U.S. President Donald Trump touches his hair as he speaks to the media during a tour of the Federal Reserve Board building, which is currently undergoing renovations, in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 24, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura
President Donald Trump quietly released an executive order Thursday that advocates say will make homelessness worse.
The order, titled "Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets," directs multiple federal agencies to discontinue funding services such as Housing First, Safe Consumption Sites, and other harm reduction practices. It also directs states to detain people with serious mental illnesses regardless of "forensic bed capacity at appropriate local, State, and Federal jails or hospitals."
Trump issued the order at a time when homelessness is growing across the United States. Last year, more than 771,000 people experienced homelessness, representing a climb of 18% year-over-year. More than 35% of people who were homeless, or roughly 275,000 people in all, lived unsheltered.
Advocates shared their concerns on social media.
"Actions ordered through the EO will be deeply harmful to vulnerable people and the nonprofit organizations that serve them and are counter to decades of research on proven ways to address and end homelessness," Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits, posted on LinkedIn.
“Today’s executive orders, combined with MAGA’s budget cuts for housing and healthcare, will increase the number of people forced to live in tents, in their cars, and on the streets. This order does nothing to lower the cost of housing or help people make ends meet,” Jesse Rabinowitz of the National Homelessness Law Center said in a statement.
"Criminalizing homelessness and mental illness won’t solve either," Antoine Lovell, a professor at Morgan State University, posted on X. Punishing people for being poor or sick is cruel and ineffective. What actually works? Affordable housing, mental health care, and support — not jail cells."
"Instead of investing in proven solutions, the administration is doubling down on cruel and ineffective policies that strip people of their rights, lock them into dangerous institutions, and punish them for having nowhere else to go," the ACLU posted on Bluesky.