I've worked with hundreds of homeless people, usually trying to help them before the cops sweep their camp, or keeping their car rolling so they can keep living in it.

There was a ubiquitous set of conditions:

• can't afford housing even though they had a job.
• lost identifying documents, usually in a sweep, and working on replacing them. You can't get work without these.
• no reliable postal address
• no support network

I've never met anyone who wanted to be living on the street.

I'm not talking about crust punks train hopping. I'm talking about the people who missed a day of work for whatever reason and couldn't make rent one month. Now they're in a tent near available services because the shelter kicked them out after the max stay of a week.

Being a therapist gives you no expertise here and it seems to me that a therapist who sees punishment as a viable means for behavioral change is kind of shit at their job.

Literally anyone using the bench potentially prevents someone else from also using the bench. Why is it a bigger deal when it's a homeless person doing the using? Also, I'm sure there are other more attention grabbing options than a flyer, if we use our imaginations a little bit. Why is your focus on prevention and not education/outreach anyways?

Perhaps you should read your own comments with that in mind.

You still don't get it, do you?

You have no idea how you appear to be insulting because your head is so far up your ass you smell like meconium.

When I was homeless all the shelters were full, and housing was a year plus wait for anything. I often slept in a concrete tube under a bridge. Then the government came in, removed the tubes, and puts spikes all over the concrete under the bridge. Yes I felt it was an attack. I was forced to move further out from where I could attain help, and do something to sustain myself, only making it harder for me to exist. Dealing with the government to maintain my place of residence, and medical treatment, is a part time job, where I spend, literally, 4-6 hours on hold with places like Jobs and Family Services, and the local housing authority. I can absolutely understand how easy it would be for me to stay homeless if I were say, schizophrenic. Luckily I am not, and I can maintain things like schedules, keep dozens of appointments per month, etc.

This is one of the worst possible ways to encourage people to seek help. it shows a deep lack of understanding what day-to-day life is for the homeless, especially ones who are very mentally ill.

Luckily, I became homeless in very late '99, where at least the area I was in, didn't have anti-sleeping measures installed on public benches, yet. Until I secured a shitty car to live out of, on the days I wasn't lucky to have a friend offer a spot to crash, parks were the only hope. I was removed by the police from them a bunch of times, told I cannot be sleeping there. When asked if they know any place I could spend the night, they spent zero time trying to help me. Told me to get out of there already.
It was really tempting to commit a crime, serious enough to get booked for few days, where I could catch up on sleep without freezing. Fact those benches didn't have anti-sleeping measures, made for a few great nights where I could get some decent rest, which wouldn't have happened nowadays. So yeah, hard to say it's not an attack on homeless people, specially when the public servants have zero fucks to help you out.