If you haven’t seen the poverty pimps up close, you might overlook what they are really about. They have a vested interest in perpetuating homelessness, poverty, drug addiction, mental illness, and alcoholism. The bigger their numbers, the more money they get. The more money they get, the more people they hire, and the more the bosses make. Always, grow the bureaucracy. If you can lure more homeless people to your town, all the better. Offer more programs, advertise, and oila! More work to do. More grants. More donations.
Without poverty, they would have no jobs.
Nailed it again.
Our main city in the county, Hyannis, has been turned into Detroit By The Sea. A walk downtown is a tour of skid row.
BTW, the dynamic you described one an economist named James M. Buchanan a Nobel. He called it ‘Public Choice Theory’. Basically, he said that it is in the best interest for bureaucracies to grow the problem.