The Need for Housing (short version)

People living with mental illness need help with housing. In the last few decades there has been a push to release people from psychiatric hospitals into the community. While this is a fine idea, it hasn't always worked because there weren't enough supports to help people integrate into the community. Among the homeless people living on the streets of our cities are many psychiatric survivors. They have nowhere to go. Some have plugged into social services which were able to help only up to a point. Often, though, the only alternative to living on the street was living in dirty and unsafe boarding houses. Mainstay grew out of this need to give people living with mental illness decent housing with attendant supports. There is, however, still a desperate need for more housing.

To read a longer discussion of this issue, click here.