To the Editor:
President Trump’s Executive Order issued yesterday is a shameful, reactionary assault on the most vulnerable members of our communities. By prioritizing the involuntary institutionalization of unhoused individuals, empowering municipalities to criminalize homelessness, and defunding Housing First and harm reduction strategies, this administration has willfully abandoned the decades of proven, evidence-based public health practices that have helped countless individuals find safety, dignity, and stability.
At Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen (DESK), we have seen firsthand the effectiveness of Housing First and harm reduction models. These aren’t abstract theories—they are compassionate, pragmatic strategies rooted in overwhelming evidence and decades of success. Housing First and harm reduction are about meeting people where they are and providing them with a stable foundation from which they can heal, recover, and rebuild their lives. They are not only humane; they are demonstrably effective.
In the past year, DESK has deployed these strategies to help more than 800 people in New Haven get connected to housing, shelter, and a variety of other services. Meanwhile our syringe service program has helped reduce the spread of infectious diseases for more than 450 New Haveners, and our naloxone distribution and training program has saved more than 50 lives. Housing First and harm reduction seek to offer immediate stability in which people who struggle with their mental health, suffer from medical ailments, or are dealing with substance use or addiction are better 6situated to address issues that may have contributed to their lack of homelessness or addiction—including unemployment and underemployment.
By contrast, the Executive Order chooses punishment over support, ideology over evidence, and cruelty over compassion. Criminalizing poverty and homelessness does not solve these problems; it exacerbates them. Forcibly displacing people through encampment sweeps and warehousing them in institutions without their consent is a failed and inhumane policy that disrupts lives, severs trust with service providers, and, in too many cases, leads to entirely preventable deaths, which is why this type of approach was abandoned nearly half a century ago. Moreover, this administration’s recently passed cuts to Medicaid will further exacerbate these attacks on best practice strategies to homelessness and substance use.
Let us be clear: This Executive Order is not about public safety or health. It is political theater at the expense of human lives. It is a deliberate attempt to reverse hard-won progress and appease those who view unhoused people as a nuisance rather than as neighbors in need of care and support.
DESK has served the New Haven community for nearly four decades, and we will not be deterred by political maneuvers designed to erase people from public view rather than address the root causes of homelessness. We will continue to stand with our partners across Connecticut and the nation to advocate for housing, harm reduction, and dignity for all.
We reject this callous policy and reaffirm our commitment to evidence-based, person-centered solutions—not because they are politically popular, but because they work.
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Steve Werlin is executive director of the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen