I'm only adding a comment because the homelessness topic relates to the pearl portion this thread represents, but I have a few thoughts.
First, homelessness and its significance can be positively impacted by more affordable housing, more opportunities for social/mental services, and more shelter beds to house those in need. I believe this is undeniable, but does not resolve the whole issue.
Second, not *all homeless people respond to these opportunities, as addiction or (frankly) just being the type of people that prefer homelessness is prevalent in western metro areas. Portland has a
long history for being very (sometimes overly) accommodating to the homeless. Having opportunities to help the homeless does not alleviate the entire problem, as *some homeless people refuse help, prefer the lifestyle, don't want to pay bills, don't want to have responsibility, prefer to be in the street, etc. Simply assuming that social services will alleviate their problem is a fool's errand, and this city, at times, coddles *all homeless people and ignores actual criminals, those that don't give a * about anyone but themselves, trash the landscape, needle up in parks, etc. I don't feel bad for those people and they should meet the consequences of the law (although Portland has made this problem hard to prosecute through it's lax drug laws and lack of police presence).
Third, it's not acceptable that those who actually want to help their situation are stymied by lack of services or opportunity. But it's also not acceptable that those who refuse those opportunities get the same treatment. If we can build enough shelters to house the entire homeless population, and you still refuse it and the help it comes with, then you shouldn't have free reign to block the sidewalk, shoot up publicly, camp at will, burn fires and create danger to your neighbors, etc. At some point, you have to be responsible for yourself and your actions.
I'll go further to say we should ban sidewalk camping, but that should only come if we have the shelters to support. If you're on the street and want help, the city should provide the opportunity. If you refuse the help, then you're a nuisance, sometimes dangerous to others, and should not be welcome here.
That's not "conservitsm garbage" (I'm certainly not an elephant), that's reasonable to me. But then again, maybe I'm just tired of people camping in parks and trashing up the place and seeing constant stories of homeless *ing up our city. There are a ton of sides at fault, but excusing *all homeless people from their actions and ignoring placing consequences is infuriating to me.