I agree with you. Every small community has someone like him and the people around him usually adopt him. The guy in our community is called “Radio.” It is always good as a society that we show an affection for people like him.
In the small town I grew up in in northern Michigan we had a a guy like that. People only knew him as "termite".
In talking about him recently with a couple friends, nobody knew anything about him other than the fact that he drove around in an old vintage Rolls Royce and parked it next to his old house that was sided with tar paper. One day the house burned down along with the Rolls and termite moved into a city owned house along with several other unknown homeless men.
In my home town, his name was Buster. Dad always made a point to talk with him. Buster had a very similar life, but was a very joyful man. Dad said Buster accepted his life, and woke up thankful each day. When he died, there was a display with his bike and stuff at the local museum.