I think the MAJORITY of homeless people are mentally ill. I live in a suburb of Chicago, and I run into quite a few homeless people around our shopping distric

I think the MAJORITY of homeless people are mentally ill. I live in a suburb of Chicago, and I run into quite a few homeless people around our shopping districts and public transportation. I usually strike conversations up with them - which terrifies my wife, by the way - and most display fairly obvious symptoms of mental illness even in the brief moments I spend with them. I can't begin to imagine what symptoms they might exhibit if I was around them for longer periods of time. I think mental illness is much more widespread than people realize, and our society really doesn't have an appropriate way to deal with the situation. I'd like to see this young author try to 'pull himself up by his bootstraps' if he was paranoid schizophrenic and hallucinating. It's rather hard to interview for a job when you think the interviewer is trying to kill you and you have leeches crawling out of your ears, for example.