Lucien: Public-housing advocates claim that the many homeless people in this city are proof that there is insufficient housing available to them and ttherefore that more low-income apartments are needed  But that conclusion is absurd  Many apartments in my own building remain unrented and my professional colleagues report similar vacancies where they live  Since apartments clearly are available, homelessness is not a housing problem  Homelessness can, ttherefore, only be caused by people' s inability or unwillingness to work to pay the rent  Maria: On the contrary, all recent studies show that a significant percentage of this city' s homeless people hold regular jobs
These are people who lack neither will nor ability
It offers no justification for dismissing as absurd the housing advocates' claim that there are many homeless people in the city.