Kansas City, Kansas, recently passed a law that makes “unsafe camping” illegal. And earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed to force people to accept treatment or they could face jail or civil commitment.
In the U.S., involuntary commitment declined drastically in the 1950s, when the country moved to deinstitutionalize as better treatment and medication became available. The result was the closure of a number of hospitals that provided long-term mental health care.
Mental illness and substance abuse can be contributing factors to homelessness. Caring for those individuals can wade into the argument of public safety versus civil liberties.
Tim DeWeese, director of Johnson County Mental Health Center, said America’s mental health care system and jails aren’t equipped to handle these changes.
“We’re going to … more overburden the already busting-at-the-seams state hospital system. We're going to see the jails and local detention facilities become homeless shelters and even more of a mental health institution,” DeWeese said. “And so it's going to be a larger issue, and I think it's going to actually end up costing taxpayers more because we're actually not addressing the issue. We're pushing the issue back into the closet.”
DeWeese said there needs to be action at both the national and local level.
In 2024, Lenexa City Council rejected a permit to transform a vacant hotel into a homeless shelter in Johnson County. And Kansas City, Kansas, currently does not have any overnight homeless shelter.
The president has also directed funding away from organizations that provide “housing first,” a proven method of stabilizing a person in permanent housing prior to addressing mental health, substance abuse or employment issues.
Instead, Trump’s executive order directs the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to prioritize transitional housing that requires clients to participate in treatment programs.
“There has to be a dialogue between what is the best way, what is the best approach, to treating human beings, and I think the best way to do that is provide them access to care, as opposed to placing them involuntarily in the hospital or into jails,” DeWeese told KCUR’s Up To Date.
- Tim DeWeese, director, Johnson County Mental Health
