The “Treatment First” toolkit, released as a joint effort from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the Department of Health & Human Services, and the Department of Housing & Urban Development, is meant to combat homelessness and addiction by treating addiction first. It opposes ‘housing first’ strategies, favoring ‘treatment first’. This means that the toolkit is pushing for the government to stop giving unconditional housing and supposedly try to help people before they are given housing.

This is once again another example of the Trump administration’s obsessive opposition to more housing and, in my opinion, demonization of homeless people. While it is a highly influential factor for many people’s homelessness, not all homeless people are necessarily addicted to drugs (highest estimates put drug abuse rates among the homeless at about 37%). Additionally, receiving supportive housing is extremely beneficial to actually getting off drugs.

What do you think? Does anyone actually believe in this ‘treatment first’ method?