What is required of the homeless to qualify? Often there are big strings attached like you have to be sober or at least be working towards that. They often don't want to help addicts who don't want to quit using.
It’s totally reasonable to expect a bare minimum of compliance in order to get taxpayer funded housing. I don’t know if you have friends or family who are heroin addicts but I can promise you they are not pleasant people to be around, especially when they start stealing to fund their habit.
Also, people in half way houses or assisted living absolutely should be sober so they don’t cause anyone else in the facility to regress, but it is a hard problem. These people often need intense rehabilitation and these programs are neither quick or cheap. Someone has to run the program and success is never guaranteed. Mandatory government funded rehab would be AMAZING, but imagine how many people would crow about their “freedom” to shoot up meth is being infringed if that happened at the federal level.
This is a very hard problem and there aren’t easy solutions. My opinion changed a bit after I married a girl with a masters in social work. This is very draining heavy emotional capital work.
After working with foster and adoption of two preteens from an unhealthy home situation my opinions have changed a bit as well. Compassion is hard - it should push us to do. Now if I can just work on being less blunt ...
When someone has thrown themselves off a bridge, do we send out rescuers always or only under particular circumstances?