Homelessness is a complicated issue but the core of the solution is very simple: Provide housing. Whether that is a short term stay in a shelter or a lifelong stay in permanent housing is going to depend on the individual. But either way, you need a safe place to sleep and live before you can start seriously addressing other problems.
In the meantime the population complains about having to fight with meth addicts in the streets while active voting this this council members.
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Can it not be personal responsibility? Does it _always_ have to be a systemic problem with our economic system? Believe it or not, there's always been segments of the population who can't cope with day to day responsibility and life. For every homeless person whose down on their luck or deeply involved in a drug addiction, there's 1000s who came from disenfranchised backgrounds who 'made it'
Imagine a personal development coach who said that “personal responsibility doesn't exist”. That's pretty absurd. Then imagine a sociologist that says that “group-level problems don't exist”. Equally absurd.
Given that there are ~528,000 homeless people in the United States that's an impossible statistic.
Exactly like you say, some people just need a little more help to 'make it' some people simple can't handle it and need to be taken care of for their entire life.
If the condition was called, “street living”, perhaps you would consider solutions that don’t solely address the lack of permanent dwelling, and instead look at why some people choose to live on the street.
Of course there are people whose problem is fundamentally lack of a home, in which case providing a home is the solution.
If someone is safe, happy, and healthy living on the street then they don't need services. But that is obviously not the case in the vast majority of cases.
I can kind of understand this sentiment of the author, (at least as far as it concerns willing but incapable persons)