I live in an area with massive homeless populations and in an area where the average price of rent has raised nearly 50% in the period since COVID-19. I've seen a startling amount of what I can only describe as "new" homeless in this same period, and a growing cruelty in the way my city and surrounding cities have decided to deal with the problem. I think systemically, the cruelty might be a little bit of the point - fear of homelessness has way too many times in my life gotten my ass out of bed in the morning for a soul-crushing minimum wage gig. Being poor or sick or mentally ill should not be criminalized, unfortunately, that ship has long sailed.