WARNING: Boomer rant ahead!
When I was in my 20's, for me life was: either get along with mom, so I could continue to live in her house, or make other arrangements somehow. A "nice" two bedroom appartment was $465/mo. Minimum wage was $4.25/hr. I brought home around $130 a week for 40 hours. $520 a month minus $230 + $30 for my half of the rent and electric left $270 a month to spend as I wanted. Oops, insurance too $30. So $240. That breaks down to $8 a day to eat and play with. I ran out of money on Wednesdays, and got paid on Fridays. So when my room mate lost his job and went back to his parent's house, so did I. When mom demanded that I pay rent to her, I did. Within a few years I got lucky and got a job, at Luxfer, making double the minimum wage. Got my own apartment and everything. But working lonely nights in a factory got unbearable, and three years later I was unemployed, back at mom's again. blah blah blah - what was the point I wanted to make?
Oh yeah - homelessness. My point is that, although I was lucky that my mother had a house that I could always fall back on, it didn't mean I could just sit on my ass and wait for another lucky break. I had to do the dishes and feed the cats and clean my room and follow rules. I kept working and eventually I did get a well paying job and have supported my self for the last thirty years.
It wasn't any easier then than it is now. Anyone not fortunate enough to afford an education, or work at the family business, will need to work at a shitty job for 4 or 5 years and so many people just wont do that these days. My wife's son is 28 and never had a job more then a few months. We gave them two months and had to get ugly and put them out. They live on the streets, him and his dumbass girlfriend, and will soon have (another) baby. But somehow they always got a bud to smoke. He's done. It's game over if you are thirty with no job history. I feel that many of the younger people living in Riverside's tent city have a mom or dad they could live with, but won't, because, "rules".