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.
It's not coincidence that there are armies of them where the rents are highest. We're told is is though.
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.
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?
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.
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.
I read GP's post as sarcastic, I think you both agree. Thank you for the explanation on why it isn't great though.
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.