I was one of the top students in my graduating high school class, but was sexually abused as a kid. I spent a lot of years in therapy and generally trying to deal with my personal issues. At one time, I wanted to go into some kind of "helping" profession and considered psychology and social work.

I'm a woman and I CLEPed college algebra when I returned to college in my early thirties. I decided that with a relatively strong math background, I could do whatever the hell interested me and that becoming successful as a woman was the best thing I could do to try to make the world a better place. I could set the example instead of going into a helping field and this would be a better thing to do. The desire to go into a helping field was posited on the idea that the world was as broken as I had been at one time and people needed my pity and needed help.

My understanding of the problem space changed and I decided that oppressed and downtrodden need opportunity more than they need help. I still like helping people and I still want to do things that will help folks who are having a rough time, but my framing of how best to do that has changed dramatically.

I will suggest that a lot of people who go into psychology do so because they fundamentally view the world as broken and people as crapped on by the system and cannot imagine the system actually changing in any meaningful fundamental way.

I have had a class on Homelessness and Public Policy. I am currently homeless. I am abundantly familiar with the kinds of personal challenges that land an individual on the street. I am strongly opposed to writing people off as incapable of ever getting their act together just because things are really bad currently. I am strongly opposed to the idea that we need a system in place for being permanently "helpful" in a way that actively makes it harder for people to get their lives together themselves.

I run a website aimed at helping homeless people preserve their agency while trying to resolve what are typically very serious problems. On the other hand, I also am very clear that systemic problems like the high cost of housing can be relatively readily resolved by moving someplace cheaper. I did so in May and I am in the midst of writing a blogpost today about the fact that where I currently am is a lot cheaper and levels of homelessness per capita appear to be lower.

People who live on limited incomes, like retirement money, may be poorly positioned to increase their income in order to keep up with rising housing costs, but if they move someplace cheaper, their lives may suddenly work a whole lot better.

Being on the street should not be a reason to write someone off permanently. It is really not healthy for society for us to be taking that position. We should be doing all in our power to help people keep their agency and maintain their independence -- even people with mental health issues. It is possible to have serious mental health issues and still manage your life on your own. In fact, the more someone can manage their life on their own, the more they are empowered to conquer the root causes of their mental health issues, which either have chemical or social roots (or both). Having agency can help one get on top of that, regardless of the root cause.

Edit: Finished my blog post: http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2015/11/th...