The 6.3 million figure for rental assistance sounds like a lot until you compare it to the cost of providing a dusk to dawn tent city for the current population of 1500 homeless 24/7/365. This would cost 18 million per year.

The second idea I have is for the rules regarding 'blocking the sidewalk' (or the city manager's concept of the same) to be lightened up. The proposed permits that may be required soon of every sidewalk vendor downtown will likely not allow seting up a table (aka display device) in such obviously not a problem areas as in places where the sidewalk is 20 ft wide, bordered by a yellow curb on the street side (no parking) and between two 6 ft wide tree planters where no pedestrians would normally walk. I invision an array of sidewalk merchants set up in these areas, just like Chinatown in New York City.