Rudy Canoza
2007-01-27 05:42:47 UTC
1. The homeless are "just like you and me." A substantial
percentage of homeless people are ordinary people
who are "victims" of a system that doesn't provide
people with essential help.
FALSE. The majority of homeless are substance abusers,
mentally ill, or both. That isn't to say that there
might not be some greater role of government in
providing help to people with serious mental or
substance abuse problems, but these people are *not*
like the majority of people. There are virtually no
two-parent intact families with children who find
themselves homeless due to some economic dislocation
like "offshoring". There are some single women with
children among the homeless, but these women again are
*not* like most people, in that they generally have low
levels of educational achievement, and - big difference
- were never married despite having one or more children.
2. The segment of homeless who are mentally ill are
Ronald Reagan's fault. Reagan "emptied out" the
mental
hospitals, turning hundreds of thousands if not
millions of mental patients into homeless victims.
FALSE. The push to move mentally ill patients out of
in-patient mental hospital settings began in the 1950s,
and achieved its full vigor with John F. Kennedy's
signing of the Community Mental Health Act in October
1963. The state mental hospitals in California had
already begun to move patients back into community
treatment facilities years before Reagan became
governor of California in 1966, and of course Reagan
had nothing to do with the identical moves occuring in
other states.
percentage of homeless people are ordinary people
who are "victims" of a system that doesn't provide
people with essential help.
FALSE. The majority of homeless are substance abusers,
mentally ill, or both. That isn't to say that there
might not be some greater role of government in
providing help to people with serious mental or
substance abuse problems, but these people are *not*
like the majority of people. There are virtually no
two-parent intact families with children who find
themselves homeless due to some economic dislocation
like "offshoring". There are some single women with
children among the homeless, but these women again are
*not* like most people, in that they generally have low
levels of educational achievement, and - big difference
- were never married despite having one or more children.
2. The segment of homeless who are mentally ill are
Ronald Reagan's fault. Reagan "emptied out" the
mental
hospitals, turning hundreds of thousands if not
millions of mental patients into homeless victims.
FALSE. The push to move mentally ill patients out of
in-patient mental hospital settings began in the 1950s,
and achieved its full vigor with John F. Kennedy's
signing of the Community Mental Health Act in October
1963. The state mental hospitals in California had
already begun to move patients back into community
treatment facilities years before Reagan became
governor of California in 1966, and of course Reagan
had nothing to do with the identical moves occuring in
other states.