“No Address” is a sentimental, well-intentioned melodrama about homelessness in America that doesn’t quite deliver on its “There but for the grace of one or two missed paychecks go I” premise.

It’s not exactly a “faith-based” drama, though visits a charitable church and it hits its message hard with stats and a plea for engagement and support in its closing credits. But it takes us through the trials of the newly homeless and the burden of long-term homelessness with compassion, if not a lot of originality.

The wheels come off Lauren’s life early on with her mother’s sudden death in her tweens. We pick up her (Isabella Ferriera) story on graduation day from high school. That’s the perfect time for her unseen state-paid foster parent to toss her stuff out and lock her out of the house because the state money has run out.

Toting black Hefty bags, with a phone that’s dying even as friends decline to help, Lauren’s a walking target on the mean streets of Sacramento, California. Goons of every stripe come for her until she’s rescued fleeing from her attackers through a homeless camp.

Harrison (Xander Berkeley) is a veteran and a painter down on his luck. Dora (Beverly D’Angelo) is a former actress lost in delusions of her brief time in Hollywood. Homeless addict/veteran Violet (Ashanti) isn’t that welcoming.

“She won’t last a WEEK!”

But 20ish Jimmy (Lucas Jade Zumann) doesn’t listen to that. What he sees and hears is another outcast from a society whose compassion runs cold to colder.

“I really should get going,” Lauren says.

“You sure you’ve got somewhere to go?”

Lauren finds herself with a new “family” looking out for her, showing her where to score a meal, a charity-provided sleeping bag and the like.

On the other side of the housed-and-unhoused divide is Robert (William Baldwin), an over-extended developer/hustler down to his “last chance” with his firm. His promised “all our problems will be solved” deal involves redeveloping the large lot where our homeless “family” lives. But his over-worked wife (Kristanna Loken) sees bills piling up and “final notice” mail coming in and has her doubts.

Like many movies about homelessness, “No Address” puts characters on the street because of their fear-of and refusal to go into a local shelter. The film makes no attempt to show the basis for that fear by the perfectly sane Lauren and Jimmy. As they’re being mugged and hounded at every turn, you’d think they’d realize a shelter has to be safer and more comfortable than winter camping on a vacant lot.

Developer Robert’s wife Kim is almost absurdly passive in her demands that he “fix this” mess he’s gotten them into. And the film loses its “This could happen to anyone” messaging when it lays out Robert’s addictions (booze and gambling) and character flaws (a self-centered lack of compassion) in a way that shouts “He DESERVES to be homeless.”

Melodramatic touches are everywhere, telegraphing every plot twist several scenes before it hits.

Ashanti is convincing as a woman trained to not take physical threats lying down. Ferriera and Zumann are caricatures of “They don’t deserve this” kids and Baldwin can’t find the humanity in a character scripted to leave that out.

Most every role is a trope if not a cliche, from the homeless-robbing goons to the problem-solving social worker (Patricia Velasquez).

Homelessness is a subject that falls in and out of the public eye thanks to a distracted, short attention span media and a shorter-attention-span public they try to reach. But once you know what to look for and who and what you’re seeing, it’s hard to miss, even in states (Florida, where I used to live) where government has decreed that this vast problem never be spoken of and thus never solved.

As far as movies raising awareness and promoting solutions and compassion on the road to finding those solutions go, it takes a lot more than good intentions to tell such stories in arresting, hearts-and-minds-winning ways.

“No Address” has the right intentions, but not enough of anything else to recommend it.

Rating: unrated, violence, drug abuse, profanity

Cast: Isabella Ferriera, William Baldwin, Ashanti, Lucas Jade Zumann, Patricia Velasquez, Xander Berkeley and Beverly D’Angelo.

Credits: Directed by Julia Verdin, scripted by James M. Papa, David M. Hyde and Julia Verdin. A Fathom Entertainment/Mill Creek release on Amazon Prime.

Running time: 1:46