Trump wants to help 146,000 mentally ill who are homeless. Democrats want to stop him

Democrats are fighting to stop the Trump administration’s attempt to get 146,000 homeless people with serious mental illness the help they need.

In late July, House and Senate Democrats launched an inquiry accusing the Trump administration of wanting to "return to a time when people with disabilities were denied basic civil rights." But there’s one problem: the system these Democrats are defending is the reason there are so many mentally ill people living in squalor on America’s streets.

Until recently, when it came to helping the mentally ill homeless, states had their hands tied.

For decades, government lawyers interpreted the Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead decision extremely broadly, pushing states to offer "community-based care." HOUSING FIRST IS A DISASTER.

I SAW SACRAMENTO'S HOMELESS CHAOS FIRSTHAND For the seriously mentally ill, this meant independent living in single units where mental health and substance abuse treatment was optional – and often refused.

In June, the Department of Justice released a controversial legal opinion that would fix this by revamping federal oversight of state mental healthcare.

The Trump administration’s new framework allows states to offer small-scale, affordable supportive housing options, such as community-based group homes, that would provide court-ordered treatment to people (often homeless) who are disabled by mental illness or substance abuse issues.

Intermediate housing options like this have historically been difficult to establish and maintain because of unrealistic regulations that put resident autonomy above safety and clinical need, preventing states from building a middle ground between hospitalization and community-based care.

For the first time in three decades, states may finally be able to meet this crucial but ignored need.

The administration’s new approach would not involve a reversion to large state psychiatric hospitals, which offer few opportunities for federal reimbursement and, at an average cost of $1,400 per patient, per day, are too expensive to rely on except when truly necessary.

SEATTLE CLEANED UP FOR THE WORLD CUP BUT ONLY WHILE THE WORLD WAS WATCHING, COMMENTATOR SAYS But even so, activist groups claim that this shift "open[s] the doors for states to revert to warehousing people," evoking the dark imagery of mid-century American asylums.

This is fearmongering, plain and simple.

It conveniently ignores the squalid conditions — and public safety risks — created by the current system, which too often "warehouses" homeless people in dangerous outdoor encampments.

As anyone who has walked the streets of an American city knows, mental illness and addiction among the homeless are urgent problems.