Mental Illness & Homelessness

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with a woman who helps run the soup kitchen in downtown Raleigh. I admit that I had never been there, so was interested to know the details of how it is run and the population it serves. The woman spoke of how she felt that Raleigh was changing its attitude towards the homeless amidst the "revitalization" downtown, with all the new buildings, renovations and clean up projects. Anyone who goes downtown would notice the changes happening and would likely agree that it is exciting to see the transformation. She pointed out that part of this revitalization is the plan to move things like the Greyhound bus terminal and the Salvation Army out of downtown. This would in turn draw the population that these places serve, out of downtown - mainly the poor and the homeless. She said they are closing shelters and moving the only place that she knows about that serves supper to the homeless, away from the new revitalized downtown. Though her soup kitchen would remain to serve one meal - lunch, it made me wonder about the future fate of the homeless there.

Then I asked the woman about the kind of people she served and not surprisingly she told me that she was sure that many of them were mentally ill. She says that many of them have obvious illnesses, but also felt certain that many others were also ill. My thoughts went to the many mental illnesses that we are studying in class and how they can lead to homelessness. We have learned that having an untreated or unmanaged mental illness often prevents people from living lives that enable a person to have a home. Being unable to interact normally with others and keep a regular job can quickly lead to social isolation and poverty. Without financial and social support, supporting a home becomes impossible. The link to the article below gives the statistic of 20-25% of the homeless population being mentally ill. Somehow I don't find this statistic surprising and would not doubt that the number is actually much higher. Quite often the homeless are often also physically ill from lack of physical care, and are frequently substance abusers.

The solution to the problem therefore is not simply housing these outcasts of society, but to address the mental and physical issues that caused them to be homeless, and possibly the social and financial ones as well. Please read the attached article for many more details and facts about homelessness and poverty.

http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/Mental_Illness.pdf