Social Programs and Services: Reasonable levels of welfare benefits for the unemployed poor, the working poor, and the incapacitated would be required to make a significant dent in the numbers of the disadvantaged who are homeless. This means food stamps, AFDC, housing subsidies, and disability benefits which are adequate to support the basic needs for food and housing. Cutting benefits and reducing eligibility cannot solve the problem when opportunities for self-sufficiency are absent, and when the volunteer and charitable programs in the private sector are insufficient. Society must provide an adequate "safety net."
Low-Cost Housing: If society doesn't want millions of people living on the streets, it must provide affordable housing. It would make sense to preserve the current stock of low- and medium-cost housing, because the buildings already exist. Additional construction will be required. Although private interests have incentives for maximizing real estate returns, policy makers have to recognize that an economy totally directed by the profit motive will never provide for all citizens. Government will have to subsidize incomes (so people can afford housing) or subsidize housing (so it is available to those who can't afford it) if it wants to remedy the growing problem with homelessness.
Mental Health Services: Adequate mental health services are needed to provide treatments for those who cannot cope in society without assistance. People who can be assisted to the point where they can function need to be helped. Those who cannot function and will never achieve self-sufficiency must be identified and, if necessary, institutionalized or reinstitutionalized to get them off the streets.
Shelters, Counseling and Referrals: Finally there is the ever present need for emergency shelters, and counseling and referral programs (to help those having problems with alcohol or drugs, and those who are victims of domestic v...