Homeless Couples Problem in San Diego

There's a homeless couple that's been hanging out near our house for a couple months.  They seem fairly with it, have never seen them visibly drugged or drunk.  The woman's had some health issues and can't work well any more, but the guy says he wants to work, so I thought I'd ask around.  I contacted one of our local charities, Alpha Project (http://www.alphaproject.org), and they've been very helpful.  They sent their outreach team to do an assessment and see if there's anything to be done.

However, through the discussions with Alpha, they explained that there are very few services for couples.  Almost none of the transitional housing or shelters or programs around here will take couples.  They separate the men and women, which means that couples like this won't go use the services and get a roof over the head because they wouldn't be together.  I'm sure there's good reasons for this, and I have no idea what percentage of the homeless population is couples, but it seems like a problem when you have people that apparently don't want to be homeless but are limited on their options without a significant sacrifice.

Course, one of the real problems with their ability to get off the streets is that they don't really want to work, because they're collecting SSI / disability.  And if you work, you lose it.  I've heard this over and over from a variety of perspectives, and we have people that are scared to take a job because then if they can't keep the job they're hosed.  What a mess of a welfare system.