Dehumanizing the unhoused, from Frey to Fascism, w/ Flannery Clark and Frank
In 2017, candidate Jacob Frey promised to end homelessness in five years. By 2023, he was instead crushing encampments and endorsing dehumanizing rhetoric about people experiencing homelessness and mental illness. In 2025, Donald Trump is marching the military into major cities and bragging about sweeping out unhoused people. How did we get here?
We are joined by Flannery Clark, volunteer with the Sanctuary Supply Depot; and Frank, a friend who has experienced homelessness and serious mental illness. We talked about this rhetoric, the ignorance behind it, the recent history of local policy and politics in this area, and the real solutions just waiting for political will and courage.
We recorded this episode on 8/24/25.
Don't forget to check out:
Further reading
Empty promises and dehumanizing rhetoric/proposals
I pledge to end homelessness in Minneapolis within 5 years. Everyone deserves a place to call home where they can close the door to a hectic world and rejuvenate for the next day.
Have you not seen them, covered in feces, screaming at themselves? Lying facedown on bus shelter floors with their pants around their ankles? Wandering into traffic on Franklin Avenue? Fighting with ghosts and with each other?
People with mental health problems that leave them unable or unwilling to manage their own affairs without harm to themselves or others need to be civilly committed.
A thoughtful, well-written piece. The reason I do not support unchecked encampments isn’t because of “corporate business interests” — I oppose them because they are easy targets for predatory fentanyl dealers and human traffickers.
The homeless have no right to turn every park and sidewalk into a place for them to squat and do drugs. Americans should not have to step over piles of needles and waste as they walk down a street in a beautiful city. Or at least once beautiful city because they’ve changed so much over the last ten years.
When I am back in the White House, we will use every tool, lever, and authority to get the homeless off our streets. We want to take care of them, but they have to be off our streets. There is nothing compassionate about letting these individuals live in filth and squalor rather than getting them the help they need. We need professionals to help them.
When President Trump returns to the White House, he will open large parcels of inexpensive land, bring in doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, and drug rehab specialists, and create tent cities where the homeless can be relocated and their problems identified.
Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order
seek ... the reversal of Federal or State judicial precedents and the termination of consent decrees that impede the United States’ policy of encouraging civil commitment of individuals with mental illness who pose risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves
provide assistance to State and local governments ... for the identification, adoption, and implementation of maximally flexible civil commitment, institutional treatment
do not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called “harm reduction” or “safe consumption” efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm;
[take actions] ending support for “housing first” policies that deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency;
Rebuttals by advocates to the Trump executive order
involuntary commitment should be used only as a last resort and only when it is believed to be in the best interests of the individual
'housing first' approach ... has been successful in helping individuals stay connected to treatment and reduce homelessness
This order would add no resources to expand inpatient capacity or community mental health services
Most state civil commitment statutes already include the “danger to self or others”
the issue remains that there is a lack of resources for hospital-based care for people with mental illness.
we have seen a trend towards states and local governments enacting laws that make it a crime to camp or sleep in public, particularly with the 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson.
- NAMI recommendations instead:
- Reversing changes to Medicaid and ensuring people have access to care at the earliest possible opportunity;
- Eliminating the IMD Exclusion policy that limits capacity of inpatient beds, keeping some people from accessing clinically appropriate care and causing symptoms to worsen;
- Increasing funding for proven models, like supportive housing and housing first; and
- Funding early intervention resources, like Coordinated Specialty Care, school mental health programs, and other resources.
- National Alliance to End Homelessness
- How Trump’s executive order could criminalize homelessness: ‘Terrifying’
What real solutions with a real track record look like
- NAMI policy positions on housing
- Access to affordable housing is a critical social determinant of health, and a person’s access to housing can affect — and is affected by — mental health.
- The leading cause of homelessness is a lack of affordable housing.
- Many people with a serious mental illness rely on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for their incomes. Yet, research shows that there are zero U.S. housing markets in which a person living solely on SSI can afford a safe, decent apartment without rental assistance.
- Yet only 1 in 4 eligible low-income renter households receive the help they need.
- Housing First programs provide permanent housing and support services to people experiencing homelessness without preconditions, thereby eliminating access barriers.
- How Finland virtually ended the experience of street homelessness
- Hennepin County achieves 'functional zero' status in ending veteran homelessness
- Comparison of Minneapolis and Saint Paul approaches to homelessness