Trump wants to lock people up with drug and mental health challenges. Supporters say the housing shortage is a real problem.
President Trump is trying to take homeless people off the streets
President Trump wants to make it easier for cities and states to move homeless people to treatment centers under new enforcement actions.
The US is turning sharply on how to deal with homelessness after President Donald Trump ordered a tough new approach to reject the long-standing “Housing First” template.
Trump has been furious in the troublesome camps of homeless people near the White House, as well as in the country’s streets and parks, declaring that organizations receiving federal funds must first focus on locking in people with drug and mental health challenges. Trump has long criticised how the US manages homelessness, claiming that public roads are not safe for either homeless or residents.
“To entrust our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is a lack of compassion for the homeless and other citizens,” Trump said in his July 24 order. “The federal government and states have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on failed programs dealing with homelessness, not the root cause, and other citizens are vulnerable to public safety threats.”
Longtime social workers, health professionals and mental health service providers say the new approach is likely to exacerbate homelessness across the country, especially as Trump’s orders do not include new funding for mental health or drug treatment.
Furthermore, they say the president appears to misunderstand the basic drivers of homelessness. People can’t afford a home.
The president’s order calls for more “unwilling commitments.” This is the process in which mental health workers can force people to detain against their will and restrain their medication. Research shows that the first model of housing is significantly cheaper and more effective than involuntary detention.
“No one wants anyone sleeping outside, but if you don’t want to sleep outside, you should be vehemently opposed to this effort,” said Dr. Margot Kuchell, a doctor at the University of California, San Francisco General Hospital and a doctor at the Trauma Center, who studies people. “Americans want no homelessness, and this is literally the formula for making homelessness worse.”
“There’s a tent outside the White House. You can’t have it.”
Supporters of Trump’s approach, strengthened by a recent Supreme Court ruling, say it’s a time when police officers reached to violently arrest people for drug possession, reducing the risk of human waste and fire hazards posed by the president.
Last year, an annual national review found that around 770,000 people experienced homelessness in one night in January. Those numbers include people living in hotels and shelters as well as 5,200 individuals still evacuated by the 2023 Maui wildfires.
Trump issued an order to visit the golf club before flying to Scotland, and appeared particularly concerned about the camp near the White House. But it reflects his longstanding dissatisfaction with the US homelessness.
During his first administration, Trump urged police to be “stricken” in camps, and his new executive order also ordered authorities to expand unwilling detention and withdraw funds from communities that were not complying with his approach.
“The leaders came to see me, they got trade deals of billions, even trillions, and they came, they had tents outside the White House. You can’t have it,” Trump said.
Nationally, many housing and homeless service providers are moving away from everyday unwilling commitments, not just because they are expensive, but because their practices are considered dehumanised.
“The intent here in New York is not to let anyone be warehoused, and should never be,” said Patrick Wiles, director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School and former deputy director of welfare and mental health. “The goal is to help them get better and, in almost every case, help them live amongst their siblings in society.”
Like other experts, Wildes said the first model of housing Trump targeted is not perfect, but represents the best and most effective way to stabilize people.
“It has proven many times that when it comes to supporting people suffering from serious mental health and substance use disorders, having a roof over your head is significantly more likely to return to your feet,” he said.
“We don’t have the funds or mechanisms to make this executive order come true.”
Jesse Rabinowitz, a spokesman and social worker for the National Center for Homeless Law, said Trump’s focus on camp reflects the president’s own background as a wealthy developer who doesn’t support government-supported affordable housing.
“This is about treating it like a crime because you’re sick and poor,” Rabinowitz said.
The executive order also requires the collection of important new data on those receiving services, allowing the government to track who has received help and where.
Trump criticizes the amount spent on providing shelter to homeless people, but advocates say taxpayers have never provided enough to solve the problems caused by high rent costs, stagnant pay for low-wage workers, and the lack of affordable counseling and drug treatment for those without jobs.
In Colorado, a study of people served by WellPower, the state’s largest community-based mental health provider, found that costs such as prison and police hours can save more than $3,700 per person, taxpayers. The study found that 77% of people given a home were first left in that home three years later.
Wellpower’s vice president of housing and resources Heidi Eastman said supporters are still trying to understand the full impact of Trump’s order, but it’s not clear how fast the change will be.
Longtime clinical social worker Eastman said: “It’s going to put a lot of strain on providers. It’s going to overload the system and require more expensive services for those who don’t need inpatient hospitalization.”
