[DAddYE]

    In my (probably limited) view, SF homeless are primarily
    the folks around Tenderloin that seem unfortunately
    abandoned by the society.

Couldn't be more wrong IMHO.

I lived in the tenderloin for a year, most if not all are by choice. I had also the opportunity to talk with few (the friendly and not too crazy one) and they wouldn't take back a "normal" life.

I'm not saying that for ALL is the same, but from my experience I can say that probably 60% are drugs/alcohol addicts 8% do that by choice, 30% totally crazy (most seems from abuse of durgs), 2% left back.

[peterwwillis]

Anyone who is left to openly suffer under an addiction, mental [or otherwise] illness, or who is left to believe that being homeless is somehow a better life than they might have otherwise, is being abandoned by society.

Addiction is not a choice. Mental illness is not a choice. And having your soul crushed to the point where you find it less humiliating to remain homeless, is not a choice.

In my experience, the only people who truly choose to be homeless are people who have advantages that they give away due to some ideal that they think they'll achieve by living a humbler life. These people might not have a home, but they also aren't disadvantaged the way other homeless are. Making this distinction is important, as it cuts to the heart of real homelessness: an inability to help oneself. And that's why society is supposed to help.

[comrh]

I have a friend with a lot of homeless experience in a ~55k person city in NJ. He told me there are some people who feel a social bond, the homeless have de facto leaders and people with social capital within the population. My friend said one of the people told him he would never go back because he felt like it was going from a place where he mattered to a complete nobody.

[diziet]

So your assessment is that 98% of the homeless have drug/alcohol problems or are homeless by 'choice' ?