How's the housing work? Victoria and Vancouver tried this by buying old hotels and turning them into apartments but they filled them with junkies and were surprised that they soon became worse than the outdoor camps.
Any solution that doesn't segregate the sick can't work.
Depends how you define "work." It would have to be pretty damn bad to be worse than what we had. I think King County is doing the "buy hotels and turn them into housing-first apartments" thing, so I do expect those to turn into really bad places. I would also rather have the really bad places behind walls and a roof.
They burn down as Vancouver found out. Not only does it get worse inside than out but then they're back on the street.
It's not a bad solution, sorta. They should just send one to each cheap hotel in the country though. Split the problem up and spread it out so it isn't being reinforced.
By 'work' I mean, for the junkies or the residents. Junkies living together escalate and it spills out. Those walls won't contain them.
Ultimately nothing other than forcing them through rehab will turn them into anything other than drug zombies.
Any solution that doesn't segregate the sick can't work.