The Overlooked Crisis: Why We Need Better Mental Health and Substance Abuse Support

Yesterday, while our outreach team was searching for a friend we hadn’t seen in a while, we walked through alleys and behind dumpsters, scanning every corner. We thought he wasn’t there. But when we looked closer, hidden among a pile of garbage and debris, we found him — a veteran in his 60s, sleeping.

This man has served his country. He has been in shelters, transitional housing, and has had multiple opportunities to access housing resources. But like so many others, he also carries the heavy burden of alcoholism and untreated mental health struggles. Even after completing programs and gaining temporary stability, the cycle repeats. Why? Because once the program ends, the support ends too.

The Gap Between Programs and Lasting Change

Emergency shelters, transitional housing, and treatment programs are essential lifelines — but they are not enough on their own. Without accessible aftercare, long-term follow-up, and housing stability, people often find themselves right back where they started.

Our friend has been through the system: shelters, treatment, temporary housing. Yet, without consistent mental health care, substance abuse counseling, and community-based support to sustain his progress, those interventions become short-term solutions to a long-term problem.

This is not just his story. It is the story of thousands of men and women in Metro Detroit and across the country who are struggling without the right kind of help.

What’s Needed

• Better Accessibility: Programs should be easy to enter without overwhelming paperwork or long waitlists. When someone is ready for help, the system must be ready for them.

• Integrated Services: Mental health and substance abuse treatment need to work hand in hand with housing programs, not as separate, disconnected services.

• Aftercare & Follow-Up: Completing a program is just the beginning. Consistent case management and supportive services must follow — otherwise, relapse and homelessness are almost inevitable.

• Transitional Housing After Treatment: It’s great when someone receives mental health or substance abuse treatment in a hospital or residential program — but what happens when it ends? Too often, people are discharged right back to the streets. Without transitional housing to bridge the gap, the progress they made inside treatment quickly unravels. Safe, supportive housing options must be built into the continuum of care.

• Stable Housing Options: Safe, affordable housing must be a foundation, not a reward. Without it, treatment success is far harder to sustain.

  
  

A Call to Action

At Motor City Mitten Mission, we see the reality every day: people camouflaged not just among the debris on our streets, but also camouflaged within the cracks of a broken system. If we want to break the cycle of homelessness, addiction, and untreated mental illness, we must create systems that don’t just provide short-term fixes, but ensure long-term stability.

Our community deserves better. Our veterans deserve better. Our neighbors deserve better.

And so does our friend. The man we found hidden in the alley yesterday — a man who once wore the uniform to protect this country — should not be left to camouflage himself among trash bags just to survive another night. He, like so many others, deserves more than a temporary bed. He deserves treatment that lasts, housing that heals, and a community that refuses to give up on him.

Let’s work together to make sure no one is forgotten in the debris of a broken system.

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Together, we can change lives — one person, one night, and one system at a time.