Trump executive order raises fear among advocates for people experiencing homlessness

Yahoo

5 days ago

People experiencing homelessness were forced to move from an encampment off of U.S. 70 near Garner. (Photo: Greg Childress)
Advocates for people experiencing homelessness were stunned last week when President Donald Trump signed an executive order to make it easier for states and cities to remove homeless individuals from the streets and force them to receive mental health care and into treatment for drug addiction.
The order was unexpected and raised concerns that it could lead to mistreatment and mass institutionalization of people with mental illness and drug addictions and criminalize people experiencing homelessness. Similar actions have been taken by local and state governments to remove individuals experiencing homelessness from encampments and public streets.
Trump's order signals a federal retreat from the 'Housing First' strategy, which advocates contend has proven effective in fighting homelessness. The Housing First approach prioritizes access to permanent housing and supportive services for mental health and substance abuse issues as the best strategy to address the nation's growing homelessness crisis.
In an interview with NC Newsline Editor Rob Schofield, Samuel Gunter, executive director of the North Carolina Housing Coalition, said incarcerating people experiencing homelessness and hiding them from view will not resolve the nation's homelessness crisis. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's annual Point-In-Time Count found 770,000 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. That represented an 18% increase over the previous year.
'We know in homelessness intervention that the answer is housing,' Gunter said. 'It's always housing. The carceral state solutions are always more expensive. You're spending more money to not even solve the problem instead of funding the things we know solve the problem.'
The mishandling of the nation's homelessness crisis cuts across political lines, Gunter said. He expressed dismay that California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has also embraced policies that advocates believe are insensitive to people experiencing homelessness and fail to resolve the problem.
'The Trump executive order; it's awful,' Gunter said. 'But this one is not Republican or Democratic — no one is good in this.'
Trump's executive order seeks to follow-up on a promise he made on the campaign trail in 2023 to address homelessness and to remove individuals from the streets.
'We will use every tool, lever, and authority to get the homeless off our streets,' Trump said. We want to take care of them, but they have to be off our streets.'
The president's order, which is entitled 'Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets' is makes us of less civil language than his campaign pledge. The executive order contends that 'endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations and violent attacks' have made the nation's streets unsafe.
'The overwhelming majority of these individuals are addicted to drugs, have a mental health condition, or both,' the executive order states. 'Nearly two-thirds of homeless individuals report having regularly used hard drugs like methamphetamines, cocaine, or opioids in their lifetimes.'
Ann Oliva, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said Trump's order is the most harmful policy proposal on homelessness to be advanced during her 30-year career.
'At a time when unaddressed housing costs are driving record numbers of people into homelessness, this order demonstrates a lack of focus and understanding on what our communities — both red and blue — need to address this crisis,' Olivia said. 'Instead, it largely focuses on punishing people for being homeless and denying desperately needed funds to overwhelmed and under resourced frontline workers.'
Executive orders are different from laws passed by Congress. However, federal agencies and the officials who run them are expected to implement and enforce them. The order also ties federal dollars flowing to states and municipalities to compliance.
'Our local leaders will have to face a crucial question, and that question is which is more important; is it more important to ensure that we protect our most vulnerable citizens and be innovative and find ways that we can do that with state dollars, or do we comply with what the intention of what this order is and whatever laws come out of it and began to round people up?' said Dr. Latonya Agard, executive director of the NC Coalition to End Homelessness.
The order is designed to allow states and municipalities to remove people from encampments and to fine them, jail them or involuntarily commit them, which will likely further exacerbate their condition, Agard said.
'So what we find is that people experiencing homelessness are caught in a huge dragnet that intends to make it even more difficult for them to find and maintain permanent housing,' she said. 'Unfortunately, permanent housing appears to be a non priority with this administration.'
Trump's executive order prioritizes punishment and dehumanization, Agard said, and characterizes people experiencing homelessness as dangerous and unwell.
'That is simply not true based on the evidence that we have,' Agard said.
Undoubtedly, enforcement of the executive order will rely on involuntary commitments. In North Carolina, that legal process is used when someone is believed to be a danger to themselves or others due to a mental illness or substance abuse disorder.
Anyone with first-hand knowledge of the individual's condition can initiate an involuntary commitment proceeding by filing a petition with a magistrate. If a magistrate finds probable cause, a custody order is issued, and the individual is taken to a facility by a commitment examiner.
Agard said North Carolina doesn't have the facilities to safely place people suffering from mental illness or drug addiction.
'We don't have the capacity, we don't have the space, to provide people with that kind of treatment if we're simply pulling them off the street and trying to place them where ever we can find,' Agard said. 'We have a very limited mental health provision system here and we lack the funding for people who are voluntarily seek mental health.'
There are also risks of civil rights violations in a system in which people haven't been adequately trained to make such assessments, Agard said.
'How will they determine who should be involuntarily committed?' Agard asks. 'I have concerns about profiling. I have concerns about biases that we all hold. But when your biases impact whether someone is involuntarily committed or is arrested, I think that warrants a second look, a different approach.'
Disability Rights North Carolina recently published a report on involuntary commitments that found an 'overwhelmed mental health system where people of all ages, with serious behavioral health needs, languish in EDs [emergency departments] without court-appointed legal counsel or adequate mental health treatment.'
'Once detained in an ED, the child or adult who is the focus of that order cannot leave; their liberty is quite literally in legal limbo because the law does not provide for an attorney or hearing in the ED,' the authors wrote. 'Forced detention in an ED can last for days, weeks, and even months while awaiting an available bed for psychiatric hospitalization (commonly referred to as 'ED boarding').'
The National Homelessness Law Center (NHLC) quickly condemned Trump's executive order, which it said, 'deprives people of their basic rights and makes it harder to solve homelessness.'
Specifically, the NHLC said it's concerned that the order will expand the use of police and institutionalization, prioritize funding for states that treat homelessness as a crime, and cut funding for programs that have proven to save lives.
'The safest communities are those with the most housing and resources, not those that make it a crime to be poor or sick,' the NHLC said. 'Forced treatment is unethical, ineffective, and illegal. People need stable housing and access to healthcare.'
Trump's actions will force more people into homelessness, divert taxpayer money from people in need, and make it harder for local communities to solve homelessness, the NHLC said.
'Sadly, but not surprisingly, Trump continues to focus on deeply unpopular policies like handcuffs and jail, which hurt Black and Brown people most,' the NHLC said. 'Laws and budgets that make homelessness and poverty worse negatively impact us all. To build truly safe, healthy, and just communities, we need housing and healthcare, not handcuffs and budget cuts.'
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