ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the New York Times (NYT) constructed the morality of the public policy resolution to them. The pages of the NYT contain the voices of many claims-makers debating what to do about people who wanted to live on the streets of New York City. The types of constructions that had been the positive support for community mental health policies became defensive claims criticizing proposed new policies of involuntary hospitalization. Some of these claims criticized the social order and constructed environmental explanations for the condition of people living on the streets. Within this construction, the decision to remain on the streets rather than enter a city shelter becomes a "sign of mental health rather than of mental illness". Policies of involuntary confinement in mental hospitals are justified by images of the "mentally ill" person as dangerous to self and/or others.
