Having lived and worked on the very edge of Skid Row for the past 10 years, and having donated my time and services to some of the local missions in much of that time, I agree completely with your assessment of drugs and addiction being the true driver of street/tent homelessness. I have seen and heard some truly moving recovery stories as well, and they all center around sobriety. Rehabilitation is absolutely possible for some of even the most dire cases, but only by addressing the drug/addiction problem, first and foremost.

There's another consideration to mind though, in downtown's downfall. When pandemic lockdowns ensued, professionally successful, working-class residents fled in droves. Faced with an unprecedented glut of vacancies, rental agencies and land lords took advantage of the city/county of LA and the state of CA's various housing initiatives to fill that void with as many Section 8 residents as they could (like LA's "Emergency Housing Voucher" program, which included a $2,500 per-resident signing bonus for landlords, as well as a $5,000 per-tenant damage reimbursement). In cases like that of the building I lived in, Sec 8 allotments went from 8-10%, to 60% or more overnight.

At 8-10%, landlords can be a little more selective of who they grant residency to. Retirees, disabled vets, young families — we always had them, and for the most part they were great. The community boosted them up more than they dragged on us, and many became our friends. But at a 60% allotment, that dynamic changes. A lot of who rode in on those programs were professional drug dealers, drug manufacturers, thieves, pimps, prostitutes, bookies, etc. — criminals who just wanted to hedge their expenses and live close to where they worked: Skid Row.

The downstream effects of that included rises in crime, assaults, gang activity, drug use and overdoses, and a drastically changed and lowered resource base for the businesses that had enjoyed downtown's renaissance from the 2000s until the pandemic. Not to mention the immeasurable but undeniably palpable checkout of today's youth.