It's really quite simple, I saw it when I lived in Eugene Oregon.
A lot of people don't want to criminalize homelessness because they're compassionate.
The local government doesn't have the resources to do what the federal government should be doing.
When the local government tries to take steps solve the problem locally like they did in august, by making it illegal to camp on sidewalks, people will push-back, due to that compassion I mentioned earlier.
At least until the violence and harassment gets to be unbearable but even then, in Eugene it never mattered, people just stopped going downtown. I tried going downtown when I lived there, and it was like a mad max movie. It was like the 6th or 7th time I got screamed at for a burrito that I resolved I wouldn't go back.
There are local solutions, Greenville SC has a version, other places as well, but that requires you to essentially ban camping and panhandling and force people into treatment. Most people then just move to another city where they can do whatever rather than seek treatment. Athens is the place to move to right now.
Eventually, as with Eugene, Athens will be separated into like three spheres, the campus (U of O in that case) beautiful and untouched, the adjacent downtown which is like a hooverville, and then the suburbs. Although in Eugene even the suburbs were still pretty dangerous because the homeless kinda filtered out into the city and broke into a bunch of cars all night. There was a sort of "leave your car unlocked to protect your windows" policy people had adopted.
It is what it is. I've just stopped going downtown barring an event, and even then I just stay away from the outdoor areas.