Why is it illegal to be homeless? It was the best year of therapy in my life.

Never asked for a cent, just wanted to be left alone.

it is not illegal - just frustraing to all the control freaks

you have every legal right to drop in or out of society on your own terms

remember how conformist we really are in modern America - the middle class does not forgive those who do not aspire to all their crap - in fact they get mean about it - esp. when funded to help you

I can't think of not having a room somewhere - but - that is about all I need - and a hotplate, the art of one pot cooking, I do gourmet stuff, crock pots are keen too

glad to see the homeless doing it - should not be a surprise to any cosmo person

all the drunks on the streets are a real drag - and if you do not drink they get all rude about it, oh well

Mad libertarian: you are definatley not the "normal" homeless person.

Its not illegal to be homeless. Its illegal to sleep in public places. That is why the homeless hide in areas like greenbelts - for their own safety. Both from others on the street and police.

Love to do IT: Not aspiring to be "middle class" is fine. But thats not the reason most people are homeless. Comments like that downplay the crisis and real causes of homelessness. Most people are homeless due to generational poverty, some sort of chemical dependency, mental illness, or some co-occurance of those problems. These people NEED help.

Of course, there are always the lazy, but you can't help those who won't help themselves. These are the folks who give the homeless a bad name, sucking up public resources that should be going to people in need, not to people wanting to loaf around on the public's dime. But I digress.

Homelessness is a serious problem, not a lifestyle choice.

Thanks for that post sweetjayne, it is very true that homelessness is indicative of systemic problems within our society. In my work with youth and young adults, almost all of the young people I work with would choose a different life, given the opportunity. Sadly, with budget cuts to foster care and human services, the numbers will likely only be increasing over the next several years.

--e

Thanks for the article. Homelessness is a very real issue that most people do not choose. Articles such as yours help to increase awareness; however is it quite necessary to use up space for other, potentially equally important news to let readers know you walked around the same area twice, or that homeless people enjoy sexual contact as others? Is that such a hard phenomena to grasp? In fact so difficult to ascertain that you actually had to write about it??

When lacking the ability to fully provide for yourself and possibly others, when looked upon in disgust by so many, when given a cold shoulder by someone hoping they didn't make eye contact, at least in this case two people were still able to enjoy the fulfillment, companionship, warmth and intimacy that come from human contact.

As Eric mentioned in his comment-- sadly due to past and recent budget cuts to human services and foster care this problem is likely to only worsen.

Thanks for the article. Awareness is better than ignorance.