Homeless is a full time occupation. Note the PU truck, which I will assume is theirs. (Some LEO please run the plate to confirm.) 99% of these citizens are happy with their homeless occupation. The Peoples Republic of Madisonstan has just built a village with a RAT voting booth in the next 99 sqft home. Oh joy to the homeless world.
At one of the final meetings, someone asked if the city officials had thought to ask the "homeless" if they wanted homes, jobs, and other planned services? Nobody had thought to ask the poor homeless if they needed or even wanted help.
One of the local news stations interviewed several homeless and nearly everyone interviewed said they lived on the streets because they didn't want the responsibilities of having a home, working, paying bills, etc. They liked the freedom of living on the streets, under the radar.
I believe it was finally decided that the existing services provided by the local Churches and private sector, for the city's homeless, was more than enough.
My 37 yo nephew is a perfect example of why this won’t work.
I found him (and his dad paid for - including utilities) a 2 bedroom rental house in a passable section of the small town I live in. It was within 6 blocks of literally *everything* including the free stuff like the library, so he barely needed his bicycle. I helped get him a job at a local nursery that was close enough to walk to, but they actually gave him rides to and from work. A nice family owned business. My wife and I helped him in all sorts of ways.
He worked 3 weeks then stopped going (I told him he was going to end up back on the street - he said he did not care). He has depression and alcoholism and refuses to deal with it (nor will his dad get him to a doctor and on some antidepressants - total denial).
He then spent the next nine months drunk and drugged up. Still, he was housed, fed and off the street, right? Nope he proceeds to get arrested twice for public intoxication because he wouldn’t stay in his free house when he was loaded. At the end of a year he just walked off, no notice to the landlord (a friend of mine) leaving behind leaky pipes he never bothered to tell her about. Damn mess.
So he sold the stuff we gave him, bought a bus ticket to Florida and two days after arriving gets arrested for punching his druggie mother. Now, after two months in jail, he is living at his dad’s and no one knows what to do with him. All anyone knows for sure is that my wife and I are done with him. His living on the street is by choice.
I’m sure that a lot of the homeless are like him.