Me too. I remember living through “de-institutionalization” in NYC and CA too. A nightmare.
It still is.
De institutionalizing the mentally ill, giving them the personal responsibility to make sane decisions and take their meds without assistance or a watchful eye, releasing them to live in the streets and subways, just like giving the drug addicts the drugs, a place to do it and paraphernalia they need to do it. This is the rat way