Providing housing for homeless helps them and taxpayers, speaker says

Battered by exposure to the elements, alcohol abuse, street fights and inadequate health care, the chronic homeless have an average life expectancy of 41 to 47 years, compared with the national average of 77 years.

One solution, according to homeless advocates, is the concept of “housing as health care” — the idea that providing immediate housing for those without permanent residences can improve their quality of life and well-being while also reducing taxpayers’ costs.

Dr. Barbara Wismer, a physician and medical director for a homeless center in San Francisco, has seen the concept work firsthand. Known for its creative approaches to solving homelessness, San Francisco houses about 1,000 formerly homeless people in 23 sites that include rehabbed motels and apartment buildings.

The “permanent supportive housing” program first gets a roof over people’s heads, then addresses their physical and mental problems and links them up with case managers.

“Housing makes health and social services easier to deliver and improves access to health care,” said Wismer, a speaker at Monday’s “Conference on Homeless in the Pikes Peak Region.” “It also reduces their exposure to illnesses, allows for accurate diagnoses and daily dispensing of medications, and enables them to eat healthier.”

Colorado Springs has a similar program, Housing First, but it’s not nearly as far along as San Francisco’s.

“San Francisco is a paradigm to follow, and we’re a long way from what they’re doing, but we are making progress,” said Bob Holmes, executive director of Homeward Pikes Peak, which operates Housing First and coordinates other services for the homeless.

Housing First allows people to get housing without giving up alcohol. Housing First participants at Monday’s conference said that, by having a place to live, they then can focus more on overcoming their addictions. Holmes said most participants have voluntarily cut back or even stopped drinking.

Housing First has 25 participants now, and will expand to 40 by next June, Holmes said.

Funding is always an issue for homeless programs, Holmes said, and he’s raising money to pay for caseworkers, at a cost of $3,000 per year per client. Federal dollars pay for the $6,000 a year to house one person, ad another $6,000 for additional services.

But, he said, the program’s expense is a substantial savings over the estimated $54,000 it costs each year for medical and public safety services for a homeless person living on the streets in Colorado Springs.

Wismer cited studies done in several cities that showed “housing as health care” type programs reduced costs from $4,000 a month per person for public safety and other services to $1,000 per person.