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dalton99a

(90,390 posts)
Thu Jul 24, 2025, 09:43 PM Jul 24

Trump order pushes forcible hospitalization of homeless people

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/07/24/trump-homeless-forced-hospitalization-executive-order/

Trump order pushes forcible hospitalization of homeless people
Trump’s executive order could increase hospitalization of homeless individuals with mental health and substance use disorders.
July 24, 2025 at 5:17 p.m. EDT
By David Ovalle

President Donald Trump has directed federal agencies to find ways to make it easier to forcibly hospitalize homeless people with mental illness and addiction for longer periods — an effort to fight what the administration calls “vagrancy” threatening the streets of U.S. cities.

An executive order signed Thursday pushes federal agencies to overturn state and federal legal precedent that limits how local and state governments can involuntarily commit people who pose a risk to themselves or others.

The order said shifting homeless people into long-term institutional settings will restore public order. “Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens,” Trump’s order said.

The impact of Trump’s executive order remains unclear because states set laws and handle the process of involuntary commitments. Critics warned that such a policy threatens returning the nation to a darker era when people were often unjustly locked away in mental health institutions, and does nothing to help people afford housing.

Critics say cash-strapped states will not have the space to keep more people detained. The executive order, however, says federal resources could ensure “detainees with serious mental illness are not released into the public” because of a lack of bed space in jails or hospitals.

The order also instructs agencies to prioritize funding for mental health and drug courts — and to not fund “harm reduction” programs that the administration said facilitate illegal drug use. It also called for agencies to prioritize funding states and cities that to the “maximum extent” enforce laws on open-air drug use, prohibitions on urban camping, loitering and squatting.

...


https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/ending-crime-and-disorder-on-americas-streets/
ENDING CRIME AND DISORDER ON AMERICA’S STREETS

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Who is going to pay for their hospitalization? Medicaid?

46 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Trump order pushes forcible hospitalization of homeless people (Original Post) dalton99a Jul 24 OP
Didn't Reagan kick homeless out of hospitals and treatment? I don't trust trumpsters to treat Silent Type Jul 24 #1
. WhiskeyGrinder Jul 24 #2
Yeah, well they aren't getting treatment now or it's failing. Again don't trust trump, but 60% of homeless Silent Type Jul 24 #4
Those who are capable of holding employment will be hired out as slave labor... regnaD kciN Jul 24 #5
So, what's your solution to help homeless that actually has a chance of being enacted? Silent Type Jul 24 #7
Housing first. WhiskeyGrinder Jul 25 #15
"it's better than letting people suffer on street as we do now." WhiskeyGrinder Jul 25 #14
Yes. He dumped them onto the streets in Chicago, etc kerry-is-my-prez Jul 25 #13
If i remember correctly it was never often followed up with good services etc. electric_blue68 Jul 25 #39
It was the ACLU that led this in the Supreme Court Melon Jul 25 #43
First time I agree with Dump Bluesaph Jul 25 #44
Or they could just build some fucking housing leftstreet Jul 24 #3
Where are they going to find these hospitals willing to LisaL Jul 24 #6
So, 19th century asylums but this time it's for PROFIT BABY. Why should prisons Maru Kitteh Jul 24 #8
+1. The 'hospitals' will be built and run by private prison companies dalton99a Jul 24 #9
One more way to break the bank. Nt lostnfound Jul 24 #10
Another evil AF executive order. Initech Jul 25 #11
I support this if it gets mentally ill homeless off the street Melon Jul 25 #12
Most people living w Mental Illness Are Non Violent electric_blue68 Jul 25 #34
Right. But the order allocates federal funding to direct addicts to treatment centers Melon Jul 25 #35
It's how it will be done that concerns me... electric_blue68 Jul 25 #37
Next level of Alligator Alcatraz IzzaNuDay Jul 25 #16
Exactly! peggysue2 Jul 25 #22
He's bringing a nation to heel, starting with the "low/hanging fruit." Heidi Jul 25 #23
Isn't he already destroying healthcare access and hospital systems... ananda Jul 25 #17
I know plenty of people with Bettie Jul 25 #18
Also, this would create more homeless people who Trump.. ananda Jul 25 #19
So getting people into treatment ho need it is a bad thing? This finally allocates federal funding to expand Melon Jul 25 #36
Where are hospitals going to get the space? Bettie Jul 25 #40
It's not about the admin to me if the alternative Melon Jul 25 #41
Like they're only rounding up criminals Bettie Jul 25 #45
That can happen. It happened back when we had mental hospitals. Melon Jul 25 #46
What facilities are they planning to use? MineralMan Jul 25 #20
These people are simply incapable of connecting dots. travelingthrulife Jul 25 #21
By "hospitals," he no doubt means warehouses run by contractors. Heidi Jul 25 #24
If he gets his way, I hope people understand this will include innocent kids. Passages Jul 25 #25
Call this what it is, imprisonment indusurb Jul 25 #26
+1. Imprisonment and burial dalton99a Jul 25 #27
And aslo Democrats, LGBT+, whoever they say is mentally ill obamanut2012 Jul 25 #28
First stop to concentration camps bucolic_frolic Jul 25 #29
Has any other country solved this problem. multigraincracker Jul 25 #30
Finland has made a good deal of progress with its housing first approach, and housing first combined with wraparound WhiskeyGrinder Jul 25 #32
Greece closed their mental hospitals and the result Melon Jul 25 #42
"Hospitals" 😂😂😂 IrishAfricanAmerican Jul 25 #31
Work camps orangecrush Jul 25 #33
Isn't Trump the guy EndlessWire Jul 25 #38

