[M1ch431]

I think our laws largely in this area (involuntary commitment) reflect how hostile a particular state or geographic location feels towards their homeless population and other undesirables as you suggest.

Psychiatry is used to get these people off the street (for their own benefit of course), and either the state is content to just to disappear them into a hospital (the hospital loves the chance to reap all that money), or is happy to see them in and out, having them experiencing a combination of psychiatric drug withdrawal and side effects.

Perhaps it's not like that everywhere, and these people are provided the medication free of charge through some means, but I know that a pharmacy won't fill your prescription if you don't have money.

Imagine what this dynamic looks like if somebody also has an addiction to feed, or isn't educated properly on the powerful drug(s) they are being prescribed. There's a lot that can go wrong when you give prescription drugs with physical dependence to people who see the opportunity to 1) sell them 2) not take them consistently 3) or administer incorrectly (try to get high). Any of those things can risk withdrawal and other physical side effects, that could only make somebody more unstable, or their behavior even riskier.

Which is tantamount to poisoning these people (why prescribe something with physical dependence if you know they can't reliably get the medication? Where is the "Do no harm"?), and sounds pretty unconstitutional to me on many levels. In general, the homeless have more of their rights stripped than any other population that I'm aware of in the US.

You can't sleep in your car because city/town ordinances, benches are being made to prevent being slept on (hostile architecture in general has become a pretty common), in most areas you can't access or afford housing or property when there's empty housing and property everywhere, the shelters aren't safe, you can't build what you want on your property (e.g. tiny houses not being allowed in some areas), and lastly simply being homeless is enough justification to have all your rights stripped and your freedom taken away. For your own good, because just being homeless is a mental illness in itself for everyone concerned.