More research...

Regarding the benefits of housing the homeless, here's a snippet of an article from Esquire magazine:

Dennis Culhane collects data. Mounds of it. More of it in his areas of interest--primarily urban homelessness--than anybody has collected before. And what he has learned has created a revolution.

Among the truths he has drawn from his data on the homeless:

* About 40 percent of the people entering the shelter system in New York for example, have passed through other major institutions--jails, hospitals, detox centers, or foster care.

* Many, in turn, are recycled back through those same institutions; e.g., in Philadelphia 25 percent of those admitted to city jails are homeless.

* The chronically homeless represent as little as 10 to 15 percent of the total homeless population in New York but cost about $40,000 per person per year in public resources, far greater than anyone imagined.

"I think that some people thought it was cheap for society to ignore poor people and, if they had to, let them starve on the streets," Culhane says. "But it turns out that having people live on the street isn't cheap after all."

Interesting stuff. It is largely because of Culhane's research that the Bush Administration's focus on homelessness has shifted from temporary shelter-based care to permanent, supportive housing.

Are you on Facebook?

Hey all.

If you have a facebook profile, (or if you don't, set one up!) I wanted to let you know that I started a group there that may make it easier for folks to freely share thoughts as we move through the budgeting process. Here it is!

Let's save some money...

and adequately fund human services. For a three paragraph description of how the Spokane area could save, see below.

From the Jan.-Feb., 2008 issue of This Magazine:

Calgary journalist Gordon Laird pointed out this past summer in his report, Homelessness in a Growth Economy: Canada’s 21st Century Paradox, that Canada is spending between $4.5 and $6 billion a year funding its homeless. Laird reached this figure by examining a 2001 British Columbia government study that found the average homeless person uses $30,000 to $40,000 annually in frontline emergency services such as hospital care, jail time and shelters, and applying this formula to the National Homelessness Initiative’s estimate that 150,000 Canadians are homeless.

“It’s a complete double standard that we should attack debt and deficit with such fervour,” says Laird, “but when it comes to the cost of homelessness, we’ve really chosen to neglect it.”

What’s worse is that the B.C. study showed that it’s cheaper to house people—at $22,000 to $28,000 per individual—than have them live on the streets.

$30,000 - $40,000 per person per year burden on frontline services. Ugh.

So here's the question: Do we need to replicate Laird's research here? Can we legitimately assume that the same situation would apply here in Spokane? Thoughts?

Ooh... If you're of the mind, don't forget to shoot the City Council a quick message and let them know how you see the issue.