Feeding bums is a bad idea - it encourages them to keep on doing what they're doing: panhandling, drinking, urinating and defecating in public, and all the wonderful behavior that destroys neughborhoods and fosters crime.
Newsflash: 99.9% of bums are either insane or addicts or both.
The notion that there are sane, sober "homeless" folks just down on their luck is nonsense.
If you had a friend or a relative who lost his home and his job, would you put him up and help him get back on his feet? Of course you would.
Why do bums on the street have no friend or relative willing to do this? Because they have alienated everyone in their lives through their destructive behavior and they have moved on to strangers.
There are much better and smarter ways to help what a more conservative age called "the deserving poor."
I think what you say is accurate. With strong enough will and a little well-placed help, people can pull themselves out of homelessness. I know people who have.
I suspect that a lot of homeless women are that way because they won’t give up a husband or boyfriend that is dragging them down. I can’t prove it, I just suspect it.
There are some who are getting disability checks and choose to spend them on other things rather than rent on a room or tiny apartment.