Yeah, I tried hard to word my comment to be the 'my company went under' kind of luck rather than the genetic lottery kind of luck, but I couldn't do it and be succinct.
If you see the quote I included, it's clear the author wants us to think the homeless are 'just like us,' but to me that seems dangerously counterproductive. If I were homeless, you could give me a laptop and wifi and I could get back on my feet. That won't help someone who's schizophrenic or drug-addicted.
This raises the question - is addiction and mental issues a cause or an effect? How many came from homes where they learned poor social/societal skills. How many were forced to self-medicate (drugs) to staunch the pain?
There is a lot of evidence that stimulant abuse is a highly-correlated indicator of ADHD/ADD.
Scary that the breadline could be a lot closer than you think and but for some better pre-natal through pre-K care millions would be more productive members of society. We share in the cause when we do nothing useful to help.
But, itβs somewhat scary to think mental issues and addictions might be fairly random. The largest part of what separates you from being homeless could be random differences in your DNA, and who you happened to have for parents. Which you had zero controwl over.