The Supreme Court is now hearing arguments about homelessness, with the usual stuff trotted out by both sides. I don't know what SCOTUS will decide. I do know some of the factors I'd like considered. Here some of them are, in no particular order.
What percentage of the homeless are free from addiction, mental illness, and crippling physical disability? In other words, what percentage could hold a job and purchase some kind of minimal housing?
Everywhere I go I see signs indicating businesses are hiring. I presume most employers demand not drunk, not stoned, sane, and minimally healthy employees.
What percentage of the homeless are unhoused because they are insane or addicted to drugs or alcohol to the point of being unemployable? Presumably many of these could get treatment that would include housing but prefer being unhoused and stoned, drunk, or delusional. Is our society required to tolerate their preferences and the consequent eyesore it creates?
Time was, counties had "poor farms" where those down on their luck could get a roof, a bed, a shower, and some chow in return for laboring on the farm. I'm not sure what happened to those institutions, probably subdivided and developed.
Much of the homeless problem we face is the result of shutting down state mental institutions which once housed many of these same damaged individuals. Now they live on the street and self-medicate with booze and street drugs until they OD fatally.
