Trump signs executive order to institutionalize homeless people
Ryan Knappenberger
WASHINGTON (CN) — President Donald Trump last week instructed federal agencies to determine methods to forcibly put homeless people dealing with mental illness or drug addiction into treatment centers for longer periods, while gutting existing harm reduction programs.
In an executive order, titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” Trump says that government programs meant to address homelessness — such as harm reduction and housing programs — have failed and do not address the issue’s root causes.
“Endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe,” Trump wrote. “Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order. Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens.”
The American Civil Liberties Union slammed the order Thursday, warning it would effectively criminalize homelessness, eliminate funding for effective programs and increase profiling for people experiencing homelessness and mental health issues.
Scout Katovich, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Trone Center for Justice and Equality, said in a statement that the order is another example of the administrations “remarkable disdain for the rights and dignity of vulnerable people,” following the passage of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.”
“Homelessness is a policy failure,” Katovich said. “Weaponizing federal funding to fuel cruel and ineffective approaches to homelessness won’t solve this crisis.”
Trump directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to try and reverse federal and state-level court precedents and terminate consent decrees that “impede the United States’ policy of encouraging civil commitment.”
Further, Bondi and Kennedy Jr. are ordered to assist state and local governments with establishing and implementing maximally flexible civil commitment, institutional treatment and “step-down” treatment standards for individuals with mental illness “who pose a danger to others or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves.”
“Pushing people into locked institutions and forcing treatment won’t solve homelessness or support people with disabilities,” Katovich said. “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.”
A coalition of national disability rights groups — the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the National Disability Rights Network, the Center for Public Representation, the National Health Law Program, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund and the Arc of the United States — condemned the order as an attack on civil liberties.
“This executive order appears aimed at upending decades of established Supreme Court precedent and eliminating basic protections that prevent the arbitrary confinement of people based on a disability,” Jennifer Mathis, deputy director of the Bazelon Center said in a statement. “We cannot go back to the times when people’s liberty could be taken away with no rhyme or reason, or for reasons like revenge or punishment.”
The coalition noted that such precedents have required the government to afford individuals due process before they can be confined in a psychiatric hospital.
In a key 1975 case, O’Connor v. Kenneth Donaldson, Donaldson was held in a Florida state hospital for 15 years after he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, though he was told by a county judge he would only be held for a few weeks.
The court unanimously ruled that the hospital violated Donaldson’s constitutional rights, noting that “a state cannot constitutionally confine, without more, a non-dangerous individual who is capable of surviving safely in freedom by himself or with the help of willing and responsible family members or friends.”
More recently, however, the Supreme Court has expanded local governments’ ability to fine homeless individuals for sleeping outside or on public property, ruling 6-3 in the 2024 City of Grants Pass v. Johnson that a law regulating camping on public property does not amount to cruel or unusual punishment.
Thursday’s order comes as law enforcement agencies in Washington have begun cracking down on previously unenforced laws under Trump’s executive order “Making the District of Columbia Safe and Beautiful.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. Park Police arrested four people in Logan Circle park and Dupont Circle park for open containers of alcohol and public consumption of marijuana.
Both spaces are operated by the National Park Service and are thus federal land, meaning any crimes committed there are subject to federal law and federal law enforcement. There are over 30 national parks in the District of Columbia.