Trump moves toward involuntary vet care, watchdogs alarmed

As the Trump administration promises new housing for veterans, internal VA documents described a proposed “Safe Harbor” plan that could shift some homeless veterans toward involuntary treatment. Veterans advocates and a leading House Democrat say the effort ri

In Long Beach, Calif., Pedro Jauregui remembers the first time he tried to help a homeless veteran come in from the cold. The veteran didn’t just refuse. He followed up with choice words, waved a finger, and told Jauregui he was going to kill him.

The next year didn’t end that fear with a single breakthrough. Jauregui kept showing up—hot coffees, donuts, steady visits—until the veteran finally came indoors. He later sobered up and started using his VA benefits for college.

“We build relationships and then we use whatever we can to get the veteran the help he needs,” Jauregui said.

Across the country. that kind of approach—built on consent. trust. and a slow relationship—has long sat at the center of how many veteran outreach workers describe effective help. But this year. a fight inside the federal government has put involuntary institutional treatment back at the center of public debate.

More than 30,000 U.S. military veterans are homeless. according to the latest government data from an annual one night “point in time count.” The number has dropped significantly over the past decade. with many experts crediting robust funding and a philosophy focused on offering housing without prerequisites. often referred to as housing first.

The Trump administration has promised new housing for veterans. Yet the president also signed an executive order last year titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets. ” an approach that leans heavily toward institutionalizing homeless people against their will. In winter coverage. NPR obtained slides describing a proposed VA plan called “Safe Harbor. ” which would include veterans in that shift to involuntary treatment.

Then, in March, the VA put out a memorandum of understanding with the Justice Department about state court guardianship for veterans.

VA Secretary Doug Collins says the guardianship memorandum has nothing to do with “Safe Harbor.”

“We have veterans. not homeless. just veterans. who are in our facilities. ” Collins said at the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans annual conference last month. “They have no family. they have no representation and they really are not in a position to actually make competent choices for their own healthcare.”.

Collins said the memorandum will help those veterans get medical decisions made by a court-appointed representative.

“The court will find somebody in the community, not a VA employee, not a VA attorney, (who) will then represent that veteran with the respect to their medical wellbeing, moving them along, getting them the healthcare that they need,” he said.

Collins also argued the leaked slides describing “Safe Harbor” were still just a proposal. He accused Mark Takano, the lead Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, of distorting what the VA planned.

“Somebody in our building leaked it to the Hill. And guess what?. Representative Takano happily put out information that wasn’t correct,” Collins said. “I’ve got veterans who are sitting in hospitals who can’t make competent choices for themselves to get better… next-level care. We’re helping them do that. … When it came out that we were attacking homeless and going after homeless I wanted to puke,” he said.

Takano rejected that account. In a statement to NPR, he said the VA was withholding information about the program from the public. “I’ve given VA multiple opportunities at public hearings and in congressional requests to clarify its intent. and it refuses to do so. ” Takano said. “Doug Collins repeatedly fails to recognize or plan for the risks associated with guardianship. an industry rife with fraud and exploitation.”.

Takano said his staff will keep collecting information from whistleblowers about courts putting veterans under guardianship.

A VA spokesman reiterated to NPR that the guardianship memorandum is not connected to the leaked “Safe Harbor” plan, which echoed President Trump’s executive order about institutionalizing homeless people.

Skepticism has spread across the veterans services community. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America’s Jess Finucan said she sees a warning sign in the way “Safe Harbor” appears to apply.

“I like to think that it’s altruistic, like they really wanna help veterans in hospital situations have the decision-making skills that they need,” Finucan said. “But the fact that it also applies to homeless veterans and those veterans at risk of homelessness, I think is really a slippery slope.”

Ann Oliva, the CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said the community is worried because she believes the administration’s public explanation conflicts with documentation of the pilot program.

“What the administration has said publicly on this proposal is at odds with the documentation on the project and its pilot program. That original documentation was directly linked to the president’s executive order, calling for involuntary commitment of people experiencing homelessness. I think it’s disingenuous for anybody from the VA to say that this was meant for a completely different population. ” Oliva said.

Back on the ground, Jauregui and Veronica Hood—both of them veterans and both now spending nearly as many years serving homeless vets as they did in the military—described what their outreach looks like when the starting point is trust rather than enforcement.

NPR rode along with them as they did street outreach. Hood and Jauregui said they were searching for an 87-year-old Navy veteran, Curtis Ervin, who had been sleeping in his truck.

Ervin has been reluctant to accept offers of housing, Hood said, even if he has probably been homeless for decades. “He might think he’d be a burden on people. So he really just wants to do it on his own,” Hood said.

“ And what proud man or vet wants to be a burden on anybody?” Jauregui added from the passenger seat.

Hood spotted Ervin’s maroon pickup parked near a JackintheBox. She handed him a warm packed meal and some water through the driver’s side window.

Ervin said he joined the Navy in 1956. “I was a diesel engine mechanic. And on the ship that means you’re everything,” he said. His last ship was the USS Bainbridge nuclear-powered destroyer. He recalled that he was aboard when the nuclear fleet was brought to Vietnam. when the USS aircraft carrier Enterprise came through. and that his ship escorted it as the fleet went around Africa.

He said he has been bouncing between hospitals for years and can’t remember the last time he had a home. Sleeping in a seat has made his legs swell.

“Right now I’m in the truck. For the last two, three years I’ve been dancing from hospital to hospital. … I finally got out because they tried to keep me,” Ervin said.

He doesn’t like being ordered around. “I got enough of that in the Navy,” he said, even though he’s been out for 60 years.

Still, Hood said she has built rapport with him. Ervin told NPR he will be there tomorrow to go with her to the hospital, and then get a roof over his head.

“I have never used the VA, but I am scheduled to go to the VA tomorrow,” he said, “and I hope they don’t keep me there.”

As they drove back, Hood and Jauregui said they recognize that some homeless people may be a danger to themselves or others. But they said, in most cases, they would not want to see veterans forced into treatment.

“As you saw with Ervin it could be both beneficial or it could be extremely traumatic,” Hood said.

She added that she would worry about how a forced approach would feel if it were her own family. “My husband is also a veteran. He just retired and I would be worried for him. too. if I wasn’t around. if someone would show him the same compassion. It’s how I would want Pedro to be treated. I’m sure how he would want me to be treated,” she said.

By phone after the visit, Hood told NPR that Curtis Ervin came in the next day, and he is now in housing for the first time in more years than he can remember.

Between federal policy arguments and the lived reality of people like Ervin. the dispute over “Safe Harbor” and guardianship has become less abstract. Collins insists the guardianship memorandum is about veterans in VA facilities who lack family or representation and can’t make competent choices for their own healthcare. Takano says the VA is withholding information and that guardianship brings fraud and exploitation risks.

Advocates like Finucan and Oliva say the concern isn’t limited to a narrow medical setting. They point to how “Safe Harbor” documentation has been described as extending into homeless populations, which they say clashes with the administration’s stated commitment to housing-based solutions.

For Jauregui, the difference is stark: you don’t force a person into safety and call it help. You build enough trust that they can walk through the door on their own.

“ We build relationships,” he said, “and then we use whatever we can to get the veteran the help he needs.”

Trump administration Veterans Affairs Doug Collins Safe Harbor guardianship Justice Department memorandum of understanding homeless veterans involuntary treatment housing first Mark Takano National Alliance to End Homelessness Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America