&gt;&gt;It is not straightforward at all. Most homeless people suffer from a mental illness.<p>&gt;Unsurprisingly unemployment and homelessness and being told that it&#x27;s all your fault causes mental illness, especially when combined with attempts to self medicate with drugs or alcohol.<p>Achievement unlocked: Trivialized mental illness.<p>Being homeless is certainly stressful on the psyche, but not every crazy homeless person started as a sane homeless person. Some people just cannot function as independent adults. One person I know managed to score Section 8 housing, and she trashed the apartment and threatened the landlord and ended up on the street. Until her condition deteriorated enough for the police to call a 5150 on her.<p>But she doesn&#x27;t consider herself crazy. Just stressed out. Modern liberation theory means the institutions consider her to be an adult, so if she says she doesn&#x27;t want to stay in an asylum, then there&#x27;s no way for us non-super-rich people to stop her from leaving psychiatric care and ruining her life.<p>There is no firm boundary between crazy and sane, and even being delusional doesn&#x27;t prevent one from being a productive member of society. We just don&#x27;t have enough appropriate services for all the crazy people in this country.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=NGY6DqB1HX8" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=NGY6DqB1HX8</a>