RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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In the year since President Trump signed an executive order aimed at moving homeless people off the streets, federal agencies have given states a green light to expand the use of civil commitment for homeless individuals with mental illness or substance abuse problems.Pending a court challenge, the primary system of funding for organizations combating homelessness could be transformed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to comply with Mr. Trump\u0027s executive order.\u00a0The president\u0027s order argues that past policies neglected "root causes" of homelessness and created a public safety risk.\u00a0Opponents say that the administration would strain the limited number of state treatment centers, criminalize the homeless population and would be an unnecessary shift away from "Housing First" policies. Housing First is an approach that promotes non-conditional access to housing \u00e2\u0080\u0094 that is, without requiring sobriety, compliance with treatment or making other demands of recipients.\u00a0Civil commitmentsMr. Trump\u0027s order prompted the Justice and Health and Human Services Departments to prioritize funding for states that carry out involuntary psychiatric treatment \u00e2\u0080\u0094 or "maximally flexible civil commitment" of individuals with mental illness who "pose a danger to others or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves."His order argued that "public order" would be restored by committing homeless people to "long-term institutional settings for humane treatment."\u00a0It called on the Justice Department to reverse any consent decrees that would impede these civil commitments. The order also prioritized funding for states and cities that ban urban camping, urban squatting and open illicit drug use.\u00a0About 30% of those experiencing chronic homelessness have a serious mental illness, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Meanwhile, two-thirds have a substance use disorder or other chronic health condition.\u00a0The call for a tougher law-and-order approach has prompted multiple Republican states to pass laws that penalize homeless encampments or expand the facilitation of involuntary institutionalizations.Utah recently approved more than $43 million in spending earlier this year in part to target "high utilizers," those who repeatedly cycle through homeless shelters and jail. It is reinforced by a new law that allows these individuals to be put under the supervision of Utah\u0027s Division of Adult Probation and Parole.Both Indiana and Louisiana passed bills this year that make it a crime to sleep overnight or camp on public property. Louisiana\u0027s HB 211, called the "Streets to Success Act," punishes first-time violators with fines up to $500. To avoid spending up to six months in jail, eligible individuals may sign up for a new "Homelessness Court Program."The program would supervise participants for a year and give them access to substance abuse treatment, mental health services, job training and housing assistance. Those who complete the program could have their conviction erased. Those who don\u0027t risk a jail sentence.\u00a0Participants "may be confined in a treatment facility" or released on a probationary basis, the state law says. The court could also impose rehabilitation conditions on participants.\u00a0The National Homelessness Law Center called it "one of the cruelest, most extreme anti-homeless bills." Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry defended the homeless courts, arguing they\u0027d help "start removing the homeless off of our streets and into the places that they belong."Shaina Bessonet, a dental hygienist in Louisiana who experienced homelessness from January 2022 to March 2026, testified against the bill before the state legislature.\u00a0"Just because someone is homeless, because they don\u0027t have a place to sleep, doesn\u0027t give anybody the right to take them and punish them just for not having a place to go. It\u0027s not fixing the problem, it\u0027s making it worse," she told CBS News.\u00a0Devon Kurtz, a policy director at the Cicero Institute, said the executive order and a June Justice Department legal opinion, gives states "considerably more discretion" on their psychiatric care. That opinion made it easier for states to keep those with mental illness institutionalized, rather than provide them with in-home or community-based care.\u00a0The Cicero Institute, a conservative think tank that was established by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, advised the White House on the crafting of the executive order."This executive order was really a signal to those agencies that they have to revisit all of these key touch points that are creating these unnecessary burdens and ceilings on state experimentation with policy," Kurtz said.He argued that the Housing First approach and similar ideas have "been rewarding the places that have done the worst."But Jennifer Mathis, deputy director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health, said civil commitment could be more expensive than providing long-term housing and should be "a last resort."\u00a0Mathis, a Biden-era official in the Justice Department\u0027s Civil Rights Division, said the executive order "created an environment where states felt either pressured or permitted to focus on more coercive strategies, to focus less on housing as a solution.""The basic notion behind the executive order seems to be that these people who are unhoused don\u0027t deserve housing," she said.\u00a0 "They\u0027re either criminals or they\u0027re problem people, and we should basically be forcing them into treatment because it\u0027s just their own fault."\u00a0It\u0027s "just wrong at its core," she said.\u00a0Funding changes stuck in the courtsAdministration officials claim Mr. Trump\u0027s order has resulted in\u00a0$700 million in HHS funding aimed at helping people with addiction and mental illness, as well as homelessness, though there are limits on the f...
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