0.23 percent, it is actually slightly below average, yet the problem is more dramatic there than in many other countries.
This is mainly due to social conditions. In the US, 8.2 percent of the population, or around 27 million people, have no health insurance. Access to adequate health care is completely inadequate, especially for mental health problems. But even in cases of chronic pain, for example, many people are left to fend for themselves. Quite a few therefore resort to self-medication – keyword: opioid crisis.
However, regular drug use, even with cheap substances such as crystal meth or fentanyl, is too expensive for many in the long run. Often, people can no longer pay their rent, and since tenant protection is virtually non-existent in many parts of the US and leases are usually fixed-term, they quickly end up on the street.
It is likely that for many homeless people in the US, their next permanent address will be a prison. Trump has already announced his intention to imprison homeless criminals without delay.
In JAMA Psychiatry, a journal of the American Medical Association, a study was published in 2024 according to which 44 percent of homeless people suffer from addiction. According to the study, 67 percent suffer from mental illness, including addiction. Twenty-six percent have antisocial personality disorder, 19 percent have severe depression, eight percent have bipolar disorder, and seven percent have schizophrenia.
These figures are all far, far higher than those for the general population. What these people need is adequate and targeted medical and psychological care. However, there is considerable debate among experts as to what should come first – a roof over their heads or treatment for their respective illnesses.
For US President Donald Trump, neither is an option. According to a survey by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, the number of people who were homeless in the US on a specific date in 2024 was 771,000 – an increase of about 18 percent compared to the previous year. That’s more people than live in the states of Alaska or Wyoming. Trump wants to “get them off the streets,” but he means something completely different than providing help to the homeless.
Getting the homeless out of sight
On July 24, he signed an executive order to “end crime and unrest on America’s streets.” The first sentence states that “widespread vagrancy, disorderly conduct, sudden altercations, and violent assaults” have made U.S. cities unsafe.
What is remarkable here is not only the antiquated term “vagrancy,” which has hardly been used since the Supreme Court declared the existing laws against vagrancy unconstitutional in 1972 due to their vagueness. It is also striking that the order explicitly refers to “cities.” Sure, homelessness is primarily an urban phenomenon. However, the fact that the rate is generally higher in large cities, most of which are governed by Democrats, than in conservative small towns in rural areas is less a sign of a loss of control by the respective governments—as Trump claims—and more likely due to the fact that it is easier to find shelter in rural areas.
Trump wants to get rid of the homeless, i.e., remove them from sight. He doesn’t want to see them and their tents anymore. On August 11, he announced that he would deploy 800 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., and take control of the police to clean up the streets of the capital. Tents in front of the White House simply don’t look good when he receives state guests there, Trump said. The first troops arrived the next day. Muriel Bowser, the city’s Democratic mayor, called it an “authoritarian coup.”
Emergency shelters already at full capacity nationwide
The Republican-led states of Ohio, West Virginia, and South Carolina also announced that they would send a total of about 700 additional National Guard troops to the capital. At least the lawsuit filed by the Washington attorney general prevented the federal government from taking control of the capital’s police force, at least in part. The compromise reached stipulates that Terry Cole, the “emergency police chief” appointed by Trump, has no direct authority over the police officers, but must have any instructions approved in advance by the mayor.
Trump is not in the least bit concerned with providing the homeless with permanent housing. Municipal emergency shelters across the country are already at full capacity, as Donald Whitehead of the National Coalition for the Homeless confirmed to the daily newspaper USA Today.
People with severe mental illnesses are admitted to appropriate institutions, albeit against their will. Let us remember: depending on the definition, this affects up to two-thirds of homeless people. Admitting such a large number of people into an already overburdened healthcare system is illusory, especially since hardly any of those affected have health insurance.
“Housing First” or “Treatment First”?
It is therefore more likely that for many homeless people, their next permanent address will be a prison. Trump has already announced that he will send homeless criminals straight to prison. The reference to the deliberately vague term “vagrancy” suggests the worst. And what Trump does not say, but no longer needs to be said under his administration, is that anyone who does not have US citizenship will be deported.
Trump’s authoritarian measures are a slap in the face to all those who have been campaigning against homelessness for decades. As early as 1983, the NGO National Alliance to End Homelessness was founded, which identified a safe home as the first step back to a regular life and called for “Housing First.” Numerous major US cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Denver, now follow this program. California and Utah have incorporated Housing First into state law.
This is widely considered to be successful. In Houston, which has been pursuing a Housing First policy since 2011, the number of homeless people has fallen by 63 percent in ten years. In Denver, 77 percent of those who were provided with housing still have a permanent home after three years. The relapse rate was therefore less than a quarter.
In recent years, however, the number of homeless people has risen again in California and Utah, for example. The main causes for this are clearly the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing economic crisis.
In recent years, the number of homeless people has risen again in California and Utah, for example. The main causes of this are clearly the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing economic crisis.
An alternative to Housing First is called “Treatment First” and aims to first eliminate the problems – primarily addiction problems – of those affected and then give them a permanent home. This approach was dominant in the US until at least the 1990s, but is now considered outdated in its traditional form. After all, more than 40 million people in the US who have a home are considered alcohol or drug addicts – so addiction and permanent residence are clearly not mutually exclusive.
“Housing First” seems to work for many people. For some, however, it clearly does not work. A society based on solidarity cannot be satisfied with solving a problem for only some people and leaving others behind. Homelessness is not only a social problem, but always an individual one as well. And as such, it requires individual solutions.