When owning your home doesn't pay

Let me tell you folks, there are times owning rental properties doesn't pay either. This sorry economy has seen many people getting foreclosed on. There have also been a rash of evictions. You won't see it in court dockets, people who are suffering doe to this economy often can't pay to keep a roof over their heads whether they own it or rent. For the ones who rent, there is added benefit in that most states mandate that renters be treated like kings even when htey are not paying and are the ones trashing the joints.
Some folks are geting hit hard because of the econ, and they have my sympathy. Others because of health care issues, and again, I feel for you.
The ones that irk me are the folks who have $100 loafers, new DVDs, go out to movies, smoke up a storm, yet can't pay rent.
My suggestion? Bridge projects. No, I don't mean build more bridges, I mean drop some of these folks off near an overpass and they can reside in its shelter until they decide to get their life together.
The key though is knowing what you can or cannot afford. When we had the housing bubble, many people got into homes they could not afford. For some, its a painful lesson. They have scrimped and scraped to make ends meet. The part that ticks me of is knowing that when the housing bubble was created, many houses were vastly inflated and fed to people who could barely afford them. Folks might have been able to make it had the house been kept at it original price, but greed got into play (doesn't it always?) and people got hooked.
I don't want to see tax dollars thrown away. The greedy sellers should be the ones on the hook for this, not the buyers, not the banks, (maybe the banks) and definately not us tax payers.