Robert Marbut, Set To Head Federal Homeless Office, Sought To Ban Feeding The Homeless

After dismissing the Obama-era federal homeless agency’s head, President Donald Trump plans to make Robert Marbut, a man with a history of working with cities to stop the feeding of homeless people, the agency’s new chief.

Before being appointed by Trump, Marbut worked as a consultant in various states including Florida and California. In a handful of cities and counties, including Fresno, he advised local lawmakers and leaders on enacting policies aimed at barring individuals, churches and charities from handing out food to homeless people. In Clearwater, Fla., Marbut urged officials to put an end to what he termed “renegade food” handouts, claiming that “no one has got out of homeless just because they got fed. That has never happened.”

Marbut has stated repeatedly that “hunger is not the root cause of homelessness” and should be addressed differently. He once boasted to NPR that he is typically able to “get about an 80 percent street [homelessness] reduction” after working with cities.

The policies Marbut helped craft in communities like Clearwater have been aimed at swiftly reducing the number of people living on the street. Eschewing the increasingly popular “housing first” tactic being adopted by various cities across the nation, in addition to curbing food donations, Marbut has advised cracking down on panhandling and sleeping in public. He’s also pushed for police to make arrests for minor crimes in order to take homeless people off the street.

Now, Marbut is poised to head up the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, though his appointment must first be approved by the council during a meeting on Dec. 10. The agency coordinates programs across the country, working with 19 federal departments and state governments.

Under Marbut’s predecessor, Matthew Doherty, the agency had pursued programs that expanded access to low-cost and subsidized housing for homeless people, but that’s expected to change.

The Trump administration’s appointment of Marbut comes as little surprise, given the President’s outspoken views on homelessness and how the issue should be addressed. A report published by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in September stressed the value of using policing to “move people off the street.”

Trump has also been openly critical of Democratic leadership in cities including Los Angeles and San Francisco over they way they have dealt with their homeless populations. He’s said that residents of those cities “destroy themselves by allowing what’s happening” by permitting homeless people to stay on “our best highways, our best streets, our best entrances to buildings.”