The city and the Alaska Mental Health Trust seem intent on reinventing the wheel on how to help the homeless as opposed to looking at the past. The Salvation Army, the Anchorage Gospel Rescue Mission, Bean’s Café and Brother Francis Shelter — combined, they have over a 200-year history of interacting with and helping the less fortunate. The lessons they have learned should be given weight.
In the 1960s, future mental health trust beneficiaries — individuals with dementia, alcohol or drug addiction, mental illness, developmental disabilities and unable to care for themselves — would simply be locked up. The state and federal government passed laws to open the doors of many institutions, but did not pass laws that allowed the disabled to protect themselves or to receive appropriate treatment.
It is not the first choice of a person to lay in the Chester Creek greenbelt strung out on drugs or alcohol. Society has set up an end-of-the-road scenario with no prospects for too many people. Individuals with mental illness often have even less choice.
Every person on the street reached a crossroad at different times — without opportunity, it is easier to make a wrong decision. The lesson: Prevention is cheaper than rescue.
— Faith Myers
Anchorage
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