People are homeless for a variety of reasons and situations. Many are families - mothers with children. People forget that. Many are people who are mentally ill. People forget that.

Everyone tends to picture homeless people as adult men with drug and alcohol problems. That is not the majority of the homeless.

I believe people should be helped as much as we can, given food and a warm place to sleep, but just as important, given counseling to figure out WHY they are homeless, and to try to find a solution to get them off the street permanently.

I have had a person nominate her pet from a computer at a public library - she had been kicked out of her apartment because the landlord changed his mind about her having a dog and gave her an ultimatum. She had lost her job, did not have money to pay "first,last and security" on a new apartment, and was living, when she wrote me, with her dog, in her car somehwere in Colorado.

I never heard from her again after that initial email.

I "know" a young man in CA who is homeless, having beem kicked out of the house by an angry and addicted step-parent. He has family members in jail, and others who are alcoholic. He is 19, living in a tent under a bridge, where he promises he is safe from public eyes, trying to figure out what to do to find food, and figuring out the rest of his future is secondary right now. He also accesses the Internet from library computer.

Some women are on the streets to escape abusive spouses. Children are with their mothers.