And a few years ago the American Bar Association started a pro bono legal services program for veterans as well.
“I’m fairly certain urban street dealers will begin lacing their marijuana to compete with the dispensaries popping up on every other corner in the 'hood. They are that ruthless. Stay tuned.”
Uh… you may be fairly certain, but facts prove you fairly wrong! I live in the first state to legalize recreational marijuana. Five years later we do NOT have “urban street dealers” ruthless or otherwise, lacing anything. Our explosion of homelessness happened long before pot was legal. Crime rates are flat despite tremendous growth in population.
But we do have pot shops on every other corner in the hood – and everywhere else in the city, including the very upscale parts.
The biggest surprise about legalized pot? That the biggest users are over 50. The “kids” really don’t have a whole lot to do with legalized marijuana. They don’t want to look as ridiculous as their stoned parents. :))
@ECmotherx2, I agree also with what you said about it taking a Federal, State and local community effort in creating regional programs to help solve the issue. I might add, wealthy individuals or big corporations might be willing to donate to the effort as well.
As a random thought, a CNN headline is reporting that within 24 hours of the devastating Notre Dame Cathedral fire, three wealthy French families have donated $700 million to help in the restoration efforts. Certainly, in this country, we have multimillionaires and billionaires who, if broached with a targeted approach to the homelessness issue, might be willing to help fund something like a treatment facility for the homeless with mental and/or substance abuse.
Maybe these facilities could have like a St. Jude Children’s Hospital approach to treatment of mental health and substance abuse where treatment could happen without needing insurance. These people do not have insurance but need treatment. Have regional treatment centers around the nation. What a great way to leave a lasting philanthropic legacy but to put your name on a facility that handles such a growing societal need.
Alas, a facility is not enough. Mentally ill people, addicts, whatever the affliction, leave the facility and go back to real life. They need a place close to home to support their recovery. Especially with mentally ill street people who need to take medication, they need to see a psychiatrist or psychiatric nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant to prescribe their meds and monitor bloodwork–these are very effective medications but they come with life-threatening side effects, as well as side effects that can discourage compliance.
I could post links to videos of how people were treated in institutions before they were shut down. They are really hard to watch. I like to think we’re finished with the out-of-sight-out-of-mind mindset. But the only effective solution is good care in the community–any community, rich or poor, near the ocean or far away.
I have been. spending time in a small city out in the boonies. The homeless problem is evident here. Can’t miss it. The area has a lot of cheap housing, projects and homeless shelters. There are a lot of people who do not or cannot live in any of those places. They’ve been thrown out so many times for not adhering to rules or they cannot stand the rules a d refuse to frequent these places. They prefer the freedom of squatting wherever they may find a place.
Using the term “homeless”, IMO does not accurately describe this group of people. Many could stay with family or get a room to rent here but they don’t want the constrAints of such an arrangement. They are a small part of the homeless population but have become the stereotype. I have no idea if they meet the medical definition of mentally ill. Nor do they all use drugs or drink. However, they do not live hygienic or safe lifestyles. At least not the ones who have caught my eyes. It is certainly possible that there are many more who are under my radar simply because they blend in with most of the population here.
@cptofthehouse, the people you describe sound like mentally ill people to me. Who would want to live that way if they were sane?
Many homeless women I have worked with say that the main reasons they don’t want to go to shelters are rules and rape.
Some are drug-addicted or mentally ill (these are frequently co-morbid) and others have fled violent home environments. This is a complicated problem and I don’t have answers, just compassion and gratitude.
And many homeless men I have worked with say that the main reasons they don’t want to go to shelters are rules (particularly curfew) and violence and theft. There is no simple answer.
Being homeless is often not a choice. Somebody may live in their car to save up for a room. That person could be me. That person is me. Don’t judge.
@oldmom4896, that’s why I said it was a random thought. Alas, I do not pretend to know what the answer is. I was just brainstorming an idea for multiple regional facilities to start the treatment ball rolling. After treatment, local community efforts could be contacted to help with the continuation of care to help transition the client back into their community.
As an ACOA, my dad had to go to a treatment facility first to get sober and then, when he was stable enough, begin the intensive counseling treatment. This was over 30 years ago and he was there for at least a month, if I’m remembering correctly. Towards the end of the live-in program, the family was invited to take part in the family treatment alone and with the patient on different days.
