Trump Orders a Federal Push to Civilly Commit Homeless People With Mental Illness

On July 24, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order titled "Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets." It directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to seek reversal of court precedents and termination of consent decrees that limit civil commitment, and instructs agencies to expand involuntary institutional treatment of homeless people with mental illness or substance-use disorders. The order states that "shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order." It also steers grant money away from Housing First and harm-reduction approaches toward treatment mandates and encampment clearance.

The order asks executive agencies to undo judicial rulings and negotiated consent decrees, and targets a body of law - notably O'Connor v. Donaldson (1975), holding a state cannot confine a non-dangerous person capable of surviving safely in freedom - that limits involuntary confinement. Civil commitment is also primarily state law, constraining what a federal directive can do alone.

The ACLU said the order would criminalize homelessness and defund programs with demonstrated results; a coalition including the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and the National Disability Rights Network said it would upend decades of precedent against arbitrary confinement.