Plans to "end" homelessness are naive, because the will end nothing. At best, they will only help to make homelessness somewhat more bearable for those trapped

Plans to "end" homelessness are naive, because the will end nothing. At best, they will only help to make homelessness somewhat more bearable for those trapped by it. The proper solution is a long-term attack on the causes, not the symptoms. It is indeed noble to help the homeless who are mentally or physically disabled, or addicted to drugs or alcohol, or unemployable for lack of job skills or education, or abandoned by spouses or family, or simply too old and alone. However, it's unlikely you'll ever help enough of them permanently out of their holes to address the problem in any substantial way. Instead, the first step has to be a truly intensive effort to educate and convince children, beginning at about ages 6 to 7, and continuing through high school, that they must do five things to have a successful and happy life: they must keep their bodies healthy and avoid addiction (because bad food, lack of exercise, unsafe sex, and using drugs or alcohol will disable you), they must continuously learn job skills that keep their labor in demand (otherwise you can be tossed out of work at any time), they must live within their means and know how to save money (because living on credit can make you a slave for life, and no one else will provide a good enough safety net for you if you can't earn a living), they must be self-sufficient (otherwise if your spouse or lover should disappear, the cupboard will be bare, and it will be especially tough if you have dependent children), and they must stay honest (otherwise you'll turn to crime, wreck other peoples' lives, and end up in prison). You would think parents and our education system are already doing a decent job of indoctrinating our children about those important facts of life, and monitoring them to make sure they don't waiver, but we're not. If we make sure our growing children truly understand and follow the above five principles, I guarantee the next generation will have a much smaller percentage of people falling into homelessness, and we'll also enjoy a lower crime rate. There's no reason that trend couldn't be repeated for future generations. Our free society makes it easy for us to make bad personal decisions, and decent education and good parental guidance aren't guaranteed, so it seems our country will always be doomed with a certain amount of poverty. Even when we do the right thing, unpredictable disease and our abominable lack of affordable health care for everyone guarantees some of us will at least fall victim to mental or physical health issues. However, the vast majority of causes of homelessness can easily be targeted and attacked and eventually overcome, if we just do it in a preventative frame of mind, instead of the typical too-late band-aid approach.