A.G. Gancarski
In Fort Dodge, Iowa on Saturday, Gov. Ron DeSantis was consumed with the unhoused population half a continent away.
Telling a story about an “student housing” apartment complex owner in Berkeley, California who was required to provide “floors for homeless” and the troubles it purportedly created, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate said they’d be better off locked up than out in the world.
“So you have 18-year-old college freshmen, these girls going to their apartment and you have homeless that are like harassing them,” DeSantis said. “And so that shows you that the liberal approach to it, that’s just going to get you more homeless.”
Not bothering to square the contradiction between having apartments and being “homeless,” the Governor went on to give his policy advice.
“I do think some of these folks would benefit from being in an institutional setting and I think the public as a whole would be safer as a result of them being in an institutional setting.”
DeSantis framed the anecdote and his conclusion amid an explication of long-term federal policy failure.
“And then the other thing the federal government’s done over many decades is they’ve really pushed away from having anybody be institutionalized. And look, I’m not saying everyone should be. But if you go back 50-60 years and look at the number of people that were in institutional settings versus now it’s, it’s dropped dramatically and you almost see the inverse of things like homelessness and crime on the streets as a result,” said the Governor, who has recently extolled Florida’s “50 year low” crime levels.
Ironically, the Governor who has invoked former President Ronald Reagan and his “shining city on the hill” image is taking aim at a policy of the California Republican’s that broke with his immediate predecessor in the White House.
Reagan repealed legislation championed by Jimmy Carter that supported mental health institutions. The Mental Health Systems Act authorized grants to public and nonprofit private community mental health centers for operational costs, with an eye toward helping the “chronically mentally ill.” It arose from work during Carter’s single term, via a presidential commission on mental health.
Reagan instead provided block grants to the states at reduced levels, amounting to 75% to 80% of what they would have gotten under the Carter framework.
DeSantis has criticized the phasing out of mental institutions before on the trail, including during another stop in Iowa back in August.
“So many people, we used to have more of an institutional process where people would be institutionalized, who couldn’t function in society,” DeSantis said.
“We deinstitutionalized some 30 or 40 years ago. You know, I’m not sure that that was the right thing to do. I see all these homeless in Los Angeles and San Francisco and some of these other liberal cities, they’re doing drugs or doing all this, but their mental health is ultimately the root of this. It’s behavior, it’s not that there’s not enough jobs or anything like that.”
24 comments
Dont Say FLA
December 16, 2023 at 2:12 pm
Rhonda thinks people would choose to become homeless just so they could ogle college girls walking by? Really? What a buffoon.
But I do agree with Rhonda about the need for building some mental institutions.
The people to institutionalize are today’s GOP. And then throw away the key.
Eliminate the power of today’s GOP and then homelessness might solve itself as people get jobs that are worth having and paychecks that are worth working for.
Just like when America was “great.”
Rick Whitaker
December 16, 2023 at 2:15 pm
don’t say fla, great comment
Richard Russell
December 16, 2023 at 2:20 pm
Two levels of criminal incarceration should help curb the rising crisis of crime in America. First offenders should get just and reasonable sentences. However; repeat offenders should get much harsher sentences to make sure the first time offenders are patently aware of the increased harshness for repeat offenses. Lastly, if a convicted murderer does not receive the death penalty and they kill a fellow inmate or civilian outside, once released, should be immediately sentenced to death for the second murder.
I’m not a Muslim or a fan, but am a fan of their handling criminals. The severity of sentences for someone being found guilty of a crime is certainly very effective. America must protect its law abiding citizens’, placing their safety/welfare first by convicting and incarcerating the criminals who prey on them!
Rick Whitaker
December 16, 2023 at 2:41 pm
richard russell, no doubt you are not a muslim as you stated, BUT, you are a redneck fascist.
Rushton Sedberry Jr
December 16, 2023 at 2:50 pm
We need Muslims and we need them Healthy and prosperous.
rick whitaker
December 17, 2023 at 2:32 pm
rushton, we need DEI, the very thing that desantis says he wants to eliminate in universities
Impeach Biden
December 16, 2023 at 4:02 pm
Funny “Tennessee Rick” who hails from Redneck country calling Richard a “redneck fascist”. Richard is absolutely correct by the way. Watch COPS and look at all those Democrats resisting arrest, running from the police, breaking and entering, etc.
TJC
December 22, 2023 at 5:05 pm
Never let facts get in the way of a good story, RR. The most recent FBI statistics (October, 2023) show that crime in the U.S. has gone down dramatically in the last year. Polls show that most Americans — like you — believe crime is rising, but that’s thanks to politicians using fear to gain votes. The fact remains: crime is going down.
Rushton Sedberry
December 16, 2023 at 2:47 pm
The homeless are victims of human experiments. The neural Stintrode Electric Recording Array is one device, there are many, that is being experimented on in vast mkuktra projects. Florida law enforcement is involved. My Aunt told me this. AT and T is also involved my grandfather works for them. The device causes Havana Syndrome. The Florida FBI agents attacked with the device called it Havana Syndrome. Holly Harden is a cartel operatives posing a high springs police operative. She is in the cartel that will have you experimented on. They also brain wash toddlers for sex using the device. I have ample evidence. It is the Jewish and Irish Mafia.
