I have a slightly different but not politically correct interpretation. But let me fist say that I am not criticising the homeless for what they do. In the same situation, I would probably do the same. And even if I am not in their situation presently, I am painfully aware that with the present collapse of social states in Europe, the frontier between me and them is more tenuous than I would like. So I am not criticising the people, just describing the situation as I understand it.
First, I would like to remind us that we are all hypocrites when we ask for help for the homeless, because none of us is helping them. Asher, you don't invite them to plant their tents on your lawn. I know I don't let them sleep in the passageway to my flat. We simply claim exclusive rights to a pice of land, either because we live there or because we planted art in the middle of the place and we tell the rest of the world to piss off. Don't touch, it is mine. You ruin the place with your skateboard. You chase the customers with your smell. I don't want your tent here. At best we like the abstract idea that someone, the state of Finland maybe, will take charge and solve the problem or at least move it where we don't see it.
And the homeless? Well... they are human as we are, so they do just the same. If they can secure a place for a tent or a pad, they tell the others to piss off. They fight for the best spots, just as we do. I took 3 pictures to illustrate.
Munich has snow in winter (although not this year, and that worries the climate conscious in me... different story) and snow is slippery. On strategic places you will find containers for grit (the tiny sharp stones). This is one of this containers, the closest to where I live.
There is a small detail which should attract your attention:
See? There are 3 padlocks and a now broken padlock ring. Why is that so?
The reason is that a large box is quite attractive to the homeless. They leave their stuff in the box in summer. They see the box, they declare it is theirs and they put a lock on it so that other homeless people cannot use it. And the reason there are 3 is not because one bloke felt generous to another 2, but because a party of 3 is more able to defend the place against others.
In winter, city personal broke the ring and empty the box of what was in it, leaving just the grit. They built that box there for a reason and that reason is not free storage.
That grit is pretty dirty, BTW. It is re-used year after year (the city vacuums the stones). So this has seen several winters on the street where dogs... and sometimes homeless pee and shit. Munich has public toilets, but they close at night. What did you expect?