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LUCKY SEVERSON (guest anchor): As the economy falters, the number of Americans who are living on the streets is on the increase. What is even more alarming is the number of homeless who are mentally ill, who have slipped through the cracks. The problem, we are told, began in the '70s when people with mental illness were transferred from hospitals to community care. Along the way the care and treatment have not materialized or have disappeared. Now there are new approaches, some quite controversial, that offer promise.
In her previous life, Jean Garrison might have been a school teacher or a nurse. She has that kind of attitude about her. Instead she stands here shivering, in a coat we provided, anxious to get back to the warmth and safety of what passes as her home inside Penn Station.
(to Jean Garrison): So Jean, where did you spend last night?
JEAN GARRISON: On the trains. Subway trains. I didn't sleep. You can't sleep because a person can't sleep or they'll be robbed of everything they possess.
SEVERSON: (to Jean Garrison): Where were you the night before?
Ms. GARRISON: Same thing.
SEVERSON: (to Jean Garrison): Pretty miserable life?
Ms. GARRISON: It's a nightmarish existence and to further complicate things, in order to get off the streets and get onto a train you are obliged to pay the fare. Now I can't pay the fare because I have no money at all.
SEVERSON: There was a time, recently, when Jean did have some money -- a disability check for $600.
Ms. GARRISON: I felt wonderful. I said to myself this is marvelous. Let me go to a hotel room. I went to a hotel. I stayed for two days -- three, four. And I said to myself well you have a couple of hundred dollars left. Maybe it's time to leave but at least you had three or four days rest. You could wash your clothes. And I was happy. I was happy.
SEVERSON: Jean was diagnosed with a mental illness years ago and she is not alone. Authorities estimate that on any given night, one third of America's homeless are suffering a serious mental illness, compared to only four percent of the general population. What it means, most everyone agrees, is that the traditional approach of providing housing only to those who comply with treatment programs isn't working. Too many are falling through the cracks.
SAM TSEMBERIS (Director, Pathways to Housing): I really think that we desperately need to figure out a solution to this. And there is a solution.
SEVERSON: (to Mr. Tsemberis): And the solution is?
Mr. TSEMBERIS: Housing. First.
SEVERSON: Sam Tsemberis runs a housing program for people with mental illness in New York. He says the number of homeless was appalling, even before the bad economy forced many people out of their living rooms onto the streets.
Mr. TSEMBERIS: If we had a hurricane and people were homeless, we would simply call FEMA and emergency housing would be built and everyone would be housed again. Well, we essentially had a hurricane happen to these people with mental illness when the real estate market went way up and there was no federal subsidy for their housing.
SEVERSON: Against a chorus of skepticism, Tsemberis started the Pathways to Housing program over a decade ago.
(to Mr. Tsemberis): What was it that set you off on this course?
Mr. TSEMBERIS: Years of frustration of trying to do it the other way.
SEVERSON: Pathways is one of the few programs in the country that offers housing to mentally ill homeless with hardly any pre-conditions, such as staying clean and sober.
Laurie Ahern, co- director of the National Empowerment Center, a mental health organization, says most mental health agencies use coercion in their programs.
LAURIE AHERN (National Empowerment Center): In other words, if you want a home then you have to show up Friday and get your Prolixin shot, and there are people that would rather be free and homeless on the street than be forced into treatment that they don't want.
Mr. TSEMBERIS: It's hard to change a mindset -- you know isolate them -- somehow treat them as not as capable as ourselves. There's a lot of stigma and prejudice.
SEVERSON: Prejudice that runs deep and, Laurie Ahern says, influences public policy.
Ms. AHERN: We don't have a lot of tolerance for people that are different. People that look different, people that act different. And we want to control them.
Mr. TSEMBERIS: Sam is checking on a woman he helped find an apartment for almost a decade ago, when she was on drugs and in and out of jail. Her name is Qumar.
QUMAR: I got caught a few times. Got caught jumping a turnstile trying to go to a church to eat food.
In her previous life, Jean Garrison might have been a school teacher or a nurse. She has that kind of attitude about her. Instead she stands here shivering, in a coat we provided, anxious to get back to the warmth and safety of what passes as her home inside Penn Station.
(to Jean Garrison): So Jean, where did you spend last night?