Bwj
December 17, 2023 at 3:58 pm
What?
My Take
December 17, 2023 at 6:48 pm
Wow. It all fits. It explains everything.
And the Jews and the Potato Popeists!!
Caught red handed!
dailyincome74.blogspot.com
December 16, 2023 at 4:34 pm
I was just paid $7,268 this month while working from my laptop. If you think that’s awesome, my buddy who was divorced and has twin toddlers made over $1,892 in her first month of marriage. Making so much money feels great, especially when other cx04 people have to work for far less.
I work as follows:…………….> > > dailyincome74.blogspot.com
Earl Pitts "Sage Expert on Homeless Issues" American
December 16, 2023 at 4:38 pm
Good afternoon America,
Our next POTUS, Ron Desantis, is showing that he, and he alone, has the brillance to resolve Amreica’s homeless issues intentionally brought on by the “Dook 4 Brains Biden Puppet Masters”.
This is the “Next Level Thinking” which will push Ron and Casey thru the door of their next 8 year home “The White House”.
We will dry the homeless out from their deadly feynatal addictions, put those that need it in vocational schooling to get them “Job Ready”, provide them with “Real Toilets and Real TP” so they dont have to “Take A Squeeze” in the streets any longer. And serve them qulaity food and provide medical care as needed. We can do this under Ron Desantis’ Sage Leadership!!!!!
Basically the homeless will enjoy the same right to “Relax Their Sphincters” which all of our “Dook 4 Brains Leftist Citizens” take for granted.
Thank you Ron Desantis, this is Sage Compassion and Sage Wisdom at its finest.
Earl Pitts American
*FREE BUMPER STICKER*
*RESCUE THE HOMELESS WITH YOUR VOTE FOR DESANTIS*
Rick Whitaker
December 16, 2023 at 4:58 pm
CAUTION ⚠ TROLL COMMENT BY EARL THE SPHINCTER MAN
My Take
December 17, 2023 at 6:54 pm
The problem isn’t really that the psychotic homeless taķe illegal druģs.
It’s that they don’t take the antipsychotic legal drugs that were used as excuse to close the asylums.
PPD
December 18, 2023 at 10:39 am
Liberal approach? It was Reagan in 1981 who deinstitutionalized the mentally ill and emptied the psychiatric hospitals into so-called community clinics. Desantis doesn’t know what he’s talking about
Dr. Franklin Waters
December 20, 2023 at 11:53 am
“Desantis doesn’t know what he’s talking about”
He never does. He’s wrong on literally every issue.
It’s almost amazing.
Sonja Fitch
December 19, 2023 at 7:06 am
Most days I am shocked by the crazy ass suggestions of DeSantis ! Trump and Desantis must go. Vote the common good!
Joe
December 20, 2023 at 9:50 am
And bring back forced lobotomies and sterilization of the undesirables while you’re at it!
My Take
December 22, 2023 at 10:40 am
Or distant empty colonies to forcibly dump your undesirables. Like Australia and Georgia were.
TJC
December 22, 2023 at 5:11 pm
And what do you want to bet that DeSantis would have taxpayers’ money pay for privatized mental institutions? For profit, that’s the key phrase to watch out for.
My Take
December 23, 2023 at 12:49 am
I’ll bet you are dead right there!
Just like many prisons.
With corrupt judges filling them over any minor problem.
My Take
December 24, 2023 at 8:45 pm
When it’s freezing or >100 I wonder why some of the empty shopping centers are not used as shelters. Heat, AC, restrooms, well lighted, làrge ànd isolatable rooms. Sure, not free. Need cots, cops, blànkets, toilet paper, food, pay for electricity and water and some rent to cover eventual repairs. But could get a lot of people off the streets, especially at night.
It's Complicated
December 28, 2023 at 11:51 am
The move towards wholesale deinstitutionalization of non-criminal mentally ill patients began in earnest in the 1950s due to the incredibly appalling conditions in state mental hospitals. Over time, and a series of lawsuits, patients’ rights findings have clearly prohibited state governments from involuntarily housing/treating/medicating these patients except when they are a danger to others or to themselves… or when they commit a crime and a different set of rights kick in (as in your rights as an inmate in a correctional facility). It is a conundrum for mental health policy experts, because government cannot force a mentally ill persons to accept help, and as a result, many end up on the streets and in the corrections system. We’ve got to find a balance to reach the people who want help, and keep them off the streets. I don’t know what to do about the people who refuse help no matter what because the days of, ‘the government (or your family) know what is best for you’ are over when it comes to mental health. This is not a particularly partisan issue, because virtually all states – red, blue, or purple, suffer the consequences in similar fashion.
At a micro-level, I know numerous people who have schizophrenia, and when they are medicated are able to fully function in society and hold down jobs. In the three cases I’m most familiar with, each of those people have gone through a period of thinking they’d be fine without meds, and in each case, it was disastrous, with two ending up behind bars for a time, one was homeless by choice, and one had multiple failed marriages. All three of these people are personable, talented, intelligent, and artistic – but incapable of dealing with life and remain in touch with reality without meds.
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