Houston has reduced its homeless population by half since 2011 by following the example of Salt Lake City and has offered permanent housing, addiction treatment and other resources to the homeless. It is a cheaper and more humane solution to house them in an apartment than allowing them to camp in public areas and have them wallow in filth, creating an unsafe environment for everyone. My church used to serve breakfast every weekday to the homeless for more than 2 decades. That stopped after coordinating with the city and other charities when it was determined that it was not actually beneficial to ending homelessness. You'd think Austin would follow the examples of Texas cities like San Antonio and Houston with their successful programs than the awful examples of Seattle, LA and SF.
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/02/why-homelessness-going-down-houston-dallas/
gsoda's recommended action for Austin, which was blithely dismissed by bozo, has been successful in Houston:
"The change was achieved with a lot of coordination among Parker, HUD, police, businesses and about 100 organizations. Eva Thibaudeau-Graczyk, chief program officer of the Coalition for the Homeless, said the collaboration “brought new partners to the table with resources that had never been there before.”
Among them was the Houston Housing Authority. “Prior, they’ve never seen themselves as a leader or a main partner in ending homelessness,” Thibaudeau-Graczyk explained. But since then, this agency was key, allowing the city to complement the funds for homelessness provided by HUD with the resources that were already available for affordable housing.
“This starts off with a simple dictate: The solution to homelessness is a home,” said Andy Icken, chief development officer for Turner, the current mayor. “Our focus was to create permanent supportive housing, so that we're not continually cycling people in and out of shelters, temporary or more permanent shelters.”
The good results translated into more funds from HUD because part of that money was tied to performance. From 2008 to 2018, Houston added more than $18 million. To put that in perspective, in 2018, Dallas’ total funds from HUD were $16.5 million.
The scenario from 20 years ago, when different organizations would serve food, give clothes or offer shelter — all done separately — has changed. There’s now constant communication between these institutions and a digital database called the Homeless Management Information System, which allows people at several organizations to understand each case. Most cities today have HMIS in place, but Houston was quick to adopt it, and that helped organizations strategize, analyze, share information and find personalized solutions."