You've got it backwards. Drug addiction is a symptom of unfulfilled needs, not so much the other way around. See this short video on the "Rat Park Experiment".

No happy, fulfilled person is going to say one day "I think I'll go be a heroin addict." People who can't get their basic needs fulfilled use drugs (and other addictive things) as a substitute for the fulfilling things they can't access for other reasons.

Can you explain how never giving a homeless person any money will elevate them from their plight?

If not, then giving them money is, at worst, incidental and, at best, an improvement to their situation.