COUNTYWIDE : Study Cites Mental Illness in Homeless

A new study has counted 1,843 homeless people in Ventura County and suggests that 17% of them are mentally ill--a figure that even the study’s organizer said is probably too low.

The study, coordinated by the county’s homeless ombudsman, Nancy Nazario, and released last week, was conducted mainly to get an accurate count of the local homeless population, Nazario said.

But the study also included interviews with 525 homeless adults about their physical conditions and social and economic circumstances. Of those questioned, only 17% admitted to past psychiatric treatment, Nazario said.

Nazario said, however, that the percentage of mentally ill among the county’s homeless population is probably closer to 25%. People tend not to report mental health problems, she said.

And Richard Reinhart, chief psychologist for the county’s Mental Health Services Department, said the percentage of mentally ill homeless may be even higher.

“Most of the studies nationwide have shown that roughly 25% to 40% of homeless people are mentally ill,” Reinhart said.

He said he thinks Nazario’s study may have undercounted the mentally ill because most of the homeless questioned were found at shelters, food pantries and other service agencies. Most mentally ill homeless people avoid such agencies, Reinhart said.

“Many people who are homeless are homeless because they want to get away from that section of society, their therapists, families” or others who may urge them to get psychiatric help.

What’s missing from the study, he said, are the homeless mentally ill “who are living out in the open.”

Nazario said her study, which was conducted by volunteers, did not have the money to send interviewers to outdoor encampments of homeless people.

But she maintained that the root cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing, not mental illness. It is difficult to treat people suffering from mental illness or other disabilities if they do not have a place to live, she said.