The District’s chronically homeless men and women make disproportionate use of a wide range of public services, Linda Kaufman, chief operating officer for Pathways to Housing DC, reminded City Council members at the February 19th oversight hearing for DC’s Department of Human Services.
“It would be a huge help,” Kaufman added, “if we could look more broadly at the ways we’re saving the city money with the people we’re moving into housing, and see if we can’t reallocate some of those funds.”
That’s a sensible suggestion – but one that requires knowing where savings are being achieved and quantifying them.
Three recent studies on the impact of Housing First initiatives in Seattle, Massachusetts, and South Dakota have identified substantial savings in the areas of health care, detoxification, law enforcement, and other services as a result of providing permanent supportive housing to the chronically homeless.
In Seattle, the total cost offsets for Housing First participants, compared to a control group, averaged savings of $2,449 per person per month. In Massachusetts, the data showed a 67% average decrease in the annual health care costs per person after housing placement. In South Dakota, the monthly per person costs for a broad range of social services dropped nearly 50% after the 20 participants were housed.
These studies provide evidence that the most humane way to aid long-term homeless individuals with mental and addiction-related issues is also the fiscally responsible one.
According to Philip Mangano, director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, these findings are just the latest of approximately 65 studies, conducted all across the country, that provide an economic argument for making permanent supportive housing the centerpiece of state and municipal plans to cut chronic homelessness.
Here in DC, the city government has committed itself to a Housing First approach. The planning and implementation needed to make that approach successful is being pursued by the various agency officials, service providers, and homeless advocates who make up the District’s Interagency Council on Homelessness (DCICH). Their strategic plan is scheduled to be unveiled in June.
Recent city budget cuts have raised questions about how whole-heartedly that commitment can be pursued, and whether adequate case management services will be available. Still, Mayor Adrian Fenty and the City Council are talking the talk, and beginning to walk the walk. And support for the city’s Housing First effort is wide-spread among those familiar with its initial results.
One can reasonably hope that, over time, lessons learned today will lead to a stronger and expanded program tomorrow.
But hope is not enough. Mayor Fenty and the Council should seriously consider putting part of D.C.’s short-term, federal “stimulus package” funds – blended, perhaps, with private philanthropic contributions – into financing a study that would identify and measure the savings that are resulting from the city’s fledgling permanent supportive housing efforts.
At a minimum, such a study could help DCICH determine how well the current program is working and where adjustments may be needed.
Beyond that, a study of offsets to the costs of other services that result from housing homeless individuals and families would be valuable for deciding how best to budget D.C.’s scarce social service dollars.
For details on the recent Housing First studies, visit www.usich.gov.
Bob Blair is an economist and volunteer writer for Street Sense.
