What is an example of a metaphor about homeless people that shows empathy and sympathizes with them?

Burnt out flames hoping to find sparks to reignite them again

The flame represents people in general and in this case, a burnt flame represents homeless people because they're still people (flame) except they're lacking (burnt) an essential element in their lives, a home/house.

The spark represents help, that spark could be a job or whatever is needed to stop them from being a homeless person.

The word hope helps the reader empathise with homeless people because it shows that they are doing their best to improve their life and they're looking for ways to better their living circumstances which is what everyone does homeless or not. The reader can also show sympathy because as of now, homeless people can only hope that they find what they need to better their life, it's not guaranteed they will find it especially in today's competitiveness.

Homeless people are still people, therefore they reignite because they go from being a burnt flame (homeless) to a flame (not homeless, pretty much).

The idea of flames is based around the idea of light as homeless people can be sort of lost in direction since they can't go back 'home' so by reigniting they're given light as a sense of direction, the light acts as a kind of guide.