The primary root cause of homelessness is a lack of affordable housing.
Meanwhile, everyone argues over what a complex and nuanced problem it is. Or just says that homeless people are a bunch of junkies and crazies who simply cannot be helped.
Meanwhile, everyone argues over what a complex and nuanced problem it is. Or just says that homeless people are a bunch of junkies and crazies who simply cannot be helped.
On the other hand, decreasing demand (eg people leaving) doesn't always fix socioeconomic problems either - sometimes, once people start leaving, more people leave until you end up with an empty husk of a city eg Detroit at one point.
People need services and people also want to be around other people like them. This causes feedback loops, making the nexus of problems related to housing truly and inescapably complex.
Good housing and a thriving community with the right mix of services in the right place is complicated.
Housing that would be an improvement over homelessness is not that complicated. We just have underbuilt in the US for decades, is the short version.
I spent nearly six years homeless, I've had a college class on Homelessness and Public Policy and I've written about homelessness for years.
Being homeless and socially cut off is hard on your mental health. It's not always obvious which direction cause and effect runs.
Plenty of people have serious mental health issues and manage to largely hide it if they can remain housed, on any pertinent medication, etc. There is no direct cause and effect relationship between mental health and homelessness or drug use and homelessness.
Instead, studies show that increased rates of homelessness are more than 90 percent accounted for by rising rents in an area.