I read (or skimmed) most of the comments here first, before reading the article. The content of the article was not what I expected after reading the debate here about whether or not to just lock up "crazy"/homeless people.
I am currently homeless. I am not mentally ill. I am medically handicapped. I am very clear what I need. I need an income that does not keep me sick. I find it frustrating to read discussions of this sort.
I think a lot of people on the street would be far better off and face far fewer barriers to getting their life back together if there was dramatically less prejudice. Most homeless people are on the street because they have overwhelming personal problems that society does not have good solutions for, not because these individuals are incompetent. Even if you are extraordinarily competent and know exactly what you need and want in order to get your life functional again, the degree to which you face prejudice and people who are dismissive, disrespectful, and controlling makes it an uphill battle, much more so than I think it really needs to be.
The baseline difficulties are plenty hard on their own if you have certain conditions. But facing so much social stigma and often offered "help" of a sort that makes you want to scream "Please stop helping me!" while denied access to the kinds of help you actually need, that more middle class people can more readily access, sometimes just for asking because they don't face the same stigma and prejudice -- that alone is pretty crazy making. It usually does not go over well to try to comment on such frustrations. People want to see themselves as good and right and do not want to hear that they are making things harder and are behaving in a classist manner. I am often at a loss as to where can you talk about such things and have it be a productive discussion?
I think that really needs to change. If we can change that, then being homeless becomes less of a trap that seems nigh impossible to escape.