From Street Roots, May 20, 2008
Cost comparison of shelter, rent assistance and supportive housing in Portland
Basic Shelter
* Cost: $12.15 per person per day for 1,400 people
* Services provided: Place to sleep indoors, mats on the floor, no services
* Annual cost: $6,208,650
* Annual results: Homelessness ends for 0 people
Rent Assistance
* Cost: $13.75 per person per day for 1,000 people
* Services provided: Housing placement, rent assistance, and housing retention services (case management and other supports)
* Annual cost: $5,018,250
* Annual results: Homelessness ended for people 1,000 people
Permanent Supportive Housing
* Cost: $40 per person per day for 400 people
* Services provided: Permanent affordable housing with resident, social and clinical services (such as mental health and drug and alcohol treatment)
* Annual costs: $5,712,000
* Annual results: Chronic homelessness ended for 820 people
National research indicates that it saves $12,000 a year to house someone in supportive housing rather than keep them homeless. Locally, that number is $15,000. Costs of homelessness include frequent hospital and jail stays, which are greatly reduced when people have permanent housing and the clinical and other service supports they need to maintain their health and thereby remain stable in housing.
June 4, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I’m happy to see that rental assistance programs are that more effective and cost-worthy than supportive housing.
April 1, 2009 at 7:32 pm
I live in a manufactured home park I am severly behind in rent and I need help despartly.
Please help me and my 2 children.
September 24, 2009 at 12:38 am
I live in a 2bedroom apartment and recently got laid off. I have a two years old little girl and desperately need help with octobers rent. If anyone knows where I can find some short term assistance it would be very helpful.
December 28, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Nice article. Please post more about this subject
February 27, 2010 at 8:55 pm
hi, yeah that’s great how you have the costs compared, and you are so right! i have been thinking along those lines too.
for instance, in portland housing authority they have two super gargantuan priced low income and homeless program sites being planned. It’s a total waste and misuse of public funds, with the blessing of the equally stupid and out of touch federal agency, HUD. One is downtown portland homeless complex with – oh yay- washers and dryers for “you people” , but no roofs over your head!oh excuse me, there will be , for the price tag of $47,000,00, 135 small apartment units and 90 beds in a homeless shelter for men! whoop de doo!
The other one, a $41,000,000 scheme/ scam proposed partly funded by a Hope IV program funding application sent in to HUD. To basically waste a ton of money while enriching thier “partners” (in crime? ), while providing something like 22 units of housing more than exists.
This is Hillsdale Terrace (?) apartments, about 100 units of low-income housing which the housing authority is going to tear down, displace the residents, pay for them to take up some other low cost housing units, rebuild a different apartment structure, then rehouse the tenants into the new place. They will restore the 100 units and add another 22.
So for the cost of this, they could be building several times that many units somewhere else.
It would be better if they built another far less expensive complex, relocate the tenants there, and then tear down and rebuild the old one for cheaper. Allowing yet another 100 units of housing to be available to other new homeless and very low income residents.
apartment complexes do NOT normally cost more than about 10 million to build, for a 100 unit property.
but here again we see that the stupidity and irresponsible priorities of the HUD and local housing agencies, are keeping the homeless and near homeless from being housed in simple but prolific units. We need MORE sliding scale program units, at a cheaper cost, to make the money stretch all the way around. NOT these hugely astonomical priced luxury complexes that have everything and look real pretty from the start etc. just build some plentiful super inexpensive units and let the residents volunteer for the landscaping etc for goodness sake!
whatever.
but you see that the money is there, it is simply being hijacked by those who are entrusted with its proper use, and lavishly being given out to the companies and nonprofits and agencies who want their nice middle class paychecks to be provided for. after all they keep talking about a living wage. we just didn’t know they were talking about their OWN.
Please get the word out about this! I’m sure some of you could smell that rat, but now you can see it too.
February 27, 2010 at 9:03 pm
correction– that downtown housing scam is not 47,000,00 but– add one zero, it is $47,000,000- yes 47 MILLION dollars proposed to waste on so few units. about ready to get started if they haven’t already.
BUT IT’S STILL EARLY ON,SO IT MIGHT BE POSSIBLE TO STILL CONTACT PERSONS OF INFLUENCE AND PROTEST THESE WASTEFUL REPREHENSIBLE, IRRESPONSIBLE, “MISAPPROPRIATION OF PUBLIC FUNDING” SCAMS.
COMMISSIONERS, SENATORS, HUD OFFICIALS, STATE OFFICIALS, MIGHT BE THE ONES TO CONTACT.