Advocates Warn New DOJ–VA Partnership Could Strip Civil Rights While Ignoring The Real Cause Of Homelessness
The Trump administration is embarking on a dangerous new path to address veteran homelessness, advocates warn.
On March 11, the Departments of Justice and Veterans Affairs signed a memorandum of understanding giving DOJ the authority to appoint VA attorneys as special assistant U.S. attorneys to participate in state court guardianship or conservatorship proceedings on behalf of homeless veterans.
“Our new partnership with the Justice Department reflects our ongoing commitment to ensuring that every Veteran receives timely, appropriate care, even in complex cases,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a press release.
While the move sounds bureaucratic in nature, advocates warn it threatens to take away the rights of people experiencing homelessness.
“This unprecedented partnership between the Department of Justice and the Department of Veterans Affairs does nothing to address homelessness or to help people access the quality care that all people deserve,” the National Homelessness Law Center said in a statement. “Instead, the Trump Administration is using homeless veterans as their latest political pawn to dehumanize all homeless people while ignoring the real cause of homelessness: the fact that the rent is too high for a growing number of people.”
Housing First Helped Reduce Veteran Homelessness
Veteran homelessness has been rapidly declining over the last couple of decades, primarily due to the success of Housing First programs. Housing First is a model that prioritizes placing people in safe, stable homes as a prerequisite for receiving supportive services. The theory is simple: people are more likely to find stability and voluntarily participate in services when they have a safe place to live. According to the latest snapshot survey data, veteran homelessness has declined by 55% since 2010.
The Trump administration has proposed taking the exact opposite approach, Steve Kennedy, the organizing and network director at the People’s Parity Project, argued in a recent article for Slate. For instance, Kennedy wrote that some veterans may lose the ability to refuse certain treatments or placements. Courts could also send them to institutional settings, he warned.
“To be clear, there are veterans who genuinely lack decision-making capacity,” Kennedy wrote. “Severe brain injuries, dementia, and certain psychiatric conditions can make independent medical decisions impossible. Guardianship exists for those cases, and sometimes it is necessary. But the line between incapacity and hardship is not always clear, especially when poverty and homelessness are involved.”
The Legal Landscape Around Homelessness Is Changing
This is happening at a time when the tides appear to be shifting in the way the U.S. addresses homelessness. For instance, Trump signed an executive order last year prohibiting federal agencies from supporting Housing First programs. The same order also called on state and local governments to treat homelessness as a crime and mental health issue, even though experts acknowledge that homelessness is caused by a lack of affordable housing.
A couple of seemingly contradictory rulings from the Supreme Court have complicated matters. In 2024, the Court ruled in Grants Pass v. Johnson that punitive punishments for homelessness, such as fines, fees, and arrests, do not violate the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment when no shelter is available. Since then, the National Homelessness Law Center has found that over 300 cities across the U.S. have introduced new laws criminalizing acts associated with homelessness.
Then, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to a lower court’s ruling in Singleton v. Secretary of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which said that panhandling is a protected form of free speech. While the Court’s decision was a small victory, it also raises questions over when someone experiencing homelessness can ask for help, considering that basic acts associated with homelessness are criminalized, like building a temporary shelter to protect oneself from bad weather.
Concerns Grow Over Institutionalization Policies
“The Trump-Vance administration is pursuing policies that would push hundreds, if not thousands, of veterans into institutions and court-ordered guardianships,” Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, told The New York Times.
“Guardianship should always be a last resort, after all, less restrictive options have been exhausted, to ensure veterans’ rights are respected,” he added.
Advocates are also worried that the new conservatorship policy could be expanded to involuntarily commit all people experiencing homelessness to institutions, something Trump’s executive order on homelessness directs the Justice Department to pursue.
State Policies Reflect The Same Shift
Some of Trump’s allies are already working to implement that change at the state level, too. For instance, Utah’s Republican Governor, Spencer Cox, is leading the charge to build a 1,300-person shelter outside of Salt Lake City that includes 300 beds for people who are involuntarily committed. The shelter could cost around $75 million to build and $35 million annually to operate.
Republicans in Utah’s state legislature have modified legislation for the shelter to focus on “high utilizers,” or chronically homeless people who are in contact with law enforcement most often.
The shelter was proposed at a time when Utah had largely stopped building new shelters and permanent supportive housing units. According to the latest Housing Inventory Count, Utah has only added 33 emergency shelter beds over the last five years. The number of permanent supportive housing units has also declined from 3,119 in 2020 to 3,066 as of 2024.
Meanwhile, homelessness in Utah has increased 23.5% between 2020 and 2024, up to nearly 3,900 people, the latest snapshot data shows.
“This clear government overreach is just another in a long line of Trump’s anti-homeless policies that will make homelessness worse, make housing more expensive, force homeless people into jails and government-run detention camps, and take away their rights,” the National Homelessness Law Center wrote. “But it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s time for politicians to use their power to ensure that everybody has the housing, support, and care they need to thrive.”
Ending Homelessness Requires Political Will
Now is not the time to be silent about homelessness in America. Poverty and homelessness are both policy choices, not personal failures. That’s why we need you to contact your officials and tell them you support legislation that:
- Streamlines the development of affordable housing
- Reduces barriers for people experiencing homelessness to enter permanent housing
- Bolsters government response to homelessness
Together, we can end homelessness.