When I went to San Francisco during Easter break, it was for working with the homeless.
Some of them are actually happy with their lives. One guy I met honestly chose to be homeless. He had a job and a house, but decided to lay low. He's still living well on the streets, and with all the soup kitchens in the area he is able to get a decent meal almost always.
That said, he is an extremely lucky/rare case.
As well, homeless people aren't always the ragged, angry people they're made out to be. Another story incoming from SF. I worked at a soup kitchen, and the people that were getting food there were incredibly happy. However, as they reached out with their trays you could see the scars on their arms from needles. These people are still friendly, however they've gotten wrapped up in to the drug scene. Also, people that have been taken off the streets through volunteer workplaces such as soup kitchens often decide to volunteer at those places. They know how hard it is to get off the streets and want to help out in any way they can.
Same soup kitchen. A lady walks in and I start talking to her while I clean up the table beside her. Although I didn't catch all of it because she had a speech impediment, I understood the jyst of it.She had a steady relationship with her boyfriend for 4 years going. However, suddenly her boyfriend said that he needed some money. The only way he would be able to get it was for her to sell her body to other men. Turns out he was a pimp. She's been wrapped up in prostitution now to keep some money for her child.
Also, Gavin's post reminded me of this. Yet again, the same soup kitchen (St. Vincent's, I believe). A regular at this place; I saw a man walk in. He was always talking to himself, and I discovered that he had schizophrenia. It was not at all his fault that he ended up on the streets - his mom abandoned him when he was young and he had no work options. He came up for a glass of lemonade (I was serving drinks at this time), and I decided to say, "hello," to him. Instantly he stopped talking to himself and responded with a, "hey, friend!" with a huge grin on his face. Once again, these people are incredibly friendly. So are the volunteers. If this man wasn't found at the soup kitchen, they would go out looking for him so that they knew he was safe.
This was from two different volunteering places on the same day. We generally worked at 2-3 places per day, and stayed there for a week. I can share waaaayyy more stories if you want.
tl;dr I do feel sorry for the homeless.
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