Hunger Is Not a Disease

They Live Under Bridges, In Abandoned Buildings, In Cemeteries, Behind Shopping Centers And Malls

Homelessness accompanies a number of mental illnesses including schizophrenia and bipolar disorders.  Mentally ill persons have a tendency to become chronically homeless.  It’s believed by MentalIllnessPolicy.org that there are over 250,000 seriously mentally ill persons in our country.

This statistic is very telling.  What it says:

there are more homeless people with untreated severe psychiatric illnesses than there are people receiving care for their diseases. 

To understand this, think of the streets as a large ward for the mentally ill.

The bottom line here is that many people are living on the streets coping not only with the problems of homelessness but also the mental illness they are afflicted with.

Releasing patients out of hospitals saves money for the mental health system but it shifts the costs over to jails and prisons which are much more expensive.

While a seriously mentally ill person is trying to survive on the streets dealing with things like dumpster diving for food, s/he is also dealing with being robbed, beaten, etc.  And, finally, s/he is not being treated for disease.

We had several of these very ill people who visited our pantry regularly.  as long as they were not physically aggressive, they were treated with dignity and shopped however they wanted.