NEW: VOCAL-NY RESPONDS TO TRUMP ADMIN GUTTING HOMELESS VETERANS RIGHTS

New Effort Would Institutionalize Veterans Instead of Providing Housing and Healthcare — In Violation of Disability Rights

NEW YORK — In response to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ new initiative seeking to place hundreds of homeless veterans under guardianship, VOCAL-NY released the following statements:

“Someone who makes a decision to go to war for this country deserves better than homelessness. No one knows war unless you have experienced it. People come home wounded, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. That doesn’t mean they should have their right to choose stolen, they need care! Every human in this country deserves housing because housing is healthcare,” said Tracie Adams, former National Guard member who is a formerly homeless leader with VOCAL-NY’s Rochester chapter.

“First and foremost, a president who never served this country should not be taking away the rights of those who did. Instead of investing in housing and care, this administration is proposing policies that strip people of their autonomy.

Veterans who put their lives on the line may, at some point, need support, and when that happens the government should serve them the way they served this nation — with honor. Involuntary institutionalization is inhumane when what we truly need is housing, care, and real support. 

As a Marine veteran who has experienced homelessness, I am angry and appalled that these decision-makers are not upholding the values of this nation that so many of us fought and died to defend,” said Hiawatha Collins, a Marine Veteran who is formerly homeless, and current Board Vice Chair at VOCAL-NY.

BACKGROUND:

This is just the most recent effort from the Trump administration to criminalize homelessness instead of investing in effective housing and care solutions. In December of 2025, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal ruling found that the VA was violating the disability rights of veterans by failing to provide supportive housing and community-based mental health care, and required them to create thousands of supportive housing units. This new policy would deny veterans this legal victory, and their civil rights.

Trump has made it harder to track homelessness and get people housed. He made massive cuts to housing and services that would increase hunger and homelessness, cut life-saving harm reduction and healthcare programs, and supported Right-wing billionaires exert more power on local, state, and federal homelessness policy.   

Our country has a housing crisis – more people are experiencing homelessness now than in the past few decades. High housing costs, the high cost of living and low wages are fueling this crisis. Only housing can solve homelessness. Only healthcare can solve our mental health crisis. Instead of investing in solutions, President Trump and the GOP are cutting vital programs, making it illegal to be homeless and poor, while giving massive tax breaks to billionaires. 

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