Trump’s Homelessness Crackdown Has Been Tried Before. It Didn’t Work.
Reveal
The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
4.7 • 8K Ratings
🗓️ 13 August 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump announced that his administration is removing homeless encampments from around Washington, DC. The announcement illustrated how the federal government’s approach to homelessness is dramatically changing. It follows an executive order issued last month that makes it easier for cities and states to involuntarily commit unhoused people and eliminate encampments. It also prioritizes treatment over housing for people struggling with mental health issues or substance abuse. The policies represent a 180-degree turn away from an approach the federal government has used for years called Housing First, an evidence-based program that prioritizes the opposite: housing before treatment. It was first developed by clinical psychologist Sam Tsemberis almost 30 years ago. On this week’s More To The Story, Tsemberis sits down with host Al Letson to examine the potential effects of Trump’s executive order.
Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Digital producer: Nikki Frick | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson
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Listen: The Churn (Reveal)
Read: Trump’s Plan to Eliminate Homelessness Is Just Cruel. Here’s Another Option. (Mother Jones)
Learn more: Pathways Housing First Institute
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| 0:00.0 | People will get discharged from the hospital. |
| 0:05.0 | They will get released from the jail, and they'll be back out on the street, |
| 0:10.0 | and the thing will be going in a circle again. |
| 0:12.0 | The only way to end homelessness is to provide housing. |
| 0:16.0 | On this week's more to the story, I talk with Sam Timberis, a clinical psychologist who created a new way to approach homelessness in America. |
| 0:26.8 | And it worked. |
| 0:27.9 | Now that approach is under attack by the Trump administration. |
| 0:31.2 | Stay with us. |
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