Probably depends on the specifics. Access to employment and services is a fair one; if you have a job and significant medical needs (and being homeless tends to give you significant medical needs), then moving to somewhere that doesn’t provide them is unhelpful. Similarly, just because you have the money, there needs to be a certain degree of work for a community to support something like a grocery store to spend it at. Moving to Alaska for example is likely to sharply increase what food actually costs if you aren’t up to homesteading.
And a lot of the ‘cheaper parts of the US’ (like Alaska) have climate-related challenges to maintaining a safe home, food, etc. Additionally, they might not be on the grid. Their water may be poisoned due to local pollution. Old mines might make the ground unsafe to inhabit. City land may actually be cheaper to establish affordable housing on when you add up all the costs of trying to provide good power, water, sanitation, and ensure the house doesn’t just fall into a sinkhole at some point. Not everywhere is inhabitable without work that you might not be able to do.
That said, there’s people it’d be great for, and ‘just give people houses’ is a very solid approach. If you think you can pull it off, I’d certainly go for it. Even if it didn’t work for everyone, imagine how much help it would be if it worked for even 10% of people, and you’re only paying for the ones it does help.
Probably depends on the specifics. Access to employment and services is a fair one; if you have a job and significant medical needs (and being homeless tends to give you significant medical needs), then moving to somewhere that doesn’t provide them is unhelpful. Similarly, just because you have the money, there needs to be a certain degree of work for a community to support something like a grocery store to spend it at. Moving to Alaska for example is likely to sharply increase what food actually costs if you aren’t up to homesteading.
And a lot of the ‘cheaper parts of the US’ (like Alaska) have climate-related challenges to maintaining a safe home, food, etc. Additionally, they might not be on the grid. Their water may be poisoned due to local pollution. Old mines might make the ground unsafe to inhabit. City land may actually be cheaper to establish affordable housing on when you add up all the costs of trying to provide good power, water, sanitation, and ensure the house doesn’t just fall into a sinkhole at some point. Not everywhere is inhabitable without work that you might not be able to do.
That said, there’s people it’d be great for, and ‘just give people houses’ is a very solid approach. If you think you can pull it off, I’d certainly go for it. Even if it didn’t work for everyone, imagine how much help it would be if it worked for even 10% of people, and you’re only paying for the ones it does help.