I think you are vastly oversimplifying things. For starters, who is going to organize this? If you don’t have food or shelter, your only focus for the day is find food and a relatively safe place to sleep at night.
But, let’s say that they did organize. We know what the outcome would be: the police would show up, beat the shit out of them, jail them, and throw away what few possessions they have left. And most people’s reaction to that would be “I’m glad the police finally cleaned up our streets” because, whether they want to admit it or not, most people hate the poor, and especially hate the unhoused and just want them to disappear. I can say that with confidence because that’s what happens in major cities when the unhoused do anything, every. time. Those who have been suffering for a while have had the spirit beaten out of them, and the recently unhoused quickly learn to follow suit if they want to stay alive and have any hope of improving their lives because if you have any criminal record whatsoever, you immediately become unhirable to 90% of businesses. Creating problems for the system is a way to guarantee you will remain unhoused for the rest of whatever life you have left after.
I wish I had a good answer for your first questions. My best guess is some mixture of American propaganda about poor = lazy, puritanical views that hardworking people are morally good, and a refusal to believe that it will happen to them because they are good, hardworking people.
As for your question about the unhoused, I’ll paraphrase something my spouse, who has been unhoused, told me in the past:
“The false hope is necessary. The people who lose that hope are the ones who OD trying to escape (though those who still have that hope may also use drugs as an escapism) or quietly kill themselves and no one but the few unhoused they know will notice, and most won’t have the energy or mental space to care.”
^^ to add a bit to that of my own; we have studies that show the psychological effects chronic starvation and stress cause: increased irritability, impulsiveness, decreased ability to plan or critically think (from their own previous ability, not saying it immediately drops your IQ to like, 70 [also, let’s agree to brush over the issues of IQ as a measure of intelligence since I am just using it as an example]). And that is a permanent effect. It doesn’t rebound if you suddenly become food-and-shelter stable. Your brain is just permanently fucked up.
Also, I don’t know where else to include this, but I feel like it is important if discussing this topic. My spouse was unhoused for approx 1 year. It has taken 5 years of therapy to get them to view themselves as a person again. After 12 months, they had internalized their treatment as subhuman to the point it has taken 5x that to undo. And that’s not like, positive self-esteem. They still have insanely low self esteem and negative views of themselves and their abilities (along with CPTSD). This is them viewing themselves as a person as much as any person walking down the street. I cannot imagine how it is for people who have been unhoused longer.