A Room of Their Own

Posted on October 23, 2005 in Class Stigma

Lashuan Harris lived in an East Bay shelter before the voices told her to feed her little boys “to the sharks”. A shelter is the antithesis of everything a psychiatric ward strives to be: chaotic, uncomfortable, open to the world, and dangerous. It is not a place to get stable on your medications or stay the course.

San Francisco resident and mental health activist Antonio Morgan declared

the county should place a high priority on keeping mentally ill people in stable housing.

“After I got into housing,” Morgan told KCBS reporter Melissa Culross, “I was able to start taking medicine because I felt independent.”

Officials, on the other hand, are determined to throw the emphasis on early detection and supporting the families of the mentally ill. While I think this is important, I must also ask about those who have no families to keep an eye on them? What about the stressful conditions under which the mentally ill live day in and day out?

These don’t just include the problem of living when you are homeless, but conditions in the workplace. A nasty boss can precipitate an episode in an employee. With the way health insurance and workman’s compensation works, the employee could well find her or himself saddled with massive debt. It’s not far from debilitating disease to pernury. The voice of Tom Cruise echoes when those who create the conditions under which mental illness thrives and continues say “Well, they made a choice.” They made a choice to work here. They made a choice to work in this industry. They made a choice not to take their meds.

We cannot turn back the epidemic of mental illness unless we address root causes and stresses. Morgan is right: one of the most important things a mentally ill person needs is a stable address, a room of his own. If family provides this (as they did not in the case of Lashuan Harris), then fine. But there are many others who stay in the trough of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia because they don’t have a place with a medicine cabinet to return to.

The City of San Francisco puts first things last. Part of this reason is because of the disproportionate influence that landlords, developers, and realtors possess in the city. Cheap housing for anyone means competition for rents that long ago passed the outrageous mark years ago. The cost is paid by the poor and by mentally ill. Mayor Jordan put up homeless-proof bathrooms many years ago, but did nothing to give the homeless safe places to wash and to take a pee. Now we have a new system which will attempt to put the mentally ill out of the public eye: Lashuan Harris is seen as an embarassment. If San Francisco ignores the need of the mentally ill for affordable housing, it will repeat its mistake of the bathrooms. Those who most need the help will not receive it.

The new plan will effectively gentrify the mental health care system so that only those who have families who care may benefit. The Harris case shows that families can be entirely clueless. Educating them is important, but what about the critical needs? What about those families who cannot help the sick member because they don’t have room or money enough?

It’s time for San Francisco to stop artificially supporting rents by denying affordable housing to those who need it most. People of all kinds need housing. The mentally ill will be better able to contribute to our society if they just have a room of their own. Meds, family support, a living, and a room of their own.

* * * * *

In yet another “terrifying maniac” story, the Du Quoin (Illinois) Evening Call proclaimed that a mental patient had “gone berzerk”while riding in an ambulance. In the wake of the Lashuan Harris case, it seems that every time a sufferer of mental illness sneezes, screams, or farts it becomes news. This item, which came out at the beginning of the month, shows that the attitudes are well entrenched. And yet the newspapers do nothing to promote programs for wellness. They just use us for shock value.