they travel to social service meetings, to visit family, to work (yes many homeless work), to care clinics, etc etc etc (it's a really idiotic question tbh)

I'd like to talk about my homeless run in today.
"Hey man, do you have some spare change"
"no sorry, just walking home"
The woman who clearly had SEVERE disabilities. "oh don't worry, thank you anyways"
At that point my attention had been peaked enough to break into a conversation.
"finding bottles is real tough some days" she said.
"I believe that. There is lots of competition."
"what kind of dog is that. He's so cute."
I sat down and we chatted for a few minutes. Not once did she ask me for money, or a handout after that, she simply wanted a bit of human contact. I know for a fact, she has done nothing to deserve being homeless, and is the average homeless person. Mental illness, hard times, and people have no problem treating her like shit due to preconceived notions. After leaving, she yelled "I love you Monty" to my dog like 5 times. If you are willing to "waste" 5 minutes of your day sometimes you might realize that this will be your average run in with the homeless. Try treating people not like shit and you might realize people aren't pieces of shit.

werd dude
chatted with a homeless man while waiting for the bus once, and feels like they're the easiest people to talk to
he didn't ask for change, but he asked for a cigarette; so we each had one together
shared a common interest in musical instruments
great guy, i'll never forget him nor our 10-minute dialogue

im pretty pissed off with vancouvers "homeless". overheard two "homeless" talking about their homes in point grey and shaugnessey and their real jobs last week along granville. lots of these people are on disability for some bs or just fucking around dt and making decent coin. some of these guys pull in more cash than a person can during a day after taxes. im not saying there arnt people that need help, because there is. it just seems a lot of the people asking for change arent actually, "needy". just as bad as those fucking women asking for earthquake help and then going to spend the donated money on scratch tickets. id much rather they crack down on these fucks than worry about homeless that will jump the gate anyways

We honestly need more transit to make DTES less toxic. As the gong show stands right now, people who are addicted to drugs don't stand a chance to be rehabilitated because no matter how many Insites there are, once they leave the clinic, the drug dealers are waiting for them. There is no positive role models or supportive system to let people in need to know what or feel normal about. There is just no end to that cycle.

If we spread the people around and have service around town instead of just triage, there might be a chance of rehab for some of those people.

Vancouver has NIMBYitis.

In the old days, the province or the feds could buy a chunk of land and put down low-income housing. There are plenty of areas in Vancouver with legacy low-income housing. The world did not end. Nowadays, everyone wants a say and they will oppose anything that brings in people who are different.

You have to give people who are down and out something to aspire to. People will conform to the environment around them - it's in our nature to do so.

Years ago there was a thing on this. The window wipers at intersections and the guys walking between parked cars at red lights. They followed a few of them, at the end of the days, they each walked about 6 blocks away, got in their cars, and drove home. With a red light every 1-2 minutes, a buck or two at each light...12 hours a day...those people make more than me and others I know who actually work hard for our money. Everything those people get is tax free, and get money just handed to them.
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Opening up doors doesn't necessarily mean they'll enter it. You have to understand why these people are there in the first place.

Other than where the "scene" is, it's a complex system of hustling and making money. It's a commercial area, which means they have a lot of sources to recycling products. The banks are there for them to easily cash their welfare checks on their final wednesday of the month. There is also a system of drug dealer walking around selling dope, which means easy access to dope. By easy, I mean no waiting and dealers flaking. When a heroine addict needs their down, they need it immediately.

They can choose a peaceful neighborhood to settle but why don't they? These people may seem disoriented at times, but they are still people. They have the conscience of not wanting to bother people who aren't bothering them. And as messed as they seem, they are very outgoing people and would prefer to be around the same type of people where they can chill and share dope with. Also more targets to scam dope off of or free load from.

DTES has become the home or a convenient area for these people, and it'll take years to flush them out or migrate them to a new area.

The people you see in burnaby near brentwood, or in new west, these people rather much stay away from a crowded area filled with junkies. They refer themselves as fun people who likes to get high, or even business people.

hope that this might put some compassion to others who are down on their luck...