Jordanian said:

Define homeless. Are we talking street beggars or people who just have no regular place to stay. I was homeless for a year and a half, but I worked.  Just didn't have a car of my own and couch crashed all the time.  It's a tough rut to get out of, especially in a place with poor public transportation.

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MisterMuscaria said:

The funny thing is many beggars have homes and many homeless dont beg.

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Shroomism said:

I've been homeless at 3 separate times in my life (for 2-24 months at a time), one was by choice. I never begged people for change even when I was starving on the street. There was always a way, whether it was soup kitchens, or pizza places, or whatever. I made a lot of money by spanging (providing a service/entertainment for money instead of just begging people)... for example, playing guitar or drums on the street corner with a hat or something, I've made as much as $150 in a day.

And living on the streets you get to meet all the other homeless people. There are about as many reasons people become homeless as there are homeless people. It's never cut and dry. Some do it by choice, some are a result of really poor decision making, some are drug addicts or mentally deranged, some get fucked in the ass by the government/whatever and end up there as a result of circumstances beyond their control. Most "normal" people in those situations can usually fall back on family or friends to provide temporary support, some people don't have that luxury.

There are a lot of stereotypes about the homeless in our country, partially due to the class system we've created and how we project this image of hating/looking down on the poor. Most people just assume that most people are homeless because they are lazy leeches and don't want to work. That may be true in some cases but it certainly isn't true in the majority of them, in my experience. I've known some homeless people that are some of the most humble people I've known, they don't beg or leech off people, they get by on their own devices and they are content to just be alive. They may not be trying to actively better their situation, but they aren't sucking anyone dry either. On the other hand, some of the cruelest, nastiest people I've met in the world, are ones that have lots of money, and constantly rip people off and use and abuse other people to get a leg up. Pragmatically speaking, your income level has little to nothing to do with how good of a person you are.

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Very eloquently put.This is true.Great insight from an experienced point of view.