Скачать или смотреть The Cost of Homelessness

How much does homlessness cost taxpayers?

Homelessness is expensive. Over the course of a year, the Surrey Business Association collected data on one unhoused woman with mental health issues. They calculated that the paramedics, hospitals, police, bylaw officers, outreach workers, food banks and shelters she accessed cost $171,000 per year.

The province estimates that the average unhoused person costs taxpayers $56,000 per year. Compare that to the $23,000 per year that it costs to provide someone with supportive housing. A police officer costs almost three times as much as a support worker.

How would you like your tax dollars spent? Are you willing to accept more tax increases to pay for more law enforcement against unhoused people when there are better, cheaper options?

As the Executive Director of the Nanaimo Unitarian shelter, I can tell you that some of our guests are people with mental health and addiction challenges but we also have seniors, people with disabilities, students and people with jobs who have used the shelter. 6,000 people in Nanaimo are at risk of homelessness. We can do better.

The affordable housing, homelessness, mental health, addiction and criminality problems in our city demand a comprehensive, fiscally-responsible and evidence-based approach. The provincial and federal governments need to step up in a big way, fund more affordable and supportive housing, and stop shifting the cost of homelessness onto municipalities.