[empire29]

Came here to say this -- thought, I wonder how much our view of the homeless in America is skewed by the "visible homeless" we see, day to day, living on the streets.

Anecdotally, an overwhelming number of the "visible homeless" in America have mental illness or at least behave in a unemployable manner.

I imagine there is another (larger?) slice of homeless that live in shelters/elsewhere and are less obvious and could function "normally" in society given the means.

[warfangle]

Yes, the larger slice of homeless is usually invisible. It typically includes families. And they're typically homeless for less than a year.

The 'visible' homeless are typically chronically homeless, and have been for decades.