It is not as simple as providing hostel spaces, that’s the thing. As a PP said, many homeless people have never had the life chances that those bought up stable, functioning families have had. Most hostels are understaffed and thus unsafe places. And people can’t go into mainstream housing without support.
Most of the homeless community will need specialist support for a range of challenges - MH, addictions, LD, physical health, literacy and language, job accessibility. Such services have also been decimated - it is a 2 year wait for a MH appointment in many areas and many homeless people would not be able to keep an appointment without support in any case. If we want less homeless, less crime, less anti social behaviour and so on, there has to be an approach of properly funded, specialist support and services for vulnerable people. The problem is that Governments are not stable, and PMs are led by a need for voters and popularity. So even if such initiative are started, they’ll just as easily be changed / stopped by the next PM/ political party.
And let’s face it, this isn’t a popular choice for the middle England voters and those that consider the homeless community as the underserving poor because it will mean greater taxes.
Most people cannot see the bigger picture in terms of the impact on society as a whole if we do not support those most vulnerable.