14 comments

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  wildflower

  4 months ago

  I happened to be downtown this a.m. and, going by Civic Center Park, I can attest that the homeless community is alive and well.
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  purplepatriot

  4 months ago

  I used to be very sympathetic toward the homeless when I first arrived in Denver 30 years ago. I had never seen such people before and was upset to see such apparent misery. I have since realized how parasitic the homeless generally are. They exploit the empathy and compassion of people without end while wallowing in their particular indulgences and displaying complete indifference to the rights of everyone else. Some even exploit their own children to elicit sympathy. The sooner the homeless are removed, the better - and it should be permanent. The detrimental impact of their presence affects everyone else in the city. As a society, we've made a mistake in assuming they are a normal or necessary part of civic life. If mentally or physically ill, they should be hospitalized. If addicted, they should be imprisoned. They simply don't belong among normal, responsible citizens.
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  naomizeveloff

  4 months ago

  Most people would agree that society would be better off if nobody were homeless. But punitive attitudes like the one above are exactly what keep homeless people on the street -- some of them for decades, and some of them until death.
  
  For Tuesday's installment of my series on the Come On In program, I spoke with many people who said that drastic mental health problems in the homeless community keep some from accessing basic services.
  
  Assuming that the homeless must adjust to "normal" life or face the consequences is a very simplistic way of viewing an intractable issue. The homeless will always be a part of our community until we -- and our government -- figure out a way to connect with these individuals and bring them inside for good.
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  woodrat

  4 months ago

  There is no linear relationship between making the homeless feel welcome and forcing them out of public places. The Come On In program sounds like a poorly disguised attempt to ignore the real needs of the homeless community in favor of a cleaner, tidier looking downtown. To assume that all homeless individuals have the same preferences and would feel cleaner and safer eating meals indoors is unhelpful in meeting their needs.
  I also believe that outdoor meals can provide a significant venue for homeless individuals to interact with the community at large. Passersby are more likely to feel safe and welcome stopping by an organized meal in a park, and one message that exclusively indoor meals sends to the public is that we should stay away from the homeless, keeping them faceless and hidden.
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  heidioftherockies

  4 months ago

  Unfortunately, we "treat" a large majority of our mentally ill on the streets and in the prisons.
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  wildflower

  4 months ago

  I believe it was LBJ who emptied out our mental institutions. It was well-meaning and they were horrid places, but it left many people on the street who were incapable of fending for themselves. As most people know, Colorado has always lagged on the bottom near Mississippi and a few southern states in the amount of money expended to care for the mentally ill.
  
  There used to be a psyche debate about whether people are substance abusers because they are mentally ill, or whether they are mentally ill because they are substance abusers.
  
  Add in people who are down on their luck and genuine hobo types who prefer the outdoors and used to hop the freights to the next town to the mix of the mentally ill who don't receive care and substance abusers and you have the synopsis of Denver's homeless community.
  
  There are people who won't work and people who can't work.
  
  It's not a pretty picture, and there is no "one size fits all" solution.
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  wendynorris

  4 months ago

  It was actually Ronald Reagan who de-funded psychiatric hospitals and long-term care facilities in the mid-1980s. I was a psychiatric social worker back in the day and struggled to find housing and work for chronically mentally ill adults who had been hospitalized for most of their adult lives and had no capacity to live on their own. Many of my former clients were homeless or constantly teetered on the precipice of it.
  
  There was nothing humane about what Reagan did. And we're still dealing with the vestiges of that lack of funding, mental health stigma, an economy that no longer needs an unskilled labor force and criminally-neglectful VA that put thousands of veterans with PTSD out on the streets.
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  truthseeker

  4 months ago

  The statement about Reagan is a lie. The truth is that mental hospitals were emptied out of long term patients in the 1970's. That was long before Reagan became President. It was advocates for the mentally ill who demanded that patients be released from state mental health facilities. It is outrageous to try and smear Reagan with this lie! He had absolutely nothing to do with causing the mentally ill to end up on the streets. In NYC in the 1970's there was a mentally ill homeless crisis that came about as a result of liberal groups demanding freedom for mental patients. To try and blame it on the Right not funding treatment and hospitals is nothing but a big lie.
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  wildflower

  4 months ago

  Community Mental Health Centers Act (CMAC)..signed into law by JFK
  
  October 31, 1963. Implementation stalled by Vietnam War.
  
