HR 6174
Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets Act
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Bill overview
The Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets Act aims to reduce homelessness and public disorder by restoring civil commitment procedures for individuals deemed unable to care for themselves, prioritizing grants to municipalities with strong drug and camping restrictions, and redirecting federal resources towards institutional treatment and evidence-based programs. The bill seeks to increase accountability in homelessness assistance programs and address issues related to safe consumption sites and housing for women and children.
Key provisions
- Restores civil commitment procedures for unhoused individuals deemed unable to care for themselves.
- Prioritizes grant funding for municipalities with restrictions on illicit drug use, urban camping, and urban squatting.
- Directs the Attorney General to evaluate unhoused individuals arrested for federal crimes for potential civil commitment.
- Redirects federal funding towards institutional treatment and evidence-based substance abuse and mental health programs.
- Requires increased accountability in homelessness assistance programs, including ending support for ‘housing first’ policies that deprioritize treatment.
- Addresses safe consumption sites by reviewing compliance with federal law and potentially freezing assistance for non-compliant recipients.
- Allows federally funded programs to exclusively house women and children and restricts housing sex offenders with unrelated children.
- Mandates the collection and sharing of health-related information from individuals receiving homelessness assistance.
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119th CONGRESS — 1st Session
H. R. 6174
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
A BILL
To end crime and disorder on the streets of the United States by restoring civil commitment, addressing vagrancy and homelessness through institutional treatment, and redirecting Federal resources, and for other purposes.
This Act may be cited as the Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets Act
.
The purpose of this Act is to protect public safety by restoring civil commitment procedures, fighting vagrancy, and redirecting Federal resources toward effective methods of addressing homelessness, including the use of institutional treatment in hospitals or asylums for individuals adjudged insane or otherwise unable to care for themselves.
The Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall take appropriate action to—
seek, in appropriate cases, the reversal of Federal or State judicial precedents and the termination of consent decrees that impede the policy of the United States of encouraging the civil commitment of unhoused individuals; and
provide assistance to State and local governments, through technical guidance, grants, or other legally available means, for the identification, adoption, and implementation of maximally flexible civil commitment, institutional treatment, and step-down treatment standards that allow for the appropriate commitment and treatment of unhoused individuals.
Establish, implement, or enforce Federal and State prohibitions on illicit drug use in public places.
Enforce, and where necessary, adopt standards that address unhoused individuals, through assisted outpatient treatment or by moving such individuals into treatment centers or other appropriate facilities through the use of civil commitment or other available means.
The Attorney General shall—
assess Federal resources to determine whether they may be directed toward ensuring, to the extent permitted by law, that detainees with serious mental illness are not released into the public because of a lack of forensic bed capacity at appropriate local, State, and Federal jails or hospitals; and
enhance requirements that prisons and residential reentry centers that are under the authority of the Attorney General or receive funding from the Attorney General require in-custody housing release plans and, to the maximum extent practicable, require individuals to comply.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall take appropriate action to—
ensure that discretionary grants issued by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery fund evidence-based programs and do not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including efforts termed as harm reduction or safe consumption efforts;
provide technical assistance to assisted outpatient treatment programs for unhoused individuals with serious mental illness or addiction administered by the Secretary during and after the initiation of any civil commitment process under section 4246 of title 18, United States Code, that are focused on assisting such individuals in finding private housing and support networks; and
The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall coordinate with the Attorney General and other relevant agencies to ensure that Federal resources support the transfer of eligible persons to mental hospitals or asylums, including those returned from foreign countries who have been legally adjudged insane.
ending support for housing first
policies that deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency;
increasing competition among grantees through broadening the applicant pool; and
holding grantees to higher standards of effectiveness in reducing homelessness and increasing public safety.
The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall, as the Secretary determines appropriate, take steps to require recipients of Federal housing and homelessness assistance to increase requirements that persons participating in the recipients’ programs who suffer from substance use disorder or serious mental illness use substance abuse treatment or mental health services as a condition of participation.
With respect to recipients of Federal housing and homelessness assistance that operate drug injection sites or safe consumption sites,
knowingly distribute drug paraphernalia, or permit the use or distribution of illicit drugs on property under their control—
the Attorney General shall review whether such recipients are in violation of Federal law, including 21 U.S.C. 856, and bring civil or criminal actions in appropriate cases; and
the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in coordination with the Attorney General, shall review whether such recipients are in violation of the terms of the programs pursuant to which they receive Federal housing and homelessness assistance and freeze their assistance as the Secretary deems appropriate.
The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall take appropriate measures and revise regulations as necessary to allow, where permissible under applicable law, federally funded programs to exclusively house women and children and to stop sex offenders who receive homelessness assistance through such programs from being housed with unrelated children.
The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall, as appropriate, and to the extent permitted by law—
allow or require the recipients of Federal funding for homelessness assistance to collect health-related information that the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development identifies as necessary for the effective and efficient operation of the funding program from all persons to whom such assistance is provided; and
require those funding recipients to share such data with law enforcement authorities in circumstances permitted by law and to use the collected health data to provide appropriate medical care to individuals with mental health diagnoses or to connect individuals to public health resources.
In this Act:
poses risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets; and
cannot care for themselves or be sheltered in an appropriate facility for a period of 3 consecutive months or longer.
The term urban camping means any temporary outdoor shelter, including tents, tarps, bedding, or vehicles used for sleeping or residing for a period exceeding 24 hours in a single location on public or private property not designated for recreational use, where such shelter serves as a primary living accommodation rather than transient recreation.