> They're more likely to sleep in an alley somewhere instead of, at worst, gathering near a shelter, or at best, getting a bed in a shelter where they are safes

> They're more likely to sleep in an alley somewhere instead of, at worst, gathering near a shelter, or at best, getting a bed in a shelter where they are safest and most secure. Many homeless I've spoken with on the subject consider homeless shelters unsafe places (more than once someone has told me that they are worse than being in prison). Shelters don't provide adequate mental health services and due to curfews and wait times are not useable by people looking for employment. That eliminates them as useful services for the two largest homeless populations: those homeless due to mental illness, and those homeless due to being poor. Zero-tolerance drug policies eliminate shelters as an option for alcohol and drug addicts. What's most telling is that the homeless by choice (train hoppers, gutter punks) won't go anywhere near shelters. What does work are long-term mental health facilities, wet houses, and free abortions. The idiotic conservative rhetoric in the United States will keep these solutions from being implemented: "taxes!" "bunks for drunks!" "fetuses are people!"