Most are put in tents or abandoned buildings. The biggest factor is how to do sewer and latrines? In Rural areas you can just dig a ditch and that will work for a short time period, but in urban areas that is rarely an option (for example this was the biggest problem behind "Occupy Wall-street" where could people go to the restroom, more important then even taking showers).
For any long term camp, even in Rural Areas you need to address sanitation, and that means latrines (with actual toilets not just holes in the ground) and showers. These can be built quickly, if you are willing to make fire traps (WWII era Army barracks were of this type of construction, when occupied at least one person in the barrack had to be awake to act as "Fire Guard" for they were known fire traps).
The problem with most of the homeless, is they do NOT have the income to pay the rent for a house OR suffer from mental problems that they need someone to make sure they do pay the rent and NOT damage any rental unit they are in. Many homeless can NOT get into Public Housing for they own money for damages they did when they had been in public housing before (and there is a national data base of such people). Thus how do you get such homeless people homes, when you are someone whose income is low and have no "Skills" to take care of a home (and I mean an inability to make sure the Utilities and Rent are paid, a tendency to bang on walls so that damage to the walls are done, the banging also affects any other people in the apartment complex,
Yes, a lot of the Homeless, 40 years ago, would have been in mental hospitals. They are NOT incompetent, as that term is used within the law, but can NOT hold a job, pay bills or do other things the vast majority of people do without thinking. They need a structured home environment, something less then a group home, but more someone checking up on them on a monthly basis. This is the type of homes, almost all communities refuse to permit in their communities. This should be individual housing units, small but livable (Small Kitchen, Living room, Dinning room, bedroom and bathroom with shower). Small yard would be nice but not essential. All within a short drive of each other so a care taker can check on each such unit at least once a week, The Care taker should be a Social Worker making sure the house is maintained and the person assigned to that living unit is actually staying in that residence.
Such a system would solve a lot of the problem with the Homeless. for many of them need support that they can NOT get from their family or the present social programs.
As to people who are homeless, because they can NOT pay rent do to low income, those are easy to house. Just find out a way to pay their rent. Expansion of the Section 8, Existing homes, program would do this nicely. The problem is the Federal Government has refused to increase spending on that program, thus another source of homelessness.
Notice the two largest groups of people who are homeless have to be addressed by two different programs. People who have mental issues have to be assign a case worker and probably a home (yes, assigned a home to live in for the rest of their lives). If their mental health improves, they should be permitted to try the other program, but only after it is certain that they can do so (one of the duties of the Case Worker would be to see how much such people can do without the caseworker and report on how much they can do so we can see if such improvement has occurred and moved them into the other program).
The other large group, people who CAN take care of a home, they know how to pay rent and utilities AND not do to much damage to a home, expansion of the Section 8 program is idea. We are discussing regular rental unit in all types of communities. Section 8 pays the whole rent and utilities EXCEPT for the amount equal to 30% of a Tenant's income (which the home owner must pay). As a Tenant's income increases, hopefully that 30% will exceed the actual rent due and they be out of the Section 8 program. At present the Section 8 program is only open to rental units, but buying a home should be an option, with the monthly mortgage payment adjusted to be equal to 30% of a person's Income (a price limit as to housing actual purchased would have to be agreed to, but a house no more then ten times income of a family when they enter the Mortgage would be a sufficient limit).
My point is solving the problems of Homelessness requires more then finding housing for refugees. The later is clearly temporary and as such easy to address (the Army Moves all the time on land, thus how to build quick camps are while known).
Homeless people in the US, tend to fall into two camps, people whose income can NOT pay for housing at the present time AND people who do NOT have the mental capacity to pay for and live in housing. Both have to be addressed and the solution to each are different. You do have some overlap of these two groups, so you will see people in one group when they should be in the other, thus the programs do overlap and some people will be in both programs, either at different times or at the same time. Those cases have to be handled one at a time but the above two solutions, if used together will solve MOST of the Homelessness problem in the US. The problem is setting up refuge camps is a lot easier and cheaper then the above two solutions.
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