Thank God my mom had good insurance through her employer (she was a clerk) which covered the whole program and thank God my dad’s employer held his job for him while he was gone for so long (he was a factory worker). This excellent facility was a good hour from our hometown and it took some effort to coordinate my older siblings, my mom and my work schedule to be there on the days for family counseling.
Also, most insurance these days stinks for mental health and substance abuse. And, good luck getting help if you don’t have any insurance. This is why it’s going to take a concerted effort on the part of multiple entities to address this issue. If three wealthy French families can pledge $700 million in less than 24 hours for a beloved, historical cathedral, surely we have people in this country willing to donate to a much-needed human cause.
The problem is so multifaceted. We have countless people with addiction problems who can’t get adequate help as the costs are outlandish and the programs not long enough. Healthcare costs have skyrocketed due to the heavy regulation which requires excessive bureaucracy to manage. Once you have a record employment becomes an issue. You are locked out of jobs.
Most mental health experts do not readily take insurance and there is a critical shortage of psychiatrists. Once upon a time mental institutions existed for the mentally ill or the families took care of them privately. Due to privacy laws, the abolishment of mental institutions, and the breakdown of families leaves these people little options. We tilted the pendulum the complete opposite direction in response and we see the outcome especially in our major cities. Its no more humane than the lockups in institutions. Our jails are clearing houses for many of the mentally ill and addicts which are ill equipped to manage this and don’t.
We tried public housing and a good hunk of it has been bulldozed. It did not work as it became crime ridden rat invested habitats. Section 8 housing has a critical shortage and no one wants section 8 housing for the same reason they didnt want government housing. Our government can’t manage it as time has proven.
I am friends with someone from my childhood who is homeless and he won’t stay in shelters because of the crime and danger. You have really mentally ill be people who are not in their right mind mixed in with people who are not dangerous because you can’t commit them. This person happens to be an alcoholic. So you have a whole mixture of people with problems being lumped together when they shouldn’t be.
Then we have limited resources but we are trying to take care of the world, the immigrants and our own and there are just not the funds so we fail. I not long ago was talking to a homeless man who was telling me how how he owned a landscaping business years ago but the immigrants underpriced him and he went from making $$ per hour to $$ hour and it destroyed him financially. He would work but he cant get hired as he dies not speak spanish. So immigration plays into this as well displacing people who once had skills where they lived decently to the streets. Then the depression of such events leads to drug use to escape reality.
The bottom line is its a huge crises but at the same point in time it also is inhumane and immoral not only to them and everyone else to allow them to defecate, urinate and use drugs in the streets. Hygiene is cornerstone to the well being of all and modern society. Its not only risking their lives but the state of affairs in certain cities is risking everyone in terms of a major disease outbreak.
Lastly our education system is not well prepared for the economic disruption. Skills that are in critical shortage have too few potential candidates because our primary education system has become myopic in that college is the only way to succeed which is outdated. High paying jobs are going unfilled due to the lack of skilled workers in certain fields. High school’s are grossly behind in the technical skills taught to students.
Here’s an example of how the system is broken: I have friends with a 23-year-old son who is severely depressed. Without going into details, it was obvious he needed to be hospitalized. His doctor agreed. The police came and agreed it was OK for the young man’s sister to drive him to the nearest hospital. They kept him overnight and discharged him the next morning (today), without notifying the parents (not surprising) or the doctor (?!?). The parents did locate him briefly, but he wouldn’t agree to go back to the hospital and walked away. His parents have no idea where he is right now. Probably sleeping on the street (he’s burned bridges with all his friends).
It all comes around to lack of money, and a community which really isn’t willing to pay the money. The vast majority of politicians since the 1980s have been elected and reelected on a platform which included tax cuts. As the money that the federal and state government has decreases, programs are cut, and the programs that are cut most often are those which support the poor. The slow erosion of the progressive tax system has had the worst effect of the money available for programs like that.
It is, of, course, not one solution, but multiple solutions. There are addicts, mentally ill, and people who have lost everything for other reasons. There are people who belong to more than one of those groups. Among the mentally ill there are people with acquired conditions like PTSD, and there are people with illnesses with which they were born, like schizophrenia. There are addicts to illegal drugs, and addicts to alcohol and prescription drugs. There are people who were sick and their medical bills wiped out their savings, while they were fired because they couldn’t get to work. There were people who spent all their money on medical bills for a loved one, and people whose savings were wiped out because of other reasons. There are kids from abusive homes who ran away, and kids who ran away because they were teens and were stupid, and so forth, and so on.
