It also found that a mental health “concern” affected 78% of the unsheltered population and a substance abuse “concern,” 75%. AdvertisementThe findings lend statistical support to the public’s frequent association of mental illness, physical disabilities and substance abuse with homelessness. Even the thousands of new units being built with help from the $1.2-billion Proposition HHH homeless housing bond won’t be enough to close the gap. For example, respondents’ disclosures of having serious mental illness, depression or PTSD were counted only if they also answered a secondary question stating that it was “permanent or long term.” That omission reduced the mental illness rate by 11.4 percentage points. (Screenshots taken from Homeless Service Authority’s survey)These two questions were used by the agency to determine mental illness.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 07, 2019 09:56 UTC