FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 4th, 2025

The Center for Independent Living Condemns Federal Executive Order to Institutionalize and Criminalize Homelessness and Disability

Berkeley, CA — The Center for Independent Living (CIL) vehemently opposes the July 24 Executive Order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” that revives and expands harmful policies of mass institutionalization, forced treatment, and criminalization of homelessness under the guise of public safety. This order is a direct assault on the civil rights, bodily autonomy, and dignity of people experiencing homelessness— especially those with mental health disabilities and substance use disorders/people who use drugs. The Center for Independent Living was born out of the Independent Living Movement and is founded on the belief that disabled people belong in their communities, not in institutions. We remain steadfast in defending that belief.

This Executive Order is not about compassion; it is about control, and about disappearing our communities. It punishes people for the failure of our government to provide what they need and have a right to, including mental health, medical care, housing, and community care. The sweeping order misuses and manipulates language like ‘safety’ and ‘care’ to justify harmful actions like forcing people into treatment, displacing people living in encampments, and cutting off funding for life-saving harm reduction programs. This order removes funding for community programs that provide care and it creates a profound lack of safety for the individuals, families and communities who rely on them.  

It feels like a step backward to a time when disabled people were institutionalized en masse and treated as if our lives didn’t matter.  We know that, even prior to this Executive Order, people with disabilities have been disproportionately imprisoned. Our communities deserve real support, not control or punishment.

Framing homelessness as a threat to “public order” is both cruel and dishonest, and the very idea of “public order” is grounded in discrimination based on disability, race and class.  This Executive Order treats people with mental health disabilities and substance use disorders not as individuals with rights and needs, but as social problems to be removed, surveilled, and imprisoned. It equates disability with criminality, substance use with moral failure, and poverty with unfitness. This is a textbook example of structural violence.

We oppose conditions outlined in this Executive Order that would tie housing assistance to mandatory treatment and data-sharing with law enforcement. These measures do not address homelessness—they expand the prison system and impoverish community care. Evidence shows what actually works: housing first models, peer-led mental health support, voluntary harm reduction programs, and robust community-based services. These are rooted in trust, respect, and self-determination. Forcibly committing people against their will, dismantling programs that reduce overdose deaths, and cutting off funds to providers who prioritize dignity over punishment will only deepen suffering.

The Trump Administration’s Executive Order also attempts to revive fear-based, false tropes by linking homelessness to sex offenses and public danger. Such rhetoric is incorrect, scapegoats the most multiply-marginalized among us, and fuels stigma, not safety.

We urge Independent Living Centers nationwide, as well as local, state, and national leaders, to reject this inhumane and regressive policy. Instead,  fight for and invest in housing, healthcare, and support systems that affirm the rights and humanity of all people—including those who live with disabilities, who are unhoused, and who use substances.

To learn more, please read the press release from our partners at Disability Rights California, and from the National Homelessness Law Center. Please also see the “Community Care, Not Coercion” resource from the Institute for the Development of Human Arts. 

CIL will rise in this fight alongside our community partners, cross-disability communities, and unhoused neighbors. 

Contact:
The Center for Independent Living
ciladvocacy@thecil.org
(510) 841-4776

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