WCSO responds to Executive Order: “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets”

by Sara Swanson

On July 29, President Trump published his 175th executive order calling for the criminalization of homelessness and institutionalization of homeless people. Although we don’t have as visible a homeless population as other parts of the county, we do have homelessness and you may be wondering what this executive order means for our area and the county in general. Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer, who oversees policing in the Manchester area, released the following statement on the executive order:

“As the Sheriff of Washtenaw County, my legal obligation is to uphold the U.S. and Michigan Constitutions, not to carry out federal directives that contradict decades of public health research and undermine basic civil rights.

“My office will not treat homelessness as a crime in Washtenaw County. We will not carry out enforcement actions that target people simply for being unhoused, struggling with substance use, or living with mental illness.

“Our enforcement decisions are grounded in Michigan law, constitutional protections, prosecutorial and sheriff discretion, and the priorities of the people we serve. My oath is to uphold the law and protect people, including those facing housing insecurity, addiction, or behavioral health challenges.

“The executive order titled ‘Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets’ directs federal agencies to expand arrests, forced civil commitments, and penalties for people experiencing homelessness. It encourages cities to ban encampments and public loitering, conditions federal funding on aggressive enforcement, and discourages support for harm reduction and housing first models. This is a return to failed policies that criminalize poverty and treat survival as a crime.

“Laws specifically targeting homelessness are also inherently racist and classist. They emerged after the Civil War to criminalize newly freed Black Americans and force them into convict leasing under the 13th Amendment. The tactics in this executive order echo those same patterns, punishing people not for what they have done, but for who they are and the resources they have been denied.

“We have seen this playbook before. The ‘War on Drugs’–era policies treated addiction and poverty as criminal issues instead of public health challenges, which disproportionately criminalized Black families. The result was mass incarceration, broken households, deep racial disparities, and no meaningful improvement in public safety. This executive order echoes these tactics and encourages heavy-handed enforcement for public health issues. That approach can harm entire communities, not just the people it intends to target.

“Criminalizing homelessness and behavioral health is not only unjust, it is dangerously ineffective. It leads to more emergency calls, overcrowded jails, and wasted public dollars. It drives people further into crisis, disconnects them from care, and could increase overdose deaths. Banning harm reduction and making treatment a condition for housing does not save lives. It costs them. Putting people in fear of arrest or enforcement action when they need help makes it harder for first responders to build trust to help with connecting people with resources when a 911 call is made. That trust is critical to public safety and to saving lives.

“The most effective responses to homelessness and substance use are permanent supportive housing, voluntary, trauma-informed treatment, harm reduction services, mobile crisis response, and outreach and stabilization. That is the direction we have chosen to move toward in Washtenaw County, and our office currently funds and will continue to invest in:

• Reentry case managers to support housing and stability after release from jail
• Emergency housing and relocation for survivors of gun violence
• Diversion and deflection programs to connect people with treatment
• Collaborations with housing providers, substance use support providers, and community care teams, including patrol-based referrals to avoid incarceration

“We will not support using arrest or forced displacement as a substitute for housing, treatment, or dignity. We see the gaps in our social safety net every day, and we know that criminalizing people for falling through them only deepens harm, puts first responders in impossible situations, and ignores the root cause issues involving prevention. Regardless of the recommendations made in this recent executive order, we will stay the course and continue to support housing first and harm reduction models. We will also continue the work we do in collaboration with our partners, in alignment with our mission, our values, and our commitment to public safety.”

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and a founder of the Manchester Mirror.