4 ms·

It's strange to me that the author doesn't mention the primary cause of all homelessness, which is housing insecurity. By the numbers in the article, something

by lsy 2y ago

It's strange to me that the author doesn't mention the primary cause of all homelessness, which is housing insecurity. By the numbers in the article, something like 99% of people with "severe mental illness" are not homeless, suggesting there are workable options for people with mental illness that don't require mass institutionalization. I'm not sure if it's an objective of the "Manhattan Institute" to spin up these institutions for indefinite detention, but I will point out that providing housing universally is definitionally cheaper than institutionalization, which is housing with paid orderlies, guards, service workers, etc. If providing housing is too big-government, eviction protections were seen to curb homelessness during the pandemic. And for these right-wing think-tankers, housing affordability also has an available "market" solution which just requires the loosening of zoning restrictions with little other public investment.

bastawhiz 2y ago
> 99% of people with "severe mental illness" are not homeless, suggesting there are workable options for people with mental illness How homeless is homeless? Crashing on a friend's couch? Staying with their mom for a few weeks? Living with eight other people in a building nobody's sure who owns? That 99% doesn't imply they're holding down a mortgage or even leasing an apartment.
egberts1 2y ago
The primary cause of homelessness is two-fold: 1. The Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 that closed all Federal mental health institutions, leaving the community of psychiatrists to wrestle with the tough border cases while still tenuously mingling with the locals: totally dismantling the 1946—P.L. 79-487, the National Mental Health Act. 2. The FDA authorized take-home of SSRI and SNRI medicine in 1981 and 1982 respectively. This also marked the rise of mass-shooting in psychopharmacology profiles of such deceased shooters. https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/7684.pdf https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/7684.pdf We have come full circle from no psychiatric drugs (1820s) to full anti-psychiatry movement today.

by lsy 2y ago

bastawhiz 2y ago

> 99% of people with "severe mental illness" are not homeless, suggesting there are workable options for people with mental illness How homeless is homeless? Crashing on a friend's couch? Staying with their mom for a few weeks? Living with eight other people in a building nobody's sure who owns? That 99% doesn't imply they're holding down a mortgage or even leasing an apartment.

egberts1 2y ago

The primary cause of homelessness is two-fold: 1. The Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 that closed all Federal mental health institutions, leaving the community of psychiatrists to wrestle with the tough border cases while still tenuously mingling with the locals: totally dismantling the 1946—P.L. 79-487, the National Mental Health Act. 2. The FDA authorized take-home of SSRI and SNRI medicine in 1981 and 1982 respectively. This also marked the rise of mass-shooting in psychopharmacology profiles of such deceased shooters. https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/7684.pdf https://www.kff.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/7684.pdf We have come full circle from no psychiatric drugs (1820s) to full anti-psychiatry movement today.