Since I’ve become involved with aiding the unhoused, I’ve talked to a lot of people about the issue. Many people buy into the myth that drugs and mental health are the problem when the problem really is a lack of affordable housing. An article by the New Yorker overviews a study that supports the housing first solution.
These myths are a classic example of the fallacy known as “hasty generalization”. As a mathematician, I generally phrase this as “one instance does not prove a general statement.” Just because one bird is black doesn’t mean every bird is black. Is it true that there’s never been someone that lost their house due to drugs or mental health? No. But this is a tiny fraction of those that do and people point to this tiny fraction and generalize to all the unhoused.
How do you get a job if you can’t even go to an interview without fear of your belongings being gone when you get back? Or, would you go to a job interview without taking a shower or at least cleaning up a bit and putting on clean clothes? If you buy into these myths, please take a moment to think about how many things you do that are dependent on having a safe place to sleep at the end of the day – and read the article.
Starting From Doubt 
You are a truth teller. What I see is that State and local government efforts to solve the problem is basterdised where all the money is spent at the margin, perpetuting homelessness, and wasting it on administration, handouts, hyper planning, and the insistance on units build to fit “community standards”.
There is no discussions of buying land and placing thousands of tiny homes, huts, small manufacture homes, and supporting these projects with untilities, all at a cost of less than $20k per unit. The few units occationally built cost 400k each. The rest of the money is stolen under the guise of helping the homeless.
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Yes I agree. Housing first is the only way. Once you have a roof over your head and a safe place to wash up and sleep, it’s amazing how things can change. From there, you have a foundation to get the help you need and eventually apply for jobs.
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