Fighting homelessness requires acknowledging ties with addiction, mental illness, and crime

Politicians’ efforts to destigmatize the homeless community often suppress frank conversations about important correlating factors. In a Fox & Hounds Daily article, Christopher F. Rufo (of the Discovery Institute Center on Wealth, Poverty, and Morality) discusses research connecting homelessness with substance abuse/mental health disorders and criminal behavior. To address California’s homelessness epidemic, lawmakers must acknowledge the “perilous trifecta” of factors and implement relevant, holistic strategic initiatives.

An emerging body of evidence confirms what people see plainly on the streets: homelessness is deeply connected to addiction, mental illness, and crime.

Homeless advocates argue that substance abuse is a small contributor to the problem, and that no more than 20 percent of the homeless population abuses drugs. Last year, when I suggested that homelessness is primarily an addiction crisis – citing Seattle and King County data that suggested half of homeless individuals suffered from opioid addiction – activists denounced me on social media and wrote letters to the editor demanding a retraction. 

But according to a recent Los Angeles Times investigation, 46 percent of the homeless and 75 percent of the unsheltered homeless have a substance-abuse disorder—more than three times higher than official estimates from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

In the interest of preventing “stigmatization,” progressives downplay the connection between schizophrenia, severe bipolar disorder, and homelessness. In general, cities have claimed that roughly 25 percent to 39 percent of the homeless suffer from mental-health disorders. 

As new data from the California Policy Lab show, it’s likely that 50 percent of the homeless and 78 percent of the unsheltered homeless have a serious mental health condition. 

This article originally appeared in Fox & Hounds Daily. Read the whole thing here.

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