Homeless and the Public Anxiety

We as a culture like to keep poverty and suffering at arms length, making poor and people begging on a corner invisible and seeing them as unfortunate but ultimately unpleasant and dangerous. Homeless people then are forced to remain away from the public eye, spending their time in alleys and under bridges, alternating between being harassed by the police for loitering and being ignored by the general public. What are we afraid of though? Why do we feel the way we do? is it because we feel guilty for the things that we do have when we are reminded of those who are less fortunate? By making them invisible are we justifying our better clothes, expensive shoes, our desire for expensive cars? Or are we feeling anxiety that we are not doing enough to help?

Either way, I've seen the same group of homeless people hanging out in and around a park near where I work, just off of a fairly poor area which I am sure has either or both of a soup kitchen and shelters. One day I saw them passing around a single bottle of cheap vodka as they sat outside on the grass, another time I saw them under a bridge, sitting in a cluster, probably for safety. Why people are homeless is a mystery to me, but I can see that there isn't a single reason and most of the time it isn't by choice or by their own fault. I just don't understand how we are such an advanced society technologically and economically, yet we can't seem to find ways of housing people despite the fact that more and more homes are standing empty.