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.
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