How much should it cost to temporarily house the homeless? Apparently, far more than any 'working family' can afford to spend on their own shelter. The average bill for a month in an emergency shelter for a single homeless family in Washington D.C. ranges between $2,500 to $3,700.
And you and I are paying for it.
So says a HUD report released today after studying 9,000 families and individuals who utilized govt. run emergency shelters in 6 cities. In Houston, the average is $1,391 / mth.
My wife and I are fond of those house fix-up TV shows - you know, those shows that rehab a "cheap" $300,000.00 bungalow and then flip it for a 'mere' $550,000.00? The taxpayer would come out way ahead if the Govt. would simply hire those people to provide homeless shelters. I sure can't afford it, and you probably can't, either.
But, sadly, it's more complicated than that:
"Costs to shelter first-time homeless people varied based on the type of shelter and other services provided, how long they stayed and overhead. Shelters may offer drug and alcohol treatment, mental health care, family counseling and help obtaining government benefits.
Mark Johnston, deputy assistant secretary of HUD, says the report should prompt communities to lower costs by targeting people with only the services they need and to improve aid for those who repeatedly become homeless."
Uh, "the report should prompt?" You mean there's no incentive for these gub'mint agencies to do that already? It's only other people's money.
"We saw higher costs and longer lengths of stay than expected," Johnston says. The longest average stay for individuals was 73 days in Des Moines. The longest average stay for families was 309 days in Washington."
Last year's Pork-U-Lus bill allocated $1.5 Billion tax payer dollars to fight homelessness.
How's that 'hope n change' working out for you?
