Love Keeps Them Together ... and Homeless

Homeless couples have nothing to rely on but each other, Justin Clark writes on Nerve, but sometimes half the relationship is keeping the other on the streets. One Los Angeles couple has been together for 25 years, destitute since November. Paul abandoned computer studies, and his sole source of income, to help Sharon beat her drinking problem.

Another couple Clark ran across, Imelda and Jorge, had three kids together, and when Jorge became a drug addict and HIV-positive, Imelda stood by his side, though it meant becoming homeless. Vagrant marriages are not based on romantic love, asserts one outreach worker. "It's nice to think … they just fell on hard times. But I've never seen it. There is always some exploitation." (More homeless stories.)