

Just to add, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act repealed Carter’s Mental Health Systems Act - effectively defunding community based health organizations that would support those tossed out of institutions and onto the street. Reagan and Republicans more generally just didn’t give a shit what happened to these people as long as it didn’t cost them any money and that is largely why the homeless situation is where it is today.
It also should not be forgotten that shortly after this, Rush Limbaugh began a decades-long campaign against the homeless on his radio show, constantly demonizing them and attempting to paint homelessness as a choice made exclusively by addicts and the societally worthless.
How else to achieve the status of hoopy frood