I’m glad to hear you say that. Intend to see the Republican view be more generally carceral. I think your ideas are fine, and in fact there’s a lot of basically that happening around the state. Ever since the pandemic, California has been converting hotels (along with some new construction) to ‘transitional’ housing. Part of this program is working with counselors and DHHS to help people with some of their underlying needs. I think this is pretty good, but needs a lot more funding, especially for the supportive services.
Unfortunately, homelessness is a huge and growing issue both inside and outside of California. There are a lot of systemic issues that contribute to the cycle of addiction and childhood trauma which I believe are at the heart of most of it. Add in poor job prospects and high cost of living (especially housing), and we have a ton of work to do to reverse this trend.