Please address the EO that re-makes homelessness, mental illness and addiction a crime and an institutionable offense. We got rid of that in the 1970’s.
Replies
Adding "criminality" to the insult and injury already experienced by the homeless is outrageous! It is the last of our rights to walk on the earth freely. As was often said in the 70s, there but for fortune go you or I. Trump has redefined democracy out of existence!
jul 26, 2025, 5:57 am • 3 0 • view
It's called deinstitutionalization. That's where the problem of mentally ill homeless people began. Gov's wanted to save $, closed sanitoriums, & put these people out on the street. Most are schizophrenic and are not receiving treatment. Gov's need to invest in treatment & housing, not punishment.
jul 26, 2025, 7:36 am • 27 0 • view
Democrats wanted supportive housing in communities. Reagan pulled all federal funding. Some states and cities and philanthropies stepped up, but the economic disasters of each R President generated more homeless people.
jul 26, 2025, 8:50 pm • 11 1 • view
Whatever sent people to living on the street resulted in them having addiction, mental illness or both. Housing first is the only solution, but a hard sell to the taxpayers who are on the edge themselves. R’s appeal to working people by saying D’s want to give your money to “those people.”
jul 26, 2025, 8:50 pm • 7 3 • view
jul 27, 2025, 2:12 pm • 5 1 • view
Exactly. Many people end up on the street one step at a time. Shelters fill up. Someone has a pet and can’t find a shelter that allows pets. They live in their car; it gets towed. At some point, they spiral into alcohol, drug, and or mental illness. They need help, not a for-profit prison.
jul 27, 2025, 9:23 pm • 4 2 • view
For some, but the majority of homeless people are mentally ill. Homelessness doesn't lead to schizophrenia and personality disorders. They need help, such as that provided by sanitoriums before the 70s.
jul 27, 2025, 11:46 pm • 0 0 • view
That would be true for some, but most people with severe untreated mental illness are unable to manage money, pay rent and bills, and can't maintain housing. These are the people who in the past would have been institutionalized. Stress can cause depression, not schizophrenia.
jul 26, 2025, 9:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Housing first is shorthand for supportive housing with onsite staff. Yes, some people will never be able to live on their own, but many will “graduate” after living in a safe supportive place. We don’t need to go back to the horror stories of the incarceration of mentally ill people.
jul 27, 2025, 7:29 am • 0 0 • view
We could do a lot better than the sanitoriums did. My point is that there are a lot of people on the street who need housing and psychiatric treatment. Untreated schizophrenics are a hazard to others. They are prone to violence. Long-acting antipsychotics can be administered by injection once a mo.
jul 27, 2025, 11:52 pm • 0 0 • view
I agree, that is one kind of supportive housing. And yes, all people need to be treated with kindness, dignity, and respect. But nobody should be left on the street nor committed to a place that doesn’t care for them.
jul 28, 2025, 3:57 am • 1 0 • view
Our area has some housing for mentally ill. Of course you still get the NIMBY people who thwart it too often. They have a person present 24/7 to give them their meds. Once institutionalized, no one wants to allow them out, even with treatment.
jul 26, 2025, 10:31 pm • 2 0 • view
Antipsychotics were developed, so politicians thought the mentally ill could be managed in the community. They discharged patients w/o putting supports in place. It was abandonment of the most needy. Schizophrenic pts are also notorious for being very noncompliant with their meds.
jul 26, 2025, 9:49 pm • 2 1 • view
Under Carter deinstitutionalization was paired with funding for community mental health centers which was to provide intensive treatment. That part was undone by Reagan and CMH has struggled with funding since
jul 27, 2025, 8:06 pm • 4 0 • view
Thanks for that info. I didn't remember that from my psychology classes. Reagan truly was a devil in disguise. Like Hitler, it would have been better if he had never been born.
jul 27, 2025, 11:42 pm • 1 0 • view
I just fact-checked myself: so both the deinstittionalization movement and community mental health movement started before Carter…CMH Act was initiated under JFK, enacted under LBJ. Reagan did pull funding of mental health services which led to closure of hospitals. States couldn’t fully fund CMH
jul 28, 2025, 1:40 am • 2 0 • view
Thanks.
jul 28, 2025, 2:39 am • 0 0 • view
See my self-fact check below.
jul 28, 2025, 1:40 am • 0 0 • view