We are both health care professionals with decades of experience caring for people with mental illness, substance use disorders and homelessness, and we have concerns about the proposed Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Court program.
These days it’s common to walk or ride past homeless people on the street. In urban areas and even the suburbs, there are tents, campers, sleeping bags and cars filled with people and their belongings. In some areas, active drug use occurs in the direct line of sight of children moving between home and school. People in despair, standing in the middle of the street talking to themselves, ranting or in crisis, are a common site. We all want to know why this is happening and how to fix it.