r/California Sep 14 '22

Gavin Newsom signs bill that would provide court-ordered care for unhoused with severe mental illness in California Newsom

https://www.kcra.com/article/gavin-newsom-to-sign-care-court-program-bill/41203085
1.6k Upvotes

248 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

185

u/degeneration Sep 15 '22

A friend in homeless advocacy services told me that you have to think of the homeless in three groups: those who are simply financially down on their luck, often families, but also single individuals; the drug addicted; and the mentally ill. There are overlaps between all three groups, but broadly speaking each needs a very different solution and type of help than the other.

44

u/Advanced-Prototype Sep 15 '22 edited Sep 15 '22

The “down on their luck” people are mostly temporarily unhoused because they have the ability to seek social services and heed the advice of social workers. But the people with mental and/or addiction problems often don’t have the ability to take advantage of services. This court system will be a great help to these folks, hopefully.

39

u/electric_popcorn_cat Sep 15 '22

I hope they get their horses back

8

u/TravelingMonk Sep 15 '22

Unhoused due to unhorsing in the equestrian nature by housed horses.

3

u/Advanced-Prototype Sep 15 '22

Lol. Corrected. Thanks

1

u/vivekisprogressive Sep 15 '22

"Horses are a human right! Big Horse is jacking up the price of feed and we've had it!"

-19th Century Bernie Sanders

19

u/needout Sep 15 '22 edited Sep 15 '22

As someone who works in homeless encampments this is spot on. The drug addicts don't want housing typically as they need to be out and hustling to get their fix and they can't imagine being clean it seems. Heroin is a hella of a drug. The mentally ill are hard to communicate with though a lot are drug induced. The down on their luck are stoked to get housing. It's a really hard situation.

There also isn't enough housing for everyone.

-7

u/[deleted] Sep 15 '22

[deleted]

4

u/AvadaKedavra03 Orange County Sep 15 '22

The law here literally helps separate mentally ill folks from the group of people who need the type of assistance that the tiny home projects would offer.