i guess to sum up - the 'anti-homeless' (for lack of a better term) don't care how the problem is 'solved', just as long as 'those people' aren't visible and not living next to them. i suppose making homelessness effectively illegal is what they consider the solution. but on the other side, i feel there is just a lot of patching the symptoms and also not really addressing the underlying problems. yes, building more affordable/subsidized 'tiny homes' is probably the most effective short-term remedy, but there seems to be denial on the numbers of substance abusers and moderately-to-severely mentally ill percentage of the homeless population - what does one do for those who do not want to (or can not) get out of their own personal circumstances, and when the numbers of meth and opiate addicts seem to be increasing? it really does seem to be that mental illness is huge in this country, and many people in the general poplation afflicted are going without treatment.There's a broader societal issue here of why are so many people homeless these days? Rather than tackling that question, the main "solution" offered seems to be "shove them off on some other city."
Part of this problem, of course, are mentally-ill people who can't function on their own, and should probably be in some kind of institution, but I guess we decided a while back that that was "inhumane." Still, fixing that is expensive, and who is offering to pay more taxes for it?
The other part of the problem is those who can't/won't find gainful employment that would allow them to live off the streets. Obviously many are drug addicts, but again that raises a question of why are so many people turning to drugs these days? I think the main societal issue we want to avoid discussing is the fact that in our increasingly high-tech society, it's harder and harder for those who aren't reasonably intelligent to get a good job. 40-50 years ago, you had a lot more low-skill or manual-labor jobs available.
And it really isn't only a matter of brains -- these days you have to be really well-organized, and if you're not, you don't get as many second chances. You have to know how to play the game to keep employment (how to dress, how to speak properly, how to behave right, how to keep your emotions in check). You get behind on your bills, or renewing things like your car tabs/drivers license/insurance, it will come back to bite you.
So in a nutshell --- how do we as a society deal with those who just aren't competent in one way or another?
i feel this is a forerunner of the universal basic income question, and it will become an unavoidable topic sooner than later.