[tristor]

> the services don’t do anything though

You're right, in some ways. It's not that there aren't services that are trying, it's that chronic homelessness and transitory homelessness are nearly completely different problem domains, and the solutions to transitory homelessness don't do anything for chronic homelessness. Most of the programs are focused on helping the transitory homeless, or at least implementing solutions that only help the transitory homeless.

There /are/ services focused on chronic homelessness, although they are not as common, but as I mentioned, they require participants in those services to agree to the rules and follow-through, things that commonly fail. Most of the severely mentally ill homeless people /aren't/ violent, however they're not capable of consistently following a treatment plan or instructions. Most of the chronically homeless are basically /socially incompatible/ with the surrounding society, often due to their mental health problems, but at some level it's hard to separate what is a mental illness from what is a personality.

The "people in power" don't care about homelessness, but it's far more cynical than you're being, fixing homelessness doesn't move the needle for any of the things they care about, so they simply don't care. It doesn't even register for them, other than a visible inconvenience in some cities.