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President Donald Trump wants cities and states to force homeless people with mental illness and addiction into treatment facilities. To make that happen, he signed an executive order this summer directing federal agencies to dramatically shift how they fund programs for homeless people.
It’s a policy change that upends the approach New York has taken to housing homeless people for years: offering stable housing without requiring people to meet sobriety rules or agree to mental health treatment first.
New York City providers say this policy, known as housing first, has succeeded. They say it’s the reason the city effectively ended chronic homelessness among veterans and has kept thousands of formerly homeless people off the streets. But homeless advocates worry that if they persist with housing first policies, they’ll lose much needed federal dollars for their programs.
Here’s what we know about Trump’s executive order and how it will affect New York City.
What does the executive order say?
In the executive order issued in late July, Trump said he wanted to “restore public order” by committing more homeless people with mental illness or substance use disorder to treatment against their will. He would make getting treatment a condition for getting housing.
The order ends federal support for housing first policies.
How has housing first worked in NYC?
Trump said it hasn't worked to solve homelessness. But experts say it’s been effective.
Fred Shack, CEO of Urban Pathways, a nonprofit serving homeless New Yorkers, said he remembers when the city conditioned housing on substance abuse treatment or required people to adhere to medication plans or job training to get them ready for housing.
“ What we learned was that it was ineffective for those individuals who weren't able to comply with those rigid expectations and honestly, the results of all of those upfront services didn't do anything to extend their ability to maintain their permanent housing,” Shack said.
He said when you take care of a person’s need for survival by giving them a safe place to sleep, they can start thinking about their other needs.
Dave Giffen, executive director of Coalition for the Homeless, said a housing first approach worked to end chronic veteran homelessness 10 years ago.
“ It moved homeless vets into permanent housing and then provided them with the mental health care and other services that they needed, and it worked,” he said. “ Chronic homelessness among vets is functionally zero in New York.”
The Adams administration said it’s also housed more than 3,500 homeless people since 2022 using this approach, by moving street-homeless people into facilities that come with fewer rules than traditional shelters, like strict curfews, and then moving into permanent housing.
Supportive housing programs, which offer permanent housing to homeless people and those with mental illness or substance abuse disorder, have also ballooned across the city and state. Providers offer people housing and then voluntary services around additional treatment, medication or counseling.
“Housing is the first ingredient needed to stabilize someone's life after homelessness,” said Rebecca Zengan, chief policy officer at the Supportive Housing Network of New York. “Once you have that housing, then you need access to robust services that are tailored to your needs.”
Shack said the reason housing first hasn’t ended all homelessness is because there hasn’t been enough funding for it.
“The model is only as good as the resources that are committed to it,” he said.
How will the policy shift affect New York City?
It’s still unclear and too early to tell.
The order explicitly directs agencies to deprioritize funding for states that do not comply. Experts say it could also result in fewer federal dollars even if states and cities fund these programs on their own.
New York City has strong protections for homeless people, and a unique right to shelter law that guarantees anyone a shelter bed who asks for it. That’s why most homeless New Yorkers — nearly 97% — reside in a shelter, unlike other major cities. But homeless advocates, city officials and housing experts worry Trump’s new policy vision will cut against decades of progress and threaten to increase street homelessness and push more people into jails and hospitals without getting them the stability they need.
”It is a very blunt, one-size-fits all tool that really doesn't take into account some of the nuances, the very complex challenges that it's trying to solve. Bottom line, this [executive order] is going to create barriers on connecting people to permanent housing,” said Molly Wasow Park, commissioner of the New York City Department of Homeless Services.
”None of this has really hit yet, but it does make me very, very anxious,” Park added.
On the other hand, experts on homelessness say Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul already follow some of the approaches listed in the order though it’s not clear how that will affect funding.
The executive order wants to fund programs that remove homeless people from the street, clear encampments and involuntarily commit more people to hospitals or institutions, not only if they pose a danger to themselves or others but if they’re unable to care for themselves.
That lines up with the change to state law Adams and Hochul advocated for this year to make it easier to transport a person to the hospital for mental health treatment against their will. Adams also said this month he would push for state law changes to mandate treatment for people with substance abuse disorders.
The city also already removes homeless encampments from public spaces and does not tolerate physical structures such as cardboard boxes or tents that encroach on sidewalks or jeopardize people’s health and safety.
But the executive order also wants states to prohibit loitering and urban camping. While other municipalities have criminalized sleeping outside, New York City has not.
What other programs could be at risk under the executive order?
The executive order proposed ending funding for harm reduction or safe consumption programs that aim to prevent overdose deaths.
Last year, 17% fewer homeless New Yorkers living in shelters died of drug-related causes, with city officials citing its implementation of harm reduction programs and equipping shelters with fentanyl testing strips, naloxone kits and trained staff.
”If there's less funding to support drug users, there will be more open drug use and open drug use is illegal and so there will be more arrests,” said Deborah Berkman, director of shelter and economic stability at the New York Legal Assistance Group, a legal services nonprofit.