[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 656]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    MENTAL ILLNESS AND THE HOMELESS

  (Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, last week, the wind chill in 
Buffalo, New York, was 20 below zero. Dead of hypothermia was Ronald 
Hunter. He was 21 and had untreated schizophrenia.
  A third of the Nation's 750,000 homeless are so severely mentally ill 
that they cannot take care of themselves. They starve, they freeze, 
they live in their own squalor.
  Had Ronald had some other brain disease like Alzheimer's, he might 
very well be alive today, but because he had a mental illness, the 
system refused to help.
  Ronald's father told The Buffalo News:
  ``When he was living with us, I found him curled up in a ball in the 
corner of the bedroom,'' and I said, ``What is wrong, baby?''
  He replied to his dad, ``I am hearing voices telling me to kill 
myself.''
  Ronald's parents called Crisis Services, but as his stepmom said, 
``Because he was 18, it was up to him if he wanted help.'' In other 
words, we let him die with his rights on.
  Don't you understand, America, that this is a brain disease; it is 
not a choice?
  I will soon be reintroducing the Helping Families in Mental Health 
Crisis Act, and I invite all Members to join me in rebuilding our 
broken mental health system, so that we have treatment before there is 
tragedy.

                          ____________________