One of the biggest mistakes of Ronald Reagan's political career, both in California and as President, was the deinstitutionalization of America. As governor, Reagan signed the Lanterman–Petris–Short (LPS) Act, which made it difficult to involuntarily commit people to state mental hospitals.
That act led to the release of patients who didn't have adequate follow-up or housing. Supporters saw it as protecting the civil liberties of mental health patients.
As President, Reagan signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which slashed federal funding for mental health services, undid the Community Mental Health Act (signed by John F. Kennedy in 1963), and transferred control and responsibility of mental health to the states without commensurate federal funding.
In the 44 years since that bill, the rapid decline of public mental health services -- including institutionalization -- has done nothing to preserve civil liberties of the mentally ill, but it has damaged countless lives and rendered parts of many cities uninhabitable due to homelessness, drug use, and related crime.
According to the 2020 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHRA), there were 580,000 homeless on any given night in 2020. Of that number, 257,000 had a mental illness or substance abuse problem. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) estimates 38% of the homeless have alcohol abuse problems and 26% abuse other drugs.
Those numbers are significant because mental illness and substance abuse are the biggest factors in chronic homelessness. They're also driving factors behind crime, public indecency (including public sex acts, public urination, and public defecation).
We've all seen the videos on social media showing homeless encampments in major American cities, of the tweaking drug users lying across the sidewalks, and the map that alerts San Francisco residents of where there's human feces on the sidewalk. Democrats insisted L.A.'s MacArthur Park was a haven for picnicking families, if you don't mind sharing your sandwich with a meth-head, that is.
Now, President Trump has issued an order directing federal agencies to make involuntary hospitalization of the mentally ill and addicted homeless easier:
Anyone who has walked around a city has encountered people--mentally ill, drunk, stoned, violent, threatening those around them--who need to be institutionalized. It is not a humane policy to have them sleeping on the streets. This is a good thing. https://t.co/XVoIX3mdbB pic.twitter.com/dnHwJ5Rnzd
— Byron York (@ByronYork) July 25, 2025
Here's more from the Washington Post:
The order said shifting homeless people into long-term institutional settings will restore public order. “Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens,” Trump’s order said.
There's no doubt in my mind that Democratic politicians like Gavin Newsom will attribute the problem to inadequate funding. Then again, Newsom acted like he just realized homelessness was a problem in California a couple of months ago -- even though Newsom himself rolled out a plan to combat homelessness two decades ago, a plan that has cost $24 billion since 2019 and hasn't reduced homelessness in the state.
San Francisco, the city where Newsom was once mayor, even ran a pilot program to have 'nurses' give vodka to homeless alcoholics. And several cities, including in Kentucky, rolled out programs to give drugs and periphernalia to addicts to encourage 'safe smoking' (complete with government-issued crack pipes!) and 'reduce stigma'
New York Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani will talk about seizing private property to house the homeless, ignoring the fact that the problem isn't a housing issue but a mental health and drug/alcohol addiction issue. Absent forced medicating and mandatory sobriety and addiction treatment, no amount of housing is going to solve that problem.
The ACLU will sue to preserve the 'civil rights' of the homeless to do things like take a dump on the outside of your local Walgreens, and call President Trump a tyrant for daring to address this issue.
But President Trump is right here: we have gone too far in the other direction when it comes to addressing the root causes of the homeless crisis: mental illness and addiction. The so-called 'compassionate' Left would rather people live in squalor on the streets, suffering from mental illness and the throes of drug and alcohol addiction, than appear 'mean' by committing them to institutions that would offer medication, a warm bed, and food. And they would rather subject the rest of us to the societal decay that comes along with rampant homelessness.
And while the political gains are secondary to addressing the suffering and blight caused by homelessness, unchecked mental illness, and unrestrained addiction, there is a strong possibility that this only bolsters President Trump's numbers with urban voters. Why? Even in California, voters are fed up with the homeless crisis, with 61% of voters 'strongly' or 'somewhat' supporting arresting the homeless if they refuse to accept shelter. These are the people most directly impacted by homelessness and the problem it brings.
Gavin Newsom, Zohran Mamdani, and the rest aren't stepping around sidewalk tents or watching their local stores close because the neighborhood has gone to hell, after all. And they're not doing anything to address the issues aside from wasting billions of taxpayer dollars.
President Trump, on the other hand, is.
