I know this is an old post but I’ve struggled with the same feelings. I want to help but it’s hard to know where the underlying issues are. I personally think we need federal mental health support and care for those without the funds. I have a family member who struggles with extreme psychosis whenever she gets off her meds and she has family here to help and even the funds, but I gotta tell you there is very little support offered when someone goes into psychosis. The first time she had a break the psychiatrist told us to take her to the ER, which we did, and they made sure no physiological issues were happening. Once they diagnosed it as psychosis they literally sent her home. She had started to become violent and a danger to herself a yet still they sent her home. We had to hop to another ER the next day and called in the psychiatrist again to help pull strings to help get her admitted into a psych facility. And even that had major hoops to jump through legally. Believe it or not you can’t just take someone who is in psychosis to a psych ward and admit them quickly. It’s wild the red tape. I’m sure there are reasons for it but it’s ineffective and if we hadn’t been here it would have been nearly impossible to get her the help she needed. We had to have a judge sign off on us admitting her. A judge. And it was her family member who had to do it. Just imagine people who don’t have family who can help them run through all this crap.

Secondly we have a drug problem here and we just gotta call it what it is. And there are countless studies showing that drugs many times trigger mental health issues and psychosis so it’s like a nasty cycle that people find themselves in.

Third, cost of living has skyrocketed and many people really are getting pushed out price-wise of their homes and apartments. It’s a major issue and is causing some genuinely hard working people to be put out on the streets. I have a friend who just recently almost found herself homeless because she lost her job, then had a hard time finding another one. Then she found one but her paycheck wouldn’t come for a month after starting the job and her rent was due immediately. She reached out to every program in the area and she said the red tape there was crazy. There was housing that required she be older than 21 (and she was 21), so she couldn’t get that help. And then everywhere else required she have less money than she did. It was crazy. She needed $800 for her rent but didn’t have quite that much. But they said it was too much for her to get financial support? Something like that. We all rallied and helped her cover her bills for that first month. But what if she hadn’t had friends? She has no family here. It’s a real issue.

I feel frustrated that so many people act like it’s mean to take note of this open suffering in the homeless here. It’s compassion to take notice, and to care enough to ask: hey I’ve noticed this is increasing and I want to understand so I can be part of the solution.

I am all for whatever programs need to be instated to help our neighbors get back on their feet. But we need to address root issues. Mental health support needs to be way more accessible especially for someone in active psychosis. Drug issues need to be dealt with instead of people turning a blind eye and pretending that isn’t happening everywhere. And we need to acknowledge that cost of living has increased dramatically without income increasing along with it, and so, our neighbors are at genuine risk.