> A lot of this problem stems from the deiinstitutionalization of American life in the middle of the century.
This was true thirty years ago, but is much less true today. The fraction of people that have serious mental illness is relatively constant, but the number of visible homeless people on the street has risen dramatically. What you're seeing today is a fraction of mentally ill people and then a larger fraction of drug addicted people stemming from the opioid crisis.
It's not the 80s anymore and that person screaming to no one on the street corner is more likely to be in meth psychosis than schizophrenic.
I don't think the two groups are so easily distinguished. And I think you underestimate the effect of housing pressure on people already on the margin.
Yes, I agree housing prices also affect a large number of people, but I think those are mostly the invisible homeless — ones who can scrape by couch surfing, living out of their car, etc. What I'm referring to are the visible homeless — the ones on the street harrassing people, dumping trashing, etc. I think most of those today are there because of drug addiction, with a smaller fraction because of mental illness. (And, of course, illness and addiction often overlap too.)
The reason I point these out is because I think the different groups need different solutions. Affordable housing isn't going to do anything good for something in the middle of meth psychosis. They'll just trash the place which is a complete waste of funding.
This was true thirty years ago, but is much less true today. The fraction of people that have serious mental illness is relatively constant, but the number of visible homeless people on the street has risen dramatically. What you're seeing today is a fraction of mentally ill people and then a larger fraction of drug addicted people stemming from the opioid crisis.
It's not the 80s anymore and that person screaming to no one on the street corner is more likely to be in meth psychosis than schizophrenic.