In college I helped run the office of a non-profit that attempted to find jobs and homes for the homeless. The people we dealt with tended to have a massive nu

In college I helped run the office of a non-profit that attempted to find jobs and homes for the homeless. The people we dealt with tended to have a massive number of problems. Sometimes it was outright drug use or mental illness. Other times it was simply never having any pattern of success in life. They wouldn't know how to make appointments, present themselves decently, be consistent, or talk intelligently. I came to several conclusions: 1) You can try to infect them with a can-do attitude all you want, but the concept of working hard to build the good life is so alien they never buy into the program. Yes, the guy in the story is right, success does come down to attitude. But changing someone's attitude is much, much harder than just giving out money. 2) The existence of the minimum wage hurts the homeless. The people I worked with were incapable of producing $6 an hour of value for an employer. If there was no minimum wage, they could work $2 an hour of value and then gradually work their way up. I don't know how many would actually do this, but at least they should have the choice. Because they are legally prevented from getting a job, they usually end up doing black market work like selling flowers or collecting cans which has no path of upward mobility. 3) I tend to think supportive housing is the best you can do. Give them stable place to live and gradually push them towards being more productive. It often ends up being cheaper than the cost of shelters + emergency room care + police monitoring of the streets. Of course, few cities want to build this kind of housing for fear of becoming a draw for the homeless. Keep in mind, I'm talking about the hardest cases. There were people who managed to have a good attitude and rebound very quickly. One great example was a woman who just got out of prison from drug use and was looking for a job. We helped coach her on how to answer interview questions about her past, and she ended up getting a job at Sears.