New San Francisco Program to Help Addicted Homeless
Officials in San Francisco, Calif., launched a new 10-year plan
designed to help homeless individuals by providing support services
that include permanent housing and treatment for addiction, the
Los Angeles Times reported July 1.
The program, which the Bush administration said could serve as
a national model, aims to eliminate chronic homelessness by replacing
emergency shelters with permanent housing that also provides social
and medical services.
"It's a significant day in San Francisco," said Mayor
Gavin Newsom. "We're moving toward a goal and desire not to
manage but to end homelessness. It's brilliant in its simplicity,
if we have the courage to change."
Up until now, the city has spent $200 million a year on helping
the homeless. According to city statistics, there are about 15,000
homeless people in the city, 3,000 of whom are chronically homeless
and receive 63 percent of the city's spending on homelessness.
San Francisco officials estimate that one chronically homeless
person who uses shelters for housing, hospital emergency rooms for
medical treatment, or jails, where medical services are also provided,
costs the city an average of $61,000 a year.
By comparison, permanent supportive housing under the new plan
would cost about $16,000 a year. The remaining funds would be used
to help people who are homeless for a shorter period of time.
"It's a matter of us waking up and realizing that we're spending
the money anyway, but we're spinning our wheels," said Mark
Trotz, who directs a small, supportive-housing program for the San
Francisco Department of Public Health.
|
