Caitlyn Jenner wants to move homeless people to ‘big open fields’
“They’re destroying Venice Beach! ... They don’t need to be there," Jenner said
Caitlyn Jenner continues to be her own biggest impediment in the race to be California’s next governor.
The transgender reality star and former Olympian has suggested that the best way to help California’s homeless population is to move them to “an open field out in some place.”
Appearing on Inside California Politics, the 71-year-old specifically highlighted Venice Beach, claiming homeless people were “destroying” local businesses.
“They’re destroying Venice Beach! They’re destroying all the businesses down there. They don’t need to be there,” Jenner said. “The crime rate is going up… It’s mostly homeless-on-homeless murders. We can’t have that in our streets.”
Jenner’s solution? Create “some place for those people to go, whether it’s an open field out in some place, or if you notice at the veteran’s facility, there’s these big open fields and a lot of places there.”
The Los Angeles City Council this week approved a $5 million effort to provide interim housing for the estimated 200 homeless people who live in encampments on Venice Beach’s Ocean Front Walk.
Those who do not accept the offer of housing will be asked to leave the area by a certain date, Councilman Mike Bonin announced.
“The Venice Beach Encampment to Home program is moving people indoors and on a path to permanent housing,” Bonin said. “There’s a right way to confront our homelessness crisis — it starts with housing and services.”
Jenner received some criticism for her comments on social media, with one person writing, “Homeless people are tired of seeing Caitlyn Jenner biking and wondering how she is a multimillionaire when she hasn’t had a job in 30yrs.”
“Caitlyn Jenner, whose net worth is roughly $100 million, proposed moving homeless people to ‘big open fields’ out of sight & out of mind from the rest of us,” another person wrote. “Political cowardice & inhumane disconcern.”
Someone else asked, “Is Caitlyn Jenner’s entire platform just complaining about homeless people?”
That was presumably a reference to comments Jenner made during an interview earlier this year, where she said that a wealthy friend was leaving California because he “can’t take” seeing homeless people.
“He says, ‘I’m moving to Sedona, Ariz. I can’t take it anymore. I can’t walk down the streets and see the homeless,'” Jenner, who was being interviewed in her private airplane hangar, said. “When you drive in Beverly Hills and you look at the park, and there’s tents in the park, we have to look at that issue very seriously.”
Jenner added: “Before, the homeless were all downtown. I’m sure you’ve been downtown. I mean, you walk down there, and it’s just like so tough, so difficult on these people.”
It’s the latest faux pas from Jenner in a gubernatorial campaign littered with missteps.
Last month, while trying to present herself as an “inclusive Republican,” Jenner claimed that it was harder to come out as a Republican than as transgender.
She also drew condemnation from LGBTQ advocates after throwing transgender youth under the bus, declaring that they should be banned from competing in sports according to their gender identity in order to “protect girls’ sports.”
Related: Caitlyn Jenner says trans girls should be blocked from girls’ sports
Just days after announcing her campaign in April, reports emerged that Jenner’s children thought she didn’t have the experience to run the state and that her Kardashian step-daughters wouldn’t be endorsing her.
And a poll in May painted a bleak picture for Jenner, finding only 6% of Californians would support her in the state’s upcoming recall election.
What’s more, only 13% of Republicans would cast a ballot for Jenner to be their next governor, a performance one pollster bluntly called “a very poor showing.”
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