To wish to work in order to obtain the minimum requisites for living such as food, and be locked in this dead-end must be unimaginably frustrating. The capacity of human adaptation is amazing given the lifestyle Nate (and others) endure for so long.

Its not like hunting or harvesting is longer an option, and all other legitimate alternatives are increasingly out of reach (e.g. cant get a job because you smell "funky", and can't get a bath because you don't have a job). The story about the stabbing in the homeless shelter only closes more doors.

And IMHO, this problem only really becomes a problem, when those who can solve the problem are affected: bums on touristic spots, bums in public bathrooms, mugging, drug-dealing, etc. So how is this scenario NOT an incentive for someone like Nate to purposely make himself a problem, either for direct benefit (e.g. stolen money) or the indirect one (e.g. better shelters to get bums out of the street)?