Having spent a bunch of time helping homelessness charities in Australia, I now have a much better understanding of it. Enough to realise that I was technically

Having spent a bunch of time helping homelessness charities in Australia, I now have a much better understanding of it. Enough to realise that I was technically homeless for a while when I was much younger (circa 2004), in the couch-surfing leaning on others kind of way. Some of the associated problems are hard to deal with. Mentally you end up in a spin, spending all your mental energy on making money go far enough. I had very unstable self-employed IT income. No ability to get a job because I'd dropped out of University (because of lack of money). As much as I was never at risk of sleeping rough, it was still a humbling experience. I hadn't really made bad choices*. In hindsight there were many things that I could have done better, swallowing my pride and telling people being at least one. But hindsight is 20/20 and has the benefit of years of reflection. The financial problems took years to resolve even when the income became more stable. It also became a puzzle. In order to get a house you have to have a bond, even finding a share house they want stable income (to be clear I wasn't making nothing it was just sporadic). Not being aware of even where to ask for help is also problematic (There are websites now that help with this a little). There are many reasons that people end up homeless, and to varying degrees. Society tends to lump them all together. Drugs and mental illness may be issues that cause homelessness, but so are unstable finances and domestic violence. Now, it will absolutely be COVID19 related, but that won't change the negative experience.