"We used to realize that these people needed to be cared for . . . "

- but here's the punch line:

" . . . and we put them in insane asylums."

And they lived in squalor and filth and misery, but they were out of our sight, we were more comfortable, and life was good.

So, some rather short-sighted do-gooders pursued half of their case for them, and convinced the courts that lifetime imprisonment and warehousing wasn't an appropriate way to dispose of . . . er, I mean, treat . . . the chronically mentally ill vagrant. But they forgot step two (or, more likely, just figured that step two was someone else's job. Which it was, actually, but it was silly to just expect them to handle it.)

So now, we have to look at them again, and step over them, and hold our breath until out of the stench-zone. But, are they worse off then when they were locked away? Depends on what you like, I suppose.

As to "their own choices" - most of the hard-core drunks die off after a couple of years of that life. The alcohol itself, along with the nutrition deficit, strips them of their ability to survive. Most of the long-term smellies are out there by dint of their overwhelming mental disease. While they may drink heavily when they can - ah, sweet oblivion - that's not usually what brought them to the party in the first place.

Ever try to get a machine with 10 trillion parts (some never designed to work together) to work without flaw?

It is a wonder it works as well as it does. In fact it is a wonder it works at all.

The police in my town are very nice to the mentally ill (they killed one about a decade back and there was an uproar). The trouble is there is no place for those with difficult mental problems to go unless they get into serious trouble. Hospital stays of two to four weeks are the norm if a mentally ill person gets agitated and starts behaving in a threatening manner.

That mug shot freaks me out each time I scroll past. That's one disturbed guy.

There has never been an easy solution for the mentally disturbed.
We can't cure it, in some cases we can mask its symptoms with heavy drugs. To incarcerate them costs a real lot and takes some special people to have adequate care. Those places cost like $hundreds a day or more
The potential for abuse is high.
They have total control of crazy people, some of whom try to kill them every day.

It's almost natural that they take advantage of the situation. Sick, twisted and a repudiation of their responsibility, but understandable.

Like those dudes in Texas a few months ago
who had fights between their charges and put them on youtube or facebook or whatever.
Makes you wonder how many are smart enough not to take pictures?

Nope, until we can cure crazy, there's just not much we can do.

It's a hard, old world. We're making it better and better all the time (except when we screw the whole thing up), but we're far away from "Excellent".