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I agree. Why should my money go to a private prison to restrict an "unsightly" person when the same money could buy them a lot cheaper housing facilities? It costs a lot of tax payer money to throw people in jail (especially if it's a private prison).

A more humane treatment of the homeless is also a benefit to the tax payer.

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Until they flood it/burn it down/convert it into a meth lab.

People's problem isn't with the homeless in general, it's with the mentally ill and/or drug addicted ones that shit on public transit/street corners and accost strangers and turn public parks into open air heroin dens. Free housing won't help this sort of homeless.

There are tons of marginally-housed people who are just normal folks who couldn't afford rising rents. You just don't see them because they tend to stay in cars, motels, or couch surf.

The people you mention are a tiny visible minority.

So if it were cheaper, what would you say

That we should choose the humane route, but I wouldn't raise cost as a reason why.

If housing the homeless in prisons is cheap, then a program where they can come and go from a prison but otherwise use it as a sanctuary would not be bad. If we are talking about treating the unhoused as criminals then that's where I take issue.

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