Why do mental-health housing programs tell you how to keep your stuff?

My mental-health housing really nags people about having their things lying around even for a short while..and they tell people how to keep their own clothing and personal stuff like video games, stereos, bedding, magazines...why? is it that they are concerned how things look to the community we live in? Or that people who see our places will say 'oh they live like kings, why should we pay for their keep when they waste their money buying luxuries'..or is it TRULY that they are concerned about cleanliness and clutter?

I have no idea. I know for myself that it is VERY hard to feel good about myself if I am living amidst clutter. If I start letting things around me go, then it's very easy to feel overwhelmed and just stop trying to do ANYTHING.

That would be my guess as to why they are that way. Letting the residents create clutter will just make their job harder in the long run.

I agree with LMo.

I think it is the equivalent to keeping structure in our daily lives. We also have to take care of ourselves and our surroundings as a skill that will help us maintain our mental health.

Aside from maybe trying to encourage people to just be responsible for their own belongings, I know from my time working in a county-run home for neglected, abused & abandoned children that OSHA standards have to be maintained in ANY business, even if it's non-profit. Just to be able to be a group home, a facility has to be safe and clean. If everyone living there leaves dirty clothes laying around, has stuff strewn across the floors, dirty dishes laying around (yuck!), even just the normal everyday clutter that most of us are accustomed to living with (like my house, w/an open book, scattered notes, drying herbs, magazines, odds & ends & whathaveyou's on every available surface) can put a business in jeopardy of fines & safety violations. Most of these places are subject to unscheduled 'surprise' inspections and they have to be prepared for that all the time.