JAMES SAT CAMPED outside the main branch of the Santa Monica Public Library on a recent sunny day, his meager belongings in a backpack, and explained how his bout of homelessness started: He fell off the roof of a three-story house.

"I'm from Kentucky. They gave me every drug under the sun – 'You've got to have this the rest of your life,'" the 54-year-old says, a country twang in his gentle voice. "I got addicted to the drugs – all of 'em."