Americans are losing affordable housing under Trump. And his new executive order goes even further.

Before he began deploying federal agents, the National Guard, and the D.C. police to clear urban camping sites, Trump issued a new executive order on homelessness.

It made immediate waves among people focused on housing, but otherwise it’s not gotten much attention.

The order pushes local governments to remove unhoused people from the streets — and it also focuses on involuntarily institutionalizing people with mental health conditions and substance use disorders.

The vague wording could be used for wider action, experts told me for the Guardian.

“It sets the stage for rounding up folks who are homeless, folks with mental health issues, folks who are disabled – and instead of helping them, forcing them into detention camps and institutions. So it’s terrifying,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director at the National Homelessness Law Center.

–How Trump’s executive order could criminalize homelessness: ‘Terrifying,’ The Guardian

The order instructs states and municipalities to crack down on public substance use; camping, loitering, or squatting in urban spaces; mental health issues; and sex offender registration. It calls for “shifting” people without stable housing into “long-term institutional settings.”

But the conditions for who may be detained is poorly defined, which means it could be interpreted broadly to kidnap and involuntarily institutionalize people in public spaces.

And who decides whether someone should be institutionalized. Is it law enforcement? Federal agents? It’s not clear, but especially given the D.C. occupation, it’s a chilling precedent.

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Beyond targeting individuals, this order seems like a way to target certain cities, like Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago — any place that is “trying to do something different with addressing homelessness and substance use,” said Margaret Sullivan, a family nurse practitioner and director of programs for immigrant and unhoused communities at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.

“It is essentially creating a pathway to criminalize larger and larger numbers of people,” said Sullivan.

–How Trump’s executive order could criminalize homelessness: ‘Terrifying,’ The Guardian

For many of us in the United States, not having affordable housing is a major issue. The Trump administration is ending major housing initiatives that make it more likely that you’ll lose your home, while also criminalizing not having a home.

It’s important to see efforts like this as affecting all of us. It’s a troubling attack on people who are not committing a crime, and it paves the way for more violations of civil rights.

Have a tip or suggestion for what I should cover? Get in touch securely via email (melodyschreiber@pm.me) or Signal (melodyschreiber.06).

Top photo: Alan Kotok