Mental Health and the Homless Connection

A photo of George B. Isvorski from the 2003 story in Cabarrus Magazine

Mental Health and the Homeless Connection

By Pamilla Tolen

This article is not meant to be a soapbox for dealing with the plight of the homeless who are mentally ill. Rather, it is meant to be a thoughtprovoking journey that shows us; where this issue began; where we are now; and what are some of the options to help us deal with this serious situation for the future.

“In the 1950s and 1960s homelessness declined to the point that researchers were predicting its virtual disappearance in the 1970s. Instead, in the 1980s, homelessness increased rapidly and drastically changed in composition. The “old homeless” of the 1950s were mainly old men living in cheap hotels on skid rows. The new homeless were much younger, more likely to be minority group members, suffering from greater poverty, and with access to poorer sleeping quarters. In addition, homeless women and families appeared in significant numbers. However, there were also points of similarity, especially high levels of mental illness and substance abuse.”

There is a well-known saying that when you lose your keys you go back the last place you knew you had them. In other words, where did we go wrong, with regard to the mentally ill homeless? In order to find out, we need to go back to a time when the situation was at least stable.

Firstly, what is mental illness? According to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) “We all experience emotional ups and downs from time to time caused by events in our lives. Mental health conditions go beyond these emotional reactions and become something longer lasting. They are medical conditions that cause changes in how we think and feel and in our mood. They are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing.” However, treating this condition in many of the homeless community is not as simple as making sure they have food to eat and a warm, safe place to sleep, hoping they will reinsert themselves productively into society.

In January 2003, Cabarrus Magazine (CM) wrote a story about a homeless man who had come to Concord. His name was George B. Isvorski. George’s story in Concord began on a cold and rainy Sunday on November 14, 2002 when he walked into a service at Forest Hill United Methodist Church. He took his place on the back row. He was tired, dirty and had a cough that indicated he might have a respiratory problem. According to him, his decline had begun 10 months earlier in Corpus Christi, Texas when he was laid off as a heavy equipment operator. He lost his apartment, had his truck repossessed and had no prospects for work. So, he hitchhiked to California then headed back East where he ended up in North Carolina. By then, his possessions had dwindled to a few clothes and personal items, which were taken from him at gunpoint after he had been beaten up.

Now, George wasn’t there for a handout, he really wanted to work. So, when the pastor asked for prayer requests, George saw an opportunity to ask for help. He wanted the people of Forest Hill to talk to God for him and help him find a job. Karl and Dee Stover, former Concord residents, were also at that service and they made a determination to reach out to the community to get help for this man. First they went through the usual steps of arranging for hot meals, finding clean clothes and arranging for him to stay at the local homeless shelter at night.

The Stover’s could have let George go his own way at that point, but they didn’t. They wanted to solve his problems and take at least one homeless person off the streets. Next, they arranged for George to get medical attention for his respiratory condition. Another church member gave him money, while many others in the community came to his aid with clothes and even taking him shopping for work boots. He was given odd jobs to do for work so he could make money for himself.

However, there was a problem. Like many homeless, George had lost his social security card and his couldn’t get another one without two forms of identification. Stover once more stepped in and began searching for his birth certificate. She also decided to contact anyone that might know George in the town where he grew up. He had gone to a Catholic school in Michigan so Dee decided to contact the school, which

turned her information over to one of George’s cousins. He contacted George’s two surviving sisters. The sisters then called Stover and related that they had been looking for him for 10 years. They thought he was dead. Arrangements were made to fly George home to his family. In fact, George became quite a celebrity in his two month stay in Concord. He was talked about from household to household as a Christmas miracle. Before he left Concord, the Stover’s gave George a warm coat and a small photograph album with their name, address and phone number telling him that he would always have a place to come back to and never be homeless again.

At face value, this may seem like a great story about the results of reaching out to help the homeless, and that would not be incorrect. Unfortunately, there is a segment of the homeless community who cannot, or will not, be helped if this is the only solution offered to solve their problem. George fell into that group. Sadly, George’s story did not end

happily. It was not because traditional help wasn’t offered. Rather, it was because the help he received was not sufficient for his condition. Upon further investigation, it became apparent that George had a mental disorder. It was not a problem that would cause him to harm others, but one that kept him from overcoming his situation on his own.

After leaving Concord, George went to live with his older sister. He actually called the Stover from his sister’s home in Michigan. In the conversation he related the “shadows” were gone. After a few weeks, his sisters decided that it would be better if he lived with his younger sister, who lived near his boyhood home. He later told Stover that when he moved closer to his hometown, the “shadows” returned. Stover have no idea what those “shadows” George referred to were, because he received no mental evaluation.

