While I grasp why you want this, it is simply not possible to have rational discussion about the topic without it getting political. Because any non-private solutions, successful or otherwise, involve both the expenditure of tax dollars and the allocation of real estate.
But for the moment, and without getting into party politics, I’ll flip the whole thing over. To the East Coast, that is. There’s a place on Long Island called East Hampton. This is really emblematic of the entire eastern half of the South Fork of Long Island. Anyway, these incredibly wealthy communities lost restaurants and other services during Covid… and they continue to lose services today. Reason? They refuse to zone for low income housing.
Access to that area is restricted to a single lane in each direction for a stretch of some miles. There’s also rail service, but only two stations for 15 miles.
So if you are a young mom who needs to work, how do you get there during busy season? You either a) get a car, and sit in terrible traffic for 90 minutes each way OR b) take the train, which ain’t cheap, then take a cab (which is quite expensive) to your workplace. Combine the low salary with the cost of commute plus your need to purchase child care for three hours above and beyond your work hours, and you finish the day with zero money to pay rent or feed your family.
So here are these very wealthy people, complaining that restaurants are getting scarce. And complaining about the rising prices at those restaurants that still survive. Yet at the town council level, these same residents repeatedly refuse to allow zoning that would put low income housing anywhere near them.
So again, and without getting too political… yes, it’s a housing problem. Different symptom than the one originally outlined in the thread, but same core issue.
That's an interesting story and I think that my take-away is that homelessness is a regional problem, for the most part. Like real estate itself, it's always a local market. The situation is pretty grim in SF and LA, San Diego. I understand that it's less of an issue in the U.S. mid-West.
But, I have to disagree with you on the nature of the problem. The housing shortage is just one aspect and the problem has many facets. Debilitating mental health issues and addiction are another. People who don't speak English are another because they have so much trouble navigating a complex and patchworked bureaucracy and since we don't do a good job educating our children to speak more than one language, people to help are in short supply. And then "at-will" employment, substandard wages, and a stingy social safety net play a factor too, causing families to lose their home when one unexpected financial emergency disrupts their entire lifestyle since they have no savings.
And the housing crisis also has many facets. Part of the issue is that the residents who inhabit nice communities want the character of their communities frozen in time, height restrictions, density restrictions, parking restrictions, size restrictions. These are all "government" rules but were really established at the desire of the historical residents. Unfortunately, all of these restrictions discourage new development. It's understandable, but untenable because soon you wind up with a community like the one you described in LI that can't function autonomously, so, not realistic. South of San Francisco is another example.
And then the mortgage crisis on 2008 didn't help either because so many developers went bankrupt during those couple of years that now the entire industry has PTSD and is afraid of nearly any financial risk.
And then, here in Cali we've shot ourselves in the OTHER foot by building in firezones. Of course, that kind of mistake is as old as mankind, choosing poor locations to build - flood plains, mudslides, landslides, firezones. Probably mostly a combination of greed and ignorance.
So, I'm confident that homelessness is a complex problem that requires dedicated, persistent resources to address and alleviate. It will probably always be a problem but it looks like here in Cali, we might be turning a corner. Better late than never.
