It is caused by peoples' jobs not paying a living wage, coupled with high housing prices, making them one unexpected expense from being on the street. My wife

It is caused by peoples' jobs not paying a living wage, coupled with high housing prices, making them one unexpected expense from being on the street. My wife is a social worker, and something I've since learned from her is that the "poverty level" is solely for the cost of food and has utterly nothing to do with the cost of housing. It is utterly bananas that you can "not be impoverished" yet be homeless. Fixing that number to account for local cost of living for housing would be a really good step in helping fix the underlying problem (and the govt giving a crap about their citizens!)