3 ms·
The problem is that a city lacks the resources to manage a country-wide problem. A lack of social support, especially mental healthcare means that you have more
by dbasedweeb 8y ago
The problem is that a city lacks the resources to manage a country-wide problem. A lack of social support, especially mental healthcare means that you have more than half a million schizophrenics aloe on the streets. The war on drugs creates yet another class of “untouchables” and the crossover between drug use and mental illness muddies the issue. This is something the federal government and states need to consider from the ground up, but instead they just shunt money to private sector cronies, prisons, and cops.
- wjossey 8y agoI think that's fair, but there's a minimum they could be doing locally that they're not. If we can't fundamentally solve the problem, we can find some better ways to manage it locally. There's a bridge on RT 2 near the Glendale / Silver Lake area that can't be described as anything other than a public health hazard due to the amount of people, junk, and debris that line the sidewalks. The city chooses not to address it (for, what I optimistically hope are legitimate reasons), but it's been that way for going on 2 years now, so I begin to wonder. I appreciate the complexity of the drug & mental health issues (have an aunt who has been homeless much of her life b/c of mental health issues), and I also understand how as a society we decided to allow those with mental health issues to have the right to not enter treatment. It's a massively complicated situation (hence me not really stating true solutions, other than finding ways to incentivize better collective action).