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President-elect Trump wants to overhaul how the country manages homelessness. An annual account last week finds the number of people without housing jumped to a record high - more than three-quarters of a million people. Trump's proposals could shift how billions of dollars in federal funding are spent to help them. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: For years, Trump has blamed Democrats for failing to crack down on homeless encampments. In a campaign video, he said once-great cities have become unlivable nightmares.
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DONALD TRUMP: The homeless have no right to turn every park and sidewalk into a place for them to squat and do drugs.
LUDDEN: Trump said he'll work with states to ban urban camping wherever possible and push people into treatment for drug addiction and mental health.
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TRUMP: Violators of these bans will be arrested, but they will be given the option to accept treatment and services if they're willing to be rehabilitated.
LUDDEN: Advocates for the unhoused say forcing treatment does not work, and arresting people only makes it harder for them to eventually get housing or a job. A few states have already criminalized street camping, including Florida and Kentucky. And Devon Kurtz is lobbying more to do so. He's with the Cicero Institute, a Texas-based conservative think tank.
DEVON KURTZ: We're expecting a wave of camping bans this coming legislative session.
LUDDEN: That's because this past summer, the Supreme Court said in a landmark ruling, it's OK to punish people for sleeping outside, even if they have nowhere else to go. Since then, more than a hundred cities have passed their own such bans, including some led by Democrats. When Trump's back in office, Kurtz also hopes for change in how billions in federal funding for homelessness is spent. He says the priority should be drug addiction and mental health treatment. But federal policy now aims to get people into housing first.
KURTZ: It's housing, housing, housing, housing, housing. They don't want anything else. And we just find that to be sort of foolish given the scale of unsheltered homelessness right now.
LUDDEN: Kurtz and others contend the Housing First policy has actually made homelessness worse. The conservative agenda Project 2025 calls for ending it.
ANN OLIVA: One of the fastest ways to make solving a problem harder is to politicize it. And that's what's happening on the issue of homelessness.
LUDDEN: Ann Oliva heads the National Alliance to End homelessness. She says, for two decades, there was bipartisan support for Housing First, and there's a reason it has a proven track record of keeping people off the streets.
OLIVA: Without having a place to live, your life becomes about survival rather than addressing the things that you want to address in your life.
LUDDEN: She and other advocates also say the main driver of homelessness is the massive shortage of affordable and subsidized housing. But a growing number of conservatives instead blame rampant drug use and mental health problems and note the shortage of services for that. Jeff Olivet headed the government's Interagency Council on Homelessness until a few weeks ago. He worries that completely ending Housing First would backfire. But...
JEFF OLIVET: We need all of the above. It's not an either-or way of thinking that's going to solve this.
LUDDEN: If President-elect Trump wants to expand inpatient addiction and mental health treatment for homeless people, Olivet sees room for common ground.
Jennifer Ludden, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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