DRMS Responds to Executive Order on Homelessness

“Housing and Support, Not Involuntary Commitment”

July 25, 2025

JACKSON, MS – Disability Rights Mississippi (DRMS) is deeply concerned by the new executive order authorizing increased involuntary commitment of people experiencing homelessness, including individuals with psychiatric disabilities.

This approach is a step in the wrong direction.

People with disabilities who are unhoused are entitled to the same constitutional protections and due process as every other American. The forced institutionalization of people based on disability status or housing insecurity is a violation of civil rights and a harmful return to failed policies of the past. Involuntary commitment without clear legal justification, community-based alternatives, or access to counsel is not only unjust, it is dangerous.

“This executive order diverts resources away from the real solutions we know work and instead embraces coercion over care,” said Polly Tribble, Executive Director of DRMS. “What people with disabilities who are unhoused need is not more policing or confinement, but affordable housing, access to mental health services, and the support to live with dignity in their communities. We must remember that people with serious mental illness are more likely to be victims of crime than to be a danger to anyone. If the administration were truly worried about making our communities safer, they would be investing in behavioral health services in our communities.”

Rather than expanding the use of involuntary commitment, 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.

“This executive order being issued on the same weekend as the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act couldn’t be more ironic, and it highlights just how much work there is to be done to protect the rights of people with disabilities in our communities,” said Tribble. “The ADA was a landmark decision that said people with disabilities belong in our communities, at work, and at the restaurant and the ballgame and the park. People with disabilities are entitled to live full, meaningful lives just like anyone else, and discrimination isn’t just wrong, but against the law. For those with a mental health disability who may need support, that still applies. We cannot and will not go back to a dark time where our nation when those with intellectual and mental health disabilities were locked up and forgotten. We must keep pushing forward.”

DRMS remains committed to defending the rights of people with disabilities to live freely and safely in their communities. We will continue to monitor the implementation of this order and oppose any efforts that violate the civil and human rights of our most vulnerable neighbors.

DRMS is the federally mandated protection and advocacy (P&A) agency for the state of Mississippi. DRMS’ mission is to promote, protect and advocate for the legal and human rights of all people with disabilities, and to assist them with full access in home, community, education, and employment.

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