Myths of Homelessness Part 4: “It’s Just a Drug or Mental Health Problem”

The Diagnosis That Followed Me

I was diagnosed with depression at 16, then again at 25. For years, I managed it. I had stability, routines, medication, a life that worked. I wasn’t “cured,” but I was functional.

Then I lost my wife to cancer. Then I lost my home. Then I was living in my van.*¹

My depression didn’t cause my homelessness—but homelessness nearly destroyed me with it.

In Part 2, I shared how my depression—which I’d managed for years—became overwhelming once I lost my wife and my home. That’s the pattern: homelessness doesn’t cause mental health issues, but it makes existing conditions exponentially worse.

The Myth vs. The Reality

One of the most persistent myths about homelessness is that it’s fundamentally a “drug or mental health problem”—that if we just “fix” people’s addiction or mental illness, homelessness will solve itself.

This gets the causation backwards.

While substance use and mental health challenges are present in the homeless population, they are frequently the result of the trauma of displacement, not the initial cause. In Putnam County, the primary drivers of homelessness are economic: a lack of affordable housing and wages that don’t cover rent. The mental health crisis and substance use often come after someone loses their housing, not before.

When Survival Makes You Sick

I had my depression under control—until I didn’t have a place to live. Then everything that kept me stable disappeared.

The constant hypervigilance. Wondering where I could park each night without getting “the knock” from police. Where I could park during the day between gigs without being told to move. The mental energy spent trying to look “normal” so potential employers wouldn’t realize I was living in my van. The days I didn’t know if I could keep going.

Living on the street in Florida means extreme sleep deprivation, physical danger, and constant “fight or flight” stress. Your nervous system never gets to rest. You can’t sleep deeply because you need to stay alert. You can’t plan for tomorrow because you’re barely surviving today.

This is when people turn to substances—not because they’re “addicts” who caused their own homelessness, but because they’re trying to survive it. Some use stimulants to stay awake at night for safety. Others use alcohol or other substances to numb the physical pain of sleeping on concrete, or to quiet the anxiety long enough to get a few hours of rest.

I watched it happen. People who weren’t using before they became homeless, self-medicating just to endure another day.

Beth, who shares her experience on Instagram as @voiceofbeth, puts it bluntly: “Not everybody’s an addict. I, for one, am stone cold sober. I’m quite employable. I was leaving a bad situation and I thought that homelessness would be better for my mental health, and it is.” But she also describes how easy it is to fall into substance use when you’re stuck without resources or transportation: “Eventually, after a while of being homeless, you can veer off into that real easy because there’s not a lot you can do…You might as well smoke a bowl. You might as well, you know, whatever, smoke meth or whatever you’re doing, drink a beer.” It’s not that homeless people are addicts—it’s that homelessness creates the conditions where substance use becomes a survival mechanism.

The Impossible Catch-22

Here’s what people don’t understand about the “just get treatment” argument: You cannot effectively treat a clinical diagnosis while someone is living in a tent or a vehicle.

I had depression before I was homeless. I knew what treatment looked like. But try accessing mental health care when:

• You don’t have a stable address for appointment reminders
• You don’t have a shower to show up clean and “presentable”
• You don’t have a guarantee your car won’t be towed while you’re in the waiting room
• You’re spending 100% of your mental energy on immediate survival

The system says “get stable, then we’ll help you with housing.” But you can’t get stable without housing. That’s not a pathway—that’s a trap.

Stability is the prerequisite for recovery, not the reward for it.

The Economic Reality

The majority of people experiencing homelessness in Putnam County are “economically homeless”—families and individuals who are one car breakdown or medical bill away from the street, regardless of their mental health status.

I had a business. I had skills. I had work ethic. What I didn’t have was affordable housing in a county where market-rate rents average $1,500 and wages haven’t kept pace. When crisis hit, there was no safety net.

Using addiction or mental illness as an excuse to withhold housing is backwards. If we want people to be healthy and sober, we have to provide the foundation—stable housing—that makes health possible.

The Operational Logic

In business, if a piece of equipment consistently fails, a poor manager blames the “quality” of the machine. A strategic leader looks at the operating environment. If you run a machine at 110% capacity in a room with no ventilation, it will break.

Our unhoused neighbors aren’t “broken people.” They’re human beings trying to function in an environment designed to break them. Sleep deprivation, constant stress, no medical care, no stability—this environment would damage anyone’s mental health.

The Coalition’s Approach

The Putnam County Homelessness Solutions Coalition advocates for Housing First models.

Get people housed first. Then provide support services. Then watch recovery become possible.

This isn’t enabling—it’s strategic. You can’t address mental health or addiction while someone is fighting for survival on the street. You provide the stable foundation, then you build the supports.

This isn’t just compassionate. It’s effective. And it costs taxpayers less than our current crisis-management approach of cycling people through emergency rooms, jails, and police calls.*²

Get Involved:

The answer to Putnam County’s homelessness crisis isn’t more judgment about addiction or mental health. It’s more housing.

Join the Coalition or Volunteer for the Rapid Response Team

Support our mission 

Join our Facebook Group and Like/Follow our Facebook Page

Share this post to your Nextdoor or Facebook groups to challenge the narrative.

References:

• *¹: Myth 2: “They Choose To Live This Way
• *²: The Hidden Price Tag: Why Solving Homelessness Is A Fiscal Win

 

 

Guest Voice: Beth shares her experience of homelessness across multiple states on Threads and Instagram as @voiceofbeth. Her full testimony is ‘Voices from the Street // Beth: Sober, Employable, and Breaking Every Stereotype‘