I want to be clear this does not come from a place without compassion. It's a mixture of anger, compassion and disgust. I find it absolutely disgusting how we treat our homeless with obvious psychiatric needs. Not to mention the ongoing enabling of horrific drug use and addiction via unaccountable non-profits. For those with severe cognitive disabilities, the compassionate thing would be to take them off the street and place them in a fully staffed mental institution where their bed is always save and clean, they get three warm meals a day, and all the meds they need to take them into their golden years. We would never let children rot on the street in their own literal shit. Why would we let adults with childlike cognitive abilities do the same? For those with drug problems, it's complicated, because so many use because they're mentally ill. For those people, an institutional stay would be needed to address the underlying psychiatric issue. For those without a mental illness, if you're caught using in public, it's immediate involuntary rehab. When you get out, you get support through mandatory AA/NA, placed in a sober house, and connected with jobs programs. Mandatory daily drug screenings. If you're caught using again, the cycle repeats. You get three strikes, then it's prison. For their sake and for the community's sake. Housing first works great for specific types of homeless people. It does not work in the cases above, and in many instances can make their psychiatric or drug problems worse. The status quo isn't working. We have to do something. Funding and building more beds in our existing psychiatric institutions would be a great start.