On July 24, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.”
“Endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks have made our cities unsafe,” the order states, citing rising rates of homelessness and tying the issue to mental health and substance use disorders.
The executive order proposes to address homelessness and associated “public safety threats” by loosening the regulations around civil commitment, a legal process by which an individual is committed to an institution or outpatient treatment against their wishes.
At the same time, it defunds harm reduction and “housing first” programs, which prioritize permanent housing, and puts funds into law enforcement and increasing institutional capacity so that “detainees with serious mental illness are not released into the public because of a lack of forensic bed capacity at appropriate local, State, and Federal jails or hospitals.”
“Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order,” it states. “Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens. My Administration will take a new approach focused on protecting public safety.”
The order does not specifically define the standard by which a person may be civilly committed, where a person who has been civilly committed may be placed, the level of care they are to receive, or commit funding to such programs.
Regulation of civil commitment has largely been left to states and remains legally ambiguous according to Congress.gov.
“Whether and to what extent an indigent person facing civil commitment has a right to counsel, a right to an independent expert to testify on his or her behalf, or a right to a jury trial are all unsettled areas of law,” the congressional website says in a piece titled “Involuntary Civil Commitment: Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Protections.” “While many states protect these rights, the Supreme Court has never ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees any of these protections.”
In addition to due process, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlines birthright citizenship – the subject of an earlier executive order by Trump which aims to exclude from citizenship children born to parents who are in the U.S. without legal status or on temporary visas. That executive order is currently being challenged in the courts, and could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court recently ruled that cities can enforce laws against public camping, even when there is inadequate shelter space in the area. This decision overturned a lower court ruling that held such enforcement to be a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Local leaders’ reactions
State Sen. Marc Snyder (D-Manitou Springs) called the order “a mixed bag,” agreeing that there has been “a significant increase in the unhoused population, many suffering from mental health and substance abuse disorders,” but noting the lack of federal funding guarantees for the facilities and services that wil be needed to make this program successful, or clear standards for involuntary commitment.
“We have a first-rate medical system and our hospitals and other treatment facilities, inpatient and outpatient, are eager to collaborate with community partners to address this growing crisis,” he said. “But they cannot, will not and should not participate without compensation.”
“An unfunded mandate that expects state and local governments to foot the bill, especially here in Colorado where we’re already facing over a $1 billion budget crisis resulting from recent federal legislation, is a pipe dream,” Snyder said.
He said he supports making civil commitment easier, if done correctly.
“I support the loosening of regulations around civil commitment as long as it is done in a thoughtful, compassionate and targeted way. Too many people in the unhoused population simply lack the capacity to make these decisions for themselves. For these people, a recovery program that starts with a civil commitment may be their only meaningful option,” he said, adding, “Just removing this population from the streets and incarcerating them in jails and mental health facilities is not a serious solution and is likely to make the problem worse. To be truly successful we must address the underlying issues that cause people to become unhoused.”
Snyder said that, while “there is legitimate debate over the efficacy” of housing first and harm reduction programs, “the evidence is clear that they lead to more successful outcomes.”
“Defunding harm reduction and housing first programs completely is a mistake,” he said. “We must use all of the tools available to properly address this crisis.”
Snyder said that if done incorrectly, expanding civil commitment could cause harm.
“This order is extremely vague and does not provide a standard for which people may be civilly committed or guidelines for how, how long, where and what level of care such people are to receive,” he said. “To simply get people off the streets in an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ philosophy is shameful.”
“Unfortunately, as we’ve seen with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement program, expanded use of civil commitment is ripe for abuse without the right safeguards,” he said.
Beth Roalstad, the chief executive director of Homeward Pikes Peak, a Colorado Springs nonprofit providing housing with supportive services and treatment programs, said her agency will continue to be “a referral source for justice-involved people for sober living/transitional housing, when that is a choice by their will and agreed upon by the courts” and continue to conduct street outreach to “engage with individuals who are experiencing homelessness and provide compassion, resources, and begin the process to help them identify the appropriate housing resource for each person.” She said the decision to engage in services is voluntary.
“I am concerned that individual civil rights may be impacted by the executive order,” Roalstad said. “We currently have processes in place that our police and Adult Protective Services can use when a person is a harm to themselves or others. We need to rely on the systems we have in place and actually focus on expanding treatment and housing options in our community.”
Members of the Colorado Springs Homeless Union expressed many of the same sentiments as Snyder and Roalstad – essentially, that there are some persons who may need civil commitment to obtain crucial help, but the potential for civil rights abuses is worrisome, and they don’t want to see helpful programs defunded.
Don Briggs, a Union member who is currently unhoused, said he doesn’t have mental health or substance use issues. He questioned the executive order’s focus on addressing homelessness through civil commitment to treat mental health and substance use disorders.
Is the problem people with mental illness and substance use disorders? Briggs asked. “Or is the problem that there’s a bunch of people who don’t have housing?”
