Vibes matter. When walking down the street, a person isn't going to do a full evaluation on a homeless person. They are going off vibes, and if the vibe is unsafe, it makes the city feel unsafe. People with money to spend tend not to go to cities and areas that feel unsafe, which over time will cause a city to die, which is bad for everyone.
>Best-case scenario, they’re completely sane. Now what? Do you keep a completely sane person locked in the mental institution forever?
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>the social workers can’t show up at their door, because these patients are homeless and hard to track down.
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>Okay, sounds like you need to get them homes. But there’s not enough government-subsidized housing.
Why does the mental institutions have to be "lock up"? It seems like there could be levels to this. Lockup for those who are still potentially dangerous out in society, and have something more akin to a halfway house where someone can live and are free to go and do stuff, but have a place to come back to to keep tabs on them and make sure they are taking their meds. Provide a path to full independence, but with some guardrails to make sure they are doing it in a way where they have a place to live and are taking their meds, and not just throwing them back on the street and expecting things to be different than when they were picked up off the street.
This will probably be expensive, but looking at what the homeless problem has cost some very expensive cities, it seems like it would be worth it.