Those things do not provide any physical security though, which is a very real concern for homeless people. In fact, the sort of lightweight, high-quality equipment that most backpackers choose, would likely just invite theft and/or violence.
You're right that homelessness is a complex problem. However, taking steps to protect lives (or even just improve comfort) isn't papering over the problem. I think taking tiny steps toward a solution, even limited in scope, is still a very helpful thing to do.
Homelessness is an incredibly simple problem with an incredibly simple solution: build more housing. Since this is not a step in that direction, it does not seem like a "step forward" to me. If anything, all these "occupods" do is widen the social divide between homeless and housed people..... While poisoning the homeless with chemicals from the wood pallets. LMAO at this misguided attempt to do good that actually does harm.
The studies have been done bro, there is only one solution and I just described it
Also we don't actually live in a capitalist system, health care and housing are already socialist in many many ways. It would be easy to pass govt regulations making it easier to build housing. Capitalism is not the problem because we don't actually live in a fully capitalist society dude.
I'm not sure which studies have you so convinced that one overly simplistic thing can "solve" homelessness. This paper from 1991 does a great job of laying out the dozens of different factors which make homelessness such a complex and challenging issue to address: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=...
A lack of affordable housing compounds the challenge, but to say housing is the only solution when it isn't even a good partial solution misses the entire problem.
The biggest change is that the Space Race era was, at least by perception, happening in the public sphere. In the US, NASA and the fairly new Air Force were the face of it and the whole thing seemed like a scientific pursuit which would benefit all of mankind.
Now, it's about the self-indulgence of one very wealthy guy with a lot of federal tax breaks. The luster has worn off.
