'Stunning number' of Americans living below poverty line - UN rapporteur, Newshour - BBC World...

Ah the only appropriate response to a story about homelessness. Agreed it is very sad.

https://endhomelessness.org/resource/opioid-abuse-and-homelessness/
We have to work on substance abuse and mental health to fix this.

MSgt (Join to see) - Those are definitely contributors to the homeless problem, however more mundane issues like physical disabilities, job loss and medical debt are also serious issues.

Yes physical disabilities can be a problem but there are ways to get help for that. My sister is severely disabled and runs an online disability advocacy service. She helps people navagate the red tape as well as speaking at conferences and writing journal articles. Serious physical disabilities and the medical debt associated with that can be hell on a family. I think some of the people that end up homeless or almost homeless (couch surfing, motels) could benefit greatly for existing services that they don’t know about. People tend to get overwhelmed and then when they are in that situation it is easier to fall into depression or substance issues. That just makes the odds of them climbing out of that rut worse. I am all for helping people get job training, counselling or other needed services. What I resented was the tone of the story originally posted. All things considered in this country there are fewer cracks for people to “slip through” than when compared to many other countries in this world. It seemed more like a political hack piece than a bit if honest journalism. Are we perfect? No, not by a long shot but when compared to many other places we aren’t doing that bad. What was a comment on the UN looking elsewhere first was turned into a debate on homelessness in america. BTW I am sure anyone who has been to a city has seen plenty of panhandlers. Ever try offering one a job? I have but they never showed. Ever tried offering some food instead of money? My husband and I tried offering this mother daughter combo some mickey D’s we purchased just to give to them. The mother said “we’re vegetarians”. I mean WTF seriously? She just wanted money. I have seen a guy with a sign saying homless vet standing and walking around by the train station in chicago. A couple days later same guy was in a wheel chair with a signb disabled vet. He looked to be in his 30’s. With the records now and days I cannot believe that if he was in a full wheel chair he couldn’t get anything from the va. Also the fact that he was walking couple days before in a slightly different location made me upset. I highly doubt if he was even a vet but I didn’t stop to ask. (Note he was in shorts the first day and his legs didn’t have any marks I could see)
Was he really homeless or a professional panhandler? There are those too.

MSgt (Join to see) - A lot of times those services have soft barriers to entry that can not be navigated alone. There are lots of groups out there doing good work helping people get benefits, however that patchwork still misses a large percentage of those who need help. I believe people slip through the cracks in almost every country, however it was very rare to encounter a homeless person in Germany and I never heard of homeless camps with hundreds of people. Given that every city in the US seems to have such camps, I suspect we are by far the worst when it comes to allowing people to slip through the system. If you don't have advocates and people helping you work your way through the system, it is probably more likely to fail you than help you.

Panhandlers exist pretty much everywhere, I'm not sure most are homeless or even impoverished. Most of the panhandlers I see local here are transients, the roughly 300 homeless we have living in camps around this town of roughly 50K people are not going to be seen unless you venture into their camps or volunteer at one of the shelters where they give free showers and meals.