Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Investing

Autonomy and Affordability: Solving Homelessness Without Coercion

by December 13, 2024
December 13, 2024
Autonomy and Affordability: Solving Homelessness Without Coercion

Jeffrey A. Singer

A December 12 report in the UK Independent implies Elon Musk thinks most homeless people are “violent drug zombies with dead eyes, and needles and human feces on the street.” That’s an oversimplification, to say the least.

The report claims President-elect Donald Trump wants the government to force homeless people into drug treatment and mental institutions or face arrest. It cites the Trump/​Vance Agenda 47 website:

[W]orking with states, we will BAN urban camping wherever possible.

Violators of these bans will be arrested, but they will be given the option to accept treatment and services if they are willing to be rehabilitated. Many of them don’t want that, but we will give them the option.

We will then open up large parcels of inexpensive land, bring in doctors, psychiatrists, social workers, and drug rehab specialists, and create tent cities where the homeless can be relocated and their problems identified…

…And for those who are severely mentally ill and deeply disturbed, we will bring them back to mental institutions, where they belong, with the goal of reintegrating them back into society once they are well enough to manage.

Both Musk and Trump appear to give short shrift to a major cause of homelessness: a growing shortage of affordable housing. As Vanessa Calder Brown wrote in a Cato briefing paper, “Reforms that eliminate zoning, improve permitting speed, legalize greater housing density, and remove barriers to housing innovations—including co-living units, tiny homes, and manufactured homes—are all part of a successful strategy to reduce homelessness.” Building codes and land use and zoning laws are largely state-level issues.

Another key contributor to homelessness is mental illness. Two-thirds of homeless people have a mental illness, and up to 20 percent of the homeless may have schizophrenia. In many cases, mental illness is the force driving alcohol and illicit drug use. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration points out that, in many cases, people with mental health problems “misuse these substances as a form of self-medication.”

Contra President-elect Trump’s proposal, the government coercing people, directly or indirectly, to undergo mental health or drug addiction treatment flagrantly assaults their autonomy. As psychiatrist and civil libertarian Thomas Szasz wrote in his classic work The Myth of Mental Illness: Foundations of a Theory of Personal Conduct, “Involuntary psychiatric interventions violate the fundamental moral and political principles of free societies and turn psychiatric authority into a species of despotism.”

Numerous studies have also failed to find evidence that involuntary mental health treatment is effective. There is some evidence it may increase suicidal tendencies.

Studies on the efficacy of mandatory drug rehab have also had negative results. Compulsory drug rehab has high relapse rates. There is also evidence that it increases the risk of subsequent overdose deaths among people released from rehab.

Enforcing public nuisance laws or penalizing actions like blocking streets, creating public health hazards, or disturbing the peace is not inappropriate or unjust. Incarcerating peaceful people who choose to live unhoused is. And coercing people with substance abuse and mental health problems to undergo treatment assaults their autonomy.

President-elect Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, is seriously interested in reforming the public health agencies. Trump’s pick for the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, has a history of challenging conventional narratives and welcoming outside-the-box ideas. One reform that both should consider, which can help mitigate the homelessness crisis, is ending the FDA’s Risk Mitigation and Evaluation Strategy (REMS) program it imposes on the drug clozapine—the only drug that the FDA has approved for treatment-resistant schizophrenia.

As Josh Bloom, PhD of the American Council on Science and Health, and I wrote in The Hill last month, “the REMS program has unintentionally created barriers that disproportionately affect individuals with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia, further compounding the significant challenges they already face, including unemployment, substance abuse, heightened suicide risk and homelessness.”

An estimated 30 percent of schizophrenic patients do not respond to first-line antipsychotic drugs. Yet, clozapine is prescribed to only 4 percent of these patients in the United States—a situation that underscores a significant gap in treatment.

Bloom and I argue that REMS programs mandated by the government are redundant. Once the FDA approves a drug for marketing, manufacturers will monitor it for long-term risks to protect their reputation and avoid liability. Additionally, physicians prescribing high-risk medications routinely monitor their patients, as failing to do so constitutes malpractice.

There are about 653,000 homeless people in the US today. That population could be potentially reduced by 60,000–120,000 with easier access to a long-used, effective drug for schizophrenia. If the incoming Trump administration is serious about reducing homelessness, eliminating the FDA’s REMS program is a good place to start.

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
Top US ally, SDF commander in Syria warns of ISIS return if Turkish airstrikes don’t stop
next post
Biden administration launches national strategy to combat Islamophobia, anti-Arab hate

You may also like

Answering Frequently Asked Questions about the Inflation Reduction...

March 18, 2025

Voters in Four States Chose to Continue Infringing...

November 6, 2024

From Nutrition to Nannying: Texas SB 25 and...

June 4, 2025

Not Just Any Fiscal Commission Will Resolve America’s...

October 17, 2023

Concerned About Learning Loss? Let Funding Follow Students

December 11, 2023

Air Traffic Control: It’s Management, Not Money

May 20, 2025

Distribution Tables Distort the Tax Policy Debate

February 28, 2025

The Economist Gets It Wrong on Dollarization in...

September 25, 2023

The Folly of Tariff Reciprocity

February 21, 2025

Learning from the Caribbean CBDC Experience

July 24, 2025

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • House Democrats call on Rubio to allow injured children from Gaza into US following visa halt

      August 27, 2025
    • SkyWater pitches itself as all-American firm as Trump mulls more equity deals following Intel deal

      August 27, 2025
    • 600,000 Chinese Students Would Be a Windfall for the United States

      August 26, 2025
    • EPA urged by state AGs to axe funds for ‘radical’ climate project accused of training judges

      August 26, 2025
    • ‘Doctor Strangelove with a mustache’: Bolton blasted for ‘profiteering’ off US secrets by White House advisor

      August 26, 2025
    • Bolton may be in hot water as FBI investigation expands beyond controversial book

      August 26, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,886)
    • Investing (2,242)
    • Politics (16,495)
    • Stocks (3,228)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved