Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered
A lot of homeless people are there because they struggle to live functional lives. Its kind of the crack those people end up in. Many of them have idiosyncrasies, mental issues, and self-destructive behavior. Its really sad, and not a trivial problem. Sure, some are folks who are just down on their luck or just trying out the lifestyle. But that's not all of them, and a time traveler agent in cyberpunk can blend in with the least functional.
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Untrue, at least in the USA. While many homeless do suffer from disabilities and/or mental illness, they usually receive assistance when they enter jail for the first time, at least in the larger municipalities, so they usually transition to a more stable circumstance. In the USA, the majority of the homeless do not suffer from crippling disabilities and/or mental illness. They are either individuals who are the working homeless, families who are homeless, veterans, or unaccompanied youths.
In fact, the chronic homeless only make up a sixth of the homeless population, with the vast majority of the homeless just being people who temporarily ran out of luck. In a dystopian cyberpunk setting, I would imagine that the temporary homeless would be even more common compared to the chronic homeless, as automation would drive people out of work and society would not care.