🚨 PSA: Trump’s New Executive Order Doesn’t Technically Make Homelessness Illegal, But Here’s Why It Feels Like It Does
I just spent time breaking down the July 24, 2025 Executive Order titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” from the White House website, and I’m deeply disturbed.
Let’s talk about what it actually does, what it pretends not to do, and why it feels like punishment for being poor.
🔍 TL;DR:
Being homeless is not made explicitly illegal.
But the EO strongly encourages cities and states to remove homeless people from public spaces, or lose federal funding.
It pushes for involuntary treatment (civil commitment) and cuts housing-first programs proven to reduce homelessness.
If you're poor, sleeping outside, or suspected of mental illness, you can be detained, institutionalized, and denied a say in the matter.
All of this is done without passing a new law, just via executive power and a recent Supreme Court ruling that green-lit criminalizing public camping.
🧠 What does the Executive Order actually do?
Directs federal agencies to cut support for “Housing First” (programs that give people housing without preconditions like sobriety or job status).
Instead funds cities and states that:
Enforce public camping bans, loitering laws, or “vagrancy” ordinances.
Promote civil commitment, i.e., forced institutionalization for people judged to have mental illness or substance issues.
Encourages policies that push people into treatment or jail even if they aren’t committing any crime, just for being poor, unsheltered, or visibly distressed.
⚖️ Isn’t that unconstitutional?
You’d think so. But here’s what changed:
🧑⚖️ Supreme Court: City of Grants Pass v. Johnson (June 2024)
Ruled that cities can ban camping in public, even if no shelter is available.
As long as they target actions (like sleeping outside) and not status (being homeless), it’s now legal.
This overturned years of protections for the homeless.
So now, local laws can fine, arrest, or displace people just for existing in public with no alternatives.
🧱 What is “civil commitment”?
It’s when someone is:
Detained and sent to a mental health or addiction facility without consent.
Based on someone else (like police or a social worker) saying they can’t care for themselves.
Often has no trial, limited rights, and no clear release timeline.
This EO incentivizes states to do this to homeless people rather than offering housing or community care.
🩻 But what are these “programs” like?
That’s the scary part, we don’t know yet.
There are no federal standards, no promised oversight, and no guarantees of humane conditions. It echoes the failed institutional systems of the 1900s: warehousing the mentally ill, abuse, neglect, and permanent confinement.
💬 Why this feels like cruel and unusual punishment:
You can be detained for merely existing in public while poor.
Your mental state can be judged on the street, and you can be taken against your will.
You may have no voice, no trial, no exit plan.
The government calls it help — but it’s closer to punishment for not having money, housing, or access to healthcare.
🛑 But how is this even legal?
Because:
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Executive orders don't require Congress, they direct federal agencies on how to spend money or enforce rules.
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The courts have upheld broad use of executive power.
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This EO doesn’t create a new law, it just redirects federal dollars to cities that punish homelessness.
It’s legal, but it’s not ethical. And it’s starting to look more like decrees than democratic governance.
🧭 So what now?
Know your rights, and help others do the same.
Support legal challenges from ACLU, National Homelessness Law Center, and others.
Contact your representatives to push back on this abuse of executive power.
Raise awareness, because many people still don’t realize what’s happening here.
This isn’t about public safety. It’s about disappearing the poor from view, by force, without consent, and without care.
🔗 Link to the Executive Order down 👇
link 🔗
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/07/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-takes-action-to-end-crime-and-disorder-on-americas-streets/
Let’s not stay silent about this. It sets a terrifying preceden
🇺🇸 Bill of Rights – Pocket Summary
- Free Speech & Religion – Speak, worship, press, assemble, protest.
- Guns – Right to bear arms.
- No Quartering – No forced housing of soldiers.
- Searches – No searches without a warrant.
- Remain Silent – No self-incrimination, double jeopardy, or unfair taking.
- Speedy Trial – Fast, fair trial with a lawyer and witnesses.
- Jury in Civil Cases – Right to jury in money/property disputes.
- No Cruel Punishment – No torture, no extreme bail/fines.
- People’s Rights – You have more rights than what’s listed here.
- States’ Rights – Powers not given to the feds belong to states/people.
Originally Posted By u/360Picture At 2025-07-24 09:39:07 PM | Source
