I'm pretty linked into to those providing social services to homeless in the bay area.
> I thought it was pretty well established at this point that homelessness isn’t a financial issue, but instead a mental health / drug abuse issue?
The answer to this is a definite "no". There is a meaningful sub-population of homeless with mental health / drug abuse problems for whom financial and housing support seems insufficient, but they're not the only kind of homeless and in places like the Bay Area they don't even make up the majority.
I encourage you to look at this graph[0] showing a correlation between housing prices and homelessness. But also if you are in the Bay Area, going to some of these camps and meeting people can be very instructive. I've been to a few and most people I encounter, while not the most together people you'll ever meet, many were obviously employable just not at a rate that affords housing and in the Bay Area.
It’s not either / or and that list isn’t exhaustive. People who don't make enough money to stay housed may be in that situation for all kinds of reasons: market forces, mental health, addiction, disability, disease, extremely bad luck.
And it's shameful that greater society allows those causes to result in this outcome. At least that's at the root of my stack when I backtrace through my reaction to homeless encounters: shame and helplessness.
That's not a universal truth but rather a statement about one slice of space time. A recession is coming, so that might increase the numbers of homeless.
> I thought it was pretty well established at this point that homelessness isn’t a financial issue, but instead a mental health / drug abuse issue?
The answer to this is a definite "no". There is a meaningful sub-population of homeless with mental health / drug abuse problems for whom financial and housing support seems insufficient, but they're not the only kind of homeless and in places like the Bay Area they don't even make up the majority.
I encourage you to look at this graph[0] showing a correlation between housing prices and homelessness. But also if you are in the Bay Area, going to some of these camps and meeting people can be very instructive. I've been to a few and most people I encounter, while not the most together people you'll ever meet, many were obviously employable just not at a rate that affords housing and in the Bay Area.
[0] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_pr...