Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement following President Trump’s Executive Order making it easier for local jurisdictions to remove homeless people from the streets.

“Let me be very clear: forcibly removing people from the streets and institutionalizing them is not just cruel and inhumane, but also blatantly ineffective. Trump’s order also undermines evidence-based solutions to addressing this crisis like Housing-First and instead doubles down on the type of criminalization and policing that have consistently proven unsuccessful. At a time when more than 771,000 people are sleeping on the streets on any given night, this latest move — paired with Trump and Republicans’ latest action to cut funding for crucial housing and basic needs programs — will only worsen an already devastating crisis. We must abandon inhumane and expensive approaches to homelessness that only worsen the problem and rob us of hope for a brighter future. People need homes, not handcuffs; health care, not institutionalization; and above all, compassion, not criminality.”

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