Just so we’re all clear, most homeless people in the US are not violent offenders. Many suffer from mental illness (because we have utterly failed to address these conditions as a society), but most are not violent at all. Drug and alcohol addiction is not rare, but also not universal.

I have worked with the homeless for almost 20 years now. Characterizing homeless people as violent drug addicts is a quick way to reveal ignorance and inhumanity in a person.