What is the history between the encampments, homeless shelters, and the advocates of low income/assisted housing?

This may seem like an odd question and it needs some explanation. I should say straight up that this is a legitimate question, and Its not intended to stoke division or make light of this situation. I purposely waited a while to ask this question as I knew many had strong opinions about this issue.

I donated to the downtown missions and shelters like the Hope Mission for years. I remember when one organization years before the pandemic was raising funds to build a large shelter which I had donated too.
To me this was a good thing.
Then this situation with the encampments came along, and I was reading lots of advocates for the homeless talk about how they needed low-income/assisted housing to get the homeless into, not shelters.

Suddenly it felt like the donation to the shelter was a waste of money and resources, and while everyone's heart was in the right place, apparently they should have been building permanent places instead.

This leads to my question, why wasn't this built in the first place instead of the shelters? I almost feel like my donation is a waste now. I also wonder why we never heard from the low-income/assisted housing advocates during these years while these shelters were being created. I remember reading a lot about the shelter project in the news, but I don't ever remember coming across people saying that we should skip the shelters and build permanent places instead.

Would anyone familiar with this be able to shed some light on the history and how this situation unfolded so we ended up where we are today?