Silent Type

(11,246 posts)
1. Didn't Reagan kick homeless out of hospitals and treatment? I don't trust trumpsters to treat
Thu Jul 24, 2025, 10:14 PM
Jul 24

people fairly, but I think this could be a good tool for some homeless people in the right circumstances and with decent treatment.

WhiskeyGrinder

(25,729 posts)
2. .
Thu Jul 24, 2025, 10:18 PM
Jul 24
I think this could be a good tool for some homeless people in the right circumstances and with decent treatment.


Forced institutionalization is almost never a good thing.

Silent Type

(11,246 posts)
4. Yeah, well they aren't getting treatment now or it's failing. Again don't trust trump, but 60% of homeless
Thu Jul 24, 2025, 10:38 PM
Jul 24

have some degree of mental issues at least requiring treatment, and possibly hospitalization.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2818774

There are definitely better ways to handle this, but it’s better than letting people suffer on street as we do now. Plus, I don’t think anyone is saying they have to be involuntarily institutionalized. Heck, trump will wake up in month and cut funding for treatment.

regnaD kciN

(27,296 posts)
5. Those who are capable of holding employment will be hired out as slave labor...
Thu Jul 24, 2025, 11:01 PM
Jul 24

...while they build "showers" for those who can't.

Sounds like a pretty effective final solution to the homeless question.

WhiskeyGrinder

(25,729 posts)
14. "it's better than letting people suffer on street as we do now."
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 08:19 AM
Jul 25

I don't know that making people suffer by taking away the last shred of their own autonomy by forcing them into carceral treatment is "better."

Plus, I don’t think anyone is saying they have to be involuntarily institutionalized.
People say it all the time and it is policy in many places, and is exactly what this EO does by criminalizing homelessness. Putting someone in prison is an involuntary institutionalization.

kerry-is-my-prez

(10,144 posts)
13. Yes. He dumped them onto the streets in Chicago, etc
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 02:25 AM
Jul 25

With no place to live, no money, no medication, etc. Many of them were seriously ill, people with schizophrenia. They had to put up with the freezing temperatures.

Melon

(792 posts)
43. It was the ACLU that led this in the Supreme Court
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 07:55 PM
Jul 25

Reagan implemented but he did not lead this. The ACLU fought this in court and won which led to closure of federal hospitals.

Beginning in the mid-1970s the ACLU filed a series of lawsuits against mental health hospitals for involuntarily holding patients.

The ACLU's most important Supreme Court case involving the rights of people with mental illness was filed on behalf of Kenneth Donaldson, who had been involuntarily confined in a Florida State Hospital for 15 years. He was not dangerous and had received no medical treatment. In a landmark decision for mental health law in 1975, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that states cannot confine a non-dangerous individual who can survive on his own, or with help from family and friends.


https://www.aclu.org/other/aclu-history-mental-institutions

Bluesaph

(981 posts)
44. First time I agree with Dump
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 08:04 PM
Jul 25

I have had to deal with very mentally ill family members who don’t know they are ill and would not allow themselves to be hospitalized. Two went missing while being homeless. They simply walked away not knowing what they were doing. One is now dead of an overdose. The second we are always expecting to get “that call”. Many family members have tried to help. But they are so sick they don’t think they need help and they don’t follow rules and put others (children in our homes) at risk.

Being able to force them into a hospital and treatment would have probably saved their lives.

leftstreet

(37,363 posts)
3. Or they could just build some fucking housing
Thu Jul 24, 2025, 10:22 PM
Jul 24

There are people in houses and apartments right now who may have substance abuse issues - is he going to round them up too?

Fuck me

LisaL

(47,326 posts)
6. Where are they going to find these hospitals willing to
Thu Jul 24, 2025, 11:03 PM
Jul 24

hospitalize homeless people who presumably don't have medical insurance?

Maru Kitteh

(30,704 posts)
8. So, 19th century asylums but this time it's for PROFIT BABY. Why should prisons
Thu Jul 24, 2025, 11:08 PM
Jul 24

get to make all of the money? Just call them “hospitals” and you can charge taxpayers some real Musk money.


dalton99a

(90,390 posts)
9. +1. The 'hospitals' will be built and run by private prison companies
Thu Jul 24, 2025, 11:15 PM
Jul 24

Could be a bunch of tents in the desert


Initech

(106,395 posts)
11. Another evil AF executive order.
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 12:46 AM
Jul 25

The Heritage Foundation needs to be permanently banned from the White House.

Melon

(792 posts)
12. I support this if it gets mentally ill homeless off the street
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 01:13 AM
Jul 25

Many cities have become scary with mentally ill homeless. New York subway, Las Vegas strip, Denver 16th street. Just examples where I’ve seen violence from mentally ill people. Reagan ended the authorities ability to put people in hospitals.

Melon

(792 posts)
35. Right. But the order allocates federal funding to direct addicts to treatment centers
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 06:04 PM
Jul 25

And federal funding to get violent individuals off the street. This has been a topic for years needing to get done and getting addicts treatments and violent offenders off the streets. Outside of the president, I see nothing to get upset about. Some leader needed to get this done.

electric_blue68

(24,010 posts)
37. It's how it will be done that concerns me...
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 06:48 PM
Jul 25

Last edited Fri Jul 25, 2025, 07:21 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm for violent people being off the streets w or w/o mental illness! (duh)

Now if they genuinely put them in real hospitals...and they're violent - so, rhen what; more security? Drugged up into a harmless stupored haze, a sep wing; I guess that's sort of better.
AND what is really needed are freaking better psychotropics; with minimal side-effects! This is stuff I've read about off & on. (I've always read about a lot of different subjects) Some people won't take them, or stop bc the side effects are so nasty.

Housing with full on-site services whether for MI clients alone, or with co-something (I forgot the term) ie: drugs; is usually the best result for most challenging clients. Maaaaybe the worst need a separate jail sector within a jail/prison- but genuinely good staffing, serious but if at all possible fair protocols, and medications to diminish their aviolent actions. [there by the *grace of God, go you and I, as it is said] *luck, good genes, good circumstances, etc.

I lived on a mostly middle class block in Brooklyn with a dedicated drug-rehab housing. It was women for some years, then men for the next several. Then I moved. Never had a problem.

As for NYC subways. Been riding steadily for about 58 yrs. Haven't been on in a year or so, but planning to go certain places soonish. The stats are are still low crime rates even if some rise.

I'm not scared. I do keep an eye out. Shoot, I was riding the subway F/T in the ?late 80'a or so, when The NY Post "declared" that crime was everywhere(!!!) underground. 😑🙄

I drew a sarcastic illustration w subway riders waiting on a platform, and a bunch of criminals, forearms hands clutching knives reaching for a "take a number" device like in a supermarket deli.
And I was riding late at night, too, at times. No problem. At night you ride in the conductors car. 👍

IzzaNuDay

(1,146 posts)
16. Next level of Alligator Alcatraz
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 08:22 AM
Jul 25

First they came for the immigrants. Now, the homeless. who’s next in line?

peggysue2

(12,187 posts)
22. Exactly!
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 10:50 AM
Jul 25

This is an escalation of clearing out 'undesirables'--first the immigrants, now the homeless, then . . .

We've seen this picture show before and the end point is ugly, inhumane, despicable.

Heidi

(58,834 posts)
23. He's bringing a nation to heel, starting with the "low/hanging fruit."
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 10:52 AM
Jul 25

And by that I mean the most vulnerable.

ananda

(33,303 posts)
17. Isn't he already destroying healthcare access and hospital systems...
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 08:23 AM
Jul 25

in many areas?

So the question is: really?

What hospitals exactly?

Bettie

(18,897 posts)
18. I know plenty of people with
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 08:32 AM
Jul 25

family members with mental health issues...finding services for them, especially inpatient is very difficult, nearly impossible.

The system is already overburdened.

Why do I sense Stephen Miller's hand in this and it won't end with most of these people ever leaving any facility alive.

ananda

(33,303 posts)
19. Also, this would create more homeless people who Trump..
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 10:36 AM
Jul 25

insanely wants to house in hospitals...

Trump and his whole admin are batshit crazy
and homicidal to boot... and also genocidal.

Melon

(792 posts)
36. So getting people into treatment ho need it is a bad thing? This finally allocates federal funding to expand
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 06:06 PM
Jul 25

Mental health facilities. The answer isn’t to leave these people on the street to die or attack others.

Bettie

(18,897 posts)
40. Where are hospitals going to get the space?
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 07:26 PM
Jul 25

Where are hospitals going to get the personnel?

If you trust this administration to make it work, that's great that you have faith in them.

I don't.

I expect this to be a disaster of epic proportion.

Melon

(792 posts)
41. It's not about the admin to me if the alternative
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 07:43 PM
Jul 25

Is to wait another 6 years for something or nothing to happen. This is low hanging fruit every 4 years and we’ve spoken about it here on DU.

Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good. There is plenty of things to criticize in the world right now. Allocating federal funds to get violent homeless or addicted homeless treatment doesn’t seem like one of them to me.

Bettie

(18,897 posts)
45. Like they're only rounding up criminals
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 08:17 PM
Jul 25

in their "immigration" policy? Sure. If you trust it, that's great.

I don't and neither of us has the power to stop it or make it happen, so it's academic until we see how it is done.

I expect that the people will never be seen or heard from again, once they are removed from society.

Some people think that is a good thing, I don't.

Melon

(792 posts)
46. That can happen. It happened back when we had mental hospitals.
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 08:27 PM
Jul 25

But to be clear, there are people on our streets that are flat out dangerous. All of the homeless are not sweet and down in their luck. Was it last year a lady was lit on fire in a subway? Some people need to be locked away for our protection. We’ll see how it goes, but it’s not good now.

MineralMan

(149,795 posts)
20. What facilities are they planning to use?
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 10:38 AM
Jul 25

There aren't any today. There is also nobody to staff such facilities. We shut down all facilities of that type long ago.

So, this is an idea that can go nowhere.

travelingthrulife

(3,344 posts)
21. These people are simply incapable of connecting dots.
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 10:39 AM
Jul 25

I expect the 'hospital' will look just like the concentration camp tents.

Heidi

(58,834 posts)
24. By "hospitals," he no doubt means warehouses run by contractors.
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 10:57 AM
Jul 25

The “patients” (i.e. prisoners) won’t get “better” or enjoy improved health, but “out of sight, out of mind,” right?

Passages

(3,633 posts)
25. If he gets his way, I hope people understand this will include innocent kids.
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 11:00 AM
Jul 25

I despise this man more than I can say.

obamanut2012

(28,842 posts)
28. And aslo Democrats, LGBT+, whoever they say is mentally ill
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 11:12 AM
Jul 25

Reread the EO. Look for the "ors."

multigraincracker

(36,337 posts)
30. Has any other country solved this problem.
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 11:14 AM
Jul 25

We had large state hospitals that failed and were emptied and left to rot. Going to do it all again with the same results?
So, my question is, is there a model that works that we can copy?

WhiskeyGrinder

(25,729 posts)
32. Finland has made a good deal of progress with its housing first approach, and housing first combined with wraparound
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 02:11 PM
Jul 25

tailored support services is generally seen as the gold standard for ending homelessness for the mentally ill or addicted.

Melon

(792 posts)
42. Greece closed their mental hospitals and the result
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 07:46 PM
Jul 25

Is what we deal with in cities like San Fran. There needs to be a balance, but authorities need the ability to check mentally ill people into centers and get them off the streets.

EndlessWire

(8,103 posts)
38. Isn't Trump the guy
Fri Jul 25, 2025, 07:01 PM
Jul 25

who wanted them cleared from DC because he didn't want to have to look at them? I don't see any charity in this, although they would have to at least feed them. This is going to backfire on the Orange Pedophile, for sure.

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