SACRAMENTO, Calif. — President Trump is vowing a new approach to getting
homeless people off the streets by forcibly moving those living outside into large camps while mandating mental health and addiction treatment — an aggressive departure from the nation's leading homelessness policy, which for decades has prioritized housing as the most effective way to combat the crisis.
"Our once-great cities have become unlivable, unsanitary nightmares," Mr. Trump said in a
presidential campaign video. "For those who are severely mentally ill and deeply disturbed, we will bring them to mental institutions, where they belong, with the goal of reintegrating them back into society once they are well enough to manage."
Now that he's in office, the assault on "
Housing First" has begun.
White House officials haven't announced a formal policy but are opening the door to a treatment-first agenda, while engineering a major overhaul of the housing and social service programs that form the backbone of the homelessness response system that cities and counties across the nation depend on. Nearly
$4 billion was earmarked last year alone. But now, Scott Turner, who heads Mr. Trump's Department of Housing and Urban Development — the agency responsible for administering housing and homelessness funding — has outlined massive
funding cuts and called for a
review of taxpayer spending.
"Thanks to President Trump's leadership, we are no longer in a business-as-usual posture and the DOGE task force will play a critical role in helping to identify and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse and ultimately better serve the American people,"
Turner said in a statement.
