[Alex3917]

"Many of these people are mentally ill. And for many of these people giving them a home and money will not solve their problems."

This thinking is based on the fallacy that mental illness is a purely biological condition, which anthropology, epidemiology, and clinical data all soundly disprove. Even for mental illnesses that are mostly biological, like schizophrenia, the quality of outcomes varies enormously depending on the person's social environment as well as the course of treatment.

[juiceandjuice]

Do you know any LPCs or LPSWs?

First thing they'd tell you is that while mental illness isn't biological, that doesn't mean there's a cure. Some people could go 20+ years in therapy and still end up only a slightly less sick person than they were going in.

Also, many mental illnesses become biological in the sense that brain chemistry actually changes.

[Alex3917]

Excellent points. Are there any good books on the LPC/LPSW perspective?

[juiceandjuice]

I'm not sure. My best friend is an almost an LPC, I can ask her. She's worked with kids aged 4-18, and it's always the older kids she's most worried about. She's working with 13-18 year olds right now, but really wants to go back to 6-12 year olds because she feels like there's a bit more hope for them.

[Bdennyw]

Regardless there are people who choose to remain homeless. When I lived in Finland there were homeless, even though there were plenty of opportunities not to be.

[Alex3917]

Of course there will always be people who choose to remain homeless, but their goal is only to reduce homelessness by ~83%.