To make a tired argument, without any sort of moral guidance, people have no reason to live other than for their immediate needs. On of my friends grew up in the Baltimore inner city, and he says this is how most people are. They just act on their impulses and smash in a friend's face because they owe a few dollars. What turned my friend's life around is his decision to follow God instead of his own desires. I think there is something to that. It doesn't seem that giving people free money and housing solves the problem.
There are many much more destituted countries than inner city USA where people have much more functional societies with much less. I spent most of my childhood growing up in such a place. No running water or plumbing. Limited technology. Electricity one hour a week. Everyone walked everywhere. People lived off of what they could gather and fish. There wasn't widespread violence, drug use, sexual abuse, etc. like we see in the inner cities. The difference is these communities were very religious (muslim and animism) and they did not have much exposure to corrupting US substances such as drugs and pornography.