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Bernardo de La Paz

(48,789 posts)
36. Wherever homeless are giving FREE HOUSING, overall costs go down a lot.
Mon Apr 4, 2016, 07:13 AM
Apr 2016

This has been proven multiple times.

What is the biggest barrier to getting a job: having an address and having a place to live, to shower, to rest. Give people a place to live and a large number (half?) end up getting jobs and paying for their own place to live.

You save tax dollars for fewer emergency room visits, fewer police interactions, less crime against and by homeless people, less court costs, less mental health care, better nutrition, longer lives, more productivity, less wasted education dollars, ....

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/08/13/housing-first-federal-election_n_7949510.html . . . Excerpt:

The principles of Housing First are not new. It began in New York City in the '90s with Greek-Canadian psychologist Sam Tsemberis. He kept seeing the same patients over and over while doing mental health outreach, and asked them what they needed most. The answer was blindingly obvious — a place to live. So he founded Pathways to Housing based on a theory that would later become known as Housing First.

"He said, 'Why don't we try getting these people into apartments, regular apartments, provide them the psychiatric medical and mental health support that they need and see if it works?' And it did," explains Richter. "It's taken off from there."

It's also become a bipartisan success story because you can help people and save money doing it. The political right has taken the lead on growing the program. George W. Bush's administration picked it up first, bringing it into the mainstream. The man Bush appointed to head up his efforts to combat homelessness Philip Mangano put Tsemberis’s housing first theory into nationwide practice and the result was that the "chronically homeless" fell 30 per cent between 2005 and 2007.

The Great Recession hit in 2008, but chronic homelessness fell an additional 21 per cent because Obama picked up the Housing First baton, first with the $1.5 billion stimulus-based Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program and then as the centerpiece of his "Opening Doors" plan. A 2015 update reconfirmed that Housing First "is the solution" and declared chronic homelessness would be eliminated in the U.S. by 2017 and that youth and family homelessness was on track to be ended by 2020.

