Former President Donald Trump has outlined the homelessness policy he hopes to implement if he is elected president again in 2024. It’s a draconian, authoritarian nightmare as he continues to lean into fascism.

This policy focuses on banning urban camping, setting up tent cities, and sending people who decline this “treatment” to prison, The Independent reports.

Homelessness is rising in the U.S., especially in major cities and Trump has been focusing on this as part of his presidential campaign and is taking a stance that borders on totalitarianism to deal with the crisis. In a recent video, he proposes banning camping wherever possible and arresting anyone found sleeping outside in unsanctioned areas. And he wants to offer homeless people an unconscionable choice: Enter treatment programs or go to prison.

“Violators of these bans will be arrested, but they will be given the option to accept treatment and services if they’re willing to be rehabilitated,” Trump said in the video. “Many of them don’t want that. But we’ll give them the option.”

Well, it’s not really an option when someone is really saying “Do this or else,” now is it?

As someone who was homeless for nearly seven years, I can tell you there are many of us who wouldn’t do well within those narrow parameters. I’ve never needed “treatment” because I’ve never been addicted to any drug, including alcohol. And frankly, the “treatment” definition he’s using here is nebulous at best.

Estimates conducted in January 2023 show that there are 582,462 homeless people in the U.S., Security.org reports. Out of that number, roughly 30 percent of folks without homes are experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness — meaning they have been without homes for 12 months or longer or have dealt with extended periods of homeless over the past three years.

SMI Adviser, which bills itself as “a clinical support system for serious mental illness,” estimates that 20 to 25 percent of the homeless population in the U.S. suffer from serious mental health issues, compared to only about 4 percent of the general population. One out of three homeless persons has an addiction problem with either drugs or alcohol (but not nicotine), whereas one in nine Americans in secure housing situations have such problems.

Trump’s conception of the homeless situation in the U.S. and its effect on urban areas borrows from Republicans and, per the Independent, conservative candidates running in municipal elections during Joe Biden’s presidency.

Crime was a big-ticket issue for Republicans during the midterm elections during 2022’s midterm elections and continues to be an issue in mayoral and city council campaigns as well as district attorney positions in large cities like San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.

Trump has continually focused on crime, law and order, and police control since before his first term as president. Anyone remember his racist commentary about “bad hombres?” During his first (and, we hope, only) term as president, Trump has portrayed large cities as crime-ridden and tried to implement a tough-on-crime militaristic agenda. His siccing the National Guard on innocent George Floyd protesters is a clear demonstration of this.

Right now, homelessness is increasing largely due to the high cost of housing, and that has led Trump to pitch the idea of tent cities, where houseless people would be forced to live if they didn’t want to go to jail.

“We will then open up 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,” Trump said in the video. “But we’ll open up our cities again, make them livable and make them beautiful.”

Trump has probably not considered the cost of this massive undertaking. Just the infrastructure costs of sequestering hundreds of thousands of people in tent cities would be staggering. And while Trump may think he’ll be moving crime away from his “beautiful” cities, well, that might be a little bit true, but this will mean there will need to be increased law enforcement in the encampments.

And civil rights organizations will likely not be on board with Trump’s plan either, because of his “do this or else,” implied threat. Bans on public camping have also proven to be largely ineffective — failing to remove people from the streets and instead forcing them to move away from the social services they obviously need.

I’m willing to bet this plan he’s concocted will be about as successful as his border wall. Trump loves to make all these grandiose statements and never seems to consider what will actually have to go into efforts this massive. He’s just playing to the crowd in the hopes of being elected even if he is the first president to be distinguished by two impeachments and a criminal indictment.

But Republicans have short memories because, as the Independent notes, he’s the leading GOP candidate for president in 2024.

Trump says he will outlaw homelessness and arrest everyone who refuses to comply. He will then give them the option to get out of jail to be relocated to new tent cities elsewhere where he will take care of their needs. pic.twitter.com/P5z5ckG8b6

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) April 18, 2023