Where are the homeless supposed to go?

[u/Garey_Coleman]

Cities have been cracking down on homeless people so they can’t have encampments or stay on sidewalks. At the same time usually the shelters are full. So those who are unable to get into a shelter, where are they supposed to go?

[u/DebtBeautiful8188]

Away is the correct answer, but for a lot of people, away usually means institutionalization. Prison for the ones they think are criminal and/or lazy, and a mental institution for the rest. People can be sympathetic to mental illness, especially when it presents in an obvious, but non-threatening manner, but they usually don't understand how the system works and why just throwing everyone in an asylum is a bad idea.

People often also overestimate how many resources there are available for people who are experiencing some form of homelessness. I worked in a DV shelter for a while, and people would share very... interesting opinions with me. Largely out of ignorance, but that ignorance made them feel safe and secure, so they didn't really want to listen to me when I'd try to explain.

edit: I realize looking back at this, I wasn't clear in what I meant by away. I was looking at another comment and thinking of how society as a whole thinks. imo we need to put way more resources into housing and reintegrating homeless folks back into society, but also accepting that some people would rather just live in a different way. There are no quick and easy solutions to this, however, and we still have to respect people's dignity and freedom to make their own choices. Sometimes, that means that people will make what we consider to be a bad choices. But considering that the mentally ill are way more likely to be victims of violent crime than to commit those acts themselves, I'm not fond of the idea of institutionalization as a solution for everyone, and I think that we as a society need to come to terms with what is discomfort and what is a true threat to our health and safety.

[u/Nasskit1612 → u/DebtBeautiful8188]

I had to do a clinical rotation in the psych ward. One guy I was working with had schizophrenia and hurt his mom(he had stopped taking his meds bc he felt fine), so he couldn’t go home. He was being released on the street bc there was no where for him to go - shelters were full. So he’s medicated and “fine” now and being put into the street. How is he going to continue to take his meds? I live in the north, how the f is he going to survive winter? 🤷‍♀️

[u/Ruthless4u → u/Nasskit1612]

A big problem is people stopping meds the moment they feel better, because why keep paying for something they don’t “ need “?

While not a psych ward I did work with long term dementia patients. A lot of the same issues but they would in up in LTC

[u/ChocolatChipLemonade → u/Ruthless4u]

Yeah it’s complicated. When my mother graduated pharmacy school long, long ago, her first position was at the state mental institution, working under a psychiatrist. These were patients that absolutely could not survive in the outside world. She said that when they privatized the system, it created an abundance of homelessness and loss of care for those that needed it. Kinda just pushed those institutionalized people out on the streets and said, “Good luck!” It was more about money than anything else.

[u/Professional-Tax-615 → u/ChocolatChipLemonade]

I'll never stop saying it. Ronald Reagan is the reason that the United States will always have a homelessness problem. He's the reason that mentally ill people have no place where they can go live and get treated properly. Republicans voted him in right? So Republicans are the reason the world is a s****y place - as usual.

[u/ChocolatChipLemonade → u/Professional-Tax-615]

I agree with you. He just wanted to reduce funding and put responsibility onto the states, and wipe his hands clean of it. He clearly did not have the compassion or experience needed to continue the social programs that had been created before him.