Hidden in Plain Sight: Why Homelessness in Appalachia Reached a Breaking Point in 2024 and 2025
#Appalachia #Homelessness
#Homeless #Houseless #Unhoused #Housing #Poverty
Lisa Melton
boosted
The #Trump admin has developed plans for a shift in #homelessness #policy that would slash support for long-term housing programs…& critics say it could place as many as 170k formerly #homeless people at risk of returning to the streets.
Pivoting from #housing #aid, the approach would shift billions to short-term programs that impose work rules, help #police dismantle #encampments, & require [force] the #unhoused to accept treatment for mental health or addiction.
#law
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/us/politics/trump-homeless-funding.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
…In limiting spending on long-term #housing to just 30% of the $3.5 billion in aid — from about 90% this year — the #Trump plan would deal a crippling blow to a movement called Housing First, which once enjoyed bipartisan support & has guided federal grant making since at least 2009. Housing First programs provide subsidized apartments without preconditions to the #homeless with #disabilities — offering, but not requiring, treatment for mental health or addiction.
…The [forced] treatment-first approach, embodied by #Trump’s plan, pledges swifter action to address what it calls the “root causes” of #homelessness, like drug abuse & mental illness. But it risks consigning to worse destitution & danger those who cannot or do not comply. It also does not address another root cause of homelessness, soaring #housing costs [‼️].
#Trump #law #policy #unhoused #WealthGap #affordability #CostOfLiving #SocialCleansing #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
“There are people who have been living in those units for 5 years, 8 years,” said Ann Oliva, the chief executive of the National Alliance to End #Homelessness, an advocacy group. “No one can wrap their head around the idea that #HUD is about to kick 170,000 #vulnerable people out of their homes. People don’t know what’s about to hit them.”
#Trump #law #policy #unhoused #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
…In limiting spending on long-term #housing to just 30% of the $3.5 billion in aid — from about 90% this year — the #Trump plan would deal a crippling blow to a movement called Housing First, which once enjoyed bipartisan support & has guided federal grant making since at least 2009. Housing First programs provide subsidized apartments without preconditions to the #homeless with #disabilities — offering, but not requiring, treatment for mental health or addiction.
By cutting #aid for permanent #housing by TWO-THIRDS next year, the plan risks a sudden end of support for most of the people the Continuum places in such housing nationwide, beginning as soon as January. All are #disabled — a condition of the aid — & many are 50 or older [WTF?]. The document does not explain how they would find housing.
#Trump #law #policy #unhoused #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
“There are people who have been living in those units for 5 years, 8 years,” said Ann Oliva, the chief executive of the National Alliance to End #Homelessness, an advocacy group. “No one can wrap their head around the idea that #HUD is about to kick 170,000 #vulnerable people out of their homes. People don’t know what’s about to hit them.”
#Trump #law #policy #unhoused #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
The expected shift, which would be the most consequential in a generation, is detailed in a 100pg notice from #HUD, slated for release in coming days, that would govern >$3.5 billion in Continuum of Care funds, the main source of federal money for #homelessness.
While #Trump has long pledged to pursue tougher homelessness policies, such as camping bans & treatment mandates, the long-anticipated document, reviewed by NYT, outlines changes that would go much deeper & faster than expected.
By cutting #aid for permanent #housing by TWO-THIRDS next year, the plan risks a sudden end of support for most of the people the Continuum places in such housing nationwide, beginning as soon as January. All are #disabled — a condition of the aid — & many are 50 or older [WTF?]. The document does not explain how they would find housing.
#Trump #law #policy #unhoused #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
The #Trump admin has developed plans for a shift in #homelessness #policy that would slash support for long-term housing programs…& critics say it could place as many as 170k formerly #homeless people at risk of returning to the streets.
Pivoting from #housing #aid, the approach would shift billions to short-term programs that impose work rules, help #police dismantle #encampments, & require [force] the #unhoused to accept treatment for mental health or addiction.
#law
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/us/politics/trump-homeless-funding.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Lisa Melton
boosted
In #Utah, #Trump’s Vision for #Homelessness Begins to Take Shape
The proposed site where Utah plans to place as many as 1,300 homeless people outside of Salt Lake City.
State officials promise large-scale #involuntary #addiction & #MentalHealth treatment at Salt Lake City’s edge. Critics see “a prison, or a warehouse.”
#law #unhoused #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/us/politics/utah-trump-homeless-campus.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xU8.-Nd0.pGnMZllHXOAG&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
#Utah already has a severe shortage of #psychiatric beds, she noted. The #legislature is unlikely to fund hundreds of new beds, & even if it did, there is no work force to staff them.
Without enormous new spending, she said, the center could function less as a treatment facility than “a prison or a warehouse.”
The emerging portrait of the center, scheduled to open in 2027, brings to life a vow that #Trump made 2 years ago in an extraordinary campaign video.
