HOMELESSNESS, MENTAL-ILLNESS AND THE LAW

One major difficulty that faces both researchers and practitioners who work with the homeless is the lack of definitions and frameworks that assist better understanding of such people's problems and society's r esponse to them. This article reviews the legislation dealing with hom eless people's social, civil and legal problems. We tried to give this legislation's historic and social background, including a section on psychiatric disorders in this group because of their relevance to curr ent debate on homeless offenders. We then reviewed the legislation rel evant to homeless people in general and the homeless mentally ill in p articular, including the recently introduced court diversion schemes.