Yes it does. Other cities have successfully housed these people through "housing first".

Also there is probably a lot of overlap between the mentally ill and addicts. Mentally ill people often self-medicate with alcohol or other drugs. So we can't actually add up the two categories to get a 46 percent total. Many homeless people use alcohol and other drugs such as pot simply to counter the misery of being homeless.

Formerly homeless Springfield resident Kirk Toncray, in his book "Behind the Signs", wrote, "I have often thought of what I would say when someone asked why most homeless people drink. I would have to answer: When it's twenty five degrees at three in the afternoon, and you are looking forward to a night with the low temperatures dipping into the single digits, catching a little buzz makes things a little more bearable. That probably sounds awful. If it does sound awful, try sleeping on and under nothing but cardboard for a week in that kind of weather. You'll get it."