Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There needs to be a real solution.

Re-open good mental institutions long term for people that need them.

I have a mentally ill family member who has been institutionalized many times. We had to fight like hell to get her into the hospital. It shouldn't be that way.

Our mental health care system needs an overhaul.

The on ramp for long term mental health care should be MUCH easier to access. The problems we see with homelessness are largely a result of poor services for mentally ill people.

Since opening mental health institutions and forcing the homeless into them would be seen as racist and bogged down in litigation from the DC homeless advocacy machine, the only option is to bulldoze these camps or just allow the encampments to grow

Forcing the homeless into them is not what anyone is proposing. Just offering good care in a humane setting will be enough to draw them in. Appropriate care in a humane setting that is accessible doesn't currently exist.

I'm more than willing to give appropriate care to folks who genuinely want help and treatment. But for those who don't, I don't think we need to provide for them or make them feel welcome.

Anonymous wrote:Most of the long-term homeless in DC are mentally ill and many of them do not want to be medicated. I work with them as a case manager.
It's not an issue of there not being adequate resources. There are. Many of the clients actively refuse medication. I (often in tandem with a client's family if they are not estranged from family) spend countless hour over months/years trying to convince a person to even try medication (let alone take it consistently). It is often impossible.

We have no obligation to cater to them if they refuse treatment.

Anonymous wrote:Most of the long-term homeless in DC are mentally ill and many of them do not want to be medicated. I work with them as a case manager.
It's not an issue of there not being adequate resources. There are. Many of the clients actively refuse medication. I (often in tandem with a client's family if they are not estranged from family) spend countless hour over months/years trying to convince a person to even try medication (let alone take it consistently). It is often impossible.

This is what so many people fail to appreciate. We don't actually lack places for people to live off the streets; we lack the ability to force them to go there. This is for good and valid historical reasons based on abuses, but I think we need to balance this and let the pendulum swing back a little on the rights of unhoused populations who refuse the help offered when that refusal infringes on other citizens.

Most of the long-term homeless in DC are mentally ill and many of them do not want to be medicated. I work with them as a case manager.
It's not an issue of there not being adequate resources. There are. Many of the clients actively refuse medication. I (often in tandem with a client's family if they are not estranged from family) spend countless hour over months/years trying to convince a person to even try medication (let alone take it consistently). It is often impossible.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard all of DC's shelters are full because of the busloads of illegals that Greg Abbott has been sending to DC.

DC also has zero obligation to take in migrants shipped here from Texas.

When is DC's AG going to take legal action against Texas?

All Washington DC needs to do is promptly to arrest the bus drivers when they arrive in the District for interstate trafficking of persons who entered the IS illegally. It’s not necessary to detain those who may have entered the country directly. Pretty quickly, no bus driver will want to participate in these stunt caravans. The problem will take care of itself.

The Federal Government ships illegals around the US every day. Why would the Police try and figure out the difference between a bus coming being paid by the fed or a bus coming being paid by a state. The paperwork is identical. The people are coming from the exact same processing centers.

We may not like this, but this was done in response to the administration shotgunning people around the country with no notification to the state Governors. So the border states jumped on the bandwagon. Is it childish? Yes. But it is the time we live in.

Anonymous wrote:I heard all of DC's shelters are full because of the busloads of illegals that Greg Abbott has been sending to DC.

DC also has zero obligation to take in migrants shipped here from Texas.

When is DC's AG going to take legal action against Texas?

All Washington DC needs to do is promptly to arrest the bus drivers when they arrive in the District for interstate trafficking of persons who entered the IS illegally. It’s not necessary to detain those who may have entered the country directly. Pretty quickly, no bus driver will want to participate in these stunt caravans. The problem will take care of itself.

Instead of writing here write your elected officials.