housing the homeless

There's a fascinating article by Erik Eckholm in today's New York Times about a radical effort to solve chronic homelessness—giving the homeless apartments. In more than 20 cities, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, the program effectively reduced the number of homeless by offering the chronic homeless small efficiency apartments, with medical and addiction treatments in house.

Maybe the most shocking aspect of this program is that it's actually cost effective.

... officials found that 25 men were taken into emergency detoxification centers for an average of 80 nights each in one year, at a total cost of $772,000. Officials have found that they can provide housing and most medical and other services for about $15,000 a year per person.

In fact, Philip Mangano, the Bush appointee who heads up the program, has successfully leveraged this potential financial savings as a way to expand his program.

Wherever he goes, Mr. Mangano, 58, who was director of the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, emphasizes that it is cheaper to put the chronically homeless right into apartments, and provide medical and addiction treatments there, than to watch them cycle endlessly through shelters, soup kitchens, emergency rooms, detoxification centers and jails.

The results so far have been stunning. According to the article, the number of chronic homeless has declined by 60 percent over five years in Philadelphia, and by more than 25 percent over the same period in San Francisco and Dallas.

Here's to hoping that Mr. Mangano and his agency keep up the good work.