Homelessness Without a Choice

Poverty is a problem that can be fixed for some Americans. They work, get paid, and spend their money wisely. Poverty can be viewed as a “choice” for some people based on their situations. But for those stuck in the limbo of poverty without assistance, stuck on the streets, there may be no other option. There are many subcategories of people living in poverty, but I will be focusing on the subcategory of poverty due to mental illness. This is a serious issue that needs to be solved. In order to understand why this problem is important one must understand the history, statistics, and barriers that cause poverty, facilitators that alleviate poverty, and a future solution to the problem.

In the late 1970’s New York City kicked the lower income mentally ill out of their single room occupancy apartments which were commonly occupied with mentally ill people. This was due to renovations to make these apartments into condominiums or rental apartments for the upper and middle class. In 1882 a study from Rand Corp found that people were not interested in owning rental properties. That year, the Reagan administration decided to stop construction and increase the rent on the low-income houses and single room occupancy apartments leaving many to remain on the streets (Jones 149-150). These mentally disabled citizens were forced into homelessness without a choice. They could not pay the rent because they must pay for food and medication as well, so they had to make a sacrifice to survive.

To make matters even worse, in 1882 Reagan made budget cuts that cut into low income housing and mental health social research. This left even more mentally ill citizens to fend for themselves on the streets and prevented social researchers from gathering the most accurate data on homelessness due to mental illness and how to hinder its growth. Larry B Silver, who as a community Psychiatrist, deputy director, and active director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in the early 1980’s, said “It was a disastrous time for mental health. I don’t know if we will ever recover from it” (Jones 151). Nonetheless research continued; research from the NIMH found that one third of the homeless community was mentally ill. In addition, Irene Shiften Levine, a Psychologist who worked for the NIMH community support program was one of the leaders of this research. In 1987, the Stewart B. McKinley Homeless Assistance Act was reluctantly signed by Reagan due to the intense efforts of Levine. Both Democratic and Republican parties began to recognize this issue. Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico whose daughter was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and Senator Al Gore’s wife also became advocates. This helped fund housing, healthcare, job training, and research funded projects based on mental illness, drug abuse, and alcoholism among the homeless (Jones 151-152, 154, 162-163). Although these efforts have slightly improved the situation, today there are still factors that contribute to this issue such as employment, that need to be addressed.

Aside from what is stated above, there are still issues with employment in the mentally ill homeless community. In the journal article “Employment, Day Labor, and Shadow Work Among Homeless Assistance Clients in the United States,” by Lei Lei states that, people with mental illnesses have a lower employment rate. A statistic showed that having a mental illness can lower a person’s chances of getting a job by 15 percent (Lei 264). To make matters worse, 34.1 percent of respondents reported having a mental illness in 2017 (Lei 263) (Lei 254, 263-264). This can be seen on the streets of many cities with a surplus of many panhandlers begging for money because they cannot get a job forcing them into financial crises.

In order to fully understand what mentally ill people living in poverty are going through, one must understand their financial experiences. A research study article called “Poverty Trajectories Experienced by Persons with Mental Illness,” by Cheryl Forchuk, studies this topic under two objectives, what types of services help the mentally ill improve their financial situations, and what are the challenges and barriers that they encounter when trying to improve or maintain their financial status. The study used three groups based on if their financial situation was improving, staying the same, or worsening. Common facilitators associated to all three groups include supportive relationships to boost them up emotionally, part time work, and government supported income increases to help them financially. Some of these facilitators vary depending on which group each participant falls into. For instance, participants who were financially getting worse or staying the same did not describe their experience of overcoming drugs and alcohol. A possible reason is because they are still addicted and intertwined with drugs and alcohol potentially keeping or worsening their finances. On the other hand, participants with a good financial status reported how they overcame addiction and their financial situation improved. Lastly, education programs helped those stuck in the same financial situation (Forchuk et al. 254-256). One participant describes it as “opening curtains where it is all dark” (Forchuk et al. 256).

Participants were also asked about the barriers that prevented them from financial success. One of these barriers is the sense of hopelessness or powerlessness. These participants felt or still feel like they are emotionally in a downward spiral paralyzing them from making changes in their life; the future had nothing for them and there was no place to go. Additionally, many participants did not know about resources and services that could help them in their time of need like welfare or food banks. Yet with all this support, the stigma of having a mental illness caused them to be discriminated against by others. This could cause job related issues such as not being hired because of their disability or bosses not understanding how they need to accommodate them at work. Due to these issues or this issue alone, education limitations can be a barrier, such as not being able to afford things like text books. Without education, impoverished mentally ill people can potentially become financially unstable (Forchuk et al. 256-258). This financial instability can lead to problems such as malnutrition.

A similar study called “Perspectives of social justice among people living with mental illness and poverty: a qualitative study,” by Abraham Rudnick focused on their specific needs such as having enough food. Having enough food is hard for people in poverty. Despite using soup kitchens and food banks, the impoverished people with mental illnesses must ration what they are having and may not know what they are going to eat every day. Money constraints make it hard for these individuals to get food and their medication. The need for safe housing was also present in this study. When safety was increased, participants were more likely to get involved in self-promoting opportunities. Other participants who were in social housing described it to be a loud dump. This kind of housing made them feel hopeless and stuck in the poor stereotype (Rudnick et al. 151-152). These alleviators, barriers, and needs from poverty due to mental illness set forth information for future assistive services to help stop these financial dilemmas among these people.

Historical background of the impoverished with mental illnesses was highly recognized during the Reagan Era with help from the NIMH’s research and Irene Levine. This history put forth the social justice issue of people in poverty with mental illnesses. Because of this, further research was done to help eliminate the inequalities such as job discrimination due to a person’s mental illness. To improve the quality of life for these people, a study was done to highlight what promotes their financial success and what barriers keep them from achieving this goal. Another study also revealed needs for the impoverished mentally ill such as proper nutrition and better housing. In efforts to alleviate future poverty, researchers have done and suggest continuing future interventions for people in poverty who are mentally ill by housing them together and creating an alternative source of income. With their income, they would share their resources with each other reducing poverty. Further research needs to be done to identify the pathways into and out of poverty for the mentally ill (Forchuk et al. 250). Hopefully, one day the world will fully accommodate those who did not make the choices but were forced into poverty.

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