Colorado’s Homeless Face Uphill Battle For Mental Health Services

Circle Connections: Policy & Regulatory Updates The president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, John Parvensky, reports his organization stopped carrying a waiting list for mental health services when it reached 2,000 people. Parvensky believes there is a straight line between the decrease in funding for mental health – and especially the decline in inpatient capacity – and the increase in homelessness in Colorado. He estimates that around 40 percent of the adult homeless in the state suffer from serious mental illness – diagnoses like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or severe depression that keep people from working and living in housing. "We . . .