I live and work downtown and do not see a shift away from Eola.
I walk around the lake sometimes during lunch and you'd be hard pressed to find a bench not occupied by a homeless person. The walk to and from work can be a discomfort... you can feel their eyes track you sometimes. That said, I've only been hassled for money a few times around Eola where as walking down Orange and passing wall street it is almost guaranteed and from multiple people.
I'm not sure how a shelter would help. I know it would help them in that they would have a place to sleep, but during the day why would they not go back to camping around lake eola and eyeing the hot girls who jog around the lake?
I feel for the homeless, but I am very frustrated by how the well meaning church community has decided to lessen their plight. It is easy to be humanitarian when you bear none of the negative consequences of your actions... I can't imagine these well meaning church folk would like the homeless sleeping on their lawns. There are better answers to these problems. Its easy to give out food instead of fixing the real problems. /end rant