It's an exhausting problem. I live in Portland, which is just another west coast city having increasing trouble with a rising homeless population. On one hand yes, they're people and they deserve help and support and appropriate housing and access to rehab and structure. But on the other hand, if you buy a house in Portland there's very little you can do to prevent your front sidewalk from getting turned into a homeless camp. Having seen first hand how frequently camps are also drug dens, it's really tiring stepping over hundreds of dirty needles and needle-caps when you leave every morning. And the smell of piss and shit in every offstreet doorway in the city. When my mom visited we were driving over the Morrison bridge and a homeless man was pissing off the side in broad daylight - not a care in the world.

So yes, help them. But also just do something, anything at all.