It happens like clockwork. A person suffering from serious mental health problems is accused of a heinous and tragic crime committed against a stranger. Then the calls come from law enforcement, politicians, and right-wing tabloids to lock more people up. Rinse and repeat. This all happens despite the fact that people living with mental health challenges are 11 times more likely to be the victims of crime and violence than to commit an act of violence.

It is undeniably true that the status quo for how we address issues like homelessness and serious mental health challenges is untenable. But the response must not be to simply lock more people away. That doesn’t make us safer, and it doesn’t solve the root problems that lead to these devastating events.

Everyone deserves to have safe and stable housing, and we should all be able to get the health care we need when we need it. But for this to happen, we need meaningful, comprehensive, and paradigm-shifting new investments in affordable housing and our mental health care system.

If we don’t see these types of commitments from our state leaders soon, we are headed for incredibly dark days, especially with President Trump in office who promised to disappear homeless people into ill-defined “tent cities.”

On this episode, we talk about why our current approach to dealing with homelessness and serious mental health issues doesn’t work and what needs to be done to truly fix these problems with Harvey Rosenthal, Chief Executive Officer of the Alliance for Rights and Recovery and Beth Haroules, NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney.

Resources:

Follow The Alliance for Rights and Recovery: https://rightsandrecovery.org/

The Status Quo on Homelessness and Mental Health Care is Untenable: https://www.nyclu.org/commentary/the-status-quo-on-homelessness-and-mental-health-care-is-untenable

NYCLU Kings County case: https://www.nyclu.org/court-cases/mental-hygiene-legal-services-v-nyc-hhc-challenging-squalid-conditions-abuse-brooklyns-kings

The Dangers of Kendra’s Law: https://www.nyclu.org/resources/policy/one-pagers/dangers-kendras-law

Daniel’s Law: https://www.danielslawny.org/

Links to definitions of key terms mentioned in the podcast:

Intensive and Sustained Engagement Team (INSET) program: https://greatermentalhealth.org/inset/

Safe Option Support Teams: https://omh.ny.gov/omhweb/rfp/2023/sos/index.html

Clubhouses: https://clubhouse-intl.org/what-we-do/what-clubhouses-do/

Crisis Respite Centers: https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/crisis-emergency-services-respite-centers.page

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