To the argument that homelessness is because of mental illness / substance abuse. I think there's probably another (as yet unproven) side of this. And that is

To the argument that homelessness is because of mental illness / substance abuse. I think there's probably another (as yet unproven) side of this. And that is substance abuse / mental illness can and probably to a large extent is derived from the environment you're in. How many people would not fall into a funk if all they were ever worrying about were their bills, and never capable of making a dent in them. Let's face it. Some people get themselves into situations where they're never going to accumulate the skills necessary to make it out of borderline poverty. Most of the times it probably takes several generations to get into that situation. How many generations (in today's economic environment) could it possibly take to get out? It's sad to see that most of them feel such small amount of hope they put all their "money" on getting their kids to the NFL / NBA / etc. The system has failed them and it's not taking any steps to help them get out of those situations.