Disability Rights Arizona (DRAZ) is deeply concerned by the recent executive order from the White House authorizing increased involuntary commitment of people experiencing homelessness, including individuals with mental health disabilities.
The Executive Order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” marks a dangerous and misguided step backward.
Unhoused individuals with disabilities are entitled to the same constitutional rights and due process protections as every American. Forcibly institutionalizing people based on disability or housing status is a rights violation and echoes failed, harmful policies of the past. Involuntary commitment without clear legal grounds, access to legal counsel, or community-based alternatives is not only unjust, it’s unsafe.
“If our goal is safer communities, we should be investing billions in housing and community based behavioral health services, not doubling down on coercive approaches that don’t work”, said J.J. Rico, CEO of Disability Rights Arizona.
This order explicitly calls for the unraveling of decades of established civil rights protections for people with disabilities, including the 1999 Olmstead v. L.C. (Lois Curtis) Supreme Court ruling that requires states to end unnecessary segregation of people with disabilities and instead to provide supportive services in the most integrated setting appropriate to peoples’ needs.
The federal government should invest in proven strategies like supportive housing, peer support services, and community-based treatment that uphold individual autonomy and promote recovery. Decades of research and the experiences of people with disabilities themselves have shown that people thrive when they are provided with the tools to make their own choices, not when those choices are stripped away. Not shift them into long-term institutional settings.
Disability Rights Arizona remains committed to defending the rights of people with disabilities to live freely and safely in their communities regardless of their housing status. We will continue to oppose any efforts that violate the civil and human rights of the disability community.