The majority of homeless are not just economically challenged.
Most have mental health issues coupled with drug addiction issues, which preclude them from having a job to pay for housing.
In fact most homeless prefer to be on the streets where they are not governed by anyone = NO RULES.
Our society has made it easier for such people to exist.
There are of course, some who are simply unable to afford housing in the areas in which they live.
You can't put mentally ill - drug addicted people in housing and expect a good result, especially if you mix them with the normal people who just cannot afford housing.
As I mentioned earlier, the "homelessness" in places like Bozeman, or Sedona is somewhat different from inner cities, or even places like where I live, where drug addition and mental health is a primary cause. (And our 2 million dollar, 16 bed shelter is filled, yes 100 grand plus, per bed.) I haven't been to Bozeman in 4 years but the video I've seen of the area in the article, those are mostly working poor. They have cheap campers and trailers, some not so cheap. Last time I was in Billings, it was more an urban type of homeless, tents, or bums sleeping on the street. Both cities are on the I-90 so they may have more transients as well as working poor.
I should mention the two times I was "homeless," I was not destitute. When our condo burned, my mom and I both got new jobs in a couple of weeks. My mom also had a house in SoCal, but it was leased out. I could have stayed at my Dad's in LA, but I liked the mountains and my mom needed me. We saved enough to buy a ski cabin (down payment) by winter, and my mom's new management company took off. In a year she ran 400 rentals with 20 employees.
Later, in my beach bum days, I was working while sleeping in my camper, as were a few others. When I did move back into a house, I shared with two other guys, and we lived across the street from Jimmy Buffet in Key West. But living in my camper let me save $500 a month. And I had a million dollar view of the beach most mornings! I had a number of interesting living arrangements back then. For a few months I worked for a marine construction outfit. We had a huge, 300 ft barge with a crane. I lived in my camper on the barge. That was weird but fun. I owned a houseboat for about 6 months, and later lived on a cruising sailboat.
There was a guy I met in those days doing similar. He was retired and worked as an armed guard on graveyard shift for the hospital. He had a small motorhome and would park it under a tree at the beach every morning to sleep. He said the same thing I did - why give the money to a greedy landlord?
The problem isn't so much the camping, as the sheer numbers, and often inappropriate locations that harm the residents. And the drugs and RUBBISH. That's what people don't like IMO. When we camped there wasn't a bit of trash. It was Nat'l Forest, we RESPECTED the land, something lacking these days. If our camp had looked like the crap piles we see today the Rangers would have run us off. They knew about the fire, another family camped with us, and unlike nowadays they let us stay all summer.
I kinda miss my days as a Bridge Troll though. When we first got over the air TV in the lower keys I could park my van under the Bahia Honda bridge, in the shade, right next to the water and watch crystal clear TV. Open my door, walk ten feet and drop a fishing line in the water. Maybe one day some of y'all will be lucky enough to live in a van down by the seashore.
