Note: I have been homeless. I prefer a little more practical solution, which is unpopular with many people...as almost any solution will be.
If a person is arrested for breaking a statute (municipalities usually have ordinances against camping in areas), without a residence in the county, move them to a staging area for identification and program entry (assign a sponsor). If they repeat offend without having participated in a program via the sponsor (or have violated out), move them to a minimal camp in an unincorporated part of the state. Filtering those who want to contribute versus those who are opting out, benefits those who try versus those who are not going to recover. I feel for the homeless people with master's degrees from various disciplines (see Youtube), but urban areas breed urban problems like illicit drug distribution, disease, sexual violations, open fires, burglary, etc. We know this historically. Why we continue to allow people to concentrate where they have the most opportunity to predate on the public and each other while simultaneously being enabled in self-destructive behavior is beyond me.
So what you have a scavengers* that have opportunity to predate on the public and each other along with a trickle of aggregate wealth from access to panhandling and such. Human need to sleep is an incidental trigger for identifying those in need. After it's clear an actor cannot be supported (or doesn't want to be helped), there's no humanitarian way forward that's better than another. Err on the side of society without additional harm to the actor. They are never "charged" nor are they supported beyond what services are available.
*My particularly favorite thing was grazing at a grocery store in the morning when they are restocking and packages are open/damaged. Grab a fruit, eat a fruit walking through the store, grab a water and chug it, grab a granola or 2 or 3 or whatever you can get away with because who cares if you jack a couple waters? Dispose of cores/bottles/cans in a backroom box or behind a box or whatever. Move around a lot. Most city police let you go or city you for petty theft, but they tend to talk to each other and remember you.
The biggest problem from a large homeless population is trespassing and litter to those around them. The act of not having a permanent residence is hardly criminal. I would have to lookup it up again but pretty sure there is a supreme court case from around the great depression era that says its unconstitutional to criminalize not having a residence.
Its the other things some homeless do that is the problem, and honestly a lot them need help and a lot don't have friends or family to help them.
Its one thing to criminlize littering or sleeping/tresspassing on other peoples property. Its a whole an other thing to criminalize the act of not having a permanent residence.
In Belarus, it works this way: if someone is caught in the street in a distressed state or suspected to be a homeless, he's brought into a sorting station (приемник-распределитель), where he is checked.
If he can produce papers showing where he lives, get in contact with relatives and it appears obvious that it was an accident (someone partied too much and got "lost"), he's released, although his employer is notified.
If not, they check if he's an alcoholic or a drug-addict, he's placed into a prison-style rehab. Escape from it is difficult and it is punishable with an actual prison. After rehab, they are given a dorm bed and a job, and a social worker tracks to make sure they stick with it.
If he's mentally disturbed, a commission examines him and puts him into a prison-like mental institution, with similar consequences.
If he already been in any of the above and it didn't help, they try again, but after ~3 tries, he goes to prison.
It works. There are no bums in Belarus. Streets are safe.
And yes, technically there is no way to legally become homeless in Belarus. You parents can't check you out when you grow up unless you buy a place of your own and can transfer your permanent registration there - there is no way to not have a permanent registration, citizen registration office just won't accept an application to "check out my 25 year old son coz it's time for him to live on his own" if he doesn't have that new place to check in to. There are some cracks in that system so a very very small fraction of people (<1%) end up without registration, but it is technically illegal (although no one will bother before they find you in the street drunk), and must be in theory impossible. And yes, registration is separate from ownership. You can sell your apartment with people still registered there and they retain that registration and a right to live there (ofc when you file papers to buy an apartment, there's a way to check if there are any people still registered, so no one in their sane mind would buy a place with anyone still registered).
So here's a fix: make it legally impossible to not have a place of your own, and make it illegal not to.
https://nlihc.org/resource/supreme-court-upholds-ruling-home...
However, later cases like:
Robinson v. California
Powell v. Texas
Threw out that laws that criminalize a status of someone, so a lot laws regarding status in lower courts where ruled unconstutional.
However, yea things like sleeping have been in a legal limbo for quite some time. Since it is an action, but people need sleep to live. So seems like that case settles that question since criminalizing a necessity for life is kinda ridiculous.
Homelessness is a kind of criminal behavior and/or mental condition. People are homeless not because they are poor (nearly everyone in Belarus is poor for that matter, but there are almost no homeless), it is a delinquency, anti-social behaviour, a voluntary choice to live an anti-social lifestyle rejecting norms. It has to be deterred, and it's not hard to deter: bums hate prisons, because their lifestyle is all about absolute rejection of any norms and rules at all, absolute, limitless freedom - and prison is the opposite of that, it makes you follow very strict rules - so even as it gives a free bed and free food, bums are afraid of getting there.
So, basically kick people while they're down until they're so bloodied and broken that they spring up and go get a job?
At that point do you start living in fear of being caught while you try to get your life on track?
When you finally get caught and go to the homeless concentration camp if they find marijuana in your pee are you now stuck with paying for drug treatment for your imaginary addiction.
Maybe we can force homeless to do labor to earn their keep without paying them beyond room and board. Then we can partner with local business who can acquire cheap labor while teaching homeless valuable skills!
I'm sure it won't turn into permeant disease ridden hellholes of exploitation that effectively transfer the people's wealth to whomever runs or owns the gaol.
When your plan starts with if only we could do away with thpse inconvenient constitutional rights and build a wall to keep out those pesky ACLU lawyers it might be a good indicator that you are starting off on the wrong foot and may want to take the time to rethink your strategy.