On 25 Jan 2005 12:46:45 -0800, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Monty Solomon:
>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This could be retitled 'Our Crumbling
>> Infrastructure', and it is an excellent example of how things which
>> were built in our nation's past no longer can be maintained without a
>> lot of expense (which we do not have) and hassle.
> I don't agree with the above summary.
> I would call it "stupid homeless public policy".
> The subway system of any city is no place for homeless people to be
> in. Many people have been killed due to exposure to the elements, hit
> by train, contact with high power supplies, or other accidents.
And maybe some of those aren't "accidents"
Wow, where to begin.
In the "old days" you could be committed to the insane asylum for any
number of reasons, mostly heresay. For example, my grandfather
committed my grandmother to an asylum so he could get a divorce and
remarry. No, grandma was not insane and I never saw my grandfather
after the age of 5. One of or genealogist family members said this
was common practice in those days.
We're back to socialized health and welfare care. Some people don't
take meds because they can't afford them. Some people know how to
work the system and get a free ride. Act insane. Threaten to kill
yourself and you'll get a free ride to some half-way house with gratis
medical care and shelter. Just don't forget your character :-)
I'm not advocating tossing these people out on the street, but there
ought to be a way to get them to a work farm/rest home If you live to
be 90, you have a whole lot better chance of having a major medical
problem than at 60. Yet old hotels and buildings sit empty in cities
around the country.
Carl Navarro
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A lot of 'old hotels' in the Chicago
area are rented out wholesale to the Welfare/Social Service agencies
for the purpose of housing lots of otherwise homeless and mentally
ill persons. And of course the largest such institution for housing/
caring for mentally ill people is Cook County Jail. Average daily
population at CCJ is nine to ten thousand inmates. I suggest that
quite a few/most inmates are mentally ill to some extent or another.
Another good source of housing for mentally ill people are the
countless 'nursing homes' around Chicago, many of which are themselves
sort of ripoff places. In fact, when the Asylums closed down, the
jail got a lot of the business, and the 'nursing homes' got more of
it. PAT]
Carl Navarro (cnavarro@wcnet.org)