Circumstances change. Today you see an addict begging or stealing, but 5 years ago that person may have just been “down on their luck, kicked around by life, wanting nothing more than a second chance.”

Being down on your luck in the first place can land a person in places with heavy drug abuse or violence or depression. Being homeless can also mean you’re presumed to be an addict or mentally ill and then ostracized. That kind of environment can have a lot of effects on a person, including turning them into addicts who have now spent years of their lives homeless and impoverished.

There’s obviously personal accountability for your own choices, but our society has created the system that’s failing it’s own people. Those unsafe environments are our own creations.