A lot of people are just hopeless optimists and nearly none of them have actual experience working with these populations. I have a lot of experience working with the visible homeless (mentally ill + drug/alcohol addicted, not just "honest hard working folks down on their luck") and optimistic liberals have SO many ridiculous notions about this issue. The sad reality is that there are some humans that will never meaningfully participate in society in that way. They don't realize that the options are basically to either leave people to languish on the streets, or to force them into treatment/group home situation. They're not going to choose rehab voluntarily; they have that option now and decline it. Some have mental illness so severe they can't realistically hold down a job (not even bagging groceries or whatever is an option for people with mild to moderate mental disabilities). I have been shouted at by these bright eyed and bushy tailed college kids for saying it's pointless to give cash directly to the visible homeless. They genuinely just think that if we just throw more money at people then they'll clean up their act and get a job coding or something. It requires a certain coddled lifestyle completely detached from the harder side of life, combined with an arrogance in assuming that you have a solution for the world's ills that nobody else has thought of yet.