> The problem with the "but they have mental illness to deal with" answer is that while it may be true, it's very much the edge case, and not the rule.

You provide no substantive justification for this claim.

> I know this because I've been homeless. I'd say greater than 90% of the folks that I encountered in my homeless period were there because they were content to be there.

Being homeless doesn't make you an especially qualified assessor of mental state, nor is there any reason to believe that the people you interacted with enough to form a judgement about their reasons for being on the street were representative even if your judgement were inassailable.