Like I said in the other thread....
the problem with the homeless numbers and shelters isn't funding, it's utilization because 80% of homeless people are homeless for less then 3 weeks. 10% of homeless people are homeless for less then 2 months... a lot of these people are just people who lost their current place and have to wait a week or two for their new place to be "prepared" and they sleep in their cars.
The rest are largely just people who are mentally ill in some way, usually do to trauma.
The laws against sleeping in public were created specifically to coerce these mentally ill people to stay at shelters and halfway houses since they have a dislike for authority and tend to not want to stay there and we have no ability to forcibly admit people to homeless shelters or mental hospitals.
Homeless utilization rates are far from 100%.
In truth, there are tools in this country that shouldn't keep almost anyone without any huge problem from finding a place within 3 weeks, and even those with problems who have a problem or two but otherwise are workable from finding homes within 2 weeks.
Baring living somewhere that doesn't even make sense to have year round homeless shelters because there may be a dozen or so homeless people scattered over the course of a year... and even then i'd expect local churches and the like to pick up the slack.
Chronic unsheltered homelessness is primarily a negative effect of us beleiving a patent should always have a right to refuse medical treatment so long as they aren't a clear and present danger to society. Well that and a lack of a family dynamic in the inflicted person's life.
