The Mentally Ill Homeless: What is Myth and What is Fact?

A recent paper in this journal (Snow et al, 1986) has described and analyzed “the myth of pervasive mental illness among the homeless.” I review the procedures followed in that paper and conclude that they produce lower boundary, not best guess, estimates; the lower boundary on the percentage of (Austin, Texas) homeless who are mentally ill is 10 to 15 percent. Independent data from homeless clinical populations in 16 large cities suggest a best guess on the rate of mental illness among the homeless at about one-third. This is broadly consistent with previous research findings.