Homelessness affects YOU.
Many people live under the delusion that homelessness only affects those who are experiencing homelessness. This is false. Homelessness affects YOU. It affects your businesses, your places of worship, your places of play, and it affects your taxes.
Financial Impacts
All of Us
The economics of homelessness affect everyone. Tangible costs to taxpayers include over-use of community services such as:
- Healthcare systems
- Ambulance services
- Law Enforcement
- Libraries
Businesses
Consider a business with even one person experiencing homelessness lingering. Maybe this person is camped out behind the building. Maybe this person regularly approaches customers and staff. The mere presence of this individual can have a negative effect through:
- Loss of property value
- Loss of clients/customers
- Employee turnover
The Costs of Simply Managing the Issue
A 2008 study by the City of Fort Worth Planning and Development Department found that costs associated with managing homelessness make the current system inefficient. Consider:
- The annual cost of homelessness in Fort Worth and Tarrant County has been estimated at $30 million in public and private spending.
- Two-thirds of those dollars were spent for services that react, rather than respond, to homelessness. Managing by reacting is less cost-effective than responding and alleviating.
- The concentration of homeless services in Fort Worth’s East Lancaster Avenue corridor has cost the city an estimated $45 to $779 million in lost taxable property value increases.
Social Impacts
Isolation from Community
Without social support systems, people experiencing homelessness live in the shadowy edges of society. Homelessness puts people a higher risks for victimization, poor health, loneliness, and depression, which can lead to chemical dependency, crime, and a host of other issues.
Low Life Expectancy
The average life expectancy for a housed individual in the United States is 78 years. For a person living without a home, it is 50 years.
The Solution: Housing Ends Homelessness
At Issue: NIMBY
Humans are by nature suspicious of the unknown or unfamiliar. This leads to the phenomenon known as “Not In My Back Yard,” or NIMBY. Many proponents of NIMBY cite people experiencing homelessness as nuisances in their communities as a reason to oppose housing. This is a bit like opposing a parking garage because cars are parked on the street.
Homelessness is already in our backyards and on our streets. Tarrant County Homeless Coalition’s annual Point in Time Homeless Count consistently finds that there are people experiencing homelessness in all areas of Tarrant County. Yes, wherever you’re thinking of, even there.
A study by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at NYU found that property values within 500 feet of supportive housing tend to increase more than those in the surrounding area in the years following a supportive housing development’s completion. Values for houses a bit further away, between 500 and 1000 feet from supportive housing, initially dropped in value during construction, but then rose after the housing projects are completed.
Permanent Supportive Housing
Permanent Supportive Housing places people into housing where they already are. The Palm Tree Apartments on Race Street in Fort Worth is a permanent housing collaboration between the DRC, the Paulos Foundation, and Fort Worth Housing Solutions, that houses 24 individuals and families formerly camping in the immediate vicinity. In the past two years, the area has seen:
- Crimes against persons and property have fallen below city-wide rates;
- Crimes against property have decreased 23% from 2015 levels;
- 90% of project participants have remained housed three years later, whether they have stayed at the Palm Tree or moved on to other permanent housing placements.
Housing Costs Less
The Tarrant County Homeless Coalition’s “2019 State of the Homeless Report” cites the following cost to taxpayers for each person experiencing homelessness for one night spent:
In jail: $70
In a shelter: $40
In a home: $25
Housing returns a savings of $15 over shelters, and $45 over jail per—person, per night.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, providing access to housing generally results in cost savings for communities because housed people are less likely to use emergency services, including hospitals, jails, and emergency shelter, than those who are homeless.
One study found an average cost savings on emergency services of $31,545 per person housed in a Housing First program over the course of two years.
Evidence suggests that as much as $1 million in public money is saved annually for every 100 chronically homeless individuals housed, based on reduced use of hospital care and emergency services. For every 100 individuals housed after short-term homelessness, $630,000 is saved per year.
Housing First makes housing last.
