BOSTON (WWLP) - President Trump signed an executive order on July 24 that is expected to have a significant impact on homelessness policies in western Massachusetts.

Congressman McGovern tours W. Mass. farms during annual tour

The executive order strengthens police and institutional responses to homelessness, provides more funding to states that criminalize homelessness, and ends harm-reduction funding. These changes have prompted concern and action among local advocates and officials in Massachusetts and beyond.

The National Homelessness Law Center attended a briefing on the criminalization of homelessness, emphasizing that the United States has the resources to end homelessness if the political will existed.

"We have the money in this country to solve homelessness, we just don't care

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