Here’s the blunt truth....I lived in Arlington for three years and could observe the whole trend in DC while walking around at various historic sites (the mentally ill hang out at the same sites in DC).
Back in the 1980s....a big segment of the 18-to-25 year old folks (guys and gals) of DC....did cocaine and just about every heavy drug possible. Those who survived...are today around the city. These folks are now 30 years older, and range from 48 to 55 years old.
Basically, they burned out their braincells...can’t think....can’t do much of anything....and just kinda survive as best as they can. A fair number are street folks....who just get by with a blanket or sleeping bag. The various charity groups think that feeding and giving one-night shelter is the best strategy.
The truth is...this group of ten thousand folks need to be institutionalized and tossed out of the city. No one does that because legal eagles will swoop down to defend them and it’d take billions in legal costs to dump some folks into the only place where they fit.
If you want to really see these disabled dimwits....step outside of Union Station and make a one-block circle. There’s one park about half-a-mile from the Library of Congress where most of them hang out all day. If you stand there....you’d swear they were zombies.
What we need is a simple new category for mentally disabled. You can’t collect the check or cash it....unless you enter a government-approved facility, and live within its gates. Then the guy would have to make a decision on his own....avoiding the legal eagles who continually prey upon his stupid position in life, and dump this poor sap where he needs to be.....not on the streets of DC or any major town.
The facility should be on a nice island in the South Pacific.
Most of the "mentally illness" you find on the streets these days is a combination of stupidity, laziness, and drug abuse.
These are the same types of people European explores found living in mud huts, practicing voodoo and eating other people. If they didn't receive handouts and government checks this is exactly the state they would regress to.
Sure there are genuinely ill people that should be institutionalized and cared for but there are a lot of other people that just don't have the capacity to function in an advanced First World civilization.