There are many reasons that there is such a divide over how to address homelessness in California. Among the biggest is that many critics of taxpayer-funded efforts to reduce the problem depict efforts as close to pointless. They maintain that drug addiction, mental health issues or a combination of the two cause the problem — obstacles that governments can’t readily overcome.
They also argue that homelessness is particularly acute in the Golden State because the generally mild weather here makes the state a magnet for, yes, addicts and mentally ill people from regions with harsher climates.by UC San Francisco researchers — based on interviews, surveys and extensive research — discredits these tidy arguments. It sees no support for the magnet theory.