Recovering The SelfA Journal of Hope and Healing

Society and Culture

Forcing the Homeless into Mental Institutions Not Fruitful

The recent directive of the New York City (NYC) government to forcibly remove mentally ill homeless and put them in facilities for mental evaluation and treatment has left many concerned over the issues of basic civil rights. Is this the right approach to the homelessness crisis in NYC or any other place for that matter?

Jerry Iannelli opined in The Appeal that this policy has multiple problems and potentially long-term consequences for the homeless and the homelessness crisis in the country.

The collateral consequences are very extreme and traumatizing—and can in fact prevent a person from recovering and participating in society. Beth Haroules, a senior staff attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union, was cited in the article commenting on what the forced removal and institutionalization of the homeless means for the society:

Beth Haroules, a senior staff attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The collateral consequences are very extreme and traumatizing—and can in fact prevent a person from recovering and participating in society.

Jay S. Levy Underscores Housing Instead of Forced Institutionalization

Expert on homelessness with practical experience of three decades in homeless outreach Jay S. Levy is the author of Pretreatment Guide for Homeless Outreach & Housing First published by the Loving Healing Press. He offers his expert opinion on this issue as included below.

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Involuntary psychiatric hospitalization is not the answer. I worked in NYC during the 1980’s and this was tried by mayor Koch. It did not pass legal muster back then and it won’t now. Further, the plan needs to put housing at the forefront and directly provide these referral opportunities to outreach counselors, not police, so folks living outside can get easy access. If an inpatient admission for significant psychiatric reasons occurs, then this should provide the opportunity for ‘on demand’ discharge to housing with support services. Back in the 1980’s we were chanting “Housing is Treatment.” This is still relevant today… Housing is a necessary step… It is an essential part of healthcare and it provides a pretreatment pathway to recovery!  Being person-centered is at the core of our mission. It means Building trust and respecting a person’s sense of autonomy, while offering affordable housing and support services as needed/wanted. This should be the primary response to the societal ill of homelessness.”

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Visit www.jayslevy.com to learn more about the issue of homelessness and useful resources.

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Recovering The Self is a forum for people to tell their stories. Individual contributors accept complete responsibility for the veracity, accuracy, and non-infringement of their reporting.
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