No Fixed Address · Episode 2 of 11 · 40 min
How Emptying the Asylums Created Modern Homelessness
In 1955 more than half a million Americans lived in state psychiatric hospitals; over the next half-century that population fell by more than ninety percent. New drugs, reform impulses and revulsion at abuse drove it, but the planned community care system was only about half built. The gap became a partial driver of visible homelessness.
Who's who
- John F. Kennedy+4 more episodesPresident who signed the Community Mental Health Act in October 1963
- Ronald Reagan+11 more episodesCalifornia governor who signed the 1967 Lanterman-Petris-Short Act
- Jimmy Carter+12 more episodesPresident under whom the Mental Health Systems Act passed in 1980
Where it happens
- California+30 more episodesState whose 1967 act sharply limited involuntary commitment
Timeline
- 1955State mental hospital census peaks at 558,922
- October 31, 1963Kennedy signs the Community Mental Health Act, the last bill of his presidency
- 1967California's Lanterman-Petris-Short Act ends most indefinite involuntary commitment
- 1980The census is down to roughly 154,000; the Mental Health Systems Act passes
- August 13, 1981The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act repeals most of the Mental Health Systems Act
Still debated
Accounts differ on how much deinstitutionalization explains modern homelessness, versus housing affordability driving the overall count. Whether the failure was the emptying itself or the missing replacement, and whether reinstitutionalization is the answer, are also disputed.
← PreviousHomelessness in America: Is It Housing or Mental Illness?Next →Why Rent — Not Addiction — Drives Homelessness
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