Each of those requires a different solution,and different resources. All require money, which the government is not willing to spend, and which people aren’t willing to force the government to spend, and consequently pay more taxes.
So unless taxes are raised, and money is pledged by federal, state, and local governments, no real solution is possible.
PS. The problem isn’t housing as much as it is housing + work + support system. There are houses in Detroit that can be bought for a few dollars, but there is no work there, no support for recovering addicts, etc, so that would not help. In fact, in rural areas there are many cheap homes available, but again, there is no work there, which is why all of those homes are available for so little money.
In places where housing is scarce and expensive, some of the homeless problem could be solved by housing alone. Some of the people who are now homeless would not be homeless if there was housing available for them at rents normal in the rest of the country. The working people living on the streets of Mountain View would live in apartments if apartments were available. Some of the people on the streets in SF would live in SROs if available, and at least SROs have showers and bathrooms.
Solving some of the problem would be better than solving none of the problem.
@oldmom4896, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest portrayed just a small fraction from that awful time period you were referring to earlier. I’m talking about state-of-the-art facilities that could address a multitude of issues before transitioning a client back to a community-based program.
We have a facility in our community for the mentally challenged (e.g. Down’s Syndrome). The more able-minded have jobs within the community or within the facility itself. The facility provides transportation for these adults to get to their jobs and back. Lots of community fundraising happens for this program and local high schools and colleges also do volunteer work there. I admire our local businesses that hire these people - it’s a win-win for all. Maybe a community based program like this could work for those with mental illness where the client would need more oversight with their meds and holding a job. Or maybe an assisted living type place, like what we have for the elderly, where a person would have their own apartment within the facility but go down to a dining room for meals with others to have a sense of community and have their meds given to them by trained staff.
As a student nurse in the 80’s, I did a rotation at our hospital’s locked psych unit. I saw the revolving door of mental illness up close. One of my patients that I remember was doing so well right before his discharge. We talked about his plans for when he got out. He was so excited to be feeling better and was ready to go home. Just before my rotation was over, he was readmitted in a severely manic phase: he was almost unrecognizable. He had stopped taking his meds; so sad to see.
@rjm2018, I am not talking about One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest. I am talking about wholesale warehousing, with hundreds of out-of-control people in a room with no supervision.
Here’s a clip of video made by Geraldo Rivera in 1972 at Willowbrook, an institution for the developmentally disabled in Staten Island, NY:
https://www.pbs.org/video/metrofocus-story-revealed-willowbrooks-horrors/
Raising taxes is not going to solve the problem but aggravate it. Many local and state governments have runaway reckless spending as does the federal government. We have regulations in place that are counter productive. Malpractrice and compliance with CMS regulations has made healhcare costs out of control. And now you are seeing the monopolization of heathcare with doctors selling out to the big boys on a daily business. Fewer and fewer are in control of heath are where the local doctor can no longer care for the indigent because big consortiums are running healthcares with administrators calling the shots.
You need a license or permit to do this and that which adds to costs whether it be housing, medical care or hiring. It makes the ability to start a business prohibitive and the cost of building sky high.
Then with the advent of 401k’s as a retirement savings vehicle now every American has power has one power has been bestowed on to wall street where if you miss earnings estimates by a penny they are severely punished. So many large corporations are in the business of keeping wall street happy rather than taking care of its own employees.
We have had fundamental shifts over the decades that have unintended consequences.
This belonged to the thread.
@scubadive, yes raising taxes is a knee-jerk response to many problems and it has unintended consequences on the most vulnerable in our society. Case in point at the local level, my 90 yr old dad and 88 yr old mom with many infirmities just had their property taxes go up by $600 in one year! The assessed value on their small 2 BR, 2 BA ranch with no improvements went up over $30 thousand dollars in a year! Obviously, they are on a fixed income. Think of all the elderly and disabled living on a fixed income this rise in taxes will hurt in this community alone. What about those people barely hanging on by a thread as it is?
“Think of all the elderly and disabled living on a fixed income this rise in taxes will hurt in this community alone.”
I’m not unsympathetic to retired folks and their budgets (I’m retired myself) but how many of us have flexibility in income? Many families and individuals are feeling the pinch as well.