Gearing it towards the elederly may not be a bad idea, but let's face reality. Many, if not most, of the chronically inebriated people who terrorize certain streets and neighborhoods do not want to live by the rules of civilized society. They have made a lifestyle choice the rest of us are expected to subsidize and tolerate. 

This social services approach is well intended but a failure. Making homelessness and poverty more comfortable and enabling a street lifestyle isn't a solution or even compasesionate. Perhaps it's time to reintroduce vagrancy laws and broken windows policing, and take our chances in the courts. This problem is increasingly blighting cities  across the country. We have to disincentivize the lifestyle and start actually punishing the crime that so often goes with it, from the petty to the violent.