In debate on housing for mentally ill, fear is on wrong side

Plans to move mentally ill people into a 30-unit, low-income apartment building in the middle of suburbia have some folks nervous and scared that something bad could happen. Unfortunately, statistics about people with mental illnesses show that there are legitimate reasons to be apprehensive.

While the U.S. Surgeon General has found the likelihood of violence committed by people treated for mental illnesses is low, studies show that people with mental illnesses are far more likely to be victims of violent crime. Their plight is compounded by the prejudice against them, which reduces their opportunities for housing and jobs and can open the door to more obvious discrimination and even hostility against them.

In the proposed apartment building in north Arlington Heights near the border with Buffalo Grove, potential residents being treated for depression, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses are patients taking another important step in their treatment to get healthier, not psychotic criminals being turned loose on society.

Yet, one characterization of the potential new apartment residents described them as "walking mental time bombs," who will be "just sitting there, waiting to go crazy on our darling, unsuspecting kids."

Such wild speculation about people with mental illnesses can fuel fears. Meanwhile, suspicious residents might be blissfully unaware that an existing neighbor could have been convicted of the actual crime of domestic battery for hitting his child -- a conviction that would bar him from living in the new apartments.

Officials promise that residents of the new apartment won't have criminal records. In the rest of society, we generally don't know if the people who just moved into the neighborhood are wife-beaters, drunks, drug-users, pornographers, tax cheats, racists, shoplifters, child-abusers or people with undiagnosed and untreated mental illnesses,

Mental health experts know that the fear of people with mental health issues isn't unusual.

It's reasonable for people living in that community to want to know whether a project will lower property values and increase the risks of violence, says Ron Honberg, national director for policy and legal affairs for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, who adds there is no evidence to suggest either of those fears have merit.

Critics are right when they say there are problems with the site and the plan, which narrowly won 4-3 approval from the Arlington Heights plan commission. The final say is expected in May from the Arlington Heights village board. The 1-acre lot for the $9 million Boeger Place Apartments just east of Arlington Heights Road and south of Dundee Road is not ideal. As is the case in senior housing developments, many of the residents don't drive or own cars, so it would be nice if there were more stores, jobs and entertainment options within walking distance. The bus stop isn't as close as people would like.

The plan isn't perfect, but it's good enough.

Some opponents have couched their opposition in a protective posture by saying this building doesn't meet all the needs and that people with mental illnesses deserve better. But the leaders in the mental health community want this project. They are fighting for it. It seems disingenuous to use the Americans With Disabilities Act as a tool to deny housing to these Americans with disabilities.

Back in the 1970s, when Honberg opened a group home for people with mental illnesses in a nice neighborhood in suburban Maryland, "the community was really up in arms," recalls Honberg, who conducted open houses and helped people realize their fears were unrealistic. "As the people in the neighborhood began to meet and know the residents - it was very gratifying. They even started coming over and volunteering, and bringing presents at Christmas time. They were wonderful neighbors."

People with mental illnesses don't just disappear if we deny them housing. Disconnected from society, some might even turn to substance abuse, which has been linked to an increase in violence and crime.

"The best way to alleviate any potential risk (of violence), minor as it is," Honberg says, "is to provide people with the services and support they need."

Give the apartments a chance to do that.