Fail. A lot of the “unhoused” do NOT want to be in the “system”. Which seems to be getting more attractive. 😳
There is a very small percentage of them who absolutely do not want a home. They want the “freedom” of being homeless.
There is a larger percentage who are addicted to drugs or alcohol who do not want “the cure” and do not want to be in the system. There are those who prefer the street drug culture.
There are many who are mentally ill and there is no effective mental healthcare system for them any longer.
And then there is a minority who have suddenly fallen on hard times and want to get back on their own feet but lack the means to do so while homeless. This group even includes some families. The percentage varies with economic ups and downs, and by locality. These can helped with success.
The free spirit hobo types will always be homeless. The addicts will only get sober or come clean when they really, really want to — and many die on the street before that happens. Our mental healthcare system is totally broken, so there is nowhere for them to go — many cycle through the court system at considerable taxpayer expense, in and out of jail.
Building up a working mental healthcare system would get a goodly number off the street (and out of the court-jail-street-court-jail-street cycle). Addiction programs a few more. Existing charities and programs are already succeeding with sudden hard times folks, and could do even better.
That leaves a whole bunch of drunks and druggies on the street, plus a few hobos. To get the addicts off the street, we’d have to enforce our borders and existing drug laws, plus bring back some old ones. Getting the mentally ill out of the jails and prisons and into care would free up space for addicts who refuse treatment, but ... unless there are some fundamental cultural changes, more new addicts will take their place (and even in that unlikely event, there will always be some addicts, as there always have been).
But no one is protesting about our broken mental health system, no one is raising it as a campaign issue, no one is calling or writing elected officials about it.
We have a housing shortage, and it won’t be fixed in the near future. Home prices abd rents are soaring. Meanwhile, more people are pouring our southern border, yet we lack affordable housing for those already here. It’s nuts.