My 37 yo nephew is a perfect example of why this won’t work.
I found him (and his dad paid for - including utilities) a 2 bedroom rental house in a passable section of the small town I live in. It was within 6 blocks of literally *everything* including the free stuff like the library, so he barely needed his bicycle. I helped get him a job at a local nursery that was close enough to walk to, but they actually gave him rides to and from work. A nice family owned business. My wife and I helped him in all sorts of ways.
He worked 3 weeks then stopped going (I told him he was going to end up back on the street - he said he did not care). He has depression and alcoholism and refuses to deal with it (nor will his dad get him to a doctor and on some antidepressants - total denial).
He then spent the next nine months drunk and drugged up. Still, he was housed, fed and off the street, right? Nope he proceeds to get arrested twice for public intoxication because he wouldn’t stay in his free house when he was loaded. At the end of a year he just walked off, no notice to the landlord (a friend of mine) leaving behind leaky pipes he never bothered to tell her about. Damn mess.
So he sold the stuff we gave him, bought a bus ticket to Florida and two days after arriving gets arrested for punching his druggie mother. Now, after two months in jail, he is living at his dad’s and no one knows what to do with him. All anyone knows for sure is that my wife and I are done with him. His living on the street is by choice.
I’m sure that a lot of the homeless are like him.
Yes, I tried to help a family member once too. Cocaine, erratic behavior, couldn't hold down a job, had to bail out her car after a ton of tickets and a boot... I gave up too, before I got pulled under along with her.
Fortunately, this story has a happy ending. She had a child and discovered purpose. Now she lives in a better house than I do! LOL! But it was a decision she had to make. I couldn't do it for her. I couldn't do anything for her.
Yeah. I work in Boston and see the regular panhandlers every day. Last week I noticed one talking on his cell phone.
My community gets a lot of these people -- drifters, transient, restless types who don't know what they want or, the minute they get bored or disillusioned with something, disappear at the drop of a hat & move somewhere else.
For this reason, when looking for roommates/tenants, I will not consider anyone over 35 (or even 30). An older, mature woman needs her own place, or she can be the landlady (like me) & call the shots. Someone older who had uprooted herself in search of spirituality / fame / fortune -- and shows up asking for a place to live, I flatly tell them no.