About a decade ago, I spent a few summers volunteering at a soup kitchen (St. Anthony's Foundation) in the Tenderloin, and they had an orientation for new volun

About a decade ago, I spent a few summers volunteering at a soup kitchen (St. Anthony's Foundation) in the Tenderloin, and they had an orientation for new volunteers that explained exactly why lowering the permanent homeless population in SF is so difficult: - Homeless population is bimodal in distribution of time they've been homeless - Most homeless people actually cycle out of homelessness quite quickly; they lost a job or got sick, went bankrupt, family's on the streets, but they're basically motivated and get back on their feet quickly (within months) - The longer you've been homeless, the more likely you are to stay homeless - Among the long-term population, a significant fraction (like half) of the population have mental illnesses (clinically diagnosable e.g. schizophrenia, PTSD); a large fraction were also vets; drug addiction is rampant - The veteran stat was very surprising for me and IMO a particularly shameful part of our country's history: http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/veterans.html http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/veterans.html '33% of male homeless population are veterans' '47% Vietnam Era' '67% served three or more years' - The closure of mental institutions and sharp reduction in bed counts in the 80s put a lot of mentally ill people directly on the street; since they had been institutionalized, many of their own family support networks were also gone - It's very hard to transition back to normal society once you've been out of work for a decade; to even apply and interview for a job, you need to give a return address and phone number, and applications have moved online; a lot of homeless have no computer skills - Even the very basic logistics of getting a shower, decent clothes, a clean shave, and showing up to an interview is difficult for someone who has lived on the streets for a long time - For those reasons above, to a first approximation, most long term homeless are unemployable - SF is an expensive city; a decade ago, a room in the Tenderloin would run >$1k a month; this makes it even more difficult to transition back to regular society without outside support Basically, to get someone employed and back on their feet is a very large investment (and for many homeless it's more or less impossible), and probably a significant fraction of the homeless should be in a state mental institution of some kind (with all its attendant downsides and potential for abuse) rather than out on the streets.