Then get two $15 per hour jobs.  Rent a room.  Better yourself.  I know, because I did it.  Never occurred to me to choose tent dwelling, and I'm no martyr, just had some old fashioned pride.  This is a choice to live in squalor behind the trees in our backyards.  No stat here but I'll venture to guess (being generous here) that 95% of these tent dwellers are unemployed and only a few are mentally ill.  A chosen lifestyle, period!  During the day, out of the woods and in to our homes, garages or yards to steal what they can or beg on the corners.  No sympathy here.