Mental Illness and Homelessness

The National Alliance to End Homelessness states that on a given night in 2023, 31% of homeless individuals across the U.S. reported having a serious mental illness and 24% confirmed experiencing chronic substance abuse. Two of the most most common mental illnesses among unhoused persons are depression and schizophrenia.

Struggling with severe mental illnesses (SMI) such as these are tough for anyone, but the added layer of being homeless amplifies their struggle. For example,

• Mental illness can be a contributing factor to homelessness. People can lose their housing because they struggle with mental illness. SMI affect thoughts, mood, and behaviors which can make it difficult to maintain a stable job and relationships, which are key to having a roof over your head.

• Homelessness can amplify the symptoms of mental illness. Stress is a key factor in mental illness. The daily struggle to find a place to sleep, meals to eat, enduring harsh weather, and living in fear that someone may attack you or steal all your belongings is incredibly stressful. These daily living conditions increase or add to symptoms.

• Oftentimes unhoused persons turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms to alleviate symptoms of mental illness, such as substance abuse. This is exacerbated by the fact that many unhoused persons go undiagnosed and untreated. They simply don't have access to proper medical care. So, they turn to substance abuse, self-harm, excessive sleeping, and engaging in risky sexual behavior as ways to alleviate the pain of mental illness.

• Mental illness creates a double stigma. Not only are they without a home, but they demonstrate abnormal behavior. He or she is homeless and ‘crazy’

• Severe mental illness contributes to victimization of unhoused persons. Think about it for a minute: many homeless people sleep outside with all of their belongings. Now add to this picture, someone who is not thinking clearly or mentally unstable. This makes them easy prey for anyone who wants to take advantage of them. They are targets for crimes like assault, robbery, theft, and sexual violence. Additionally, they lack proper legal protection and increased exposure to criminals.

God has something to say about homelessness.

He rebuked His people for having the appearance of religion, but failing to do righteousness; for saying all the right things but doing nothing; for worshipping but not living that out.

"For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God...Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer (מָרוּד ) with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” (Isa.58:1-7).

"The poor wanderer" (NIV) is translated "homeless poor" in the ESV. That's a better understanding of the word מָרוּד (mah-rood), which means “restless, straying, or wanderer.” The root of this word means “to roam, ramble or be restless.” It is used to describe animals who have broken their yoke and wander around the countryside.

Paul used the New Testament equivalent when describing the trials he endured. "To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless” (1 Cor.4:11). The Greek word ἀστατέω (astateō) carries much the same meaning, “wandering about with no certain place or settled abode; having no fixed dwelling place.” It is the opposite of "standing still or being established in one place.”

Being homeless is never good and is a burden too heavy for people to bear. It was never part of God's good design for His people whom He made in His image and the world He created for them to live in. When you see someone who is unhoused, view them through a compassionate lens. They are someone's son or daughter, brother or sister; maybe someone's mother or father. They used to have what you do: a roof over their head, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets, a bed to sleep in, and a thermostat to keep them warm. They didn't just suddenly appear on the street or at a homeless shelter. On the contrary, they lost what had previously kept them safe. Living on the streets, traveling from one soup kitchen to the next, and asking for money is their absolute last resort--a means of sheer survival.

Then mover towards them with the same compassion, obeying God's command to "love your neighbor as yourself" sharing your food and providing the poor wanderer with shelter (lit. "bring them into the house").