Up here in my tiny corner of Canada, a 1bdrm shoebox typically costs 75% of a monthly full-time minimum wage just in rent. And that’s your gross, pre-tax wage, and not post-taxes net.

People are literally living without heat or even electricity just to put a roof over their heads. At least it’s easier in apartments, if you choose a middle unit you have warmth coming from five of six sides such that the pipes are unlikely to freeze, and the hot water is usually from central boilers.

Commensurately, vacancies have been hovering at 0.02% (2 available vacancies for every 10,000 rentals) for a good chunk of the last decade, and the homeless population (visible and working homeless) has swelled from 1.7% of the city’s population to almost 6% in less than two decades. Wal-Mart recently banned overnight stays in its parking lots for the first time since they opened shop in the 90s because they were having over a hundred vehicles there each night.

And this being Canada, we do not typically have mild winters. we usually have at least 2-3 weeks at -20℃ or lower some time January or February.

You can see how this ends up being a mental-health crisis generator on steroids.

I couldn’t agree more with everything you’ve said.

I was an caseworker for the adult population with serious mental illness (SMI) and was on a specialized team working exclusively with individuals whose SMI was severe enough that they were unable to live independently. All of my clients lived in various residential care or assisted living facilities in my region. A big part of my job was teaching daily living abilities and working to reintegrate people into independent living in the community (or often a semi-indepent housing facilities with more freedom to take steps).

Covid was a substantial disrupter, cost of living is out of control, housing is completely unaffordable, and before covid + RSV + pneumonia kicked my ass out of my job, all of the housing programs in my region were totally backed up. A former team member told me recently that the housing programs all basically are at a standstill.

The population I worked with typically were not their own guardians. Most had court-appointed guardians (typically the county public administrator, because family usually was non-existent, inappropriate, or unwilling) due to repeated hospitalizations and arrests (often behavior from drugs, alcohol, or psychotic episodes). Some absolutely needed guardians due to level of function, others were capable of governing themselves, but trapped under a guardian.

The thing most of my clients had in common was being homeless at some point. That’s often what signified the start of their substance use and most severe period of SMI. It’s very common for people to develop substance use when living on the streets due to the widespread use in the homeless community. They are simply comforting to the group that typically is their only source of support.

Since deinstitutionalization, the Department of Corrections (DOC) has been the largest mental health provider, and the situation is a revolving door. By that, I mean people are arrested due to crisis, substance use, psychotic episodes, etc.; receive medications and become stable; are released on the streets without adequate support/stable housing; can’t/don’t refill their medications; often fall back into substance use because of prevalence among peer-support; have a relapse of symptoms, experience a crisis, or have psychotic episode or drug-induced psychosis; and finally they are arrested again. Rinse and repeat. That is how most of my clients ended up under guardianship.

We must have our basic needs of safety and shelter met if we are to be able to live stable within society. The homeless population’s basic human needs aren’t being met. They are a massive and growing marginalized society in the US. We must have affordable housing and rent or the problem will just continue cascade.

Edit: Worth noting I also have ADHD and I’m slightly medicated from vaping… Makes me rant…

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