Nobody deserves to be neglected. Even if it is a result of their choices.

Answering in good faith as someone recovering from homelessness, knowing this post is so severely downvoted and will probably be removed or ignored.

In your humble opinion, are the majority of the homeless people responsible for the situation they are in?

No.

For this and the rest of your questions there are 5 main types of ‘homeless’ and all categories below often find themselves into multiple of these categories the longer they are homeless.

Archetype 1, The Victim: Nearly all homeless technically fall into this category, but I’m going to define this as you did, ‘victim of circumstances outside of their control.’ All homeless start out like this. Either from being born mentally ill and no longer having care, losing a job, losing a house, running away from abusive parents, running away from other domestic violence, being a part of the foster care system, or getting addicted to drugs (most commonly through the opioid epidemic.) But to further clarify and deal with annoying people:

Archetype 2, The Mentally ill: American society specifically is not built to handle those that cannot help themselves. It is so violently against the chronically ill and mentally ill, that the majority of those suffering from severe illness of any type will end up homeless at some point during their lives (including ‘couch surfing’ as homeless). Most homeless people will eventually become mentally ill if they stay on the streets longer than six months. Given the lack of available reasonable resources to get out of homelessness, this is a large minority of The Victims.

Archetype 3, The Druggie: Drug addiction is a disease, a disease you are either genetically predisposed to, or not. It can start as a choice, but does not always start as a choice. Stopping is not a choice most can physically make. This, like all addictions, will only end when it is ended. Barring arguably divine intervention only hitting rock bottom and staying there can truly ‘cure’ someone of drug addiction. So once they reach the end of their grace with their loved ones and friends, they’re still alive, but cannot maintain enough free floating cash to maintain a home (if they could even qualify)

Archetype 4, The Victim, but old: In many parts of the country you cannot get a job past a certain age, you will be discriminated against. And it will be done automatically in a plausibly deniable way. This gap usually exists between 55 and 62. This is the age you are most like to become homeless for the first time as of 2020. You get laid off, you get fired, you get constructively let go, you don’t have social security, you don’t have a good enough body for general labor, you will be discriminated against severely by pretty much everyone hiring… and then you end up homeless. And until you get your social security, you will stay homeless, as older people (before social security age) are usually at the bottom of the list for grants (specifically older white men have the least available options and programs to help them out of homelessness).

Archetype 5, (Rare) (Epic) (Legendary) The Actually Prefers Homeless: Easily the 0.001% of homeless people. These are never the ones you have ever seen on a broadcast or news report, except when they rarely get caught. They don’t and won’t ever fully fit into society, as they fundamentally reject the concept. Everyone else can and has been cured before, this is the only archetype that ‘deserves’ to be homeless, because it is genuinely the only thing they want in life.

I’ll say something stupid here, are drunk driving accidents just because the guy was slightly drunk or because he wasn’t skilled enough at driving? I’d bet an f1 driver could survive driving on a regular neighborhood off skill alone, while a regular person could prob crash and burn. I think being homeless is the same as drinking alcohol while driving, the alcohol being the social difficulties/outside circumstances and then your personal skill in managing life/jobs. I think it’s both, but after you become homeless for a while, its harder to get back on track so you can spiral down and then it’s harder.

sometimes yes, mostly no.

homelessness isn’t so black and white cut and dry. its causes are as numerous as the victims that exist.

nobody deserves to be homeless.

the worst thing about the homeless is that you’re always one bad day away from joining them.

When we did a homelessness study in our community we found out most homeless were not actually homeless. Many had a place to go but because of mental illness, addiction, and other circumstance could not go there.

We butted heads quite a bit with the business leaders and learned they got what they wanted regardless of community wishes. All of our seating was removed from our small town to prevent homeless from sleeping on benches. No one in the community wanted this except the businesses leaders.

Every time we would come up with a good plan it would be shot down. It became quickly apparent that the business leaders didn’t want to solve the problem. They just wanted to hide it.

In my humble opinion asking the question you have shows a high level of ignorance and callousness. This is because you are ignorant to the plight of homeless people and how this is connected to our society at large. Simply put, the homeless serve as a brutal reminder of what will happen to us if we don’t participate in our system the way the wealthy want us to.

I’ve been spit on, stalked, threatened, harassed by homeless people. More of my interactions with the homeless have been overall negative than positive.

And you know what? I still don’t fault them or think they deserve what they’re going through. I think everyone deserves a roof over their head and food in their bellies. Full stop. No ifs, ands, or buts.

The homeless are not “bad people” or lazy. They are people that are down on hard times and our society as a whole has failed them because they don’t live up to arbitrary expectations.

The picture does not need to be that big and it has no purpose at all for the topic at hand. Also, you are handling criticism very poorly.

I don’t feel very compelled to engage in this.

It doesn’t matter how they got there, the fact that our society doesn’t stop their fall to that point and provide help but spends enormous amounts of money and resources elsewhere is telling.

I only ever go to know the situation of one homeless person closer. It was in Poland, about 25 years ago… I was told that this guy went from orphanage straight to the military and when he go out, after years of living under very strict rules he simply wasn’t able to/didn’t wan to follow any orders anymore. When some people helped him find a job he didn’t show up the first day there was a good weather because he preferred to go for a walk. So not a bad person but also not a hardworking person. Simply someone that went trough a bad system and wasn’t prepared to function in a society. Every case is different.

Are they completely free of responsibility? Of course not. Did they wake up one day and say “I’m going to become homeless, see what all the fuss is about.”? Of course not.

I’m going to assume that nearly every person who’s homeless has some external factors like genetics (addiction, mental health etc), and some poor choices that led them to that situation. It’s very likely that a lot of the poor choices have their root in the mental health problems.

It’s exceptionally difficult to succeed in this world when you don’t have the tools to navigate it. A bad day for you might be permanently devastating for someone else.

I guarantee they have some disadvantage other people don’t.

New account and this is their first post? Probably isn’t even a real person

if you care how they got there, you’re the problem.

Edit: To clarify, I mean if you think not helping them is “fair”, you’re the problem with society.

They are responsible for their situation and they are victims of circumstance. These are not mutually exclusive.

No, statistically most of them suffer from psychological issues and society has failed to support them. We have enough wealth and resources to support everyone, the fact that we do not is a choice society has made to prioritize the concentration of wealth and let others suffer and starve.

76.2% of homeless individuals in high-income countries have at least one current mental disorder (per mhstats.org)

• Over three-quarters of people experiencing homelessness in high-income countries have a current mental disorder, a rate significantly higher than the general population. 76.2%
• Serious Mental Illness (SMI) affects approximately 22% of homeless adults, a rate nearly four times that of the general population.
• Substance use disorders are exceptionally common, with alcohol use disorders affecting 36.7% of the homeless population—a rate nearly 10 times higher than housed individuals.
• Access to care is severely limited; only 30% of homeless adults with a severe mental illness receive adequate mental healthcare, and up to 60% struggle with medication adherence.
• Homeless youth are a particularly vulnerable group, with nearly 40% identifying as LGBTQ+ and suicide attempt rates reaching as high as 33% for those who have also run away.
• The ‘Housing First’ model proves highly effective, with over 90% of participants remaining stably housed by prioritizing permanent housing with integrated, voluntary support services. >90%

My opinion is not humble and I find myself hating that my instance doesn’t allow downvotes. How is this even a topic of discussion in 2026. 🤮