Chronic Homelessness Costs Society Too Much
Editorial
Date Published: October 10, 2006
Publisher:
News & Record
Region: North Carolina
Guilford County can pay whatever it takes to provide decent housing and human services for the chronically homeless.
Or it can spend more to let them live and die on the streets.
Philip Mangano understands those choices don't seem to make sense. But the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, visiting Guilford County last week, said research conducted in several cities confirms the not-so-obvious: People who live on the streets "randomly ricochet through mainstream systems," including hospital emergency rooms, jails and mental-health treatment centers. Some consume more than $100,000 in services annually.
Ultimately, none of that improves their condition, Mangano added.
Mangano works for the Bush administration, which set a goal of ending chronic homelessness within 10 years. It's forged a model to achieve that far-reaching goal and linked federal funding to state and local buy-in.
The Guilford County Task Force to End Homelessness has climbed on board. Doing so requires a fundamental change in how services are delivered, said Neil Belenky, a task force member and president of the United Way of Greater Greensboro.
"The federal government is saying, 'We won't support you if you continue what you're doing,' " Belenky said.
The people targeted by this initiative aren't those who find themselves temporarily without shelter. Traditional services generally succeed in getting them back into their own homes.
But 10 to 20 percent of the homeless population remains in that condition for long periods of time because of mental illness, physical infirmities or drug and alcohol addictions. They consume about half the total resources used to deal with homelessness, Mangano said.
The local task force is working on a cost-benefit analysis and a plan, due by late January, to combine "lower costs, better outcomes," Chairwoman Carole Bruce said.
The primary component will be housing -- simply putting a roof over the heads of people who otherwise would live on the streets. It would add services -- medical, mental health, substance-abuse treatment -- to keep them off the streets. It sounds expensive, but the new approach can win community support if the task force demonstrates it will save money and get better results than what currently is failing to solve problems.
"We have to build a strong economic case," Belenky said.
The goal of ending chronic homelessness is ambitious, but paying for it to persist is irresponsible.
© 2006 News & Record
