Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at deterring crime by making it easier to remove unhoused individuals from public spaces and place them into mental health and addiction treatment facilities.

The order calls for strict law enforcement against camping, loitering, and drug use, and discourages the "housing first" model that prioritizes providing stable housing rather than involuntary treatment.

Supporters say it will restore public safety and help people access necessary care, while critics warn it risks criminalizing poverty and pushing vulnerable people further into the shadows.

Last year, the number of people experiencing homelessness reached a record high. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on any given night, more than 770,000 people used the services of emergency shelters, safe havens or transitional housing programs, or slept in unsheltered locations

Here in Northeast Ohio, cities like Cleveland and Akron are seeing growing numbers of unhoused people. Resources to support these individuals are limited and often stretched thin.

On Thursday's "Sound of Ideas," we're joined by local experts to discuss the complexities of this issue and potential impacts of the federal executive order.

Later in the hour, we talk about polymers, which are compounds that are in practically everything: the rubber in tires, the plastic in medical devices, fabric, and electronics.

Polymers are the name of the game in Akron, a city with a rich history in the development and manufacturing of rubber. Where leaders are now investing millions in the promise of polymer innovation and economic development.

One of the drivers in Akron's polymer landscape is the Polymer Industry Cluster, a tech hub that the City's Chamber of Commerce launched back in 2021.

To end the hour, a new episode of "Shuffle." Cleveland band C-Level has spent nearly 15 years crafting a sound that mixes reggae, blues, punk and funk into something all their own. This week, Ideastream Public Media's Amanda Rabinowitz catches up with a band that took root at an open mic night.

Guests:
- Christopher Knestrick, Executive Director, Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless
- Liam Haggerty, Housing & Outreach Project Manager, Cleveland Department of Public Health
- Hans Dorfi, Ph.D., Executive Director and Chief Innovation Officer, The Polymer Industry Cluster
- Amanda Rabinowitz, Host and Producer, "Shuffle" and "All Things Considered"
- Dave Deitke, Singer-guitarist, "C-Level"
- Coda Crose, Bassist, "C-Level"
- Jay Sparrow, Drummer, "C-Level"