I guess what you might not understand, though, is that Richard Tuite used to hang around Downtown, Oceanside, Carlsbad and Escondido. We're talking 30-60 miles from place to place. Not quite wandering in circles, exactly, but going from place to place in the same county, where ever he felt comfortable at the time. Again, a semantics thing. Most of our homeless are considered transient, even though they sleep in the same parking lot every night, and maybe move three block from morning to night.
If your family won't let you sit around the house and watch you do drugs, you are still homeless, wouldn't you say? You don't have a home to sit and do your drugs in. But that is beside the point. He did not live there, did not get a shower there, and while I have no idea if his family gave him money, I can tell you where a lot of homeless people get their drugs (whatever their choice). They panhandle, roll other druggies and homeless, use what is leftover from someone else, etc.
I'm not familiar with the area you live. Does your city have the massive amounts of homeless that Southern California does? Many of the homeless here have families they could go to, but they are mentally ill, and CHOOSE to live on the streets. (definitely not all) They are still considered homeless, by San Diego standards.
P.S. I see what you are saying, and living here, and seeing what I have (five days a week for 10 years a while back) I cannot agree that he was not transient or homeless. From how he chose to live, he was.