The article leads off with: "Frank C., a U.S. Army veteran, was admitted to Willard in 1946, at the age of 35. Following a single outburst at a restaurant in Flatbush, Brooklyn, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia."

Army vet, likely suffering from PTSD, gets involuntarily committed after a single incident in a restaurant. An injured soldier who had a bad day, not a homeless crazy.

Surely there a better third solution available here, somewhere between being involuntarily committed after being injured in service of your country, and being abandoned on the street after being injured in service of your country?

The problem is that the Community Mental Health Act closed the giant asylums without actually providing the funding for the promised local mental health treatment centers. So instead treating people in any way, we abandon them on the streets.

What would have been cheaper, funding the community mental health treatment centers by paying higher taxes, or dealing the the societal costs of widespread homelessness, unemployment, and substance abuse?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_Mental_Health_Act