My wife and I watched the movie, The Soloist, based on a true story of how a journalist for The Los Angeles Times became friends with a homeless man, who was a gifted musician and plagued by mental illness.
Several important things were captured by the movie.
Every homeless person is a human, just like anyone else. Each has a story: both before homelessness and during it. Each has gifts, struggles, and aspirations. They need to be treated with dignity and respect.
The privileged should not try to "rescue" the homeless, particularly out of a sense (conscious or unconscious, stated or unstated) of superiority, virtue, guilt, or desire for validation.
Homelessness is a tragedy.
Homelessness is a complex issue with many dimensions: personal, political, economic, social, health, spiritual, ...
Just because simple solutions do not work does not mean that we should give up.
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