To glimpse the future of homelessness policy in the age of President Trump, consider 16 acres of scrubby pasture on the outskirts of Salt Lake City where the state plans to place as many as 1,300 homeless people in what supporters call a services campus and critics deem a detention camp.
State planners say the site, announced last month after a secretive search, will treat addiction and mental illness and provide a humane alternative to the streets, where afflictions often go untreated and people die at alarming rates.
They also vow stern measures to move homeless people to the remote site and force many of them to undergo treatment, reflecting a nationwide push by some conservatives for a new approach to homelessness, one embraced and promoted by Mr. Trump.
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 court-ordered civil commitment and the effort will include an “accountability center” for those with addictions.
“An accountability center is involuntary, OK — you’re not coming in and out,” Randy Shumway, chairman of the state Homeless Services Board, said in an interview. Utah will end a harmful “culture of permissiveness,” he said, and guide homeless people “towards human thriving.”
Oh yeah, this is definitely not going to go down in the history books as a horrific slave labour camp where the inmates were tortured mercilessly …
Hmm, it would seem these camps are not invulnerable, especially during construction. Maybe We The People should show in the most direct way we are not okay with internment camps.
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Be the change you want to see in the world!
Alligator Auschwitz is still up and running. Concentration camps aren’t a new thing.
I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere before…
I remember watching this episode near its release, when I was a kid, and I thought “this idea is stupid, there’s no way things will be like that in 2024.”
Nice is them to Concentrate them all in one Camp for everyone’s safety, especially theirs.
I wonder if these camps will work, they are planning to build work camps after all.
See, it’s only fair that every client give back a little to the nice people who go out of their way to provide them housing and whatnot.
I’ve known that this sort of thing was on the way but… god this is terrifying.
SLC was one of the first places in the US to pilot a housing-first program to great success. And now this. It’s incredibly sad.
“Involuntary Detention Camp” - I think the word they are looking for is jail or prison.
“Jail” or “prison” implies due process that will be entirely lacking here.
If I hear USA and jail/prison “due process” is not what is coming to my uncultured non-USA mind. More things like three strikes law, private prison industry, racism and a lot of other things.
I mean, based on history it was inevitable that US Empire would collapse.
I have never, ever expected it to happen during my lifetime.
Incredible.
Can they just put anyone in there or do they have to prove you are homeless first?
I met a man in Utah that was homeless by choice, but he called himself a nomad. He was pretty happy with his situation, and I imagine he wouldn’t survive a detention center
if hes a nomad, he likely will be moving to another states and in those streets before he is detained.
I think it’s on vibes.
There’s no hate like Christian love, thanks Mormons!
culture of permissiveness
Yeah. The culture of allowing others permission to exist has really gone too far. It’s starting to infringe on my freedom.
Prisons are remote. Rehab is nearby. They know what they are doing.
Also useful for counting in census to shore up republican seat numbers.
