Homelessness

One possible topic that I was thinking of doing for my senior project was studying homelessness. When I was young, my parents would always bring me to downtown Boston and Chinatown. In both of those areas, I saw a homeless person on almost every single block. I would almost always ask my dad if I could give some money to the men and women sitting in the freezing cold with their ragged clothes, and he would usually give me a couple bucks to give to them. I always felt a brief sense of happiness after helping, but the feeling of happiness would always be followed by a sense of regret; I wasn't able to give every other homeless man or woman in the area a couple of bucks, and even if I was able to, it would only help them temporarily. Although I don't go to downtown or Chinatown nearly as much anymore, I still occasionally see a homeless man or woman sitting on a corner asking people for spare change. I feel sympathy, and want to help as much as possible when I see a homeless man or woman, but I want to help long term.
Some questions I have is:
Would some homeless people even want long-term help? Some people are very prideful and wouldn't want that kind of help.
How could I help them long-term?
What factors play into homelessness?


https://plus.google.com/111664344816048247787/posts
https://plus.google.com/103889628295982379300/posts
https://plus.google.com/117435445210481709276/posts

All three of these blogs seem to be genuinely dedicated to spreading information about how people can help the homeless.