Homeless, Mentally Ill and Shipped Away to Be Someone Else’s Problem

“It’s horrifying,” Mr. Herrera said. “I think we can all agree that our most vulnerable and at-risk people don’t deserve this sort of treatment: no meds, no medical care, a destination where they have no contacts and know no one.”

But what makes it “even more tragic,” Mr. Herrera said, “is that on top of the inhumane treatment, the State of Nevada was trying to have another jurisdiction shoulder the financial responsibility for caring for these people.”

Earlier this weekend, the Times reported that San Francisco is suing the State of Nevada in a class action lawsuit for sending homeless and mentally ill people to San Francisco on busses. David Theisen, the homeless man at the center of the lawsuit, says he was put on a bus to S.F. with some packed lunches and a day’s worth of medication after he threatened to kill himself with a butcher knife and landed in a Las Vegas psychiatric center. He says his treatment has been much better off in the Bay Area: “I guess they shouldn’t have done what they did in Nevada, but I cannot say enough about what this city has done for me.”

Photo: Chad Magiera

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