The depth of the problem

Re “They’re living with cancer and little else,” Column, Dec. 21

As Steve Lopez has discovered, homelessness is never as simple as a string of bad luck.

An expert on homelessness once explained to me that the saying “one paycheck away from the streets” was very misleading.

Most citizens would not become homeless, even if we were unemployed for a year.

Why? Because we have resources, both external (savings, insurance, credit cards, friends, family, alumni associations, co-workers) and internal (resourcefulness, judgment, education, training, experience) that the homeless lack. In addition, many homeless adults have either a substance-abuse problem, a mental illness or both.

None of this means the homeless are any more or less deserving of our sympathy as fellow human beings. But the solution is rarely as easy as a free meal, a free room or a couple of hundred bucks.

The cause is much deeper. Failure to address the cause of homelessness on an individual level has contributed to the institutionalization of homelessness in our society.

Robert Axelrod MD

Longview, Wash.