One of the most surprising things I’ve learned about homeless people (and myself) is just how expensive they are. I always thought that homeless people were free, housing was too expensive, and the government had other priorities.

The reason homeless people are expensive is because they circulate through jails and hospitals before landing back on the streets, and then the cycle begins again. (This is sometimes called the “revolving door.”) Time spent in jails and hospitals is expensive.

How expensive? In Cincinnati:

A day in jail: $60-$80
A day in Cincinnati’s long term psychiatric facility, Summit Behavioral: $550
A day in University of Cincinnati Hospital: over $1,000

I wondered how much I cost the state of California when I was homeless. The police were paid to find me in the churchyard and pick me up. There were my several days in jail, court costs, and a mountain of paperwork. When I finally was hospitalized, I had become so mentally ill on the streets that I needed extended urgent care. I was committed for three weeks in a facility similar to Cincinnati’s Summit Behavioral, which costs taxpayers $550 a day.

I estimate that my untreated mental illness and resulting homelessness cost the state of California around $15-20 thousand dollars.

Notably, I was never in the psychiatric ward of the Los Angeles jail, where one person a day costs $1,350
(https://www.citywatchla.com/archive/2227-its-madness-the-incarceration-of-disabled-homeless-people-in-los-angeles-and-the-us).

Fortunately, when I was hospitalized and wanting to return to the streets, my parents prepared to go to court, if necessary, in order to stop me from living outside again. They invited me to live in their home. Had it not been for my parents, I don’t know how many times I would have circulated through California jails and hospitals.

Other mentally ill homeless people are not so fortunate. After hospital stays, they are released to the streets, where taking medications and going to doctor’s appointments is hardly possible. They become sicker and sicker until they are jailed for psychotic behavior or hospitalized again. The cycle comes full circle.

Dennis Culhane at the University of Pennsylvania discovered that each homeless person in America costs taxpayers $40,000 per year.
https://www.rrstar.com/article/20150110/Opinion/150119943#ixzz3OiNwiwcQ

In Utah, “Housing First” reduced their cost per person from $20,000 to $8,000.
https://mic.com/articles/108720/utah-s-radical-solution-to-fighting-homelessness-has-been-a-remarkable-success

I love this insight by Mark Zuckerberg: “…I generally think if you do good things for people in the world, that that comes back and you benefit from it over time.”  Taking care of the homeless makes sense financially.