New York —

Last month, a homeless man with a history of serious mental illness killed a woman on a Charlotte train. The murder, shown on video, spurred calls from some for a tougher approach to dealing with the rise of homelessness and mental health issues across the United States.

A record number of Americans are living on the streets, roughly a quarter with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or other severe mental illness. The overwhelming majority pose no public danger, and research links only 3% to 5% of violent acts to those with serious mental illness.

President Donald Trump, however, frames homeless people with mental illness as a public safety threat. The solution, he says, is to commit more people into psychiatric hospitals and treatment programs against their will.

Trump released an executive order in July encouraging states to expand involuntary commitment laws — a legal process forcing people considered a danger to themselves or others into inpatient psychiatric care.

“Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings…will restore public order,” Trump’s order said. He also said in August that he would support the government reopening “insane asylums” for people with serious mental illness.

But psychiatric hospital beds, treatment slots and mental health care workers have been in short supply for years.