Designation and Conversion of the White House State Ballroom as the National Human Dignity and Recovery Center

Reclaims a symbol of concentrated federal luxury and redirects it toward emergency housing coordination, addiction treatment, recovery support, and a national model of human dignity in action.

Findings and Declarations

Homelessness Crisis. As of the date of this Order, no fewer than 771,000 men, women, and children within the United States lack stable, safe, and adequate housing. This figure, documented by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, represents a moral catastrophe of the highest order. The federal government's systematic failure to address this crisis constitutes a breach of the social compact upon which this Republic was founded.
Poverty. No fewer than 35 million Americans, including millions of children, subsist below the federal poverty line, denied access to adequate nutrition, healthcare, education, and opportunity. The persistence of poverty of this scale, in the wealthiest nation in the history of civilization, is not an accident of nature but a consequence of deliberate policy choices that this Administration hereby repudiates.
Wage Stagnation and Cost of Living Crisis. The federal government has, for decades, failed to exercise its authority to ensure that wages keep pace with the cost of housing, food, healthcare, and basic goods. This failure has created conditions in which millions of working Americans cannot afford to meet their basic needs despite full-time employment, constituting a systemic failure of governance.
Substance Use and Addiction Crisis. Approximately 48 million Americans struggle with substance use disorders. This Administration finds that a substantial portion of this crisis is a direct and foreseeable consequence of untreated poverty, trauma, homelessness, and economic despair, conditions manufactured in part by the inaction of prior administrations. The criminalization and stigmatization of addiction, in lieu of evidence-based treatment, has constituted a failed and cruel policy that this Order begins to dismantle.
Symbolic Accountability. The White House State Ballroom, constructed at a cost of no less than $400 million dollars in public-facing expenditure, represents the capacity of the federal government to mobilize resources rapidly and at scale when the political will exists. This Administration holds that the same will and resources must be directed toward the people most in need, not toward the comfort and grandeur of those already in power.

Operative Provisions

Section 1. Designation

Effective immediately upon execution of this Order, the facility known as the White House State Ballroom, located on the grounds of the White House complex at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., is hereby re-designated and repurposed as the National Human Dignity and Recovery Center (the Center). This designation carries the full force and legal weight of federal executive authority.

Section 2. Purpose and Mission

The Center shall serve as a federal model facility providing comprehensive, integrated services to individuals experiencing homelessness, poverty-related crisis, and substance use disorders. The Center shall operate as a non-punitive, human-centered institution, providing emergency housing coordination, medical and behavioral health care, addiction treatment, vocational training, legal aid, nutrition services, and reintegration support.

Section 3. Federal Interagency Task Force

There is hereby established the Federal Homelessness and Human Dignity Task Force, which shall be co-chaired by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The Task Force shall include representatives from the Departments of Labor, Veterans Affairs, Justice, Agriculture, and Education, and shall be empowered to coordinate federal resources, waive applicable administrative barriers, and issue binding interagency directives in furtherance of this Order.

Section 4. Emergency Appropriation of Federal Resources

The Task Force is hereby directed to immediately identify and reallocate existing federal budgetary authority, unobligated balances, and discretionary funds to operationalize the Center within ninety (90) days of the date of this Order. The Office of Management and Budget shall submit to Congress, within sixty (60) days, a supplemental appropriations request sufficient to sustain the Center's operations for a period of not less than five (5) fiscal years.

Section 5. Living Wage and Cost of Living Directives

The Secretary of Labor, in coordination with the National Economic Council, is hereby directed to submit to the President, within one hundred twenty (120) days, a comprehensive legislative proposal and accompanying executive regulatory framework to: (i) raise the federal minimum wage to a regionally adjusted living wage indexed to cost of housing, food, and healthcare; (ii) establish enforceable federal anti-price-gouging standards for essential goods and housing; and (iii) cap rent increases in federally subsidized housing markets to the annual rate of inflation.

Section 6. National Addiction Treatment Initiative

The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall, within ninety (90) days, promulgate regulations expanding access to federally funded addiction treatment and mental health services, with particular emphasis on harm reduction, medication-assisted treatment, and community-based care. No individual seeking treatment services through the Center or affiliated programs shall be subject to criminal prosecution solely for the status of addiction or for conduct arising directly therefrom.

Section 7. Non-Criminalization Directive

The Attorney General is hereby directed to issue guidance to all federal law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies establishing that homelessness, in and of itself, shall not constitute grounds for federal arrest, prosecution, or detention. The Department of Justice shall initiate a review of all pending federal cases in which homelessness or poverty was a material factor in the charged conduct and report findings to the President within one hundred eighty (180) days.

Section 8. Reporting and Accountability

The Task Force shall issue a public report to the President and to Congress every one hundred eighty (180) days detailing: (i) the number of individuals served by the Center and affiliated programs; (ii) measurable outcomes including housing placements, employment, and treatment completions; (iii) identified gaps in federal authority or resources requiring legislative action; and (iv) recommended policy reforms. All reports shall be made publicly available on a federal government website accessible to all Americans.

Section 9. Non-Severability of Moral Obligation

This Order reflects not merely a policy preference but an assertion of moral and constitutional obligation. Should any provision of this Order be challenged or enjoined, the President directs all executive agencies to continue implementing all remaining provisions to the fullest extent of law and to vigorously defend this Order in any judicial proceeding as a matter of national priority.

Section 10. Effective Date

This Order is effective immediately upon signature and shall be published in the Federal Register in accordance with 44 U.S.C. 1505.

Attestation

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of January, in the year two thousand and twenty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fifty-third.

White House and National Human Dignity and Recovery Center
Signed,
Vincent Cordova
President of the United States

Constitutional Basis