July 25, 2025

The Executive Order (discussed below) was issued by President Trump yesterday (July 24).  It pertains to unhoused Americans, substance use disorders, mental health and more,  In my opinion it pressures states and cities to remove encampments, place individuals in treatment centers, and further criminalize homelessness. As such it promotes institutionalization of homeless individuals deemed unable to care for themselves, prioritizes public safety over housing-first models, and seeks to end federal support for programs that allow drug use or fail to show treatment results. It also calls for data-sharing with law enforcement, restricts housing for sex offenders, and pushes for increased accountability in federally funded homelessness programs.  

Here’s a link to the Executive Order issued yesterday:  

https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/07/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-takes-action-to-end-crime-and-disorder-on-americas-streets/

And here is a so-called ‘Fact Sheet’ the Administration is broadly circulating:

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Takes Action to End Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets

The White House, 7/24

ENDING VAGRANCY AND RESTORING ORDER: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to restore order to American cities and remove vagrant individuals from our streets, redirecting federal resources toward programs that tackle substance abuse and returning to the acute necessity of civil commitment.

• The Order directs the Attorney General to reverse judicial precedents and end consent decrees that limit State and local governments’ ability to commit individuals on the streets who are a risk to themselves or others.  
• The Order requires the Attorney General to work with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the Secretary of Transportation to prioritize grants for states and municipalities that enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering, and urban squatting, and track the location of sex offenders.
• The Order redirects funding to ensure that individuals camping on streets and causing public disorder and that are suffering from serious mental illness or addiction are moved into treatment centers, assisted outpatient treatment, or other facilities.
• The Order ensures discretionary grants for substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery do not fund drug injection sites or illicit drug use.
• The Order stops sex offenders who receive homelessness assistance from being housed with children, and allows programs to exclusively house women and children.

ENSURING AMERICANS FEEL SAFE IN THEIR OWN CITIES AND TOWNS: 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 number of individuals living on the streets in the United States on a single night during the last year of the Biden administration—274,224 —was the highest ever recorded.
• The overwhelming majority of these individuals are addicted to drugs, have a mental health disorder, or both.
• Federal and state governments have spent tens of billions of dollars on failed programs that address homelessness but not its root causes, leaving other citizens vulnerable to public safety threats.
• Shifting these individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment is the most proven way to restore public order. 

MAKING AMERICA SAFE AGAIN: President Trump is committed to ending homelessness across America. 

• In 2023, President Trump said: “We will use every tool, lever, and authority to get the homeless off our streets. We want to take care of them, but they have to be off our streets.”
• In March 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order to beautify Washington D.C., directing the National Park Service to clear all homeless encampments and graffiti on Federal lands.
• In May 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order establishing the National Center for Warrior Independence, a place where homeless veterans can go to receive the care, benefits, and services to which they are entitled.
• As part of First Lady Melania Trump’s BE BEST Initiative, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a $1.8 million dollar investment to prevent homelessness among young Americans aging out of the foster care system.

Obviously the potential impacts of this new Order have very serious implications.  Here’s a brief set of bullets re: how it could impact NYS Council nonprofit member agencies and the individuals you serve if not paused by litigation:

• Dept. of Health and Human Services cuts: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration could no longer fund “harm reduction” or “safe consumption” programs.

• Dept. of Housing and Urban Development: Grantees would face more requirements to show they reduce homelessness and increase public safety, and increased scrutiny for those operating safe consumption sites.

• It would end the “housing first” funding.

• Nonprofits would be required to collect and share health-related data with law enforcement under some circumstances.

Here’s the first national response I’ve seen this morning (press release) from the National Health Law Program (NHeLP):

Washington, DC, 7/25 – The National Health Law Program strongly condemns President Trump’s executive order directing the forced removal and institutionalization of unhoused people. This approach revives failed, inhumane policies that advocates and impacted communities have fought for decades to dismantle. Forced institutionalization strips people of their rights, disconnects them from their communities, and does nothing to address the root causes of homelessness.

The executive order frames homelessness, substance use disorder, and mental health conditions as a public safety issue rather than addressing the underlying structural drivers, chief among them, the national housing affordability crisis and a fractured, underfunded health care system. It specifically seeks to undermine safe consumption sites and housing first models– approaches with proven track records of reducing harms associated with substance misuse and mental health conditions. Criminalizing poverty and forcing unhoused people with substance use disorder and mental health conditions into “long term institutional settings” will not reduce homelessness and will disproportionately harm people with disabilities and those already underserved by our health system. Furthermore, increased focus on law enforcement to address behavioral health conditions will have the opposite effect, increasing bias and discrimination, deterring individuals from seeking needed care, and reversing the recent trend of decreasing number of overdose deaths.

“If the administration were serious about expanding access to mental health and substance use treatment and addressing the root causes of homelessness, it would invest in Medicaid, the nation’s largest payer of these services,” said Jennifer Lav, Director of Disability Advocacy at the National Health Law Program. “Instead, President Trump and congressional Republicans just voted to cut more than a trillion dollars from Medicaid. Those cuts will harm real individuals and communities and lead to more people being susceptible to poverty, instability, and homelessness.”

More to come as we peel back the layers.

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On July 23rd, the White House released its AI Action Plan to accelerate the adoption of AI across sectors with potential breakthroughs for the practice of medicine and drug discovery. The Plan is broken into three pillars – AI Innovation, AI Infrastructure, and International Diplomacy & Security – and centers on opportunities to deregulate AI technologies, create environments (AI Centers of Excellence) to test innovation, and develop infrastructure. The White House is proposing over 90 policy actions, including rescinding Biden-era regulations and withholding federal funds to states enacting AI restrictions. While the Plan only mentions health care in passing, initiatives including the production of the “largest and highest quality AI-ready scientific datasets” could have cascading impacts on medicine.
The plan is available here.  (Source:  Sachs Policy Group)

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7/25 received from OASAS Communications Department

Dear OASAS Providers,

Reference is made to the Request for Applications: (RFA) SETT-25006 | Office of Addiction Services and Supports dated June 25, 2025. The following modifications to the RFA are being made:

• Update to the Application Submission Due Date and Time

• Section 3.1 Administrative and Fiscal Application

1. Proposal Cover Letter

                 Letter “F.” was added as part of the Proposal Cover Letter

Cover Page – EXPECTED TIMETABLE FOR KEY EVENTS:

________________________________________________________________________________

Section 3.1 Administrative and Fiscal Application

1.            Proposal Cover Letter

F.  Indicate the physical address, Program Reporting Unit Number (PRU), and EDR for the existing OASAS Part 822 with a telehealth designation in which the applicant plans to provide services.

Thank you,

Communications Department

NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS)

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UPCOMING WEBINAR

“2025 Nonprofit Tax Update: What You Need to Know,” Aug. 6, 10-10:50 am, presented by Han Group LLC, this free webinar will include implications of the “Big Beautiful Bill” on nonprofit organizations, emerging tax challenges for nonprofits and more. Details and registration

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