David "DC" Carey, with his dog, Honey Dew, prepare to move from a Nashville homless encampment after law enforcement cleared the area in May 2025. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

Tennessee is at the forefront of making homelessness invisible, and I fear that the Trump administration’s recent executive order on street homelessness will bolster the state’s approach to moving unhoused Tennesseans out of sight whenever possible.

Homelessness is the consequence and visible failure of housing and healthcare policies that have pushed more and more households to the brink of existence in every county – including urban, suburban and rural areas.

While Tennessee’s total homelessness numbers have not stood out at the national level so far, it nonetheless has become a testing ground for c

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