V.A. Begins Drive to Put Homeless Veterans Into Guardianship

[LearnedHand]

(gift link)

OMG

A joint effort with the Justice Department creates new authority to compel veterans into institutional or involuntary care.

The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a new effort to initiate legal guardianships for homeless veterans, which could be used to force more of them into involuntary or institutional care.

The new system, carried out in partnership with the Justice Department, will invest Veterans Affairs Department attorneys with expanded powers that would allow them to initiate and take part in guardianship proceedings for veterans who have no family and are “unable to make their own health care decisions.”

The initiative represents the Trump administration’s most concrete action to advance its goal of compelling more homeless people into involuntary treatment for mental illness and drug addiction.

[gay texan]

1. out of sight out of mind.... n/t

[LuvLoogie]

2. Gotta fill those warehouses somehow.

$1000 per shot of penicillin, $50 an aspirin $100 per bandaid at the Don Jr. MAHA Clinics

[quaint]

3. Wait until he finds out how much their care will cost.

I personally know two VN vets my age who do not want to be housed. They live in a tent in the local mountains. They're happy, safe as any of us, and intuitively know when to find a different spot.

Plus:
How Reagan’s Decision to Close Mental Institutions Led to the Homelessness Crisis

[rampartd]

7. i don't think they plan on spending much money on "care."

[quaint]

9. Everything is so sad for almost everyone.

They will still spend the money and call it care.
Salaries and jets for directors.
Chains for beds...

[dalton99a]

4. From NYT comments

Aimee
Austin, TX · 7m ago
A guardianship does not aim to treat and rehabilitate, but is used to compel and control. This is a blatant overreach and violation of the civil liberties of those who served their country.

Tracey
Cincinnati · 16m ago
This opens the door to institutionalize anyone the government doesn't approve. People should be so naive.

Army Vet
US · 16m ago
Caging those who fought for our freedom is amoral

Sabrina Martin
Seattle · 16m ago
If this move was motivated by kindness and concern for veterans, it would be a good thing. Unfortunately, we have already seen the Trump regime dehumanize people and cut services for low income people. This is most likely motivated by a desire to save money and to hide the mentally ill behind walls.

Lisa
Austin, Texas · 16m ago
Guardianship takes an individual's rights away. They even lose their ability to handle their own money and determine where they will live. Just because a person is unhoused does not mean that they should be institutionalized and lose their freedoms. This situation would lead to predatory behaviors by individuals and institutions as a means to garner wealth. We have seen this happen with the elderly, individuals with disabilities, and people with mental health issues.

Mags
California · 16m ago
I'm sure these "facilities" will be private "for profit" institutions.

Giveret Davar
California · 27m ago
Maybe instead of wasting a billion dollars a day on this misbegotten war, they could build housing for these veterans and help them get back back into society with therapy and jobs for far less money , and far more moral integrity. Remembering that Trump called those who gave their lives on D Day suckers and losers and who informed his staff about a disabled veteran that participated in a patriotic parade ""Who wants to see that?", I am angry beyond description. Meanwhile, the war profiteers are raking it in.

Spucky50
Maine · 43m ago
If this is planned as carefully as the Iran war and ICE actions in Minnesota, homeless veterans will need protection - from the VA and DOJ. My trust in the Trump Administration to do anything well for the right reasons is 0.

[leftstreet]

5. Hold on here

So shelter and healthcare aren't available to the Veteran if s/he requests it, but IS available if it's involuntary?

wtaf?

[hlthe2b]

6. OMG

Reagan closed the nation's institutions in a shell game to convert to the promised, but never (or minimally) manifested, partially federally funded residential treatment centers throughout the country. Never implemented, it sent those mentally vulnerable to the streets and jails. Now, Trump wants to build them back as an excuse to confine (against their will) our nation's veterans who fought for the freedom to live freely--even on the streets. Some are seriously mentally ill and need help, but a lot are angry at what they have been through and choose this way of life. So, now, THIS to justify these jails, warehouses, and concentration camps for the "inconvenient," whether homeless vets (or other Americans), immigrants awaiting deportation, or this administration's enemies. Will we wake up and advocate on behalf of our nation's veterans? Saying they are all irreparably mentally ill is the newest (American citizen) version of saying they are all the most dangerous of the dangerous criminals when speaking to undocumented immigrants, imo.

Does anyone really think they will get the due process they deserve, and not a "one solution fits all" indefinite detainment to take them out of the nation's visual consciousness?

[City Lights]

8. This turns my stomach. nt

[Solly Mack]

10. That's sickening. The amount of abuse from this will be staggering.

[LearnedHand]

11. I'm really stuck on "initiate ... guardianship proceedings"

They’re going into LOCAL COURTS in 50 states plus territories? They’re going over family members? Will they even consult families? I’m completely gobsmacked.

EDIT: Like this administration gives a nanometer of shit about any veteran, much less the “loser” veterans.

[a kennedy]

12. Wait, wait, this IS THANKING THEM FOR THEIR SERVICE!!!!!

🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