The Medicalization of Homelessness and the Theater of Repression

As a result of changes in the economy and attendant government policy decisions, the United States is experiencing a crisis in homelessness unprecedented since the Great Depression. While some homeless people are mentally disabled, the majority are not—they are homeless because they lack sufficiently well‐paying jobs and because of a lack of adequate, affordable housing. This article examines how, during the 1980s, the New York City government publicly and politically linked homelessness with mental illness, a linkage frequently reinforced by the press. This medicalization was used to divert attention from the socioeconomic roots of the problem and to justify the removal of homeless people from public spaces. The author examines changes in government policies and responses of activists, the public, and the press in several different phases over the decade.