I mean, there is merit in studying why homeless people are willing/forced to travel to certain cities. If you can figure out where they came from, you can more accurately allocate resources to where they need to go. Maybe you discover that a lot of them are coming from one specific neighboring town.

And if they were forced to move, it’s worth looking into the reasons why. Maybe their home town had one of those awful “just bus all the homeless to the nearest city and leave them there” programs. Maybe a neighboring city’s police department is particularly harsh, which pushes homeless people to move?

If they intentionally came from other large cities, what is making this city so attractive for homeless people in comparison? Does this city have better social programs set up to support homeless people? Is the city more lax in how they police homelessness?

This article is obviously studying the issue for all the wrong reasons. But there are valid reasons to look into it.