  "However, there was yet an increase in the number of community health centers and a decrease in the number of patients on the inpatient wards of mental hospitals."
  
  
  
  "Another development in the 1970s was the discharge of a greater number of the severely and persistently mentally ill (SPMI) from mental hospitals."
  
  "In 1980 the Mental Health Systems Act was signed into law.It outlined the basics of a national system for mental health community care and treatment. Newly sworn in as president, Ronald Reagan nullified this policy almost immediately, stressing that federal funds must be cut."
  
  source:
  
  20th Century History of the Treatment of Mental Illness: A Review
  
  
  
  http://www.mentalhealthworld.org/29ap.html
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  purplepatriot

  4 months ago

  Ms. Zeveloff,
  
  We may agree more than you think. My point was that leaving the mentally or physically impaired homeless on the streets to fend for themselves isn't working. Society has a moral obligation to address their needs as humanely as it can.
  
  Regarding the sociopathic and criminal elements, society also has an obligation to uphold a generally agreed upon standard of acceptable public behavior. If it doesn't, we can forget any hope of living in a civil urban community. Without an insistance on public standards, all things will be debased to the lowest levels of vulgarity. It's that fact, and the fear it engenders, that has driven some to avoid public places or to "gated communities" where their idea of acceptable social interaction will be upheld. What a terrible loss to be frightened of one's own city!
  
  Over half of the world's population now lives in cities. Cities will be under enormous pressure as urban populations continue to grow. If cities are to function as home, workplace and sanctuary for millions, they must become safer, more beautiful and more livable. Street beggars, addicts and drunks don't fit into that picture. I don't suggest they conform to someone else's idea of "normal", but to a shared, communal idea of civility.
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  piscean13

  4 months ago

  I see comments about getting the mentally ill off the streets, but I see nothing about the cost of the medication needed to keep them off. The state of Colorado does nothing to help with the high cost of medication. If I did not have a loving family I would not be able to afford the $300 a month for my meds. Simply housing these people or shoving them indoors will not alleviate the problem of the mentally ill homeless. Help for those that are homeless or low income to afford their meds is the only solution.
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  4 months ago

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  wildflower

  4 months ago

  Piscean, I think you hit the nail on the head.... without the medication the mentally ill need (and the medical supervision, bloodwork, etc. that psychotropics require), they can't stay off the street, so the program does them no good. I wonder if Denver's "Road Home" is aware of that (?)
  
  I'm very sorry for your situation, the cost of prescriptions is outrageous. I wonder if pharmaceutical companies didn't spend so much money advertising they could lower the cost considerably.
  
  
  
  I know of a person who was severely injured, unable to work, and had a number of health problems and could not afford the prescriptions..she said she contacted the drug companies of the needed medications i.e. companies like Pfizer or Merck or whoever (I don't know which companies) and found some plans for people who couldn't afford the meds and was able to obtain some medication free.
  
  Have you tried that?
  
  I tried to find an expensive prescription med for a college student whose insurance co. would only pay the generic, (and the generic didn't work) and was unsuccessful finding a free program on that one med though, but it still might be worth a try.
  
  I'm so glad you have a family to help, but it's a shame the State of Colorado can't help you out instead.
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  Bradley Christian

  1 month ago

  The public parks belongs to everyone (including the homeless). Where batter place to feed the homeless then where they are. I was once homeless myself in Denver I felt greeted by the homeless(for the most part) and the people that feed us.
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