How fixable it is. If we laid down our defensiveness, we would find solutions are easier than we think. For instance, a major cause of homelessness is mass incarceration. One in four Americans has a criminal record, often for petty crimes. Locking someone up over something like shoplifting is a good way to ruin their life. Having a criminal record makes finding housing or employment difficult. Yet we continue to arrest people, then once they become homeless, we arrest them for the symptoms of homelessness, like camping. We are stuck in a cycle of confusing cruelty with justice.