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Re: V.A. Begins Drive to Put Homeless Veterans Into Guardianship

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HEY! HEY!!! They run this place like an insane asylum!!!
Where did I leave my M16????!!!!!


On Wed, 11 Mar 2026 15:13:40 -0700, Biased Journalism
<biased@nowhere.invalid> wrote:

>
> https://nytimes.com
>
>V.A. Begins Drive to Put Homeless Veterans Into Guardianship
>Ellen Barry, Jason DeParle
>
>A joint effort with the Justice Department creates new authority to compel
>veterans into institutional or involuntary care.
>
>March 11, 2026 Updated 2:40 p.m. ET
>
>The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a new effort to initiate
>legal guardianships for homeless veterans, which could be used to force
>more of them into involuntary or institutional care.
>
>The new system, carried out in partnership with the Justice Department,
>will invest Veterans Affairs Department attorneys with expanded powers
>that would allow them to initiate and take part in guardianship
>proceedings for veterans who have no family and are “unable to make their
>own health care decisions.”
>
>The initiative represents the Trump administration’s most concrete action
>to advance its goal of compelling more homeless people into involuntary
>treatment for mental illness and drug addiction.
>
>President Trump identified the issue as a priority during the 2024
>presidential campaign and promoted it last July in an executive order that
>called on agencies to use civil commitment to move homeless people into
>“long-term institutional settings.”
>
>Critics say the policy shift raises significant civil liberties concerns,
>noting that in earlier generations, people with severe mental illness were
>routinely stripped of their legal rights and confined to state hospitals.
>
>The V.A. says the guardianship initiative would affect “hundreds” of
>veterans who are currently in V.A. facilities but need “a legal decision
>maker” to transition to a new setting. Some are homeless, and others are
>“at risk of homelessness” upon discharge, the agency said in a press
>statement.
>
>“Our new partnership with the Justice Department reflects our ongoing
>commitment to ensuring that every veteran receives timely, appropriate
>care,” said Doug Collins, the V.A. secretary.
>
>Guardianship powers are broader and longer lasting than civil commitment,
>which is used to compel someone to accept medical treatment.
>
>Guardianship proceedings are typically initiated by family members,
>friends or health care providers, and are argued before state or probate
>judges, with the subject entitled to legal representation. If a court
>finds that the person is not able to make basic decisions about health and
>safety, a guardian is appointed.
>
>Guardians can control a person’s assets, where the person lives and whom
>he or she sees. They can also require the person to accept medical
>treatment. Unlike civil commitment rulings, which expire after a specific
>time period, guardianships are intended to be durable, though they are
>revisited periodically and can be terminated or dissolved.
>
>Michael Figlioli, the director of the National Veterans Service for the
>Veterans of Foreign Wars, commended the change, which he said recognizes
>“that some of our nation’s most vulnerable veterans must be approached
>through a public health and social services framework.”
>
>If thoughtfully carried out, he said, guardianships could provide more
>“structured support” for vulnerable veterans, though he noted “important
>considerations regarding veterans’ privacy, potential implementation gaps
>and the need for sufficient resources.”
>
>Rights advocates said they were alarmed by the proposal, which they saw as
>part of a drive by the administration to place homeless people in
>institutional settings against their will.
>
>“My speculation is that they are seeking to have people placed under
>guardianship so they can have a person appointed who will force them into
>congregate or institutional settings when there isn’t anything else
>available,” said Jennifer Mathis, the deputy director of the Bazelon
>Center for Mental Health Law.
>
>If there are veterans “sitting in V.A. hospitals” unable to be discharged,
>as the V.A. says, she said, it is “almost certainly” because there are
>long waits for intensive community services or independent housing. She
>added that it is highly unusual for the Justice Department to take a role
>in guardianship proceedings, which are governed by state laws.
>
>“I don’t know what their authority is,” Ms. Mathis said. The federal
>government, she added, “has very little to do with guardianship.”
>
>Stephen Eide, who studies homelessness at the Manhattan Institute,
>welcomed the Trump administration’s efforts to expand guardianship, which
>he said could protect people at risk of “slow-motion suicide.”
>
>“More use of involuntary treatment is essential to solving street
>homelessness,” he said.
>
>But he cautioned that successful implementation could be challenging,
>since it requires coordinated efforts among police officers, social
>workers, clinicians and lawyers, often employed by different levels of
>government. “It’s hard to change big systems,” he said.
>
>A pilot project to expand guardianships at the V.A. has been under
>discussion for months.
>
>The pilot, called “Project Safe Harbor,” identified five V.A. hubs that
>had been selected to test a “guardianship model for veterans experiencing
>homelessness” who lack capacity to make “appropriate medical and social
>decisions for themselves,” according to an internal memo shared with The
>New York Times. The sites were asked to refer veterans and take legal
>steps for “placement into appropriate care sites.”
>
>There are about 33,000 homeless veterans in the United States, about
>14,000 of whom live on the streets. Veterans make up around 5 percent of
>the unsheltered homeless population.
>
>Ellen Barry is a reporter covering mental health for The Times.
>
>Jason DeParle is a Times reporter who covers poverty in the United States.

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V.A. Begins Drive to Put Homeless Veterans Into Guardianship Biased Journalism <biased@nowhere.invalid> - 2026-03-11 15:13 -0700
  Re: V.A. Begins Drive to Put Homeless Veterans Into Guardianship Labor Day <Labor_day@test.invalid> - 2026-03-11 15:15 -0700

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