By Eric Stringfellow
the daily cadinal
The other day, I was walking down the renowned State Street. It was about 7 p.m. and a man on the side of the street approached me. He asked, ""Will you give me a quarter? I'll pay you back.""
Instead of digging in my pockets for the change I did not have, I thought: Does this guy actually think I believe that he's going to pay me back if I give him a quarter? More importantly, if State Street is your home, how much is a quarter going to help your situation?
On my way home a couple hours later, I heard that same man, coincidentally standing in the same spot, this time with a different plea: ""Spare some money for marijuana research?"" I was not betting on my money going toward food or clothing.
His lucid plea, although brutally honest, was more enlightening than it was compelling for me to contribute toward ""marijuana research."" Moreover, the irony of having a man reduced to begging for change on State Street was very telling of a larger problem.
According to a study by the University of California San Diego, homelessness is more frequently associated with people with mental health issues, such as substance abuse or schizophrenia. According to the study, substance users are more than four times more likely to be homeless than non-users.
Unfortunately, the man I saw was just one of very many homeless who are in need of help and health institutions can provide that assistance. Yet today, we are reluctant to commit people into health institutions for numerous reasons.
First, due to the anti-asylum and liberationist movements, we commit patients into ""community mental centers."" These centers place emphasis on community psychology, which itself relies on the premise that mentally-ill people could be depended on to get treatment for themselves.
Assuming the man I saw was a substance abuser, it is dangerous to assume that he, or a seriously ill person such as the Virginia Tech gunman, will make the difficult decision to get treatment voluntarily.
At best, it is a stretch to assume a homeless person on State Street would rather admit himself to a hospital and later get a job over getting the $20 that night for his drug fix.
This push to deinstitutionalize wrongly prioritizes personal choice over personal health, which has moved us even further away from taking homelessness seriously. Now, not all homeless are drug-dependent or mentally ill, but studies show that a homeless person is more likely to have something wrong with them. The people who are homeless due to laziness or indifference thankfully represent a minority.
Furthermore, we fail to give forced treatment to patients because of this perception that all mental institutions resemble warehouses more than they do hospitals. Are some state hospitals poorly run and managed? Probably, but the majority of them are well-run institutions providing basic help to people who need it most.
Homelessness is a problem not only because people should not be forced to live hand to mouth, but also because there is a cost to society. The UCSD study shows that the homeless are more likely to spend time in jail, as well as use expensive, taxpayer-funded emergency services.
Madison, as well as the rest of Wisconsin, should reform health care so that mentally-ill or drug-dependent people are given involuntary treatment before they are living on the streets. Health care is not an issue of choice.
So, you can give money to that man or woman on the street, but in reality, the quarter or dollar you give is doubtful to signify more than a temporary act of personal empathy. Until the homeless get the true help they deserve, there is little hope of curing the overall problem.
