You might be severely underestimating the impact that a bad living situation can have on a persons confidence, motivation, and mental energy to approach tasks.

The most important thing they can do is ANYTHING that gets them into a stable living situation.

I agree with this comment. First seek stability. Then you have a base, launch position, to move upwards from at your personal mental pace, after you get your feet back under you. Most people do not function well at all under the intense stress of homelessness, it breaks you down.

If they can quickly find a tech job, that's great of course; otherwise find anything that provides the necessary stability to make further sound moves from. It's dangerously easily to get trapped in homelessness for extended periods of time as it breaks people down and they can't get back out.

I’ll second this. Getting any job, and keeping it, will give you a self esteem boost in addition to giving you some structure and income. Use that as a launch pad for bigger and better things.

Put another way, it’s easy to reach too high and then feel depressed or hopeless because you can’t achieve it. It’s much better to walk up the steps one at a time.

Tech is a better meritocracy than other fields but is still a field with barriers. If you don't have a good resume, a CS degree, recommendations or particular open source contributions, you'll have a hard time getting any job.

I'm not sure if you tried being homeless for 1 or 2 days, but I can't imagine you'll be able to pass an interview if you slept in the church door last night and had nothing for dinner.

> Do whatever it takes to land a job.

That's what I'm suggesting and unless there is someone or some community that will bail you out for 3-4 months to get your affairs in order, you'll have to start from rock bottom.