Ready to learn even more?
Homelessness affects YOU.
Many people live under the delusion that homelessness only affects those who are experiencing homelessness. This is false. Homelessness affects YOU. It affects your businesses, your places of worship, your places of play, and it affects your taxes.
Financial Impacts
All of Us
The economics of homelessness affect everyone. Tangible costs to taxpayers include over-use of community services such as:
- Healthcare systems
- Ambulance services
- Law Enforcement
- Libraries
Businesses
Consider a business with even one person experiencing homelessness lingering. Maybe this person is camped out behind the building. Maybe this person regularly approaches customers and staff. The mere presence of this individual can have a negative effect through:
- Loss of property value
- Loss of clients/customers
- Employee turnover
The Costs of Simply Managing the Issue
A 2008 study by the City of Fort Worth Planning and Development Department found that costs associated with managing homelessness make the current system inefficient. Consider:
- The annual cost of homelessness in Fort Worth and Tarrant County has been estimated at $30 million in public and private spending.
- Two-thirds of those dollars were spent for services that react, rather than respond, to homelessness. Managing by reacting is less cost-effective than responding and alleviating.
- The concentration of homeless services in Fort Worth’s East Lancaster Avenue corridor has cost the city an estimated $45 to $779 million in lost taxable property value increases.
Social Impacts
Isolation from Community
Without social support systems, people experiencing homelessness live in the shadowy edges of society. Homelessness puts people a higher risks for victimization, poor health, loneliness, and depression, which can lead to chemical dependency, crime, and a host of other issues.
Low Life Expectancy
The average life expectancy for a housed individual in the United States is 78 years. For a person living without a home, it is 50 years.
The Solution: Housing Ends Homelessness
At Issue: NIMBY
Humans are by nature suspicious of the unknown or unfamiliar. This leads to the phenomenon known as “Not In My Back Yard,” or NIMBY. Many proponents of NIMBY cite people experiencing homelessness as nuisances in their communities as a reason to oppose housing. This is a bit like opposing a parking garage because cars are parked on the street.
Homelessness is already in our backyards and on our streets. Tarrant County Homeless Coalition’s annual Point in Time Homeless Count consistently finds that there are people experiencing homelessness in all areas of Tarrant County. Yes, wherever you’re thinking of, even there.
A study by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at NYU found that property values within 500 feet of supportive housing tend to increase more than those in the surrounding area in the years following a supportive housing development’s completion. Values for houses a bit further away, between 500 and 1000 feet from supportive housing, initially dropped in value during construction, but then rose after the housing projects are completed.
Permanent Supportive Housing
Permanent Supportive Housing places people into housing where they already are. The Palm Tree Apartments on Race Street in Fort Worth is a permanent housing collaboration between the DRC, the Paulos Foundation, and Fort Worth Housing Solutions, that houses 24 individuals and families formerly camping in the immediate vicinity. In the past two years, the area has seen:
- Crimes against persons and property have fallen below city-wide rates;
- Crimes against property have decreased 23% from 2015 levels;
- 90% of project participants have remained housed three years later, whether they have stayed at the Palm Tree or moved on to other permanent housing placements.
Housing Costs Less
The Tarrant County Homeless Coalition’s “2019 State of the Homeless Report” cites the following cost to taxpayers for each person experiencing homelessness for one night spent:
In jail: $70
In a shelter: $40
In a home: $25
Housing returns a savings of $15 over shelters, and $45 over jail per—person, per night.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, providing access to housing generally results in cost savings for communities because housed people are less likely to use emergency services, including hospitals, jails, and emergency shelter, than those who are homeless.
One study found an average cost savings on emergency services of $31,545 per person housed in a Housing First program over the course of two years.
Evidence suggests that as much as $1 million in public money is saved annually for every 100 chronically homeless individuals housed, based on reduced use of hospital care and emergency services. For every 100 individuals housed after short-term homelessness, $630,000 is saved per year.