« It’s three times cheaper to give housing to the homeless than to keep them on the streets [...]
The latest is a Central Florida Commission on Homelessness study indicating that the region spends $31,000 a year per homeless person on “the salaries of law-enforcement officers to arrest and transport homeless individuals — largely for nonviolent offenses such as trespassing, public intoxication or sleeping in parks — as well as the cost of jail stays, emergency-room visits and hospitalization for medical and psychiatric issues.”
“Between 2005 and 2012 the rate of homelessness in America declined 17 percent”
By contrast, getting each homeless person a house and a caseworker to supervise their needs would cost about $10,000 per person.»
▻http://www.vox.com/2014/5/30/5764096/its-three-times-cheaper-to-give-housing-to-the-homeless-than-to-keep