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Trump called for local officials to civilly commit more unhoused people and signaled a turn away from “Housing First” policies.
When at least two tents went up in the middle of Davis Square’s main plaza in Somerville, some residents immediately called for their removal.
“Don’t let a tent city form in our most enjoyable downtown,” one Reddit user asked of Mayor Katjana Ballantyne. “Encampments spiral speedy,” another warned.
While the city “used a supportive approach” to move the structures shortly after, the mayor’s office said, one of President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders immediately makes it much easier for cities across the country to act if they so choose.
In an order issued July 24, Trump called for local leaders to commit unhoused people to “long-term institutional settings” to “restore public order” and to remove encampments. In Massachusetts, people can be involuntarily civilly committed for substance use or mental health concerns, per state law.
Joyce Tavon, the CEO of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, said the order was disturbing, but not a surprising move from the administration.
“This is a policy message. It’s not yet the full picture of what comes next,” she said. “What we are seeing that is concerning is this punitive response in the message from the federal government at the very same time that they are cutting resources.”
The order instructs the federal government to prioritize funds for cities and states that crack down on “open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering, and urban squatting.”
“President Trump is taking a new approach focused on protecting public safety because surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor to other citizens,” the order’s fact sheet said.
Trump also wants states and municipalities to not fund any “drug injection sites or illicit drug use,” referring to safe injection sites. The first state-sanctioned site opened in Rhode Island last year, and the state Department of Public Health released a report last year calling them “feasible and necessary” in Massachusetts.
While there are no safe injection sites in Massachusetts, local advocates continue to push for those sites to prevent overdose deaths. The new U.S. attorney for Massachusetts shut down the idea in April. Prosecutor Leah Foley, a Trump appointee, called them “categorically illegal.”
Cities make arrests, clear encampments
Fall River police arrested 38 people at the city’s Quequechan River Rail Trail on Aug. 5 after hundreds of 911 reports, including for sexual assaults, overdoses, and assaults, the department said.
“Unfortunately, despite years of outreach, support services, and intervention from advocates and social workers, the conditions have only worsened,” police said on Facebook. “Outreach workers have been threatened with weapons and driven away, and every individual encamped along the trail has declined repeated offers of housing, rehabilitation, and assistance.”
A spokesperson for Fall River said Trump’s executive order “did not have anything to do with Fall River’s actions.”
In Boston, 13 people were arrested as part of a human trafficking bust in the area known as Mass. and Cass. Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn wants the situation there to be declared a public health and safety emergency, and while Mayor Michelle Wu’s administration has previously cleared tents from the area, neighbors say the area is still a problem.
‘Housing First’ policies under attack
Trump is also signaling the end of “Housing First” policies, which advocates say give unhoused people a bed before getting a job or attending to substance use issues. The Trump administration says those policies “deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency.”
“Housing First is an approach that has been around immediately for 25 years. Lots and lots of data shows this is an approach that works,” Tavon said. “The vast majority of people who are homeless, meaning without a home. What they need is a home.”
Housing First is “central” to the City of Boston’s approach to ending homelessness, according to its website. While the executive order indicates federal funds would be siphoned away from communities like Boston, Wu sued the Trump administration earlier this year to protect Housing First policies.
Wu’s office did not return repeated requests for comment regarding any potential changes to such policies in light of the executive order.
The city’s lawsuit came after Trump moved in May to cancel the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care program, which is the largest source of federal funding to address homelessness.
Tavon said CoC mostly subsidizes supportive housing and characterized the new order as a continuation of those types of cuts.
“I fear that without resources, we’re going to just get more of these camping bans,” she said. “Ideally, I would like to see a more cohesive, comprehensive kind of effort by the state that helps support all our cities and towns so we don’t have that reaction.”
When asked, the City of Somerville didn’t comment on the new order, but noted that “a comprehensive approach is key.”
“Our aim is to address both immediate public space concerns and root causes,” Ballantyne said in a statement, “ensuring all residents receive the support, dignity, and safe public spaces they deserve.”
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