"What are friends for if not to offer a hand when a person is down on his luck."
Certainly, some of them must be down on their luck.
The other large group, of course, are people down on their luck.
Maybe what happened in 1993 was based on too much luck.
Like people there are not already down on their luck!
"With that kind of history, I guess you have to be pretty down on your luck to live here."
They are down on their luck, out of work, poor.
Explain that he was a little down on his luck.
Why shouldn't he pick up whatever it is on the side, and good luck to him?
So of course they're working on it, and good luck to them.