JEAN GARRISON: On the trains. Subway trains. I didn't sleep. You can't sleep because a person can't sleep or they'll be robbed of everything they possess. SEVERSON: (to Jean Garrison): Where were you the night before?
Ms. GARRISON: Same thing.
SEVERSON: (to Jean Garrison): Pretty miserable life?
Ms. GARRISON: It's a nightmarish existence and to further complicate things, in order to get off the streets and get onto a train you are obliged to pay the fare. Now I can't pay the fare because I have no money at all.
SEVERSON: There was a time, recently, when Jean did have some money -- a disability check for $600.
Ms. GARRISON: I felt wonderful. I said to myself this is marvelous. Let me go to a hotel room. I went to a hotel. I stayed for two days -- three, four. And I said to myself well you have a couple of hundred dollars left. Maybe it's time to leave but at least you had three or four days rest. You could wash your clothes. And I was happy. I was happy.
SEVERSON: Jean was diagnosed with a mental illness years ago and she is not alone. Authorities estimate that on any given night, one third of America's homeless are suffering a serious mental illness, compared to only four percent of the general population. What it means, most everyone agrees, is that the traditional approach of providing housing only to those who comply with treatment programs isn't working. Too many are falling through the cracks.
SAM TSEMBERIS (Director, Pathways to Housing): I really think that we desperately need to figure out a solution to this. And there is a solution. SEVERSON: (to Mr. Tsemberis): And the solution is?
Mr. TSEMBERIS: Housing. First.
SEVERSON: Sam Tsemberis runs a housing program for people with mental illness in New York. He says the number of homeless was appalling, even before the bad economy forced many people out of their living rooms onto the streets.
Mr. TSEMBERIS: If we had a hurricane and people were homeless, we would simply call FEMA and emergency housing would be built and everyone would be housed again. Well, we essentially had a hurricane happen to these people with mental illness when the real estate market went way up and there was no federal subsidy for their housing.
SEVERSON: Against a chorus of skepticism, Tsemberis started the Pathways to Housing program over a decade ago.
(to Mr. Tsemberis): What was it that set you off on this course?
Mr. TSEMBERIS: Years of frustration of trying to do it the other way.
SEVERSON: Pathways is one of the few programs in the country that offers housing to mentally ill homeless with hardly any pre-conditions, such as staying clean and sober.
Laurie Ahern, co- director of the National Empowerment Center, a mental health organization, says most mental health agencies use coercion in their programs.
LAURIE AHERN (National Empowerment Center): In other words, if you want a home then you have to show up Friday and get your Prolixin shot, and there are people that would rather be free and homeless on the street than be forced into treatment that they don't want.Mr. TSEMBERIS: It's hard to change a mindset -- you know isolate them -- somehow treat them as not as capable as ourselves. There's a lot of stigma and prejudice.
SEVERSON: Prejudice that runs deep and, Laurie Ahern says, influences public policy.
Ms. AHERN: We don't have a lot of tolerance for people that are different. People that look different, people that act different. And we want to control them.
Mr. TSEMBERIS: Sam is checking on a woman he helped find an apartment for almost a decade ago, when she was on drugs and in and out of jail. Her name is Qumar.
QUMAR: I got caught a few times. Got caught jumping a turnstile trying to go to a church to eat food.
Qumar spent so much time drugged out and in jail, the state took away her boy and two girls.
Reverend JANET VINCENT (Rector, Grace Episcopal Church): It's very hard to be a Christian if you're not reaching out in some tangible way to other human beings -- especially to those who aren't like us. And especially to those who, at times, we're a little bit afraid of -- like the mentally ill and the poor.
JANE KONRAD (Jonathan Konrad's mother): We really try to live out the gospels. You know John's gospel of love one another. And to be there for people. You need someone holding your hand. To empower you to move forward. And to better yourself. And you can't do that by yourself. 
ARMANDO: I slept by the United Nations, at the Dag Hammerskjold Plaza. I learned how to use garbage bags and a box to stay warm.
SEVERSON: And there are success stories. People do move on. Consider Laurie Ahern, mental health expert. She was once diagnosed with schizophrenia and locked away. A few weeks ago she was given a national honor for her work in the mental health care field. About the same time she was notified that government funding had been cut for the program she co-directs. As for Jean Garrison, we don't know where she might be. 
