… "No one is staying in the shelters or languishing in the streets for years at a time to save money," said Mark Swann, executive director of Preble Street, a nonprofit that provides assistance to the homeless. "Shelters are not places people want to stay at if they have choices."
Swann said the state is oversimplifying the complex nature of homelessness, and that untreated mental illness and substance abuse are often the root causes of chronic homelessness. He said the fact that such people live in shelters, sometimes sleeping on floor mats or even in chairs, reflects the state’s failure to care for the mentally ill …
