[POLL] How to deal with Mentally Disabled Homeless People?

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What do you think should be done about mentally-disabled homeless people?

You may choose 1, 2, or 3 options.

You may change your votes.

Nothing on that list really sticks out. I'd say create some kind of cheap housing for these people to at least get them situated somewhere stable instead of always having 'will I have a place to sleep' hanging over their head, then have people to help them with daily tasks, chores and activities where needed...also perhaps food could be collected via donations and then dived up among the residents. Also giving them regular access to mental health treatment/counseling...since a lot just get sporadic care and whatever doctors they're seeing aren't correlating on any specific treatment plans.

That would more or less be the first sort of step....I think beyond that a lot could then realistically look at more independent living and at least part time employment.

At the basis though I think helping these people to get off the streets...get them fed and healthy, provide them shelter is the best way to start. I mean buying a homeless disabled person a meal one time, or throwing some change at them might help immediately in that moment but doesn't really help in the long run. Stability of some kind is needed I think.

Some mentally ill homeless people should be in hospitals, with others to care for them. This option would be for the seriously mentally ill people: schizophrenics not on meds, others who are seriously delusional for whatever reason, those who are at risk of harming themselves or others, etc.

Others just need more help in the form of therapy and rehabilitation. This would probably be best for those with depression, anxiety disorders, drug/alcohol addiction, ASD, etc.

Those who refuse help and pose no threat or serious inconvenience to others or themselves could just be left alone.

Policy wise I like what Utah did in its campaign to eliminate homelessness by providing free housing. It actually ends up saving the government money by saving on policing, criminal justice system and ER related costs by eliminating homelessness. If they are homeless because they have mental illnesses then they would already qualify for benefits, or should qualify for benefits to help them get by.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ins ... -millions/

Cost of a bed in a shelter in my city: $2000 a month. Cost of a subsidized housing unit $400. It is that simple.

If the city makes panhandling illegal then it should provide housing.

I've seen a lot of examples of people volunteering for 'habitat for humanity' but I've never heard of anyone benefitting from it.
Maybe they are doing something good and they are not publicizing it enough.

Unfortunately, the public safety net has large gaps. Probably too large for those with disabilities to navigate without help, so I vote for larger outreach to available services. I lived on apples, oatmeal, and peanut butter because food stamps never occurred to me. Never realized living out of a motel was "homeless" because I had a roof. If it had occurred to me, I would have asked for assistance for my son's sake if not my own. I can only imagine how people with severe illness are affected.

Treat them with respect. They deserve it as much as anyone else, and they get it far less than they deserve.

Take them to a police station or call the cops on them?

Yes, maybe if you want them to get shot a couple dozen times lol.

There are too many variables to be able to answer that. I personally can't do anything about them. We don't have any in my town though. But if I lived in a city I would possibly give them.food if I had anything when I walked by. Not money, scammers ruined that for everybody. If they looked like they need help I'd call 911 or if they seem violent or disruptive etc. Mostly I would just walk on by because I don't have the ability to do anything really.

I think there should be something done by the govt though. They should reopen the hospital's that were closed and make them not a hell hole too. I don't know if that will get done because mentally ill homeless people aren't really a demographic that politicians target so unless they are bothering somebody whose vote they want, or unless they want to votes of the compassionate people, it's probably not going to get done.

So, I guess it's up to each person in each situation. What do you do when you see them Fnord?

Sometimes, I do give them money. If they say that they are hungry, I might buy them a meal instead. Mostly though, I avoid the drunks, the tweakers, and the aggressive trouble-makers.

Mrs. Fnord and I have taken in people who might otherwise be homeless, but only if they are family, they are working or actively looking for work or going to school, and if they are "clean" insofar as alcohol and drugs are concerned.

We take in people too. We have a good size house and if one of my kids friends needs a place to stay they mostly know they will have at least a couch here if need be. Kids have stayed here from two years to a couple days and everything in between. If they don't act right then I tell them to go and they do.

