Homelessness in the US

One day last year in my English class, a very interesting conversation came up. The conversation was about the treatment of homeless people in the United States. Every day in most parts of the United States someone will walk past at least one homeless person without even thinking twice about it. I had never really thought much about it much before until my professor brought up the topic. The class had a wide array of opinions on the treatment of the homless. Other seemed not to care less what happened to these people, while others such as myself seemed very concerned about their well being.
Some of the issues that i found interesting was:

~ Should the homeless be put in mental hospitals just to be kept out of the view of "society"?
~ Why has the govenment not had a more active role in the issues of homelessness?
~ How can we make the homeless more productive assets to society?
~ What types o f programs are avalible to the homeless to get them jobs, food and housing?
~ How can we prevent people from ending up on the streets?
~ How do we get treatment for the mentally ill that are homeless?
~ How do we decrease the number of homeless people in America?