A huge percentage of homeless people are veterans.
Maybe not in downtown Seattle :). But I worked in housing policy in another city for some years. We had long long waiting lists for housing where, to be accepted, you had to be a veteran AND homeless AND have a serious disability or addiction. A lot of people have multiple terrible problems.
People who are living in the woods may be one rung (or more) up the ladder of horrible life problems from people who are sleeping on sidewalks. They may have a working vehicle, and be physically able to drive it, or have a friend who does. They may be a bit worse off than permies in cheap rv parks, who manage to pay a small monthly rent.
And some of them are some of us. No one here may admit to leaving trash. But all of us, if things got bad enough, would have to. We all love Tioga George. When he had his heart crisis while driving, didn't he end up having to leave Tioga and all his possessions? I don't recall the details, but it's not that hard to imagine an emergency where a good hearted person might have to leave things behind.
And yeah, some people were raised in a barn. I mean, I was, but you know what I mean. No one taught them how to treat common spaces well.
