A conservative estimate is that 80% of the homeless are mentally ill or drug addicts

#Edit: By the way, you guys are fucking stupid. I'm not saying they should be locked up or institutionalized, what the fuck is wrong with you? I think we need more services like halfway houses, job training, occupational therapy, counseling, etc.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>I live in Portland Oregon, which is notoriously flooded with homeless, like every city in the US is. I've lived here my whole life. I've never seen it this bad. There's tent cities on nearly every major road. If you use public transportation your guaranteed to interact with at least one clearly disturbed person, whether they're shouting obscenities at random or trying to have a conversation with you. <br><br>I'm not trying to demonize the mentally ill or people with addictions. But they're a huge fucking percentage of the homeless. Even the ones that are lucid, many of them have a past of substance abuse. I've been talking to some of the homeless on my college campus and so many of them have had their lives ruined by drugs or injuries. It feels absurd to say "minimum wage needs to be higher!" or "Illegally acknowledge that the free market can't provide decent housing for everyone and let local governments build massively subsidized apartments!" when it's not just a matter of cost of living. Its not just "if you work hard enough you'll be fine!" Its mostly people who have no ability to seek help for themselves.