This is key to the 'housing first' model, which I don't think has worked well in California where close to half the US homeless currently live.
We see endless positive pr about the huge non profit industry that 'service' the homeless, but having been pretty involved in researching this for a while it is very important to get accurate data and answers.
A 12 billion homeless budget and astonishing sums spent on housing people with serious mental illness and serious substance abuse problems is not working well for anyone except arguably the California homeless industry.
('LA spending up to $837,000 to house a single homeless person A Los Angeles audit finds that a $1.2 billion program intended to quickly build housing for the city's homeless residents is moving too slowly, and costs are climbing' etc)
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/la-spending-837000...
As SF mayor Newsom pledged to 'end homelessness in two years' in 2001 and totally failed after spending vast sums.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/archive/item/A-decade-of-homeles...
The previous SMI/SA/transient model triaged people far more effectively imo, with shelters that ideally routed people to sobriety, mental health and wellness resources, with those responding and recovering being housed.
We currently have shelters in places like LA & SF that are too dangerous and understaffed for terrified newly homeless to stay, an almost total lack of sobriety triage compounded by budgets being spent on housing first pipe dreams and 'safe consumption sites' for opioids and meth. Many of the treatment beds in SF are empty. (Twitter is a good place to follow this slow moving disaster).
Many of the hotels in SF that were commandeered by the state for 'shelter in place' accommodation of homeless are now suing for huge sums as they are completely trashed. Many drug addicts would rather be on the street rather than behind a closed door because if/when they OD they can be seen and revived.
With the end of the rent moratorium and economic disaster we are going to have a fresh wave of homeless working poor who will need housing.
I don't know enough about the Houston model to comment - I hope it's working - but we have a dire situation on our hands that is getting worse by the day and is not working well at all. we have the cartels preying on the homeless as opioid cash cows.
This is a federal level problem. Cities, counties and states are squandering resources on various patchwork solutions. I really hope Newsom isn't the next president because he has spent two decades going in the wrong direction.