I’ve been homeless twice in my life. Once when I was a teenager and, and a second time as an adult during the 2009 recession. I understand the situation well.

There is a wide spectrum of mental health issues, from temporary to chronic. In trying to solve the homelessness problem one needs to make the distinction between people who cannot help themselves, and the working poor who just need a financial hand up. Giving the mentally ill tents, and allowing them to live in homeless encampments in the city is abuse pure and simple. These people need to be housed and provided social programs to help with addiction and mental illness.

There are some ‘homeless’ that are working poor and living in tents, cars and trailers on the side of the road or in encampments. This is a different problem. This is a wealth inequality problem.

By conflating the two issues, social programs to help the homeless never fully address either issue. For example, Los Angles is spending millions of dollars building low income housing for the ‘homeless’. Each unit costs over $500,000 to build. In San Francisco this cost is $750,000, and in Oakland it is $600,000. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/California-housing-costs.html

Spending millions on affordable housing is not going to help mental illness. This money would be best used to provide group homes instead of individual apartments.