[In the campaign video, #Trump accused] #homeless people of turning great cities into “unsanitary nightmares,” he pledged “to use every tool, lever & authority to get the homeless off our streets.” He said the admin would “open up large parcels of inexpensive land” where “dangerously deranged” people “can be relocated & their problems identified.”
#law #unhoused #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISTu6JRtJTI
#Utah already has a severe shortage of #psychiatric beds, she noted. The #legislature is unlikely to fund hundreds of new beds, & even if it did, there is no work force to staff them.
Without enormous new spending, she said, the center could function less as a treatment facility than “a prison or a warehouse.”
The emerging portrait of the center, scheduled to open in 2027, brings to life a vow that #Trump made 2 years ago in an extraordinary campaign video.
Critics of the new plan say that confining people to a site on the city’s outskirts threatens #CivilLiberties & warn that the promised services may not materialize. The efforts coincide with deep cuts to #Medicaid, which could thwart the project’s financing.
“I’m super anxious about it,” said Jen Plumb, a physician & Democratic state senator who calls the promise of high-quality #medical care “pie in the sky.”
#Trump #law #unhoused #Utah #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #plutocracy #USpol
“An accountability center is #involuntary, OK — you’re not coming in & out,” Randy Shumway, chairman of the state #Homeless Services Board, said in an interview. #Utah will end a harmful “culture of permissiveness,” he said, & guide homeless people “towards human thriving.”
[sure, Jan.]
#Trump #law #unhoused #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
While the #Utah effort began before Trump’s return to office, it mirrors his pledge to move the #homeless from urban cores to “tent cities” with *services*. And it accelerated after #Trump issued an EO in July, calling for strict camping bans & expanded power to #involuntarily treat homeless people.
#law #unhoused #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
With outdoor sleeping banned, removal to the edge of town may become the only way some #homeless Utahns can avoid #jail. Planners say the facility will also hold hundreds of mentally ill homeless people under #CourtOrdered civil commitment & the effort will include an “accountability center” for those with addictions.
#Trump #law #unhoused #Utah #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
“An accountability center is #involuntary, OK — you’re not coming in & out,” Randy Shumway, chairman of the state #Homeless Services Board, said in an interview. #Utah will end a harmful “culture of permissiveness,” he said, & guide homeless people “towards human thriving.”
[sure, Jan.]
#Trump #law #unhoused #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
They also vow *stern* measures to move #homeless people to the remote site & #force many of them to undergo treatment, reflecting a nationwide push by some #conservatives for a new approach to #homelessness, one embraced & promoted by #Trump.
#law #unhoused #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
With outdoor sleeping banned, removal to the edge of town may become the only way some #homeless Utahns can avoid #jail. Planners say the facility will also hold hundreds of mentally ill homeless people under #CourtOrdered civil commitment & the effort will include an “accountability center” for those with addictions.
#Trump #law #unhoused #Utah #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
To glimpse the future #homelessness #policy in the age of #Trump, consider 16 acres of scrubby pasture on the outskirts of #SaltLakeCity where #Utah plans to place as many as 1,300 #homeless people in what supporters call a services campus & critics a #DetentionCamp.
State planners say the site, announced last month after a secretive search, will treat addiction & mental illness & provide a humane alternative to the streets, where afflictions often go untreated & people die at alarming rates.
They also vow *stern* measures to move #homeless people to the remote site & #force many of them to undergo treatment, reflecting a nationwide push by some #conservatives for a new approach to #homelessness, one embraced & promoted by #Trump.
#law #unhoused #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
In #Utah, #Trump’s Vision for #Homelessness Begins to Take Shape
The proposed site where Utah plans to place as many as 1,300 homeless people outside of Salt Lake City.
State officials promise large-scale #involuntary #addiction & #MentalHealth treatment at Salt Lake City’s edge. Critics see “a prison, or a warehouse.”
#law #unhoused #ConcentrationCamps #SocialCleansing #Aporophobia #EconomicDiscrimination #plutocracy #USpol
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/us/politics/utah-trump-homeless-campus.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xU8.-Nd0.pGnMZllHXOAG&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
Jess Mahler
boosted
Angel who is #Disabled and chronically ill has been fighting to keep her family housed @kshernandez has been advocating for them for months
There has been no movement and now this #Black family is #unhoused and in danger
Please help by sharing or contributing immediately even $1 can add up from the 200 people (was 700) who follow me here
People love to throw the idea of "long term" in the face of the unhoused but you drop short term care just as much
Angel who is #Disabled and chronically ill has been fighting to keep her family housed @kshernandez has been advocating for them for months
There has been no movement and now this #Black family is #unhoused and in danger
Please help by sharing or contributing immediately even $1 can add up from the 200 people (was 700) who follow me here
People love to throw the idea of "long term" in the face of the unhoused but you drop short term care just as much