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Ironically, getting the addicts off the street also helps, and the "housing" is more important than "sober." If you can get them stable, they may have a chance.
by ebiester 3y ago
Ironically, getting the addicts off the street also helps, and the "housing" is more important than "sober." If you can get them stable, they may have a chance.
The drug addiction happens because of the trauma in a vast majority of cases. Poor decisions may compound, but trauma causes rational decisions that also have the negative consequences that compound.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoIt doesn’t really help. They get off the streets into a mini home for example, or maybe a spot in a RV park, or hotel room. But the city pays $10k/month for that, since housing an addict requires a lot more maintenance and services than housing someone sober, and that’s not even treating their addiction. The costs are unsustainable, the treatment isn’t available or they dont want to go (it’s not jail, they can’t be forced to go to treatment). And again, treatment doesn’t even work most of the time, especially if the patient is unwilling. We are just throwing away our money here when we could focus it on the non-addicted homeless instead, get them housed, and prevent them from getting addicted to drugs. Sober housing helps these people a lot, and could prevent the problem from getting worse, because once they start doing drugs, it’s pretty much over.
- ebiester 3y agoLast time I saw, that 10k/month was actually less expensive than leaving them on the street. https://endhomelessness.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Cost-Savings-from-PSH.pdf https://endhomelessness.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Cost-...
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoYes, although not cheaper than prison (only applicable for those that commit felonies and then get a slap on the wrist instead of prison time, but we have plenty of that).