I worked for a homeless shelter a few years ago and you're right Asario. The majority of the "clients" were assholes who were homeless because of poor choices they had made. Some were homeless because they had undiagnosed (or untreated) mental health issues. Some were homeless because they'd lost their jobs, they were the ones who worked hard NOT to be homeless ie. first in line at the job office, utilized training programs etc. THEY had my sympathy but the ones who drank and did drugs all day? No effing way. The only thing they are victims of is their own choices.

#40: I don't condone drug use, but sometimes drug use/drinking is a by-product of untreated mental health issues.

People need to look at the issue of homelessness on a macro level and work towards improving the quality and accessibility of services out there. Implement better strategies for staying in school, more programs aimed towards helping and increasing the lives of people who have addictions and/or mental health. Make welfare more easily accessible with more money available to an individual. Make safe and affordable housing more readily available. In the city I live in, the subsidized housing wait list for a homeless individual is 3+ years. Ontario Works (welfare) for a single person allots a mere $450(max) a month for housing with approximately $125 a month for personal needs. The only housing you can get for that amount is usually rooms for rent, in a drug and sex trade riddled neighborhood while the house/apartment is infested with bedbugs, cockroaches and rodents. How is that for quality of life? But then again, the individual always has the right to self-determination.