Trump’s DC Homeless Policy: Shelter, Treatment, or Jail

Washington, D.C.’s homeless residents are now facing an ultimatum under Donald Trump’s temporary federal control of the city’s police force: go into a shelter, seek mental health or substance abuse treatment, or face fines and jail time.

The White House says the plan, in effect for at least 30 days, is a response to what it calls a homelessness crisis “ravaging” the capital. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that those who refuse help “will be susceptible to fines or to jail time.”

Homelessness advocates say this is just the latest in a series of Trump administration moves that criminalize homelessness instead of addressing the root causes. Jesse Rabinowitz of the National Homelessness Law Center described the policy as “government-run detention camps and massive psychiatric asylums,” warning it’s a return to an inhumane practice America abandoned decades ago.

The latest numbers from The Community Partnership, a homelessness prevention group, show nearly 800 people sleep on DC’s streets each night, while more than 3,200 are in emergency shelters.