And here's the bigger housing problem: You can't put them all in the same housing. Otherwise you have just created a ghetto.

The "homeless housing" simply needs to be low-rent (subsidized) flats on the ground floor of that regular old apartment building. The homeless need to be integrated into the community rather than stored away elsewhere. It has proven to be the only viable solution.

The whole idea of consolidating the homeless in one area to provide group services is just wrong. The result is a bunch of directionless people with nothing to do all day, and many of them have drug/mental issues, which are exacerbated by being closely housed with other people with similar problems.

Once the homeless are integrated into regular housing, they are out of the cycle, and out of the perpetually homeless community, and can receive the services they need to live on their own and build a real life.

Failing that, there needs to be a catch-basin for those who simply cannot care for themselves. This used to be the mental healthcare system, until Reagan de-funded the whole thing in the 1980's, and simply pushed the indigent out onto the street without their meds.

And that is the new "normal" that Reagan created for us: A world in which you walk by a crazy person, or a person who is clearly in distress, because the only recourse is the police.

Actually addressing homelessness in a meaningful way requires a restructuring of societal base expectations that have been built over the last two generations.

And that just isn't going to happen on an America-wide scale.