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

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 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
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