4 ms·

Homelessness isnt a side effect of a mental illness epidemic. Mental illness is a side effect of a homelessness epidemic. The reason for the focus on mental il

by pydry 3y ago

Homelessness isnt a side effect of a mental illness epidemic. Mental illness is a side effect of a homelessness epidemic. The reason for the focus on mental illness as a cause is that it stops people from drawing a direct line between a cult of landlord greed and drug addicts defecating outside of your local drugstore.

labrador 3y ago
The non-mentally ill homeless aren't shitting on the sidewalk requiring 1.7 million dollar toilets. You should give functional homeless, which I've been, more credit than that.
- pydry 3y ago
  They tend to be the ones who have been homeless the longest. Homeless -> drugs -> crippling mental illness -> shitting on the street. It can take years. It's not coincidence that there are armies of them where the rents are highest. We're told is is though.
  - WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
    > It's not coincidence that there are armies of them where the rents are highest. I believe you are neither wrong nor right. I lived adjacent to a massive homeless community, in a (then) low-cost rural county. It's been there for decades. It's still there but is larger since housing costs are >2x what they were in 2020.
EdwardDiego 3y ago
It's kinda both. In NZ in the 90s, residential care for people with severe mental illness was replaced with "community care" where all those patients be helped to go flatting the community, and have their condition treated so well that there was no need for residential care facilities. It's far better! It's more respectful! It's also incidentally going to let us trim millions from the Health budget so we can pay for the tax cuts for high earners! The care provided in the community was wisely delegated to the Almighty Invisible Hand of the Free Market, so a bunch of fly-by-night sub-par contractors sprung up to get the government cash and then provide very little care at all, and so large numbers of former patients ended up homeless due to their poorly controlled illness, and well gosh, hard to care for them in the community when you don't know where they live right? It's an absolute debacle, and a great demonstration that neoliberalism is nothing more a belief set for business people who don't like paying tax. But I fully agree that homelessness is a great medium for developing mental illness and drug dependencies.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
  > residential care was replaced with "community care" where all those patients be helped to go flatting the community, and have their condition treated so well that there was no need for residential care facilities. I think you posted this in good faith but reads like a fairy tale. By definition, folks who need long-term inpatient care aren't going to be sufficiently treated by outpatient programs. My spouse needs long-term, inpatient care. Not permanent care but the adjustments she needs aren't going to take place over 72 hours or 7 days. They're going to take months. She didn't get the needed months of treatment. She got decades of the fairy tale. She's homeless now and likely will be until it kills her.
  - orwin 3y ago
    > I think you posted this in good faith but reads like a fairy tale I read GP's post as sarcastic, I think you both agree. Thank you for the explanation on why it isn't great though.
  - EdwardDiego 3y ago
    I wish it was make believe. It's what happened in NZ in the 90s. It wasn't just mental illness patients affected, it was also those with significant intellectual disabilities. At least there's an NGO sector that could develop the ability to provide housing and care for them. For an anecdote.
cupcakecommons 3y ago
never knew clinically significant mental illness was directly related to the "cult of landlord greed" - where do I learn more about this?
- pydry 3y ago
  People who cant pay rent end up on the street. They take drugs to salve the pain of being on the street. How would you expect that to end? Are you asking about the connection between rents, regulatory capture and greed? High rents and being on the streets? Or living on the streets being a bit of a cause of mental issues?
  - dleink 3y ago
    A good summary. I would add, mental health illnesses tend to present themselves in high stress situations. So while not the cause of the illness, being unable to afford reasonable housing while also being unable to find work with reasonable wages can cause illness to present.
  - cupcakecommons 3y ago
    "a bit of a cause of mental issues" there we go
polski-g 3y ago
What level of "greedy landlord" do you, personally, have to experience, to cause you to push an elderly Asian in front of a subway?

by pydry 3y ago

labrador 3y ago

The non-mentally ill homeless aren't shitting on the sidewalk requiring 1.7 million dollar toilets. You should give functional homeless, which I've been, more credit than that.

pydry 3y ago
They tend to be the ones who have been homeless the longest. Homeless -> drugs -> crippling mental illness -> shitting on the street. It can take years. It's not coincidence that there are armies of them where the rents are highest. We're told is is though.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
  > It's not coincidence that there are armies of them where the rents are highest. I believe you are neither wrong nor right. I lived adjacent to a massive homeless community, in a (then) low-cost rural county. It's been there for decades. It's still there but is larger since housing costs are >2x what they were in 2020.

EdwardDiego 3y ago

It's kinda both. In NZ in the 90s, residential care for people with severe mental illness was replaced with "community care" where all those patients be helped to go flatting the community, and have their condition treated so well that there was no need for residential care facilities. It's far better! It's more respectful! It's also incidentally going to let us trim millions from the Health budget so we can pay for the tax cuts for high earners! The care provided in the community was wisely delegated to the Almighty Invisible Hand of the Free Market, so a bunch of fly-by-night sub-par contractors sprung up to get the government cash and then provide very little care at all, and so large numbers of former patients ended up homeless due to their poorly controlled illness, and well gosh, hard to care for them in the community when you don't know where they live right? It's an absolute debacle, and a great demonstration that neoliberalism is nothing more a belief set for business people who don't like paying tax. But I fully agree that homelessness is a great medium for developing mental illness and drug dependencies.

WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
> residential care was replaced with "community care" where all those patients be helped to go flatting the community, and have their condition treated so well that there was no need for residential care facilities. I think you posted this in good faith but reads like a fairy tale. By definition, folks who need long-term inpatient care aren't going to be sufficiently treated by outpatient programs. My spouse needs long-term, inpatient care. Not permanent care but the adjustments she needs aren't going to take place over 72 hours or 7 days. They're going to take months. She didn't get the needed months of treatment. She got decades of the fairy tale. She's homeless now and likely will be until it kills her.
- orwin 3y ago
  > I think you posted this in good faith but reads like a fairy tale I read GP's post as sarcastic, I think you both agree. Thank you for the explanation on why it isn't great though.
- EdwardDiego 3y ago
  I wish it was make believe. It's what happened in NZ in the 90s. It wasn't just mental illness patients affected, it was also those with significant intellectual disabilities. At least there's an NGO sector that could develop the ability to provide housing and care for them. For an anecdote.

cupcakecommons 3y ago

never knew clinically significant mental illness was directly related to the "cult of landlord greed" - where do I learn more about this?

pydry 3y ago
People who cant pay rent end up on the street. They take drugs to salve the pain of being on the street. How would you expect that to end? Are you asking about the connection between rents, regulatory capture and greed? High rents and being on the streets? Or living on the streets being a bit of a cause of mental issues?
- dleink 3y ago
  A good summary. I would add, mental health illnesses tend to present themselves in high stress situations. So while not the cause of the illness, being unable to afford reasonable housing while also being unable to find work with reasonable wages can cause illness to present.
- cupcakecommons 3y ago
  "a bit of a cause of mental issues" there we go

polski-g 3y ago

What level of "greedy landlord" do you, personally, have to experience, to cause you to push an elderly Asian in front of a subway?