If you are living in a big city in the US, you perhaps are seeing more and more homeless people, especially if you live in a heat belt state, like CA, AZ, and TX.
(It is not difficult to guess the reason. Everyone wants to stay warm if they do not have a roofed place to get rest.)
However, amazingly homelessness in the United States is on the decline, though a number of homeless students, age 6 to 18, is increasing.
For local residents, especially if you are living in a middle-classed suburban area, people almost "hate" homelessness. They usually never give them any mercy. People just report that, and police come to get rid of the homeless.
A lot of those people announce proudly " I am not going to give my money to anyone who is a drug addict or alcoholic." And they go into a high-end supermarket buying 2 sets of 6 bottles of wine, plus a couple of more bottles of hard liquor. And they go back to their million dollar house and drink.
You have to remember, some of the people on the streets are a lot smarter and well educated sometimes more than most of the people.
Why they become homeless?
" All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
And you must also remember, most of the drug addicts are the tragedic history of chronic sexual abuse when they were very young.
Here is a great article: "Eyes of the Homeless Reveal Stories of Heartache, Hope"
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Very sad. Some of the people are simply rotten human beings who have no dignity or respect for you or themselves. Many others, however, are incredibly bright people who are mired in mental illness.