This guy and I'm sure a lot of others could be pretty well off if there was some type of rural co-op they could live and work on. It could save a lot of money and probably help these people a lot by getting them out of the city.
A lot of homeless people cannot, or will not, live in such a situation. There are so many well-meaning people trying to help the homeless that those who stay homeless generally have a compelling reason why they are. Either they're episodically violent which makes them unsafe to house with other homeless people, or they've simply adapted to the vagrant lifestyle and don't know any other. Makes the problem much tougher to solve.