A tad related: This was in the LA area, but there was a video I saw a while back where a guy had crowdfunded a project to build shelters for homless people that were basically tiny houses with locks, a solar power providing a small amount of power, etc. and the city went ballistic about it. Admittedly there were some genuine problems with how it was executed, i.e. blocking sidewalks and they even offered to move them but were rejected. There was a clip of some city official claiming that this man building shelters for homeless people did nothing to help them, yet his own plan to "end homelessness" somehow would. This video was rather old, probably early 2010s. I wonder how that politicians plan to end homelessness is doing.
Since I live in LA I can answer your last question: whatever the plan was it is not working. The homelessness situation here is continuing to accelerate out of control.
This dovetails nicely with the “tiny home” movement. Regardless of how you feel about affluent people taking up tiny homes, there is something deeply off putting about municipalities in the midst of a housing crisis putting up minimum housing size laws that require tiny homes to be built via loophole on top of a trailer.