It helps to do your homework. There is adequate help for the mentally ill, however, the courts have ruled they can refuse treatment, and this is why they're on the streets or they would be getting treatment. There are no PTSD vets standing on street corners professionally begging. Today there are many programs, and the VA helping them. I know of several. The vast majority of our street people are not Homeless, they are vagrant leeches void of a work ethic, dignity, and goals. I have spent a total of 3 years on the streets myself. Now, as for consulting the third world. My Chickasaw mother was born in Snow, Oklahoma at the height of the dust bowl era. This is third world poverty. My grandma and her 12 kids thumbed a ride to Oregon coming here homeless and destitute. They did not beg on street corners nor pitch a tent on public land demanding squatters rights. They pitched a tent in a cherry orchard and worked for rent like illegal aliens do.