U.S. President Donald Trump has approved a new executive order aimed at changing the way homelessness is handled across the country.
The order, signed on Thursday, July 24, is meant to help states and cities move homeless people off the streets and into addiction or mental health treatment programs. It also allows for forced treatment in some cases where people are seen as a danger to themselves or others.
According to the order, street camps and unstable behavior have made cities unsafe. The order claims these issues are harming public safety.
Trump’s plan also changes how federal money is used. Before now, programs focused on getting homeless people into housing first, then offering them treatment. But under the new policy, funding will go to cities that push for sobriety and enforce laws against street camping.
The departments of Health, Housing, and Transportation have also been told to review their grant programs. They are to give priority to cities that strictly control drug use, street camping, and squatting as much as the law allows.
Many experts say this new order won’t fix homelessness and may even make it worse.
Jesse Rabinowitz, from the National Homelessness Law Center, said the government is forcing a choice between helping people with housing or treating homelessness like a crime.
Ann Oliva from the National Alliance to End Homelessness also disagreed with the plan. She said locking people with mental health issues into institutions isn’t respectful, safe, or supported by research.
The order also tells the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to stop funding programs that use “harm reduction” methods. These methods are meant to lower overdose deaths from drugs like fentanyl, so cutting this support may hurt health services that help people with addiction.
Trump’s move builds on a recent Supreme Court decision that allows cities to fine or arrest people sleeping outdoors, even if they have no other place to go. Since that ruling, more than 100 cities across over 24 states have made or strengthened laws that ban sleeping on the streets.
