Being homeless makes it difficult to find safely and sleep. Even a few days of that condition is extremely mentally taxing. Months or years? It's no surprise that so many of the homeless we see have mental issues. No surprise at all.
I don't think there's any evidence to show that being homeless causes schizophrenia or other forms of psychosis. Depression and bitterness, sure, but likely not psychosis.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/loose-link-f...
> Their results, released this week, reveal just over 30 per cent had a mental disorder.
> "The figure was much lower than the community perception and what other researchers had put out there," Dr Johnson told AAP.
> About 15 per cent had a mental illness before becoming homeless, while slightly more, 16 per cent, developed a disorder while on the street.
Sure, one study in one city, but assuming it's roughly correct, roughly half (if not more) of the homeless with mental illnesses developed them after living on the street.
So in addition to simply helping people not, you know, be homeless anymore, it would very likely reduce the amount of mental illnesses suffered by those who are and have been homeless.
Additionally, with something like schizophrenia, a person can have the disease and under medical care be able to function at a high level. If, for some reason, they fall out of medical care and stop taking their medication, their symptoms can rapidly spiral out of control and lead to the sort of paranoid, potentially violent, homeless person described in the librarian article. This doesn't mean their mental illness was caused by homelessness, it just means homelessness enabled it to fully manifest itself.
> About 15 per cent had a mental illness before becoming homeless, while slightly more, 16 per cent, developed a disorder while on the street.
If they were suffering from schizophrenia but it was controlled with treatment they would fall into the category of "had a mental illness before becoming homeless", not "developed a disorder while on the street".