The population in the USA is swelling and everyone wants to live in the city, so prices are rising. Except for meth and dope, which only costs a couple bucks. Cities don't have the money or available land to deal with it. It's awful.
There's also another side to this situation, and I might be blowing it out of proportion but here it goes.. I think that we have self-centered attitudes in this country which make young people think that their own experience through life is paramount and above the society around them. I.e. thinking it's OK to backpack around Seattle all day filching cigarettes and dollars from anyone who will look their way, all while leaving their shit and trash in the common spaces.
I have mixed feelings about this because there are poor souls out there who have been fucked over in life and deserve help. But some of these kids have expensive backpacks/tents, nice ink, and smoke fine weed. Maybe I'm misinformed, but the whole scene can really look like narcissism and fat ego.
One day when going to the Van Ness' Muni station I saw a couple of homeless people, they had syringes hanging from their arms, right before I reached the turnstiles.
I never saw so many deranged people on the streets, screaming as loud as one possibly can as I've seen in San Francisco.
So yes, Berlin has the same problems but I think they are on very different scales.
I have no such recollection at least.
Obviously I may not have gone to the right places; or other locally specific factors could be at play, such as some homeless-hostile regulations.
For this reason though I'd be sceptical of broad explanations such as "that's because the core values of your society are so and so".
Ironically, it's no other than San Francisco that is reputed to be (culturally) the most European city in the US...
(Unless we can come up with a better means of sharing/distributing productive output).