'Going to get worse': Expert says Trump's homeless plan could unleash 'hell on Earth'

Brad Reed

RAW STORY
November 13, 2024 

NPR on Thursday examined one of President-elect Donald Trump's recent policy ideas that one expert say is highly unlikely to succeed if ever implemented.

Specifically, NPR writes that experts generally are skeptical of Trump's solution of bringing back mental institutions as an all-purpose elixir for treating homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness.

Should there be no available mental health facilities, Trump proposes shipping homeless people to government-sanctioned tent cities that one expert say could prove really disastrous.

"It may make everyone else feel comfortable, but for the people who are in that one place, it turns into hell on earth," said Keith Humphreys, a psychology professor at Stanford University.

What's more, says Humphreys, Trump likely lacks the power to actually implement the policies he says he wants to implement.

"From Washington, you actually don't have many law enforcement tools to affect street disorder in cities," he said, noting that federal agents "don't do things like grab a homeless person off a street corner in Chicago who's causing trouble because they're mentally ill or they're addicted or both."

Added to this, Humphreys warned that problems with homelessness and mental health could grow even worse should Trump revive his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and he said that "these problems are going to get worse" if that happens.