I have cut out all the stuff about UK immigration, because homelessness is a complex enough topic, we do not need to veer into other topics. If you want to start a new thread about UK immigration, I might respond.
One aspect linked to your comment on the homeless is the appearance of rewarding people who do not wish to help themselves. While others work very hard and strive to pay rent and mortgage. "Do the right thing".
Why can't the long term homeless just help themselves? The answer to that question could take up a whole shelf full of books, but important part is they cannot. If they could help themselves, they would not be long term homeless.
The homeless are drags on society, and giving them a home reduces that drag. It costs less money, and is better than them, than keeping them homeless. After we get them a home, we can start working on making them productive members of society. Rather than being a drag, they can help society.
Isn't this just rewarding the homeless? I doubt anyone would become long term homeless just to get a cheap room for free. Much like I doubt many business travelers to NYC will line up at a homeless shelter to get a free bed.
Housing First is the pragmatic solution to homelessness, but I certainly understand how it can bother people. We are helping homeless people who have done nothing to deserve help.
Which all leads in to a question I have about Cordeela. She(I think that is a female name, but I could be wrong) started out by talking about being very generous with the homeless, and has quickly gone to being very ungenerous with the homeless. I can understand both positions, but why the quick leap between them?
Anyway, touching on British homelessness, there has been an amazing breakthrough there. I do not know a huge amount about it, but many British governments have tried to at least temporarily stamp out homelessness to stop the spread of Covid-19. They went from trying to end homelessness in a "few years" to doing it in a "few days". They got the funding based on anti-Covid-19 funding.
By taking the pressure of homelessness off these people, even temporarily, they have had some amazing breakthroughs in helping these people get back into society.