Deinstitutionalization

 You've been lied to about deinstitutionalization. Getting rid of the institutions didn't lead to people with psychiatric disabilities experiencing higher rates of houselessness--austerity did, just like it did for many marginalized peoples. 

 "Recall that the large waves of deinstitutionalization occurred with the expansion of social welfare activities in the late 1960s and 1970s, particularly Medicaid, SSI and SSDI, housing programs, and food stamps. These programs provided the subsistence base essential for relocating patients to the community. This subsistence base was not maintained relative to the growing numbers of seriously mentally ill persons, and in many instances it substantially shrank. Federal and state governments faced with budget deficits tightened eligibility, benefits, and reimbursement in the Medicaid program so that by the 1980s, only two fifths of the poor were covered (Curtis 1986)." --Deinstitutionalization: An Appraisal of Reform by David Mechanic and David A. Rochefort