On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling on states and cities to end “endemic vagrancy,” and to rehouse and provide treatment to, the homeless, many of whom are suffering from drug addictions and mental problems.
The executive order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek to reverse federal and state judicial precedents and end consent decrees that limit local and state governments’ ability to remove homeless individuals who may be drug addicted or have mental issues from the streets or encampments so that they may be placed in a treatment facility.
The order follows a 2024 Supreme Court decision that allows cities to ban homeless camping. Additionally, Trump cites another potential reason for the executive order, stating that the highest recorded number of individuals living on the streets in the U.S. ever on a single night was actually last year: 274,224.
Though a concerning number to begin with, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness provided a much higher number in contrast, revealing that in a single night in 2024, 771,480, individuals were recorded as homeless, not including the 274,224 who slept on the streets.
The concern with the hundreds of thousands of individuals sleeping on the streets doesn’t just lie in their safety, but for the dangers many of them may pose to others, due to their own potential history with substance abuse and mental issues.
Another concern that Trump addressed in his executive order has to do with sex offenders, specifically homeless sex offenders who have previously received little attention, Sec. 3 (v) of the executive order calls for updating the sex offender registry “in the case of registered sex offenders with no fixed address, including by adequately mapping and checking the location of homeless sex offenders.”
These provisions and others outlined in the order it mark another promise fulfilled by Pres. Trump to make the U.S. safer for everyone, though the order does not make it clear how much funding would be put towards the initiative.
Despite the positive intent of Trump’s new executive order, it hasn’t been without critics, as organizations such as the National Homelessness Law Center and The National Coalition for The Homeless have both come out against the order.
The National Coalition for the Homeless said the Trump administration has “a concerning record of disregarding civil rights and due process” and claimed that implementing Trump’s order would worsen the homelessness crisis.
It’s unclear providing treatment for the homeless and getting them off the streets could make the problem worse, but time will tell as Trump’s executive order aims to curb homelessness by prioritizing public safety and treatment for those with addiction and mental health issues.
Photo by: YouTube Screenshot