$55,000 a year for one homeless in Vancouver
Providing non-housing services for drug-addicted and mental sick homeless people currently costs taxpayers more than $55,000 a year per person. Providing adequate housing and supports cost much less.
Providing shelter for the homeless with severe addictions and mental illness throughout British Columbia could save taxpayers millions of dollars, a new study says.
The report, issued by Simon Fraser University, pinpoints addiction as the most prevalent mental health problem among the homeless.
Providing non-housing services for such people currently costs taxpayers more than $55,000 a year per person, the paper says, adding that providing adequate housing and supports could reduce that figure to $37,000.
The researchers say the plan’s overall “cost avoidance” would be about $211 million annually.
The problem is not confined to big cities, the report noted, but was also found in 28 smaller B.C. communities studied by researchers.
The report calls for better integration between municipalities and inter-ministry service providers.
Only 7,700 beds are available for the at-risk population, the report says, while approximately 130,000 people in B.C. deal with severe addictions and/or mental illness.
The study comes two months after Vancouver police reported that half the calls they get in some areas of the city are related to mentally ill people.
