More than you ever wanted to know about guardianships

For this episode of the pod we were joined, once again, by elder law attorney Zach Anderson of Anderson Estate Planning.

The idea that mental illness is the main cause of homelessness is a myth that persists despite copious research debunking it.

But there is a relationship between mental illness and homelessness. For example, all else equal, people with severe mental illness are more likely to experience homelessness. Also, homelessness causes and exacerbates existing mental illness. Most importantly for this discussion, simply building enough housing to meet demand would solve homelessness for the vast majority of people. Cash assistance would keep the vast majority of extremely low-income families out of homelessness. But for a very small percentage of the population, severe mental illness and/or addiction prohibits them from being able to stay housed even with cheaper housing and cash assistance.

This conversation follows up on our interview with Mike Tanner about conservatorship. We discuss with Zach how the law defines guardianship/conservatorship, who’s eligible,  and the legal mechanisms that are in place, and need to be in place, to protect these individuals from the harms of homelessness. It was an extremely enlightening conversation for me, and I hope you enjoy it as well.