Your research went back to 1987, but I am curious about homelessness in Fort Worth in the years prior to that. I ask because I grew up in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, attending downtown schools from 1975 to 1989. There were no homeless people in Kitchener until after provincially funded mental hospitals were closed in the late 1980s. I was downtown every day for fourteen years, but didn’t see a homeless person until 1990. Today, there hundreds of homeless people, and multiple tent cities. When the mental hospital closures were announced, everyone wondered where the poor lost souls in those facilities would go. We soon found out — they wound up on the street.
So I am curious. What is Fort Worth’s story before 1987?
Your research went back to 1987, but I am curious about homelessness in Fort Worth in the years prior to that. I ask because I grew up in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, attending downtown schools from 1975 to 1989. There were no homeless people in Kitchener until after provincially funded mental hospitals were closed in the late 1980s. I was downtown every day for fourteen years, but didn’t see a homeless person until 1990. Today, there hundreds of homeless people, and multiple tent cities. When the mental hospital closures were announced, everyone wondered where the poor lost souls in those facilities would go. We soon found out — they wound up on the street.
So I am curious. What is Fort Worth’s story before 1987?