Quote:
Originally Posted by Steely Dan
I've only been downtown a handful of times over the past year, but I haven't been hassled by any aggressive panhandlers on any of my visits.
But that's probably because, thanks to covid quarantine, I now look like an aggressive panhandlers myself.
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I also haven't cut my hair in almost a year, I can probably pull off a similar look
. Out of curiosity, do people ask you if you have a lighter routinely when you're walking around? I can't figure out why people always ask me, other than I have beard...
Back to the topic, there are certainly panhandlers downtown, but they're hardly aggressive. Usually someone sitting outside Popeye's or Target asking for food or socks.
Now, around Roosevelt/Canal might be a different story, since that's quite close to the biggest shelter in the city (
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8624...7i16384!8i8192)
There are some tent cities in Chicago, but obviously most of the population sleeps in shelters at least some of the time. Public lockers would probably alleviate much of the problem, although easier said than done.
Anyway, obviously the major problem (just as in prisons) is insufficient/inaccessible mental health treatment. I have some personal experience with this and getting decent mental health treatment is difficult even for white-collar professionals with caddical insurance plans. In Chicago, from what I understand, there are basically two high-quality in-patient psychiatry wards (Northwestern and Rush), and they have relatively low capacity. There are others that are fine, if not great (e.g. St. Joseph's), and there are some that you probably definitely don't want to go to if you can help it (Chicago Lakeshore).
Obviously long-term psychiatric commitment is a different ball-game, but I doubt there is significant capacity anywhere, so I don't see how involuntary short-to-medium term commitment can be a solution. After all, mental health care is very expensive and the people who need it most won't have the great insurance policies to pay for it (do any long-term treatment centers take medicaid patients?). The cheapest I see quoted for long-term mental health care is something like $300/day. Good luck getting society to pay for that. The joke (which is not really a joke but actually true) is that Cook County Jail is the primary mental health facility for Chicago, but obviously this is not a quality mental health care setting and it's still expensive (>$100/day).
"People don't want to get treatment" is an argument people sometimes use, but it's not like it's even a realistic option for most people on the streets. Basically it's the streets or jail. And of course, most people who have mentally health issues feel that way some of the time, but rarely all of the time (at least, if the level of mental health care is something above being locked in a cage in a straightjacket). Anyway, all states have ways to get people involuntarily committed, although there is certainly some discussion to be had about what the right level of difficulty is for this to curb abuses/maintain trust.