(The Center Square) — San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond on Friday applauded the Trump administration’s executive order addressing the national homelessness crisis.
President Donald Trump signed the order Thursday, calling on state and local governments to end the “endemic vagrancy” that has taken root in the country. Designed to “protect public safety,” the order encourages states and cities to remove homeless individuals off the streets and into treatment centers, and provides assistance to state and local governments who want federal help.
The order came a day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced homelessness in local communities is decreasing.
“Im ecstatic,” Desmond told Rapid Response 47, an X account launched by Trump, Friday morning about the executive order. “Finally we’re going to get to the root causes of homelessness.”
The order says the federal government and the states have been spending money on “failed” programs that address homelessness but not the main causes of homelessness.
“The number of individuals living on the streets in the United States on a single night during the last year of the previous administration — 274,224 — was the highest ever recorded,” the order states. “The overwhelming majority of these individuals are addicted to drugs, have a mental health condition, or both.”
Therefore, the Trump administration decided to take a new approach.
The order redirects federal funding toward projects that move homeless individuals, including drug addicts and those suffering from mental illness, “into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment.”
The order requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to reverse “judicial precedents” and terminate “consent decrees” to allow states and cities to remove homeless individuals, including drug addicts and those suffering from mental illness, off the streets and into treatment centers. Under the order, Bondi will act in consultation with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Desmond supports giving states and cities the authority to remove individuals off the streets, saying on his website it’s more inhumane to keep people on the streets than to force them off the streets.
Desmond told The Center Square Friday that California’s policies have “failed” to get drug addicts and those suffering from mental illness off the streets. He said he supports Trump’s order.
“For too long, California’s failed policies have allowed lawlessness to spread while those battling mental illness or addiction are left to suffer and die on our streets,” Desmond said. “That is not compassion. Real compassion means getting people off the sidewalks, into treatment, and on a path to recovery and dignity. This executive order finally takes meaningful action to make that happen.”
Desmond’s comments came after Newsom celebrated California’s decrease in homelessness in local communities in a press release Wednesday, mentioning his contribution in improving mental health services.
The Trump administration’s executive order requires Bondi and Kennedy to provide assistance to states and cities seeking federal help with relocating homeless individuals off the streets “through technical guidance, grants, or other legally available means.”
Not all states and cities seeking help are eligible to receive grants, however. Bondi, Kennedy, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy are prioritizing federal grants to states and cities who:
• Enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use.
• Enforce prohibitions on urban camping and loitering.
• Enforce prohibition on urban squatting.
• Enforce standards on relocating homeless individuals, including drug addicts and those suffering from mental illness, to treatment centers or other necessary facilities.
• Implement and comply with the obligations of the Sex Offender Registry and Notification Act.
The order also specifies grants do not fund programs that operate drug injection sites and permit illicit drug use or distribution.
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Desmond told Rapid Response 47 he hopes California will ask for help from the federal government and will comply with the necessary standards.
“I am hopeful the state of California and the governor will say, ‘Hey, we will take your help, Federal Government, ” Desmond said. “‘We will take your dollars, we will build mental health facilities, we will put in the right treatment centers, and we will change from a housing first [policy] to treatment and care [policy].’”
