Most people aren't pieces of shit and don't want people to be homeless, but then they're unwilling to do anything to solve it because it requires money and effort.

Dishonest framing. The average worker has nothing to do with this issue. They are not the people we're asking to solve this. Like I already said, it's the political and economic elite. Capitalists. The state. Where is the worker's money supposed to be sent? On what is their effort to be put?

We also have internalized that a lot of homeless people "did something wrong" to get there, which doesn't help.

Yep, neoliberal chuds, as I said

You're trying to oversimplify a complex cultural issue

How? What variables have I abstracted into a black box, here? What few mechanisms have I reduced the issue to? To me, "people want affordable housing but don't wanna pay for it" sounds extremely oversimplified.

I have no idea why you're picking an argument with someone who probably largely agrees with you.

I'm not "picking an argument with you" lol. I'm just correcting what I see as a defeatist, "what can we even do" attitude.

That's not what cognitive dissonance means. It's a question of willpower/desire to actually help. No one wants people to be homeless but they also aren't willing to do anything about it. That's not cognitive dissonance.

Sounds like semantic fudging to me. "These people need homes! No, stop building homes, it's too expensive!!" sounds like cognitive dissonance to me.