Ebook: Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness

Community integration has been a central goal of mental health service policy since deinstitutionalization began in the 1950s, as homelessness increased in the 1980s, and as housing programs for homeless mentally ill persons developed in the 1990s. In 1990, an innovative experiment—the Boston McKinney Project—began to test alternative housing policies. Schutt’s comprehensive analysis of the project’s findings calls into question current housing policies that support the preference of most homeless mentally ill persons to live alone in independent apartments. Indeed, Homelessness, Housing and Mental Illness shows that living alone reduces housing retention and cognitive functioning, thereby supporting clinicians’ usual recommendation of group living. Schutt’s findings challenge the assumptions behind current policy and call for reexamining housing programs for this population.