the history of homelessness as we know it today is fairly short--at least in america. i dont know if your research led you back as far as the 50s. while there may have been transients (mostly male) who didnt reside any place permanently, i doubt there were more than a couple thousand altogether. there were people who were chronically unemployed by choice or consequence of their own foolishness, but i doubt anyone who lived in the 50s and 60s in america will disagree that the only place we ever saw colonies of people living on the streets was on film or in news reports about third world countries. you might find it interesting to do another study (it wont take very long actually) to determine why that changed. the answer(s) are well within google reach.
There are truly hard luck cases out there. But they are the minority. Most "poor" people in the United States are poor because, simply put, they are losers.
You could increase welfare three-fold and they would still squander it. Most people I've met who think of the "noble poor" have no real experience in dealing with them on a day to day basis (unless they themselves are poor and it's not their fault they had 3 out of wedlock children, got addicted to heroine, and can't hold a job).
would it not have been a total waste of our time (not to mention the world's valuable virtual paper resources) to suggest you look for information to further reinforce your own conclusion? in a way, your response isnt that far off the mark--altho not by intent on your part. homelessness--the kind seen in america and canada--is a direct result of giving a specific group of people something and nothing actually. reagan was elected governor of california in the mid-60s because, among other things, he promised to balance the state budget. unfortunately for him--and the people who voted him into office--that was an impossible task due to a number of factors, most beyond reagan's control. using recently enacted legislation, intended to prevent abusive forcible confined of the mentally ill in state hospitals as part of the previous governor's program to rehabilitate the state's mental health program, reagan first fired so many of the psychiatrists and psychologists working at state outpatient clinics that the inpatient population grew to record levels. the state was taken to court by state fire marshalls and ordered to reduce hospital occupancy. at the time, estimated cost of treating a mentally ill inpatient was $20,000 a year and there were, at that point, 40,000 patients approximately in 13 state hospitals. reagan had 14,000 of them removed from hospitals by bussing them to their counties of origin--wearing only the clothes on their backs-- and released. each was given $1. this was followed by the closure of more than half of the state's mental hospitals. while this saved the state a substantial amount of money, it became a model for every other state and--when reagan was elected president--the federal system as well. consequently tens of thousands of former mental patients were dumped out on the streets. it's estimate that at very least 1/3 of all homeless people today are mentally ill.
after rereading this, i realized this is the part that really brands her a loser.