But it is the drugged out visible long term homeless that this article is about and the problem everyone wants to solve. It is also the problem that hasn't been solved at all. In my city (LA) we have successful programs for the person who lost his job and then his apartment and ended up sleeping in his car.

Grouping the majority of homeless, who are short term, with the people living in tents on the sidewalk, smoking meth freely, is a rhetorical trick

The thing is there is little political interest in the "quiet" homeless problem. When people talk about the homeless they're referring to the drugged out people who can't live in society peacefully. They don't care about the homeless they don't see.