Umm. The characterization of homelessness as a mental health issue is very convenient for not facing the ongoing changes in our society. While it may be true that some segment of the homeless population is mentally ill; that's the tip of the iceberg for the real problem.
Young, wealthy, privileged people like the majority of the audience of this site have no concept of how easy it is to fall through the cracks and lose everything.
And the problem of poverty and homelessness is only going to grow. The majority of Generation X has NO Savings for retirement [1] and what do you think will happen to them?
And in fact one of the cities having an epic and fairly invisible homelessness problem is San Francisco [2].
There may be a very small minority of people who choose to be unhoused; but they are generally not the problem.
Young, wealthy, privileged people like the majority of the audience of this site have no concept of how easy it is to fall through the cracks and lose everything.
And the problem of poverty and homelessness is only going to grow. The majority of Generation X has NO Savings for retirement [1] and what do you think will happen to them?
And in fact one of the cities having an epic and fairly invisible homelessness problem is San Francisco [2].
There may be a very small minority of people who choose to be unhoused; but they are generally not the problem.
1. http://rall.com/2014/10/13/syndicated-column-millions-of-gen...
2. http://www.vox.com/a/homeless-san-francisco-tech-boom