I think you set this up to be knocked out of the park, so I'll oblige:

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says 564,708 people in the U.S. are homeless (2015)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-homelessness-idUSKCN0...

Homeless for at least a night, over the past year. If you've been thrown out of your apartment, and have to crash on a friends' couch, you qualify.

Most homeless people don't end up on the streets, and don't stay homeless for very long. It's still an incredibly wretched experience, and not a sustainable one. Once you've burnt through all your friends that will lend you their couch, you will be sleeping on the street.

That bum asking you for change in SoMo? They too were sleeping on a friends' couch, before they ended up panhandling.