I thought I'd start with the most common thought when I tell people that I'm taking on homelessness. What people often don't hear when I say that is I'm out to SOLVE it. Not make a difference with it, not try to fix or change it, but disappear it altogether.
Here's a question for you: what is different about these two neighborhoods?
What is different between these two people?
Which of them deserve a career?
Which deserve to be known, valued, and invested in?
Which would you want your kids to be friends with?
Which of them is a 3.8 HS student?
Which of them has experienced homelessness off and on?
Which of them think that it's their fault?
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It might seem obvious, but a primary cause (if not the primary cause) of the rise in homelessness is due to lack of affordable housing options.
Statistically, individuals who have parents who have been homeless are at risk of perpetuating the cycle. Most of the reasons for that is simply they don't know any other way to live.
For further information on that, see https://endhomelessness.org/.
Specifically, https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/what-causes-homelessness/housing/.
The Tales from the Root series is designed to begin to have us engage with the why of homelessness to begin to shift the stigma.