U.S President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that seeks to overhaul the way U.S manages homelessness.
The order signed Thursday calls for changes to make it easier for states and cities to remove outdoor encampments and get people into mental health or addiction treatment. That includes involuntary civil commitment for those “who are a risk to themselves or others”
“Endemic vagrancy, disorderly behaviour, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe”, the order states.
The White House action also seeks to shift federal funding away from longtime policies that sought to get homeless people into housing first and then offer treatment. Instead, it calls for prioritizing money for programs that require sobriety and treatment, and for cities that enforce homeless camping bans
It also direct the departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban, and Transpiration to assess federal grant programs and prioritize places that actively crack down on illicit drug use, urban squatting “to the maximum extent permitted by law”.
Critics says the sweeping action does nothing to solve homelessness, and could make it worse.
“This executive order is forcing people to choose between compassionate data driven approaches like housing, or treating it like a crime to have mental illness or to be homeless “, said Jesse Robinowitz with the National Homelessness Center.
“Institutionalizing, people with mental illness, including those experiencing homelessness, is not a dignified, safe or evidence-based way to serve people’s need”, Ann Olivia with the National Alliance to End Homelessness said in a statement.
-9News Nigeria.
