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As part of his effort to “Make America Safe Again,” President Donald Trump signed an executive order to allow cities and states to remove homeless people off the streets and into treatment centers.
Trump signed the order, “Ending Vagrancy and Restoring,” Thursday afternoon.
The order states that the “number of individuals living on the streets in the United States on a single night during the last year of the Biden administration — 274,224 — was the highest ever recorded.”
It directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “reverse judicial precedents and end consent decrees” stopping or limiting cities and states from removing homeless individuals from the streets and moving them to treatment centers.
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Though it is unclear how much money will be allocated to the effort, Trump’s order redirects federal funds to ensure that removed homeless individuals are sent to rehabilitation, treatment and other facilities.
Additionally, the order requires Bondi to partner with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to prioritize federal grants to 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.
The order also stipulates that discretionary grants for substance-use disorder prevention, treatment and recovery programs “do not fund drug injection sites or illicit drug use.”
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Homelessness increased in the U.S. by 18% from 2023 to 2024, according to Housing and Urban Development’s annual homelessness assessment report released in January.
Trump has previously vowed to clean up American cities, especially the nation’s capital of Washington.
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Speaking in March, Trump 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.”
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