Helping the Homeless on the Cheap

by Tony Chavira

Something right up our website's alley, a study by the Houston Department of Housing and Urban Development found that it was actually far more cost-effective to provide low-cost housing (ahem, affordable housing options) than paying more and more for emergency homeless shelters:

When helping first-time homeless, it's cheaper for some communities to house individuals and families in rental apartments than in emergency shelters or transitional housing, according to a federal study released Thursday. In Houston, for example, it cost almost $1,400 a month to place a family in an emergency shelter compared with the cost of $743 month to place them in a two-bedroom apartment.

The average monthly cost to the city's homeless system to house, feed and provide other services to an individual is $2,257 and for a family, $11,627.

The figures were released Thursday in the Department of Housing and Urban Development's first comprehensive study on what it cost to house the newly homeless.

“Overall, this expands our knowledge of the true cost of homelessness,” said HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Johnston. “It's a critical first step in response to homelessness.”

Something I found kinda cool about the study also was that they also found that providing emergency shelters for families was either equal to or more expensive than providing transitional housing for the city of Houston.  So basically we've come to a nexus: governments can either provide emergency housing for the increasing number of homeless, reach critical mass and lose a ton of cash when their budgets finally break them, or they can develop a ton of affordable housing that allows for integrated living arrangements and essentially helps those who can only afford a little to get a little bang for their buck. 

In other words, cities can provide a net to catch you if you fall, or a few more ropes to keep yourself from falling in the first place.  In this case, paying for a few ropes would actually be cheaper than paying for the net. 

Choose wisely.

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