What is "homeless dumping"

n. (context idiomatic English) The practice of hospital employees or emergency workers releasing homeless patients on the streets instead of placing them into the custody of a relative or homeless shelter or retaining them in a hospital where they may require expensive medical care.

Homeless dumping or patient dumping is the practice of hospitals or emergency services releasing homeless patients on the streets instead of placing them with a homeless shelter or retaining them, especially when they may require expensive medical care with minimal government reimbursement from Medicaid. Many homeless people who have mental health problems can no longer find a place in a psychiatric hospital since the trend towards mental health deinstitutionalization from the 1960s onwards.