While a good number of people posting here grasp that homelessness, addiction, mental health issues and catastrophic life events can bring about a perfect storm for some individuals making them "difficult" to work with and that the overall issue is complex, it saddens me that quite a few want to look at them as almost another species.
Maybe some have been classed as "dysfunctional" their entire lives, and have absorbed a message since childhood that they are "unworthy" which will make them hostile and learn to live in a survival mode which leads to a self perpetuating cycle of defensiveness and disengagement due to inured lack of trust in people in general, and authority in particular. I think it's fair to say care leavers can be in this cohort due to the failures of overstretched services etc and often massive lack of proper oversight and mentoring.
Some will be people whose lives have been torn apart by catastrophic events such as bereavement and job loss and family breakdown and who never get the time and space to recover, so learn unhealthy coping mechanisms.
Some may indeed be part of criminal gangs, but what does it say about society that it produces people who feel safer operating in such high risk and unhealthy circumstances than asking for or accepting "legitimate" help?
I think looking at our developing society, culture and the policies of successive governments play a massive part in all this.
Accessing any kind of support when in crisis is mired in bureaucracy and having dealt recently with our local council regarding homelessness this year, it drove me to distraction although I'm allegedly reasonably intelligent and capable.
The current emphasis on "resilience" and "personal responsibility" is all well and good, but it overlooks the difficulties posed by the ever changing economy, job market, and reliance on being technologically up to speed - it's easier now than ever to find oneself out of the loop and harder than ever to get back on the merry go round.
It is ironic that some posts here have lambasted apparent "marketing strategies" allegedly employed by some of the "homeless" when the entire world is geared up to encouraging sustaining oneself by whatever means possible. It's the very definition of capitalism, and we all buy into it.
Yes, we have growing social problems, but the undertone speaks more to morality for alot of people, hence the phenomenon of the "feckless undeserving poor". Lack of money is posited as a moral failure and how money is spent is less scrutinised at high levels of wealth while at the "poor end" spending is harshly judged. Yet in terms of addiction and the damage that is done, whether it's Bollinger and cocaine consumed in mansions to excess, or White Lightening and smack on the streets, the fallout is the same - it's just that one is visible in the doorways of empty shops in our towns, the other is hidden and excused to a degree simply by dint if financial disparity.
Everyone bleeds. We are all the same under the skin. We can kid ourselves all we like that some fabled moral superiority will never see us "choosing" a lifestyle detrimental to ourselves/ society. But you'd be surprised how the mighty can fall.
The people who are the subject of this thread may have had hopes dreams and aspirations, families and businesses and careers and may have lost them due to the cruel twists of fate. Or they may never have had the opportunity for such grandiose notions. They may be aggressive and unpleasant as we all can be when we've got our back against the wall and can't find the exit.
We can choose how to help if we want to, or not, but please, enough with the de-humanising and othering of people, flesh and blood people, just like us at the fundamental level.
And perhaps direct your ire at the system which can never be perfect but is nowhere near functional these days and ask how that has been at best allowed to happen, or at worst deliberately engineered to create division and divert attention from some of the self serving policies of politicians in lockstep with corporate entities.
And as I've had long posts like this dismissed as word salad in the past, I offer you mayonnaise or the dressing of your choice to aid digestion.