Another challenge is that most direct funding (aside from Medicaid) comes from municipalities rather than the state or the federal government. So other areas are incentivized to ship their homeless to Seattle or at the very least consider it not their problem to begin with.
With state and federal funding you could enact a program where the addicted people living on the streets rather than in shelters (who are the homeless people who cause most of the problems) are committed to involuntary sobriety programs, and then on completion provided with private housing (not a shelter, some 1bed public housing) and, as the article mentions, some low-skill job like picking up trash on the condition that they remain clean (kind of like a halfway house). You could also long term house the severely mentally ill who cannot live on their own in psychiatric facilities. That would cost a lot of money up front but could actually solve the problem long term.
Also note that even in Seattle over 2/3 of homeless people live in cars or shelters. Most homeless people aren’t the crazy people on the corner harassing you for drug money and camping in public parks, even though those are the most visible
Keep in mind that about half of our country's political leadership see the strain on major cities as a win-win-win: They don't have to allocate funds to properly deal with the problem and the urban liberals and lower class are subsequently punished. The solution is rather clear when viewed from the federal level, but the motivation is low.
With state and federal funding you could enact a program where the addicted people living on the streets rather than in shelters (who are the homeless people who cause most of the problems) are committed to involuntary sobriety programs, and then on completion provided with private housing (not a shelter, some 1bed public housing) and, as the article mentions, some low-skill job like picking up trash on the condition that they remain clean (kind of like a halfway house). You could also long term house the severely mentally ill who cannot live on their own in psychiatric facilities. That would cost a lot of money up front but could actually solve the problem long term.
Also note that even in Seattle over 2/3 of homeless people live in cars or shelters. Most homeless people aren’t the crazy people on the corner harassing you for drug money and camping in public parks, even though those are the most visible