Whoah there, you're completely misreading my comment. The single sentence I wrote, "This recent story in the Atlantic does a good job of capturing the quiet de

Whoah there, you're completely misreading my comment. The single sentence I wrote, "This recent story in the Atlantic does a good job of capturing the quiet desperation of motel-homeless life" isn't even directed at you personally, but at HN readers who want to understand more about the topic. So: of course staying in motels is far preferable to life on the streets, and it sounds like you had it far worse than the family profiled in the Atlantic. My sole point was that precarious living in a string of motels is still homelessness and -- as the article explains -- far more challenging than the average HNer (like me) might think.