A Cruise Ship Could Save Thousands of Lives in New York

On Thursday, July 24, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets, directing federal agencies to make it easier for cities and states to remove unsheltered homeless individuals—especially those with mental illness or addiction—from public spaces, and to shift them into treatment centers or institutional settings using civil commitment.

New York shelters over 132,000 people each night, and in a January 2024 count, 4,140 individuals were living unsheltered on the streets. An estimated 24 percent of those—nearly 984 people—suffer from serious mental illness. Roughly one in three homeless New Yorkers struggle with mental illness or substance use disorders. These are not abstract statistics—they are lives deteriorating in plain view.

We tell ourselves this is about respecting freedom. It isn’t—it’s abandonment disguised as inaction. Streets aren’t homes; they’re perilous for anyone forced to live on them. Temporary sweeps, crowded shelters, or cycling people through jails and ERs are not solutions—they’re systemic failures.

We must act humanely and boldly. That’s why I propose the Cruise Ship Transitional Housing Program: docking a repurposed cruise ship in New York Harbor, retrofitted with private cabins, medical facilities, and communal spaces. We can immediately house unsheltered individuals with severe mental illness and addiction in a stable, secure environment. The ship would be staffed with psychiatrists, addiction specialists, social workers, and medical professionals for on-site treatment. Using a housing-first model, we can stabilize lives prior to transitioning individuals into permanent supportive housing. Therapy, job training, and life-skills programs would support long-term reintegration.

This approach has precedent. In Rotterdam, Netherlands, a cruise ship was successfully converted to house and support asylum seekers. In San Diego, decommissioned Navy vessels were used to provide transitional housing and treatment for the unhoused. These models prove that a floating facility can deliver immediate, scalable relief.

Unlike the federal executive order—which prioritizes enforcement, institutionalization, or forced removal—my proposal offers a proven, scalable, and humane alternative: immediate housing, medical care, rehabilitation, and a path back to society.

By contrast, Trump’s order promotes forced civil commitment and institutional settings over housing-first alternatives, redirects federal grants toward cities that enforce anti-camping and drug-use laws, and cuts funding for harm-reduction programs and housing-first initiatives.

The overlap of homelessness, untreated mental illness, and public disorder is real. A Vital City NYC study found that 41 percent of repeat subway felony offenders were homeless and 59 percent had documented mental health issues. A landmark American Journal of Psychiatry study demonstrated that untreated homeless individuals with severe mental illness commit violent crimes at 40 times, and nonviolent crimes at 27 times, the rate of the housed population. In a recent year, 11 percent of New York City homicide suspects were identified as homeless. These numbers are not an argument for criminalizing homelessness—they are a clear call for intervention.

Trump’s executive order brings the right kind of urgency—but it lacks the heart of real solutions. It emphasizes removal over care, institutionalization over dignity, enforcement over healing. Critics such as the ACLU and the National Homelessness Law Center warn it risks criminalizing poverty and mental illness without expanding access to housing or voluntary treatment.

This plan is more than policy—it’s a moral imperative. Instead of criminalizing poverty or mental illness, we must provide immediate housing and healthcare. Instead of defaulting to removal, we should restore dignity. Instead of institutional isolation, we should build a path home.

A cruise ship could take thousands off the street in weeks, deliver real treatment, and give people a future. The only question is whether we will have the courage to act.