homelessness: another area where we have chosen a more expensive policy in order to satisfy our need to morally judge the poor
the united way of greater los angeles recently performed a homeless cost study (pdf) to do an in-depth analysis and comparison of people who were chronically homeless before and after being placed in permanent supportive housing. the study tracked the social services used by the group before and after housing placement to determine the cost-effectiveness of housing the homeless.
people who are chronically homelss often consume a high dollar value of social services such as emergeny rooms, substance abuse treatment facilities, and jail. in two years, the four homeless individuals studied had 19 ER visits, two resulting in hospitalizations. all four had been arrested and spent time in jail, for criminal justice costs of $23,361. the total public service costs for the four over the two years were $187,288.
then the four were placed in permanent supportive housing, with access to services including case management, mental health and substance abuse treatment, medication monitoring, and education classes. ER vists dropped dramatically and there were no arrests or jail/prison time. the only area where costs increased were mental health. the total public service costs for the four over the two years in permanent supportive housing were $107,032 - a savings of $80,256 or almost 43%.
so - our societal costs would decrease overall if we were willing to provide permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless. it also means that the individuals see a significant increase in quality of life and can become re-integrated into and contributing to society as a whole. but that would mean that we were giving housing to people who might be drug addicts, or otherwise considered “undeserving” of that kind of assistance. and we would rather pay higher costs than admit that these people are deserving of compassion and assistance.
