simply without a home

The definition of homeless is 'without a home'. I think that people confuse this greatly with other things. Being homeless does not mean that a person is dirt-poor, or that there is substance abuse, it simply means they don't have a home. Lake County is a fairly wealthy county, therefore, people forget that there are those without homes or assume there are none. There are close to 500 homeless people in Lake County. No one likes to think of this because being homeless is closely associated with having many other problems. This is simply not true; many homeless people have jobs and families, they just cannot afford the expense or they fell upon hard times, maybe they had a tough divorce. No one knows each person's specific case and therefore should not be so quick to judge a homeless person as a bum, or a criminal. It could happen to anyone and we'd do best to remember that.