[danaris]

> All I have to do is walk down the streets in Los Angeles and it's very obvious the vast, vast majority of the unsheltered here have a substance abuse problem.

a) "Data" is not the plural of "anecdote." Your personal experience, as valid as it may be, does not define the totality of the problem.

b) Did you ever stop to think that maybe people who end up homeless for any of the countless reasons people do might turn to alcohol and other drugs to cope with the stress and hopelessness of, y'know, being homeless?

c) Even of those who became homeless because of a substance abuse problem, what makes them any less deserving of basic human rights and dignity?

d) Countless studies have now shown that giving unsheltered people, including those with substance abuse problems, unconditional housing not only keeps them off the street, in the vast majority of cases they're able to get clean and work normal jobs again.