Like so many of our major cities, especially in warmer climes, Las Vegas is struggling with ever-more-expansive homeless encampments. Much as some on the left like to paint homeless people as just poor folks down on their luck, probably because of oppression by nasty capitalists, these encampments are crime-ridden cesspools. Many of the inhabitants have mental health issues, as well as alcohol and drug problems.
And again, like so many of our major cities, Las Vegas and Clark County seem unable to address the problem, and residents are growing increasingly frustrated. But a Trump executive order may provide an answer.
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump is aiming to combat crime involving homelessness throughout the country, with cities such as Las Vegas seeing a crisis surrounding encampments overtaking communities and crippling the local area.
Sin City has seen an uptick in homelessness throughout the community, with a 20% increase within Clark County in 2024, according to the most recent data from the Southern Nevada Homeless Continuum of Care.
“It’s progressively gotten worse and worse and worse,” Robert Marbut, the former federal homelessness czar under Trump’s first administration, told Fox News Digital. “And there was sort of an idea that they tried a lot of gimmicks in the beginning.”
Las Vegas residents, who do have homes, are increasingly frustrated. The encampments are encroaching on their neighborhoods. We should also note that this is not just a crime problem. It’s a public health problem. It’s a sanitation problem. These encampments are trash-strewn eyesores, often open-air drug markets, inhabited by addicts and criminals. It’s no wonder the taxpayers in Vegas are unhappy.
The issue has been exacerbated in recent weeks, with a local neighborhood on edge after a previously removed homeless encampment located in an empty parking lot across the street reportedly returned within days.
“Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas,” a neighbor living at Casa Bonita Apartments said, according to KLAS. “We are filled with trash, garbage and homeless people sleeping in the streets. We’re so fabulous. Honestly, it wouldn’t hurt the state to fix this problem.”
“There was a dumpster fire at 3 a.m,” Briana Talbot, property manager for Casa Bonita Apartments, told the outlet. “Someone was walking through the parking lot, lit something on fire in the trash and the whole dumpster caught on fire.”
Here’s the possible answer: Civil commitment. As in, involuntary commitment to an institution designed to get addicts clean, sober, and if not productive, at least self-sufficient. A recent executive order from the Trump administration may hold the key. The first paragraph of the administration’s fact sheet states:
The Order directs the Attorney General to reverse judicial precedents and end consent decrees that limit State and local governments’ ability to commit individuals on the streets who are a risk to themselves or others.
It’s unclear how fast this can happen. There are a lot of precedents to be overturned. But civil commitment may be the only real answer here.
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Too many of these people are caught up in the revolving door of urban homeless policies. They may enter a shelter for a few days or a few weeks. But the underlying causes aren’t addressed. The mental health problems are too often neglected. The addiction problems, likewise.
This isn’t a problem that can be solved by setting up treatment and quietly waiting for the homeless to decide to enroll. These encampments and the people in them present a serious threat to public health and order. They are detrimental to property values. The people in them, in many cases, show little inclination to give up their vagrant lifestyle. Civil commitment is the only likely answer; get them off the streets, into treatment, involuntarily if we must. Get them cleaned up, dry and sober, and if not productive, at least self-sufficient. The worst cases, and some will be irredeemable, may have to be permanently committed.
We are not living in the early 1960s. These institutions are not a remake of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” But the homelessness problems in our cities seem to grow worse by the day. This may be the only way to permanently address these issues.
It is the primary role of the government to protect the liberty and property of the citizens. In this, too many of our cities are failing, through their utter inability to deal with this issue and many others. It can’t continue. And here’s an interesting news item: In Las Vegas, the problem may be worse than anyone suspects; there is a significant underground population. Watch:
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