The federal government has waded into the national homelessness-policy debate at just the moment that San Francisco’s leaders are reorienting their own approach to the longstanding crisis .

President Donald Trump issued on July 24 an executive order that seeks to reduce street homelessness by making it easier to get unhoused people with drug or mental-health problems into treatment. It also takes steps to encourage cities to enforce prohibitions against vagrancy and open drug use .

“The Federal Government and the States have spent tens of billions of dollars on failed programs that address homelessness but not its root causes,” read the executive order , which went on to blame those policies for worsening safety and street conditions in U.S. cities.

Trump’s directive earned a fi

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