I've only kicked out a couple and I only refused shelter to one and that's because he was string out so bad on meth that his own family kicked him out and he was living in the woods and the only people who had anything to do with him was his partner in the dope cooking they were doing, but he wasn't strung out and he left the boy in the woods with the dope. He was about 24 and a friend of my kids from school. Known him for years and he wojld hang out with them in previous years. Now though he showed up at my door every day and I'd feed him. I had seem him hanging out with my best friend the cougar, and he had been staying with her and I had talked to him about being around a rough place like that when he was there when I came over. We talked for hours about his issues and I have always been the "cool mom" that the kids and their friends talk to and I try to help. Well he just got so bad that she kicked him out and he was in the woods. If feed him every day and finally said after today no more food. I told him that he has 24 hours to decide and if he comes back anytime.in that period I would put him into rehab that day but if not then I didn't want to see him again until he had sobered up himself. He showed up exactly 24 hours later, spun, and my bestie was over for lunch and we were talking about it. She said she didnt think he would cause he was a really good dope cook and he had all the dope he wanted free, and just about as I had decided she was right he knocked. I called an balance and explained he was geetered up on IV meth and wanted to quit but needed medical attention for lots of reasons and called his dad and he met them there. His dad was a drunk but he went. The kid didn't have any clean clothes so my younger son his size gave him some and we were proud as hell of him for that. He came back to show off how he was doing after living for about a year in a. rehab center and he's come back a few times sad and upset and remorseful because he did drugs again. He called me "Mama" from that time on. He is living here now because his dad is in long term alcohol rehab in another state and he doesn't need to be in that house alone with all the temptations he could get into.

That's just one story I could tell you. I'm hardly some kind of saint and I sometimes look the other way about some things but I really feel you about taking people in. We both are the same about that I think. We have different rules but the same overall theme and way of accomplishing things.

So keep it up please. If more people cared about their family and people they know, and tried to help out, I don't think we would have as many problems.

Whoda thunk it? Two of the "meanest" on here, doing all that nice?

Homeless people usually scare me so I avoid them. The ones I encounter are actually likely not even homeless, but are aggressive panhandlers. We had one here that after being followed was found out to have a really, really nice car and wasn't even homeless.

Honestly I think things should go back to the way they were in the early and mid 1900's before the deinstitutionalization began in the 1950's. But this time have better care there and better treatment and more trained and qualified professionals and have the state pay for it like they do with prisons.

My husband was harassed by a mentally ill woman because she thought he was her rapist from her childhood even though he was a lot younger than her. Police couldn't do anything about it because it was his word against hers and there were no witnesses so he had to run into a 7-Eleven and get assaulted by her so it will go on camera and the man working there told him to go out through the back door which is the office and he called the cops and he never saw her again. It was the only way he could get her help and he had sympathy for her but I was pretty upset about it because of how messed up the system is and I hate violent people. I hate how they could be free and continue threatening and hurting people and if you defend yourself, you can go to jail for it and then you would have to fight to defend yourself and if you have no money, you're screwed. So watch out for the mentally ill. I know lot of them are not violent and they are more likely so be victims of abuse so this woman would have been the minority of them being violent.

This is the reason why my mom won't help them because she has also seen this too many times. She is very observant and she likes to watch people. She once saw a man at Starbucks panhandling and then another car pulled up and he walked over to it and got undressed into his regular clothes and the other man put on some worn clothes and took over and the man took off in the nice car. My mom thought she is never helping a homeless person again.

I lived in a homeless shelter for 3 months and I have a mental illness and I never once looked the part. You can't really tell who's homeless. I'm not equipped to take anyone in.

They should be put at the top of the subsidized housing lists. That's what happened to me and that is the only helpful intervention I got. Counseling, shelters, loans, and even getting a job did not fix anything. Not having a safe and stable place to live is a fundamental problem that cannot be solved in any way other than getting a safe and stable place to live.

Where I live the bums are like the living dead, you can't help. Most panhandlers in my experience are not homeless and are pulling some sort of scam for drugs or just money. I've seen get off these corners and drive off in Escalades, it's ridiculous this organized panhandling is allowed to go on I think. You can't respond to every homeless person, I live downtown and there are probably 10,000 homeless in this city so you just can't. I usually just ignore them or just tell them I'm broke which is more often true than not, some are ridiculous with what they ask and I can't laugh in their face sometimes. Some junkie once told he needed $30 to buy some bread for his family or something, just bold faced stupid lie and he asked me of all people in this area.

Some are friendly, usually the most mentally ill keep their distance and never say a word to anyone. I use to carry around free coupons to Carl's Jr that I'd give away when somebody bugged for me change because 'they need food' which is such a lie since I know you get almost $200 in food a month from food stamps and those countless soup kitchens and homeless shelters so its almost always about buying drugs or alcohol. Honestly if they're honest with me, I might even give someone a couple bucks if have it for them to buy beer. Some homeless lady asked straight up and I gave it to her because she wasn't trying to run a scam on me. Really tho, you shouldn't help people kill themselves.

Avoid eye contact, do not stop, do not engage beyond a simple NO. Some people might find that callous but they don't live where I do. I do feel bad for some but most aren't particularly sympathetic.