Homeless Study Looks at 'Housing First'

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

Homeless Study Looks at 'Housing First'
Shifting Policies to Get Chronically Ill in Homes May Save Lives, Money
By JOE BARRETT
March 6, 2008; Page A10

A four-year study of homeless people with chronic medical problems in Chicago offers fresh evidence that efforts to move the homeless into permanent housing quickly can improve their lives and save taxpayer money. The study was put together by a coalition of hospitals and housing groups seeking hard evidence supporting this approach to dealing with homelessness. Results of the study, which was financed by housing grants from the federal Housing and Urban Development Department and private charities, will be presented today at the National Housing and HIV/AIDS Research Summit in Baltimore.

The study, called the Chicago Housing for Health Partnership, or CHHP, is among the first to use a scientific approach in a housing study of homeless people with problems other than mental illness, according to Dennis Culhane, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and leading researcher in the field who has followed the study's progress. One group of homeless people that received housing and intensive follow-up by a case manager consumed fewer public resources than a separate group that received "usual care" -- the piecemeal system of emergency shelters, family and recovery programs -- according to a preliminary review of data by the researchers.

Members of the study group, such as Claude Ousley, a 60-year-old with congestive heart failure who had been homeless about five years, spent half as many days in hospitals and nursing homes and went to emergency rooms half as often as the usual-care group over 18 months. The savings more than made up for the $12,000-per-person annual cost of providing housing and a case manager, according to the preliminary findings.

(snip)



URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120477350786615859.html (subscription)

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. The homeless have been saying that for years, now it's time to

do it!

[Warpy]

2. With foreclosures soaring

and the bottom dropping out of the housing market, especially the condo market, maybe we'll finally be able to do it. People will move out of cruddy apartments and into condos offered for rent. The cruddy apartments will become available to the homeless. Well, this is after the newly foreclosed move into the first cruddy apartment they can find.

It's always cheaper to do the right thing for people in the first place than to wait until they get into real trouble and try an expensive and temporary patch job.

[bobbolink]

3. Fan-fucking-tastic!

It's very sad that we are so emotionally stunted as a nation that we have to have studies to prove what we should already know in our hearts.

BUT... at least there is a study saying this.

NOW... to get it recognized..

WHERE's that media list on DU? Time to get this to GD, and get people writing, call, LTTE's, etc., to get this widely known!

Fine post -- thank you!

:applause:

[knitter4democracy]

4. Now that we have the study, it's time to put it to good use!

Time to take copies of that to our state legislators and House Reps and every group we can. Yes to housing first!

[bobbolink]

5. And to the media... most people don't understand this.

This needs to be taken to reporters, and should be the subject of many LTTEs.

[knitter4democracy]

8. Good idea. I'm due for one.

I'll get to work on it this weekend. :)

[bobbolink]

11. Cool! Now if you could enlist a few thousand others to do the same...

:)

[caseycoon]

6. K&R! About time!

I hope everyone will read this & pass it on.
Good to have something substantial to work with since there is such a lack of common sense!

[nosmokes]

7. K & R

When you spend energy toting everything you own around with you and constantly worrying about where you'll sleep and your safety it can't help but have a serious negative impact on your health.And all things considered, what can it cost to house people in dorm style studios or some type of arrangement to give them that initial boost? Overall it hasta be better deal economically for society, not to mention ethically.

[nosmokes]

9. K&R

:kick:

[Kajsa]

10. Now, if everyone could get on

board with this, it would help provide homes to the homeless
and save money.

Why haven't more people discovered this?

K&R.

:kick:

[bobbolink]

12. Because we liberals don't shout this like we do other causes.... like voting issues, etc.

Remember all the effort to get media to pay attention to the problems with the voting machines?

Remember all the effort toward impeachment, people spelling it out on the beach, writing and calling, writing LTTEs?

And on and on.. yet, WHERE is the effort to bring this to the attention of the nation?

When someone posts about it and asks for action, it usually sinks like a rock.

It simply isn't on our agenda. It isn't "sexy".

:cry: