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President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order permitting cities and states to remove homeless individuals from public streets and place them in treatment centers, as part of his broader initiative to “Make America Safe Again.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump is “delivering on his commitment to Make America Safe Again,” according to reports.
The order, titled Ending Vagrancy and Restoring, was signed Thursday and cites a record-high 274,224 people living on the streets on a single night during the last year of the Biden administration.
It directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “reverse judicial precedents and end consent decrees” that currently limit or prohibit city and state efforts to relocate homeless individuals into treatment facilities.
While the financial specifics of the initiative remain unclear, the order redirects federal funds to ensure the homeless are sent to rehabilitation, treatment, and related facilities.
The order also tasks Bondi with working alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Together, they are to prioritize federal grants for cities and states that “enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering, and urban squatting, and track the location of sex offenders,” according to USA Today.
Additionally, the directive specifies that discretionary grants for substance-use disorder prevention and treatment “do not fund drug injection sites or illicit drug use.”
The Housing and Urban Development Department’s annual assessment, released in January, reported an 18% increase in homelessness from 2023 to 2024.
Trump has repeatedly pledged to clean up America’s cities, especially Washington, D.C. Speaking in March, he said, “We’re going to have a crime-free capital. When people come here, they’re not going to be mugged or shot or raped. They’re going to have a crime-free capital again. It’s going to be cleaner and better and safer than it ever was. And it’s not going to take us too long.”
