Trump’s Executive order to get people off the streets – and why it matters to the UK.

(5 minute read)

Key Takeaways

1)   The hardline conservative push for homeless people to be arrested or forcibly institutionalised off the streets has been strengthened in the USA by an Executive Order.

2)   We in the UK should be worried; the think tanks that are pushing for criminalisation – and their donors - are also active in UK politics.

3)    The policy push is accompanied by well-orchestrated information disorder online which paints homeless people as violent criminals, whereas people who are homeless are much more likely to be victims of violent crime

4)    These structural problems are serious and should be challenged through a blend of strategic litigation, education on homelessness and creating social connection, all of which Museum of Homelessness is committed to doing.

An order that won’t work

On July 24th Donald Trump signed an Executive Order which aims to clear people who are homeless off the streets of America through enforcement, including forcibly committing people to psychiatric institutions. According to the order, ‘shifting these individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment is the most proven way to restore public order.’  

This order was no surprise. For the last few years, we at Museum of Homelessness have been tracking the increased tendency towards punitive crack downs on street homelessness. It should go without saying, but we’d like to remind readers that criminalisation doesn’t work as a solution to homelessness. It especially doesn’t work to solve the mass scale homelessness we are seeing across many Western democracies.

The current crisis is driven by inequality and lack of affordable housing supply. The idea that we can lock people up to solve it is driven by bodies such as the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Think Tank which wrote Project 2025, the architecture underlying the Trump administration’s policies.

Creating the conditions to remove homeless people’s rights

But it takes more than policy work to create the conditions where this is possible. Speaking out consistently on this is Mark Horvath of Invisible People. Mark told us “Trump’s executive order didn’t come out of nowhere. It’s the result of nonstop click-chasing media, frustrated citizens, and well-funded propaganda pushing the same harmful myths again and again.”

The threat to people who are homeless in the UK

Here in the UK, we should be taking action on this now. We are already seeing increased criminalisation of people experiencing homelessness through legislation such as the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2021. The Crime and Policing Act 2014 ushered in powers such as PSPOs which have already been disproportionately used to target homeless people.

There was widespread applause for the government for promising to repeal the Vagrancy Act and honestly, who wouldn’t support that? We have a Parliamentary review in our collection from 1951 that shows politicians and civil servants of all stripes knew the Vagrancy Act needed axing then.

The problem is not the Vagrancy Act

However, creeping in largely unchallenged is the use of these other, newer powers to arrest, fine and move on people who are homeless, and the picture is grim. The Government has already announced its plan to fill in the gaps left by the Vagrancy act with its new Crime and Policing Bill and it isn’t looking good. In our work to monitor the deaths of people experiencing homelessness we have tracked the terrible impact of the existing powers, which can further isolate people and lead to preventable deaths.

A grim outlook

We have a lot to be concerned about. If we do have a Reform win here in the UK in 2029, we can look to the USA today for what may happen. Whilst street homelessness in North America is undoubtedly more extreme, homelessness of all kinds here in the UK is at a record high. Disinformation which drives messages of scarcity is rife. Co-ordinated far right campaigns are working on public opinion, in exactly the way Mark Horvath describes. The grassroots focus at the moment in the UK is people seeking asylum, with further attacks on asylum accommodation over the last week. Make no mistake, this is inherently linked to the campaigns on the ground and at policy level that are targeting street homeless people in America.

These organising and information channels are part of a broader push to divide society and to criminalise and dehumanise a broad range of people; people who are homeless and people who are seeking asylum. We see echoes of Trump’s Executive Order in our work every day. The person living in a tent who was arrested in Finsbury Park last week, the new bin store callously installed over the site where a woman in an encampment at UCLH and the loss of our friend Joseph Black, who last week it was proven was failed by services when he most needed help.

What we can do about it

For all those we have lost and for the community who are still with us, we will continue to challenge this by:

·       Investigating and campaigning on criminalisation of homelessness.

·       Working in solidarity with other grassroots groups, charities and legal allies to challenge the removal of rights we are seeing.

·       Running a physical site where people can connect and understand each other, countering the widespread disinformation that is corroding public opinion.

As we do this, we are building community power now. Our formula for building this power is developing networks, resources, knowledge and effective messaging. These thinktanks and campaigns are extremely well funded and it’s a David and Goliath situation. If you can spare some money to help us please do so here. If you are in the states and can support the work of Invisible People please do so here. If you do already support us, thank you very much.

Thank you for being alongside us. And please tell all your friends about these orchestrated campaigns to push society’s woes onto people who are already suffering.