Considering the weather for the Valley and Bay Area I'd say it's a pretty good area to be homeless. Being homeless in the Northeast or Pac West in the winter is going to be extremely hard on you.
If they're all that poor, they don't have many possessions. How about they get off Hotel 22 at the far end and be homeless there? Or further, if that's suffering from liberal dystopia too.
I don't understand your comment as it appears a bad attempt at sarcasm but falls very short of that aim.
"He gets on the bus at midnight and rides the same 35-mile journey between San Jose and Palo Alto, California, until sunrise." If you are homeless (assuming without a job, as is not the case with all homeless interviewed in this article), is there a big difference to you between Palo Alto, CA and San Jose, CA? Each is equally unaffordable to pay rent and probably equally easy to panhandle (if that's what you choose to do).
I think this is a valid question for so many lower-middleclass and slightly above that live in SF, LA and NYC. I would never want to live there unless my job specifically made it worthwhile. Being the working poor in a major city and having to endure traffic, people everywhere and high costs of living, without being able to enjoy the perks of the big city, seems perplexing.
Answers may include family ties or high moving costs, or the uncertainty of finding a better living somewhere else. But I really don't know for sure.