[Hermitian909]

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.

[0] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_pr...