He lived in Michigan for a little over a month. He had plenty of food, and a warm, safe home with his family. One day he asked his brother-in-law to take him to a restaurant in his boyhood town, just so he could hang out for a while. Later that day, when the brother-in-law returned, George was gone. Surveying the people that were at the restaurant, he learned George had been seen getting into a truck which was leaving town. When his brother-in-law returned home he checked George’s room and found all his clothes were still there. The only things George had taken with him were his warm coat, a carton of cigarettes and the photo album. George was gone again, but this time, the decision to drift was made by George. It was not made for him.

Several months later, Dee Stover received a call from a police officer. George’s warm coat with the album inside, were found beside a state highway. About a year passed with no word of his location when CM received a call from a lady in Virginia. She had surfed the internet trying to find some information on a George Isvorski, because he was living in a cabin on the back of property belonging to her parents and she was checking to see if he posed any danger to them. That was the last update CM received of George’s whereabouts.

Upon further research for this article, it was discovered that George B. Isvorski, Concord’s Christmas miracle, passed away on October 21, 2005 in Ozark, Alabama, just 3 years from the time he had come to Concord and seemingly been rescued. What could have been done for him and many others like him to improve their quality of life?

Remember those “lost keys” mentioned earlier? On October 30, 1984, Richard D. Lyons from Time magazine wrote an article entitled How Release of Mental Patients Began. Even today, almost thirty-five years later, it is still worth reading. The article addresses who was responsible for “Deinstitutionalization” of America’s mental institutions. Blame was spread everywhere, from cost-conscious policy makers to psychiatrists, involved as practitioners in the 1950’s and 1960’s who felt that the “responsibility lay on a sometimes neglected aspect of the problem: the overreliance on drugs to do the work of society.”

According to Dr. M. Brewster Smith, A former University of California psychologist, who was part of the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health, an independent body set up by Congress in 1955, “extravagant claims were made for the benefits of shifting from state hospitals to community clinics, Dr. Smith said. “The professional community made mistakes and was overly optimistic, but the political community wanted to save money.”

Even as far back as 1963, Dr. Brown said he and other architects of the community centers legislation believed that, “while there was a risk of homelessness, it would not happen if Federal, state, local and private financial support ‘was sufficient’ to do the job. Resources vanished quickly.”

In 2017, a study entitled Mental Illness and Homelessness was done at Harvard University. A summary of the results was posted by staff writer Mingu Kim. Some of the findings state the following:

1. People who are homeless and suffer from mental illness are more prone to problems in physical health due to neglect of self-care, leading to prevalence of respiratory infections, HIV, and substance abuse.”

2. Unfortunately, because of the increase in factors such as substance abuse, mentally ill, homeless individuals are more likely to be incarcerated. In fact, every single state in the United States arrests more mentally ill people than it hospitalizes.”

3. “This cycle that these individuals face between living on the streets and in prison causes emotional, financial, and physical stress from their families and the community at large.” The conclusion of this study is one that must be addressed. “Therefore, mental health programs should provide plans for both treatment and housing. It has been shown that both treatment without housing and housing without treatment are ineffective for homeless individuals with mental illness.”

The HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) estimates homelessness costs taxpayers approximately $40,000 per year per homeless individual.

So, what can be done to find those lost keys? One could argue that lawmakers need to be encouraged to take another look at how to deal with this aspect of homelessness in our society. Another possible improvement could lay in updating laws that keep states from being able to institutionalize those homeless individuals who are not capable of making decisions for themselves in regards to their own health and welfare.

According to NHAMI, “An estimated 26 percent of homeless adults staying in shelters live with serious mental illness and an estimated 46 percent live with severe mental illness and/ or substance use disorders. Approximately 20 percent of state prisoners and 21 percent of local jail prisoners have “a recent history” of a mental health condition.”

The Treatment Advocacy Center, a national non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating barriers to the timely and effective treatment of severe mental illness posts: “As states continue to close down psychiatric facilities, there will be an increasing number of individuals with serious mental illness who are homeless.”

Isn’t it time to learn more about how we change this scenario? ■

Upon further research for this article, it was discovered that George B. Isvorski, Concord’s Christmas miracle, passed away on October 21, 2005 in Ozark, Alabama, just 3 years from the time he had come to Concord and seemingly been rescued. What could have been done for him and many others like him to improve their quality of life?