A situation with a homeless person...

Had a situation happen on Saturday and was hoping to get some perspective.

I'm an international student studying here. Saturday evening, I was walking with 2 other international students along Taranaki St. The sidewalk was pretty empty, except one woman walking towards us. She seemed to be homeless, yelling to herself and generally towards us. One of us may have glanced towards her?, and she suddenly moved in front of us. She was yelling in our/my face, close enough that I could feel spit on my face, as I was the one on the outside closest to her. She was threatening to hurt and fight us. We walked around and kept going, until she gave up following us after yelling more threats.

No one was physically hurt, but it has me wondering... How often does something like this escalate to someone getting hurt? Has someone actually been hit? Were we in real danger of being assaulted? Am I supposed to report something like this, even though no harm occurred? Is there a number to call to check on her well-being?

Sorry if this seems naive, I’d just like to understand how to handle situations like this better. (I also want to say that I don't believe this is reflective of homeless people in general.)