My friend is studying homelessness as part of a project in his sociology class. We were having a discussion last weekend and his belief was that anyone can become homeless but that he doesn't have much sympathy for the long-term homeless because most of them were addicts.
I found this ignorant and a bit offensive. Yes, people with substance-use disorder are overrepresented amongst the homeless but from volunterring with the homeless in college, I know that many started using after becoming homeless not the other way round. Mental illness, childhood trauma, and physical disabilites are very common in the chronic homeless and knowing how terrible healthcare is for the mentally ill and disabled even in many developed countries, I can't imagine how I'd personally be able to get out of that situation.