> The homeless aren't prosecuted for sleeping outside.

They most certainly are [1]. The people suffering from homelessness that you see in places like the Tenderloin or the Mission in San Francisco only make up a small percentage of the total number of people on the streets; what you see there are the worst cases of addiction and chronic homelessness, not the total picture. In fact, the largest percentage of homeless people are households [2].

[1] https://sanfranciscopolice.org/civil-sidewalks-ordinance [2] https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homeless...