Looking at it from a nationwide perspective, there were two watershed moments in mental health treatment in the late 20th century.

The first was in the 60's when JFK (whose sister had been savaged by the mental health institutions) signed legislation changing the requirements for commitment to be "posing a danger to oneself or others." This was a change from the metric of "mentally unfit to live independently in society."

The second was in the 80's when Reagan and the Democratic-majority congress defunded and shuttered many of the state-owned mental health facilities. This was a bi-partisan effort by the Republicans, who hated spending money, and the Democrats, who hated how poorly run the facilities were. Nobody has had a really good solution for mental health care in the US since those happened and, as the parent post points out, it is unfair to paint this as "Reagan defunded mental health care."

Might just be me, but I didn’t read the above comment as blaming Reagan but rather pointing out that widespread homelessness isn’t a new issue, and the absence of regular foot traffic in that particular neighborhood is a bigger contributor to its current state.