Honestly if they are just going to waste money in gradualist measures that don’t really help anyone, might as well spend it on the people that actually generate the funding the state uses. Most people in homeless+drugs situations need someone to make the right decision for them, but politically that’s totalitarian, so society votes against that.
Want to fix someone’s drug addiction that prevents them from getting a real job and securing a lease? Won’t do that with “let’s give them a blanket and see if tomorrow they choose to stop cold Turkey”. You need more of a “ok buddy, sorry, but we’re gonna take you into a recovery center and help you go through withdrawals and take the driver seat for you for a while”.
There's a shit-ton of money being spent on the Homeless Industrial Complex (locally), that to date has not made a significant difference.
This also presents a false dichotomy that the dollars that flow into programs like these are "stolen" from homeless people.
Electrification of transit is very much a chicken and egg scenario, and efforts like this can go a long way to balance that out -- it's a good investment but I worry about the ability to do it right.
