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One success story in homelessness has been Utah's Housing First program [1]. Is there any effort to do something similar here? At first glance it appears very
by cjlars 9y ago
One success story in homelessness has been Utah's Housing First program [1]. Is there any effort to do something similar here?
At first glance it appears very affordable. Rents in the city center appear to be about $5 per square foot per month judging from a quick perusal of craigslist listings. So to give all 7500 homeless in the city a 100 sq foot efficiency would have plausible annual expenses of about $45 million -- a small fraction of the $300M plus mentioned in the parent article. Obviously there are many problematic details, such as there are almost no appropriate apartments currently available, but ultra-small units do exist [2] and seem to be a favorable alternative to sleeping on the street.
[1] http://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chronic-homelessness-by-91-percent-heres-how http://www.npr.org/2015/12/10/459100751/utah-reduced-chronic...
[2] http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/truly-tiny-4-apartments-under-100-square-feet-213282 http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/truly-tiny-4-apartments-unde...
- trangi 9y agoReal estate prices (buying) in the city range from $400 to $1000 a sq ft. That's probably a better estimate, as you'd have to create new spaces. Taking the average of that range, you get $700 * 100 * 7500 = $525M. I'm all for just setting the more salvageable homeless up in a 900 sq ft condo, and subsidizing it for them (i.e. free), then let them sell it in 3+ years. They can pay back the subsidies, and take the equity and move elsewhere. There would be other requirements as well (attending substance abuse programs, staying out of jail, etc)
- cjlars 9y agoYou're calculating the cash flow of an all-cash financing scenario, but not the real cost. Since the buildings are durable you need to amortize their benefit over the life of the structures. Using the standard depreciation schedule on the $525M gives only $18M per year + maintenance & tax -- close to the figure derived from rents.
- kevinburke 9y agoYes - there's more information here: https://medium.com/@hungkienluu/so-what-is-supportive-housing-442c64b2ebe4?source=twitterShare-186cdcdeb186-1497760654 https://medium.com/@hungkienluu/so-what-is-supportive-housin...
- randyrand 9y agoWhy would you house the currently homeless in the city center? Outskirts makes more sense. Land is cheaper.