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It’s estimated that keeping a homeless person on the streets can cost the local government up to $1m/year in terms of police, jail, and hospital resource usages

It’s estimated that keeping a homeless person on the streets can cost the local government up to $1m/year in terms of police, jail, and hospital resource usages.

Judgmentality 8y ago
I'd love to read more about that. Do you have a source?
- village-idiot 8y ago
  Can’t find my old source, and it looks like $1m is pretty off the mark. It looks like this number is wildly variable. Places like Texas spend a low of $9-40k to jail and treat homelessness in ERs. Places like the Puget Sound spend about $1 billion[0] a year to deal with their ~5,500 homeless people. While that’s far from $1m, it is pretty high at $181,000 a person year. 0. https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/11/16/price-of-homelessness-seattle-king-county-costs.html https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/11/16/price-of...
Johnny555 8y ago
I'd like to see a reference for that number, $1M sounds awfully high.
- village-idiot 8y ago
  I can’t find my old sources, and t seems like $1m is indeed quite off the mark. It looks like this number is wildly variable. Places like Texas spend a low of $9-40k to jail and treat homelessness in ERs. Places like the Puget Sound spend about $1 billion[0] a year to deal with their ~5,500 homeless people. While that’s far from $1m, it is pretty high at $181,000 a person year. 0. https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/11/16/price-of-homelessness-seattle-king-county-costs.html https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/11/16/price-of...
  - ardy42 8y ago
    > I can’t find my old sources, and t seems like $1m is indeed quite off the mark. I remember a source for that. From what I recall, it wasn't that every homeless person cost the local government $1m a year, but that a particular homeless person cost that much (due to his ER usage, police involvement, etc). The article was about how it's actually cheaper for the government to just to give a certain subset of homeless people no-strings-attached free apartments than to let them continue to live on the streets.

It’s estimated that keeping a homeless person on the streets can cost the local government up to $1m/year in terms of police, jail, and hospital resource usages.

Judgmentality 8y ago

I'd love to read more about that. Do you have a source?

village-idiot 8y ago
Can’t find my old source, and it looks like $1m is pretty off the mark. It looks like this number is wildly variable. Places like Texas spend a low of $9-40k to jail and treat homelessness in ERs. Places like the Puget Sound spend about $1 billion[0] a year to deal with their ~5,500 homeless people. While that’s far from $1m, it is pretty high at $181,000 a person year. 0. https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/11/16/price-of-homelessness-seattle-king-county-costs.html https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/11/16/price-of...

Johnny555 8y ago

I'd like to see a reference for that number, $1M sounds awfully high.

village-idiot 8y ago
I can’t find my old sources, and t seems like $1m is indeed quite off the mark. It looks like this number is wildly variable. Places like Texas spend a low of $9-40k to jail and treat homelessness in ERs. Places like the Puget Sound spend about $1 billion[0] a year to deal with their ~5,500 homeless people. While that’s far from $1m, it is pretty high at $181,000 a person year. 0. https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/11/16/price-of-homelessness-seattle-king-county-costs.html https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/11/16/price-of...
- ardy42 8y ago
  > I can’t find my old sources, and t seems like $1m is indeed quite off the mark. I remember a source for that. From what I recall, it wasn't that every homeless person cost the local government $1m a year, but that a particular homeless person cost that much (due to his ER usage, police involvement, etc). The article was about how it's actually cheaper for the government to just to give a certain subset of homeless people no-strings-attached free apartments than to let them continue to live on the streets.