MxM News

Quick Hit:

President Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at eliminating homelessness from public spaces and moving those with addiction or mental illness into long-term treatment. Trump has long criticized tent encampments in Washington, D.C., calling them a national embarrassment.

Key Details:

• The executive order accuses the Biden administration of allowing “endemic vagrancy,” with over 274,000 individuals reportedly sleeping on the streets each night last year.
• Trump’s directive reprograms federal resources to prioritize civil commitment and institutional treatment, labeling many current homeless programs as ineffective.
• Cities that already enforce anti-camping laws and monitor drug use and sex offenders will receive funding preference under the new initiative.

Diving Deeper:

On Thursday, President Trump signed a sweeping executive order calling for the removal of homeless individuals from America’s streets, especially those suffering from drug addiction or mental illness. The directive urges states and local governments to relocate homeless individuals into treatment facilities and “long-term institutional settings” under what it describes as “humane civil commitment.”

The order cites an estimated 274,000 people sleeping outdoors nightly under President Biden’s tenure and blasts previous spending as wasteful. “The overwhelming majority of these individuals are addicted to drugs, have a mental health disorder, or both,” the order states, arguing that decades of spending have done little to address root causes or restore public safety.

In a statement accompanying the order, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “President Trump is delivering on his commitment to Make America Safe Again and end homelessness across America. By removing vagrant criminals from our streets and redirecting resources toward substance abuse programs, the Trump Administration will ensure that Americans feel safe in their own communities and that individuals suffering from addiction or mental health struggles are able to get the help they need.”

While the exact funding levels have not been announced, the order signals a major shift in federal homelessness policy—away from so-called “housing first” models and toward more aggressive institutional care and law enforcement-based approaches. The plan calls for “assisted outpatient treatment” in some cases but makes clear that long-term confinement will be central.

Jurisdictions that already pursue anti-camping, loitering, and open drug use enforcement strategies will be first in line for new federal grants. The order also encourages tracking of sex offenders in and around homeless encampments.

Trump’s frustration with homelessness in the nation’s capital dates back to his first term. He often bristled at the sight of tent cities lining the routes his motorcade would travel between the White House and his golf club in Northern Virginia. One encampment in McPherson Square became particularly notorious, with reports of drug use, public urination, and erratic behavior unnerving passersby just blocks from the White House. Trump privately fumed that such scenes were visible to foreign dignitaries.

In some cases, the mayor’s office responded to those complaints by conducting frequent encampment sweeps, though critics noted the actions often only temporarily displaced the camps.

The order comes on the heels of the Supreme Court ruling in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, which upheld the ability of local governments to fine or arrest homeless individuals for camping on public property—giving Trump’s new policy added legal backing.

From the Fraser Institute

By Jake Fuss and Austin Thompson

During April’s election campaign, the Carney government promised to double the pace of homebuilding in Canada by 2035—an unlikely outcome in light of Canada’s shortage of construction workers and investment dollars. But even if homebuilding were miraculously doubled, it would not solve Canada’s housing affordability crisis.

That’s the sobering conclusion of a recent report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), which modelled what would happen if the rate of homebuilding between 2025 and 2035 were double what it is today. Even under this hypothetical decade-long homebuilding bonanza, average home prices would still rise by 20 per cent in Toronto (to $1.4 million) and eight per cent in Vancouver (to $1.6 million), while nationwide rents would climb by more than one-third. Housing affordability—measured as the share of income spent on housing—would gradually improve as incomes rise, but by 2035 it would only return to 2019 levels, when many renters and homebuyers were already struggling to afford a home.

The bottom line: even a decade-long surge in homebuilding—well beyond what’s realistic—would still leave many Canadians struggling to afford a home.

That’s not to say housing supply doesn’t matter. Far from it. Too few homes have been built for Canada’s growing population. If homebuilding stagnated at today’s levels, the CMHC projects that average Toronto home prices would increase by 63 per cent by 2035 (versus 20 per cent if national homebuilding doubled). In other words, failing to act would make a bad situation much worse. The federal government should use the tools at its disposal to encourage new housing—for example, cut taxes that discourage housing development, ensure federal infrastructure dollars are well spent, and encourage municipalities to approve more new housing projects.

Clearly, because any conceivable boost in homebuilding won’t, on its own, resolve the housing affordability crisis, the federal government must get serious about the other two parts of the equation: immigration policy, which drives housing demand, and economic policy, which affects the incomes of Canadians.

Canada’s population growth, which is almost entirely driven by federal immigration policy, has overwhelmed housing supply. Federal immigration targets remain historically high despite lackluster homebuilding. This imbalance contributes to rising home prices and rents. To improve housing affordability, the government must better align the number of new immigrants with the country’s capacity to build new homes. The government can also prioritize immigrants with homebuilding skills.

Housing affordability isn’t just about prices—it’s also about income. If take-home pay rises faster than house prices and rent, Canadians will get ahead. But over the past two decades, the opposite has happened—after-tax incomes have barely increased while housing costs have soared.

To help promote economic growth and substantially raise incomes for Canadian workers, the Carney government should streamline regulations and remove barriers to resource development. The government should also lower taxes on personal and business income, and reform capital gains taxes, to make Canada more attractive to investment and high-skilled workers and entrepreneurs that create jobs and opportunity. And the government should rein in spending and borrowing, which crowd out private investment and hamper the economy.

Canada must build more homes. But to help meaningfully improve housing affordability, the Carney government must also better align immigration policy with housing capacity, grow the economy and reduce taxes.