Ronald Reagan is generally believed to be responsible for the increase
in homelessness during the 80s that has continued to this day.  I
understand that he signed into law the release of many mentally ill
patients during his presidency who had nowhere but the streets to go.
I had heard that he was forced to do this by the Democratic majority
in Congress and that all he did was to sign a bill that others had
proposed, namely at the behest of civil libertarians.  Is this true
and did he get this blame unfairly?  How many of the homeless, at that
time, directly came from mental institutions?  How many now are
mentally ill and how can they gague what is true mental illness or
just the result of drugs and alcohol usage and environmental exposure?

"the single most powerful thing Reagan did to create homelessness was
to cut the budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development
by three-quarters, from $32.2 billion in 1981 to $7.5 billion by 1988.
The department was the main governmental supporter of subsidized
housing for the poor and, combined with the administration's overhaul
of tax codes to reduce incentives for private developers to create
low-income homes, the nation took a hit to its stock of affordable
housing from which it has yet to recover, they contend.

During the same period, the average family income of the poorest fifth
of the American population dropped by 6.1 percent, and rose 11.1
percent for the top fifth, according to "Sleepwalking Through
History," the best-selling assessment of the Reagan years by Haynes
Johnson. The number of people living beneath the federal poverty line
rose from 24.5 million in 1978 to 32.5 million in 1988."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0610-03.htm

Reagan certainly gets plenty of blame.

http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0406a/reaganhomeless.html

"What we have found in this country, and maybe we're more aware of it
now, " Reagan said, that "people who are sleeping on the grates, the
homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice."

I'm compelled to defend the minority viewpoint here by saying that I
have known and known of many people in the Tampa and Phoenix areas who
really are "homeless by choice."  Some are just lazy kids who like
sleeping in the park and doing drugs, which imo is their perrogative. 
Others, especially in the Tampa Bay area, tend to be alcoholics with
mental problems.  Social services help by dispensing anti-psychosis
meds; they also waste a lot of money by dispensing more questionable
anti-depressant meds, as lobbied for by the drug industry.

My point is that there are still two sides to this argument.  I'm also
compelled to mention that I have met many homeless people that I
consider to be fine human beings.

At this late date, I see little utilitry in pointing a finger at
Ronald Reagan, or any one else in the 70s or 80s. The USA does have an
excessive number of homeless persons, and an excessive number of
person renting homes who have serious attitude problems and substance
abuse problems. Generally our social welfare has not only failed to
rehabilitate, but both groups are growing rapidly along with a growing
group who are essentially unemployable. In my opinion government has
failed since the 70s, and continues to fail. We need to find a way to
have private charities take over without government oversight.   Neil

I agree, Neil.  I think that government has failed ever since there
has been government.  The more we have, the more it fails.