Posted on July 9, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone Permanent supportive housing isn’t some untested theory of how to combat chronic homelessness – it’s a real solution that gives hope to the most vulnerable members of society while saving taxpayers significant amounts of money. Since the signing of the first New York/New York Agreement in 1990, this model of pairing stable homes with vital on-site support services for people living with mental illness, HIV/AIDS and other special needs has rescued tens of thousands of New Yorkers from the turmoil of homelessness. But with the current City-State agreement set to expire, the future of this model – and the lives of thousands of homeless New Yorkers – are in jeopardy. Unless the Mayor and the Governor agree to create 35,000 units of permanent supportive housing statewide over the next decade, we project that the population of homeless single adults in NYC shelters will rise 59 percent by 2020. Susan Campbell explains in The Guardian why supportive housing is both a compassionate and fiscally sound solution to homelessness. Just as the answer to hunger is food, the answer to homelessness is homes. It costs more to keep people on the streets than it does to house them and provide any support services they may need. People who live on the streets don’t get preventative medical care. They wait for a medical crisis and then go to a local emergency department, where care is most expensive. The rest of us pay for that healthcare at a premium. People who are homeless spend more time in the hospital, and more time in jail. All this costs public funds. Studies from New York to California show that permanent supportive housing costs less in the long run. Take action on this issue by spreading the word about supportive housing.
