The United States is taking a sharp turn in how it addresses homelessness after President Donald Trump ordered a tough new approach that rejects the longstanding “housing first” template.
Trump, angered by messy encampments of homeless people near the White House and on the nation’s streets and parks, declared that organizations receiving federal funding must focus first on locking up people with drug or mental health challenges. Trump has long criticized how the United States manages homelessness, and argues public streets aren’t safe for either the homeless or residents.
“Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens,” Trump said in his July 24 order. “The federal government and the states have spent tens of billions of dollars on failed programs that address homelessness but not its root causes, leaving other citizens vulnerable to public safety threats.”
Longtime social workers, medical experts and mental health service providers say the new approach will likely worsen homelessness across the country, particularly because Trump’s order contains no new funding for mental health or drug treatment.
Additionally, they say the president appears to misunderstand the fundamental driver of homelessness: People can’t afford housing.
The president’s order calls for more “involuntary commitment,” which is a process in which mental health workers can forcibly detain and medicate people against their will. Studies have shown that the housing first model is significantly cheaper and more effective than involuntary detention.
“Nobody wants people sleeping outside. But if you are someone who doesn’t want people sleeping outside, you should vigorously oppose this effort,” said Dr. Margot Kushel, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and physician at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, who studies unhoused people. “Americans want there to be no homelessness. And this is literally a formula to worsen homelessness.”
‘There’s tents outside the White House. You can’t have that.’
Supporters of Trump’s approach, which was bolstered by a recent Supreme Court ruling, say it’s about time police officers were given the go-ahead to vigorously arrest people for drug possession while reducing the risk of human waste and fire hazards posed by the encampments and “chronic vagancy” cited by the president.
Last year, the annual nationwide assessment found that about 770,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. That number includes people living in hotels or shelters, as well as 5,200 individuals still displaced by the 2023 Maui wildfires.
Trump issued the order a day before flying to Scotland to visit his golf club, and appeared particularly concerned about an encampment near the White House. But it reflects his longstanding frustration with homelessness in the United States.
During his first administration, Trump urged police to “get tough” on encampments, and his new executive order goes even further by ordering authorities to expand involuntary detentions and withdraw funding from communities that don’t comply with his approach.
“When leaders come to see me to make a trade deal for billions and billions and even trillions of dollars and they come and there’s tents outside the White House. You can’t have that,” Trump said.
Nationally, many housing and homeless service providers have moved away from routine involuntary commitments, not just because they’re expensive but because the practice is widely considered dehumanizing.
“The intention here in New York is not to and never should be to warehouse anybody,” said Patrick Wildes, the director of Albany Law School’s Government Law Center and the former state assistant secretary for human services and mental hygiene. “The goal is to help them to get well and, in almost every case, help them return to living among their brothers and sisters in society.”
Like other experts, Wildes said the housing first model being targeted by Trump, while not perfect, represents the best, most effective way to stabilize people.
“When it comes to supporting people who are struggling with serious mental health or substance use disorders, it’s been proven time and time again that having a roof over your head gives you a substantially better chance of getting back on your feet,” he said.
‘No funding or mechanisms in place to make this executive order happen.’
Jesse Rabinowitz, a spokesman and social worker for the National Homelessness Law Center, said Trump’s focus on encampments reflects the president’s own background as a wealthy developer who doesn’t support government-supplied affordable housing.
“All this does is treat it like a crime to be sick and poor,” Rabinowitz said.
The executive order also mandates significant new data collection about people who receive services, allowing the government to track who has gotten help and where.
While Trump has criticized the amount of money spent on providing shelter for homeless people, advocates say taxpayers have never provided nearly enough to solve the problems caused by the high costs of rent, stagnant salaries for low-wage workers, and a lack of affordable counseling and drug treatment for people without jobs.
In Colorado, a study of people served by community-based mental health provider WellPower, the state’s largest, found that getting homeless people into supportive housing saved taxpayers more than $3,700 per person annually in costs such as jail and police time. The study found that 77% of people who were given housing first remained in that housing three years later.
Heidi Eastman, WellPower’s vice president of housing and resources, said that while advocates are still trying to understand the full ramifications of Trump’s order, it’s not clear how fast change will come and where.
“There’s no funding or mechanisms in place to make this executive order happen,” said Eastman, a longtime clinical social worker. “It’s going to put a bigger strain on the providers, it’s going to overload the system, and it will require more expensive services for people who may not need inpatient hospitalization.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump order signals drastic change in homelessness services
