Books helped South African man overcome homelessness
Before this gets too big I&#x27;d like to say this kind of saccharine story, while nice for the person involved, does not give a realistic picture of homelessness. Homelessness is not caused by people not having a job. It is caused by peoples&#x27; jobs not paying a living wage, coupled with high housing prices, making them one unexpected expense from being on the street. It is caused by people developing mental health issues that make retaining employment extremely difficult; and what could be more ruinous for your mental health than not having a home, a safe place to retreat to &amp; store your possessions? Think - many of us have been depressed. Do you think you could manage your depression at all if you didn&#x27;t have a safe, warm place to just hang out alone and recover from the world? Of course, the worst mental health problem of all is addiction. If you are homeless and develop an addiction then there is very little hope of recovery.<p>The homeless also suffer at the hands of the criminal justice system. It&#x27;s very easy to get arrested for petty crimes when unhoused; the cops really hate the homeless. Someone can&#x27;t periodically destroy a bunch of peoples&#x27; meager shelter in completely unproductive &quot;sweeps&quot; without developing a view that they&#x27;re less than human. Maybe you spend a couple days in jail, so you&#x27;ve lost what job you had. Or you have a record, so good luck getting a job and possibly escaping homelessness!<p>All of this is to say that this pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps story is just completely ridiculous, and if you see the world through the lens of this story then you&#x27;ll have a ridiculous worldview.<p>The fundamental reason for homelessness is simple. As long as housing costs money, there will be those who cannot afford it. I encourage you to think about this simple sentence and its implications.