Attacks in New York City Renew Questions About Forced Mental Health Treatment | Retro Report

New York City is tackling the issue of homelessness and untreated mental illness with a controversial strategy: remove people from the streets and hospitalize them, whether they want to go or not. The strategy has been tried before. In the 1980s, a homeless woman named Joyce Brown, who called herself Billie Boggs, went to court to challenge her forced hospitalization. The case pitted civil liberties advocates against Mayor Ed Koch and his efforts to address homelessness, making national headlines.