As someone who is for such programs in principle, and willing to pay even more taxes from my high IT freelancer income to support the parts of society worse off

As someone who is for such programs in principle, and willing to pay even more taxes from my high IT freelancer income to support the parts of society worse off, still I am not in the mood for "simple" solutions. It was tried giving people housing. The problem is not doing that once - the problem is the ongoing process. Even in Africa the helpers switched to letting people pay for basic services instead of giving it to them for free, not because "capitalism", but because it turned out they didn't value free stuff and ruined or ignored it. Similar with the homeless, and in addition a large part of them has mental issues! If you want to have ruined housing, sure, just give them free housing now. But a solution that involves an entire well-organized system that takes care of them and the housing is needed - and likely a very flexible individualized one. Some may need almost constant help, for others checking on them occasionally and giving nudges and support is enough. "Basic income" is not a solution for this problem. Most of those people on the street are very likely to gain next to zero benefit from (just) getting money.