It wasn’t until I became a homeless person that I was finally diagnosed, correctly, as someone with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Up to that point, I had spent a very long, lonely lifetime wondering why I inevitably failed at every relationship that I ever attempted. Unable to understand my problem with group situations, fluorescent lights, certain foods and textures. What the author states about the makeup of the homeless is certainly correct. I have a computer science degree and 6 years of college. I worked as a materials analyst for G.E. A server engineer for dell and yes, I became homeless. An accurate diagnosis of my condition MUCH earlier in life would have made all the difference, but I did as well as I could, under the circumstances.

As a homeless person, I met genuine polyglots, a former attorney, plumbers, electricians and technicians. People assume that the homeless population is comprised solely of rump-sprung parasites and drug-addled wastrels, but they’re wrong, dead wrong. We were broken in some way, some of us, many are retirees and disabled people who should be cared for, and would be, if Social Security had kept up with the cost of living. Many are people whose mental illness has overwhelmed them and need adequate care; too bad Reagan didn’t see it that way before he lost HIS mind. As a whole, if we are guilty of anything, it is that we simply didn’t love money enough to become as wealthy as those who are now clamoring for our food stamps.