Sonny Clark
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #1
The Terrible GOP Policy That'll Kick Thousands More Mentally Ill Homeless People Out on the Streets.
The GOP's new war on the poor could result in more mentally ill people living on the streets.
(1) -- Tens of thousands of people could be pushed into the streets, primarily because they would either lose access to subsidized housing or could not afford rent.
(2) -- If 10 percent [of the 3.6 million SSDI recipients with diagnosed mental disorders] lose their benefits, the likelihood is that some will lose their housing.
(3) -- Qualifying for the benefit opens up access to other subsidized and private housing programs. “It’s been a real lifeline to the homeless.”
(4) -- "Many beneficiaries are very sick, or even terminally ill – one in five male and one in six female Disability Insurance beneficiaries die within five years of receiving benefits, and beneficiaries are three to five times more likely to die than other people their age," wrote TalkPoverty.org.
(5) -- Workers who have been denied Disability Insurance fare extremely poorly in the labor market. A recent study found that among people whose Disability Insurance applications were denied, the vast majority—70 percent to 80 percent—went on to earn less than $1,000 per month."
(6) -- As of December 2013, about 35 percent of SSDI recipients, or 3.6 million people, had been diagnosed with the following mental disorders to qualify for the program: autism (0.4 percent); developmental (0.1 percent); other childhood and adolescent disorders (0.1 percent); intellectual disabilities (8.3 percent); mood disorders (14.0 percent); organic (3.3 percent); schizophrenic and other psychotic (5.0 percent); and other (3.8 percent).
(7) -- As of January 2013, there were 578,424 homeless people across America “on a given night,” according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual homelessness report to Congress, published last fall. Of that number, 31 percent, or more than 179,000 people, were not staying in temporary shelters.
(8) -- “Studies have been done of the percentage of income received from various benefits that goes into housing,” Nortz said, speaking about homeless people who found housing. “It’s already well above 50 percent and in some cases 90 percent. For unsubsidized housing, if you take away 20 percent of their income, they no longer will be able to afford the housing they have. They will join the ranks of the most difficult-to-help people.”
(9) -- When Ronald Reagan was president in the 1980s, he cut funding for federal housing programs while at the same time many states closed mental institutions. Together, those trends resulted in thousands of people, especially the mentally ill, becoming homeless across America.
(10) -- As GOP leaders promote cutting Social Security, demonize and mock SSDI recipients, and use the program as the vehicle for their first wave of reforms, one can only hope this new war on the poor will not increase homelessness. But there’s a strong possibility it will.
The Terrible GOP Policy That ll Kick Thousands More Mentally Ill Homeless People Out on the Streets Alternet
******** If the Republicans have their way, What will we do with the people cut from the program?
The GOP's new war on the poor could result in more mentally ill people living on the streets.
(1) -- Tens of thousands of people could be pushed into the streets, primarily because they would either lose access to subsidized housing or could not afford rent.
(2) -- If 10 percent [of the 3.6 million SSDI recipients with diagnosed mental disorders] lose their benefits, the likelihood is that some will lose their housing.
(3) -- Qualifying for the benefit opens up access to other subsidized and private housing programs. “It’s been a real lifeline to the homeless.”
(4) -- "Many beneficiaries are very sick, or even terminally ill – one in five male and one in six female Disability Insurance beneficiaries die within five years of receiving benefits, and beneficiaries are three to five times more likely to die than other people their age," wrote TalkPoverty.org.
(5) -- Workers who have been denied Disability Insurance fare extremely poorly in the labor market. A recent study found that among people whose Disability Insurance applications were denied, the vast majority—70 percent to 80 percent—went on to earn less than $1,000 per month."
(6) -- As of December 2013, about 35 percent of SSDI recipients, or 3.6 million people, had been diagnosed with the following mental disorders to qualify for the program: autism (0.4 percent); developmental (0.1 percent); other childhood and adolescent disorders (0.1 percent); intellectual disabilities (8.3 percent); mood disorders (14.0 percent); organic (3.3 percent); schizophrenic and other psychotic (5.0 percent); and other (3.8 percent).
(7) -- As of January 2013, there were 578,424 homeless people across America “on a given night,” according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual homelessness report to Congress, published last fall. Of that number, 31 percent, or more than 179,000 people, were not staying in temporary shelters.
(8) -- “Studies have been done of the percentage of income received from various benefits that goes into housing,” Nortz said, speaking about homeless people who found housing. “It’s already well above 50 percent and in some cases 90 percent. For unsubsidized housing, if you take away 20 percent of their income, they no longer will be able to afford the housing they have. They will join the ranks of the most difficult-to-help people.”
(9) -- When Ronald Reagan was president in the 1980s, he cut funding for federal housing programs while at the same time many states closed mental institutions. Together, those trends resulted in thousands of people, especially the mentally ill, becoming homeless across America.
(10) -- As GOP leaders promote cutting Social Security, demonize and mock SSDI recipients, and use the program as the vehicle for their first wave of reforms, one can only hope this new war on the poor will not increase homelessness. But there’s a strong possibility it will.
The Terrible GOP Policy That ll Kick Thousands More Mentally Ill Homeless People Out on the Streets Alternet
******** If the Republicans have their way, What will we do with the people cut from the program?
This would then make them MORE insecure, desperate and dangerous, would it not? How can they be so short sighted? 