Homelessness in Utah has fallen 91 per cent since launching its Housing First program in 2005. State housing director Gordon Walker told the Desert News in April that "the remaining balance is 178 people. We know them by name, who they are and what their needs are." To further assist the no-longer-homeless, Utah recently started a pilot program to expunge minor crimes from their records to facilitate finding employment.
k and r dembotoz Apr 2016 #1
Do not tell me Bernie's candidacy has no impact on the discussion du jur angstlessk Apr 2016 #2
WaPO,is the Paper of the 1%ers. Wellstone ruled Apr 2016 #3
I did not know so I checked and it's actually not a rare topic gollygee Apr 2016 #4
The WP is an excellent newspaper that has long covered topics such as poverty, Nitram Apr 2016 #9
I now have to agree... angstlessk Apr 2016 #10
I think they get confused sometimes around here... Wounded Bear Apr 2016 #25
Agreed, Washington Times and the New York Post angstlessk Apr 2016 #26
K&R silvershadow Apr 2016 #5
I asked an agent about this at our local public assistance office Orrex Apr 2016 #6
i hope there were others hopemountain Apr 2016 #13
We need to drug-test the people who approve the forms ... eppur_se_muova Apr 2016 #17
+1 n/t warrprayer Apr 2016 #71
Getting the middle class to attack the poor instead of the rich is a winning strategy Major Nikon Apr 2016 #7
+1 daleanime Apr 2016 #20
+2 classykaren Apr 2016 #40
+1 n/t Nevernose Apr 2016 #44
The small number that abuse the system get the press and encourage more restrictions. FLPanhandle Apr 2016 #8
This is a well established MSM propaganda tactic. Dustlawyer Apr 2016 #45
I "love" the hot coffee lawsuit logic of tort reformers. "but she spilled coffee" - "yes but it was MillennialDem Apr 2016 #50
^^^This^^^n/t Gormy Cuss Apr 2016 #64
It's not as if right wing hatred of the poor is rooted in any sort of common sense... MrScorpio Apr 2016 #11
It makes sens to the Right Wingers Algernon Moncrieff Apr 2016 #66
"jump thru hoops" redruddyred Apr 2016 #75
A divisive tactic used to take even more away from the poor...feeds into stereotypes as well. Jefferson23 Apr 2016 #12
K&R Solly Mack Apr 2016 #14
If Ms Badger Needs to Invoke Masalow's Hierarchy: On the Road Apr 2016 #15
No, sounds like she's working hard.... daleanime Apr 2016 #21
K&R Paka Apr 2016 #16
Regarding the first ... eppur_se_muova Apr 2016 #18
Every white suburbanite has an anecdote Algernon Moncrieff Apr 2016 #19
Sorry, this is as offensive as anything. Socal31 Apr 2016 #27
YMMV Algernon Moncrieff Apr 2016 #28
Blanket an entire race of people... Socal31 Apr 2016 #29
I have no idea where you normally see anything Algernon Moncrieff Apr 2016 #31
You know exactly what I mean. Socal31 Apr 2016 #32
"Good Day?" It's between 8:30 and 12:30. The continental US is covered in darkness. Algernon Moncrieff Apr 2016 #33
If it helps I've seen Suburbanites of color that are just as bad, I've lived poor Dragonfli Apr 2016 #55
As a white suburbanite ProfessorPlum Apr 2016 #43
By "every" I really meant "a large majority" Algernon Moncrieff Apr 2016 #56
I knew exactly what you meant ProfessorPlum Apr 2016 #58
And the point was that these legends play direcly to what the OP is saying Algernon Moncrieff Apr 2016 #62
Stop trying to quantify it based on anecdotes. Gormy Cuss Apr 2016 #67
"Every" seemed simpler than the more accurate "disturbingly pervasive" Algernon Moncrieff Apr 2016 #70
Yep, I've heard that stuff for years treestar Apr 2016 #79
I'd pretend it's offensive too if my agenda required as much LanternWaste Apr 2016 #61
Sorry, it's way less offensive. Gormy Cuss Apr 2016 #65
I just regard them as Republican Anecdotal Conveniences: HughBeaumont Apr 2016 #46
Yes, I've heard all of them Algernon Moncrieff Apr 2016 #51
OH THAT too!! HughBeaumont Apr 2016 #63
this list is perfect and very familiar ProfessorPlum Apr 2016 #57
Which was never... scscholar Apr 2016 #77
My point, exactly ProfessorPlum Apr 2016 #78
this should be its own OP, by the way ProfessorPlum Apr 2016 #59
K&R rpannier Apr 2016 #22
I say we subject CEOs to drug screenings before they get our money. Spitfire of ATJ Apr 2016 #23
HELL, every congressman who serves at the state or fed level should be drug tested FlatBaroque Apr 2016 #53
Lots of straw men and red herrings. Igel Apr 2016 #24
So if a poor person gets a gift and pays rent with that gift and then uses his food card JDPriestly Apr 2016 #37
this is equally stupid redruddyred Apr 2016 #76
Turns out the guy who used food stamps to buy lobster... Human101948 Apr 2016 #41
I can guarantee this CA lobster guy was a James O'Keefe type plant... Human101948 Apr 2016 #42
Hmm. davidthegnome Apr 2016 #69
One of the best posts I've ever read on DU in all my 15 years. Avalon Sparks Apr 2016 #80
Sure, a scattered few abuse the system quaker bill Apr 2016 #82
K&R... spanone Apr 2016 #30
Tax breaks need to be replaced with subsidies and grants. It would be more honest and simpler Bernardo de La Paz Apr 2016 #34
K&R. JDPriestly Apr 2016 #35
Wherever homeless are giving FREE HOUSING, overall costs go down a lot. Bernardo de La Paz Apr 2016 #36
Thank you. There are no hard and fast rules, but simply giving housing to the homeless JDPriestly Apr 2016 #38
Drug testing is a scam. blackspade Apr 2016 #39
I would say it's a scam at work and should be illegal as well. I don't use drugs, so the only MillennialDem Apr 2016 #49
Line of "what we don't do" is more blurred than you think? lostnfound Apr 2016 #47
Interesting. So when the economy tanks and there is a huge recession, ProfessorPlum Apr 2016 #60
Because if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes true. The poor are spending their MillennialDem Apr 2016 #48
Most poor people cannabis_flower Apr 2016 #52
PAY PEOPLE ENOUGH SO THEY DON'T QUALIFY FOR BENEFITS hollowdweller Apr 2016 #54
Like Skeletor's drug testing in FL Doctor_J Apr 2016 #68
Teachings of Christianity. If someone is a victim, they are somehow at fault for their own Amimnoch Apr 2016 #72
The rich get more welfare dollarwise, they need daily drug testing. Dont call me Shirley Apr 2016 #73
surprised to see this from WaPo redruddyred Apr 2016 #74
Excellent Liberal_in_LA Apr 2016 #81
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