Los Angeles study shows fiscal wisdom of supportive housing
Thanks to Lynne Wallace, Leadership Council Vice Chair, for sharing the information below.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) today released a study by the Economic Roundtable that provides even more evidence that providing permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless can ultimately provide public cost savings. These savings have been documented in research in cities across the nation, with the early work being done by Dennis Culhane and colleagues on New York.
Los Angeles now can demonstrate its own success. Last month, United Way of Greater Los Angeles released a case study report of four individuals that showed a 40% decline in public costs.
Economic Roundtable’s Where We Sleep report shows similar levels of savings, but with a much more comprehensive data set (including 10,000 recipients of General Relief in the County). The report shows a 79% reduction in average public costs. Even when accounting for the cost to provide permanent housing (average of $750 for capital and $352 for operational costs per month), there is a 41% decline in costs.
motel numbers in Mass and w/mass as of 11/23/09
State wide: 1019 that’s down from 1052 last week
W/Mass 305 that’s down from 311 last week
One must not just look at the motel numbers to get a picture of the work providers are doing for families who are homeless. One must also look at the number of families that are moving out of shelters into permanent housing. That number is greater than that of motels, and many of the motel cases are merely going into shelters due to the work of family shelter providers in moving families from shelter to housing thereby opening up space for motel families to receive more comprehensive services that lead to greater stability.
In November NEFWC completed 12 placements of families into permanent housing