The city where I live, Santa Monica, has been a mecca for the homeless for a long time. The city tends to vacillate between anti-homeless laws and policies put in place to help the homeless. Several years ago, the old wooden bus benches were removed and new metal benches installed in their place. Each bench has a separator in the middle to prevent people from lying down (sleeping) on them. The SMPD now has a homeless liaison on the force.
Unfortunately, among the population, there is still plenty of hostility towards the homeless. When my mother worked as a librarian for the city back in the 1980's, the homeless would hang out in the library and use the restrooms to wash themselves. She said her colleagues there would say awful things about them and wanted to round them all up and ship them off somewhere outside the city. And then the soap in the restrooms was removed so the homeless couldn't wash there anymore. My mother was involved in trying to help the homeless. The group she worked with installed a facility in the city called SHWASHLOCK, which features showers, washers and lockers for the homeless to take showers, wash their clothes, and stash their stuff. It was originally run by the city, but I think the Salvation Army operates it now.
Unfortunately, a city can pass the most homeless-friendly laws in existence, but there is still the problem of changing hearts and minds among everyone else. The homeless are part of the lowest stratum of society, hated by many. They are harassed and killed, ignored and spit on, and so forth. Because it can be very easy to end up homeless, I think part of the animosity towards them is the fear that one can end up as that dirty, smelly person wearing a heavy coat in the middle of summer, wandering back and fourth ranting and raving. (If a homeless person is seen wearing a lot of clothing, including a heavy coat, in the middle of summer, it's usually because they're wearing everything they own all at once so they don't lose anything.)