It’s a national issue because people are mobile and will go to wherever the services are best. If San Francisco decides to house every homeless person who appears on its streets, it’s going to have to house every homeless person in America.

Coordination at the federal level could even out geographical imbalances in services and also prevent all services from having to be delivered in the few places where it’s most expensive to do so. Doing all the free housing in the most expensive market is crazy.