Organizations working to provide affordable housing and end homelessness are strongly condemning President Donald Trump’s new executive order that cracks down on people living on the streets.
“This order aims to make it easier for states and localities to criminalize individuals experiencing homelessness and to force them into involuntary treatment,” said Renee Willis, president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
The executive order, she continued, “reallocates federal grants to cities and states that implement harmful, ineffective, and costly policies, such as bans on encampments and the forced institutionalization of people experiencing homelessness.”
Willis is not alone in her criticism of the administration’s actions.
“The federal government must listen to the experts: Institutionalizing people with mental illness, including those experiencing homelessness, is not a dignified, safe, or evidence-based way to serve people’s needs across the country,” said Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “Homelessness is a national problem that is addressed at the local level. This order will strip states and local communities—both red and blue—of the resources that they desperately need to serve people experiencing homelessness.”
The action, which was announced July 24 under the title “Ending Crime and Disorder on American Streets,” calls for a number of wide-ranging moves, including directing Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary Scott Turner and other administration leaders to “prioritize grants for states and municipalities that enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering, and urban squatting, and track the location of sex offenders.”
The executive order also 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.”
Trump is also calling on his administration to take steps to end support for “Housing First policies that deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency.”
More Reactions to Trump’s Executive Order
“Everyone deserves a safe place to live. These executive orders ignore decades of evidence-based housing and support services in practice. They represent a punitive approach that has consistently failed to resolve homelessness and instead exacerbates the challenges faced by vulnerable individuals.”
—Donald Whitehead Jr., executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless
“The president is right to assert that our record level of homelessness is a national crisis. And, we know what it takes to end homelessness: affordable housing and community-based supports that help people thrive with dignity and autonomy. From his first days in office, President Trump said he was committed to addressing the housing crisis as a top priority. Unfortunately, this executive order focuses on enforcement and criminalization instead of focusing on investments in the needed tools and services necessary to end homelessness once and for all.”
—Shaun Donovan, president and CEO of Enterprise Community Partners and former HUD secretary
“Today’s executive order, combined with MAGA’s budget cuts for housing and health care, will increase the number of people forced to live in tents, in their cars, and on the streets. This order does nothing to lower the cost of housing or help people make ends meet. The safest communities are those with the most housing and resources, not those that make it a crime to be poor or sick. Forced treatment is unethical, ineffective, and illegal. People need stable housing and access to health care. Rather, Trump’s actions will force more people into homelessness, divert taxpayer money away from people in need, and make it harder for local communities to solve homelessness.”
—National Homelessness Law Center
“We can protect the safety and security of our streets while also supporting access to resources that will help homeless Americans break cycles of addiction and dependency. The Biden administration failed to address the root causes of homelessness, and, as a result, we saw the largest number of individuals living on the streets ever recorded. Having a heart for our homeless brothers and sisters does not mean indefinitely subsidizing housing without accountability and proper requirements for treatment, recovery, and pathways for self-sufficiency. Having a heart for our homeless brothers and sisters means helping them get back on their feet through a holistic approach so that the tough times will be temporary, and our streets and communities will be safer.”
—Scott Turner, HUD secretary
While administration officials seek to end Housing First, industry experts strongly defend the evidence-based strategy that provides people experiencing homelessness with stable, affordable housing quickly without prerequisites. Voluntary supportive services, such as case management, mental health treatment, and substance-use services, are offered to help people remain housed and improve their well-being.
“Research shows that Housing First is the most effective approach to ending homelessness and promoting housing stability for individuals transitioning out of homelessness,” Willis said. “Moreover, involuntary treatment can be traumatic and may damage the already fragile relationships that people experiencing homelessness have. Coercive approaches do not address individuals’ basic needs and can instead perpetuate cycles of hospitalization, biased police interactions, and increased encounters with the justice system.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also quickly criticized Trump’s latest moves.
“Pushing people into locked institutions and forcing treatment won’t solve homelessness or support people with disabilities,” said Scott Katovich, senior staff attorney with ACLU’s Trone Center for Justice and Equality. “The exact opposite is true—institutions are dangerous and deadly, and forced treatment doesn’t work. We need safe, decent, and affordable housing as well as equal access to medical care and voluntary, community-based mental health and evidence-based substance use treatment from trusted providers.
“But instead of investing in these proven solutions, President Trump is blaming individuals for systemic failures and doubling down on policies that punish people with nowhere else to go—all after signing a law that decimates Medicaid, the No. 1 payer for addiction and mental health services. Homelessness is a policy failure. Weaponizing federal funding to fuel cruel and ineffective approaches to homelessness won’t solve this crisis.”
Here is a fact sheet released by the White House.
