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Most homelessness is not drug addicts who can't live in society. The vast majority of homeless people are those who can't afford a house, usually due to draconian and unfair zoning restrictions artificially limiting supply and pushing prices past what people can afford.

The people who are drugged out and can't live in society peacefully are more visible, but they are by far the minority.

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But it is the drugged out visible long term homeless that this article is about and the problem everyone wants to solve. It is also the problem that hasn't been solved at all. In my city (LA) we have successful programs for the person who lost his job and then his apartment and ended up sleeping in his car.

Grouping the majority of homeless, who are short term, with the people living in tents on the sidewalk, smoking meth freely, is a rhetorical trick

The thing is there is little political interest in the "quiet" homeless problem. When people talk about the homeless they're referring to the drugged out people who can't live in society peacefully. They don't care about the homeless they don't see.

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