by Rosa

On July 24th, Trump issued a new executive order: Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets. This executive order prioritizes the funding of grants for jurisdictions that “enforce prohibition on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering [and] urban squatting.” This is a direct escalation stemming from the City of Grants Pass v. Johnson Supreme Court decision in June 2024, a decision that allows jurisdictions to fine or arrest people for camping on public land even if there are no shelter beds available.

The order will enforce “standards that address individuals who are a danger to themselves or others and suffer from serious mental illness or substance use disorder, or who are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves, through assisted outpatient treatment or by moving them into treatment centers or other appropriate facilities via civil commitment or other available means.” Forced treatment removes all medical autonomy from individuals and can lead to trauma and a lack of trust in treatment providers, and there is little evidence to suggest that it is effective in the long-term (Forced treatment is not a solution to addiction, housing instability). It may be tempting to believe this is a uniquely cruel thing only Trump is capable of doing, but NY Gov. Hochul also included a proposal in the 2025 NYS budget to increase the institutionalization of people with mental illnesses or substance use disorder as well as people “not meeting their basic human needs of food, clothing, shelter, and medical care.” (MHANYS Response to Governor’s statement about expanding involuntary commitment standards – Mental Health Association in NYS, Inc.)

Our health care system does not have anywhere near the adequate amount of services for people with mental illnesses, including substance use disorder. Many of these services are also inaccessible as the result of: therapy not covered by insurance, exorbitant costs for prescriptions, or a lack of providers. Poverty should also never be a reason to institutionalize someone. The costs of groceries, clothing, housing, and medical care have all risen far beyond the rise in inflation and it is not the fault of the individual who finds them unaffordable.

The executive order also calls for “ending support for ‘housing first’ policies … [and will] require recipients of Federal housing and homelessness assistance to increase requirements that persons participating in the recipients’ programs who suffer from substance use disorder or serious mental illness use substance abuse treatment or mental health services as a condition of participation.” Housing First policies work—stability in housing provides a platform for individuals to then pursue their personal goals, such as sobriety or employment. To reject this model is to reject numerous studies proving its effectiveness in lowering the rates of chronic homelessness, emergency room visits by unhoused people, and the cost of wraparound services. (Data Visualization: The Evidence on Housing First – National Alliance to End Homelessness)

The City of Rochester didn’t need this executive order for permission to act with cruelty, they’ve been doing it all along. Within 48 hours of this executive order being issued, the City of Rochester swept at least 5 encampments under the guise of removing “open-air drug markets,” despite no evidence of the sale of drugs at these locations. By claiming they are preventing drugs from being sold, the City can avoid the typical protocol of providing 30 days advance notice to the encampment residents and alerting outreach organizations, as well as manufacturing consent for encampment sweeps, while still maintaining “We don’t do homeless sweeps in the city of Rochester,” (Mayor Malik Evans says the city doesn’t sweep homeless camps. That depends on how you define ‘sweep’ | WXXI News).

Rochester Grants Pass Resistance—of which ROC DSA is a coalition organizational member—held an Outreach Day one week later, providing training to community members and going out into the community to provide food and supplies. During outreach that day, we met several people who had been caught in the encampment sweeps and reported how destructive it was: tents destroyed, belongings gone missing, and a makeshift community torn apart and scattered. Some experienced outreach workers also mentioned being unable to locate unhoused people with whom they had been working diligently to build relationships. None of the individuals we talked to mentioned an offer of resources by city workers during the sweeps.

This executive order does not just permit cruelty, it incentivizes it. The order promotes a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” approach that has failed over and over again (while also conveniently ignoring the ways actions such as sweeps force people to repeatedly rebuild their lives), but jurisdictions are pressured to adopt that approach in the hopes that they will continue to receive federal grants. The Trump Administration has similarly begun to punish sanctuary cities for failing to comply with tactics against immigrants through the restriction of federal funding; the City of Rochester has been one of its targets.

We’ve seen jurisdictions across the country give in to Trump’s demands, sacrificing their residents for a chance at federal funding. So far, Rochester is not backing down from its status as a sanctuary city for undocumented people, but can Rochester’s administration stand firm against the latest attacks against unhoused people? Is it even willing to?

The post Incentivizing Cruelty – A Response to Trump’s Executive Order on Homelessness first appeared on Rochester Red Star.