Advocates say Trump’s ‘abhorrent’ order aims to criminalize homelessness
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Trump's executive order redirects funding to incentivize removal of unhoused people.
- Advocates warn the order criminalizes homelessness and undermines due process.
- Local officials await details, cite unclear legal or policy impacts in Pierce County.
President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order intended to “restore order to American cities and remove vagrant individuals from our streets.” Some homeless advocates worry the administration is trying to criminalize the unhoused.
The executive order signed July 24 gives state and local governments a variety of tools and resources aimed at removing those living unhoused from the streets.
The order does the following:
- Directs the U.S. Attorney General to work to reverse judicial precedents and end consent decrees that limit state and local governments’ ability to involuntarily commit individuals on the streets who are a risk to themselves or others.
- Requires the Attorney General to work with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the Secretary of Transportation to prioritize grants for states and municipalities that enforce prohibitions on open, illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering, and urban squatting, and track the location of sex offenders.
- Redirects funding to ensure that individuals camping on streets and causing public disorder and who are suffering from serious mental illness or addiction are moved into treatment centers, assisted outpatient treatment or other facilities.
- Ensures discretionary grants for substance-use disorder prevention, treatment and recovery do not fund drug-injection sites or illicit drug use.
- Stops sex offenders who receive homelessness assistance from being housed with children and allows programs to exclusively house women and children.
On July 30, the National Alliance to End Homelessness hosted a press call for their advocates to issue statements regarding the executive order.
During the call, the vice president for Programs and Policy at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Marcy Thompson, called the order “abhorrent.”
“I’ve been working in this field of homelessness for more than 20 years, and it is by far the most harmful proposal from an administration I have ever seen,” she said.
Thompson said implementation of othe rder would “upend” the way in which American communities respond to homelessness and puts the most vulnerable populations of those living unhoused in danger.
According to Thompson, the affordable housing crisis, a failing social safety net and a broken healthcare system are among the root causes of homelessness.
“The president has the power and the opportunity to address these gaps,” she said, “but instead has focused on forcing people against their consent into institutional settings where they will be out of public sight. That will not end homelessness.”
Thompson said the order undermines recognized best practices such as community-based behavioral healthcare and housing first, a decades-old approach to homelessness which attempts to give unconditional housing to those experiencing homelessness.
During the call, Jesse Rabinowitz, a spokesperson for the National Homelessness Law Center, said the executive order along with other budget cuts and policy decisions being made by the Trump administration “will make homelessness worse and keep people homeless longer.”
“This order does not fund any housing, it does not address the leading cause of homelessness - rents that are too high, and it does not fund any new supports or services,” he said on July 30.
Rabinowitz said the order, when implemented, would violate due process and civil liberties by expanding the use of police force and involuntary institutionalization. He also said the order prioritizes funding for states that treat homelessness as a crime.
“The goal of this order is not safety,” he said. “Its control and power.”
What do executive orders mean locally?
The immediate impact the order will have on the response to homelessness in Pierce County communities is unclear.
When asked if the order will have any immediate or long-term impact on Tacoma’s response to homelessness, city spokesperson Maria Lee said the city is trying to understand its effects.
“We will be reviewing the recent executive order and working to understand how the federal agencies are implementing this order, to determine the potential impacts on our local community,” Lee told The News Tribune on July 30. “It may take some time to fully understand these impacts as we see how the federal agencies interpret and implement the executive order.”
Pierce County Human Services told The News Tribune the department, which administers the region’s homelessness response, did not expect any immediate impacts.
“While the [executive order] was announced with a lot of political rhetoric, our legal analysis doesn’t indicate any obvious or immediate conflicts with our current policies or programs,” Human Services spokesperson Kari Moore told The News Tribune when asked if the executive order included any legally-binding measures.
Moore said the county will continue to use a data-driven approach in its response to homelessness and when determining the strategies it will use.
“Services and treatment combined with safe housing works,” she told The News Tribune.
