Incidentally this point resonates with me a lot:

“while it may be uncomfortable…to share a subway car with people who are mentally ill and don’t have anywhere else to go, that’s a reason to improve housing and social services, not a problem inherent to public transit.”

Could also be written about the discomfort in sharing a sidewalk, bus bench… when we don’t meet people’s underlying needs it pushes us toward giving up on urban public space altogether.