Homelessness

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It Costs Less To House The Homeless Than Turn Them Away

According to both federal and provincial government studies, every homeless person costs us taxpayers between $30,000.00 CAD and $40,000.00 CAD per year.

How could this be?

Homeless people use more emergency medical services, have more run ins with the police, have more infectious diseases and scare off business.

Is costs $5000.00 CAD a year to house a homeless person, and $20,000.00 CAD for supervised shelter for a special needs person such as someone with alcoholism, drug addiction or a disability.

So we taxpayers can save about $30,000.00 CAD per year per homeless person we house! It isn’t the money. So what’s the holdup?

I asked Liberal MLA Jeff Bray this question the other night in front of three witnesses. He said the reason was the Liberals were afraid if BC solved its homeless problem, homeless people from all over Canada would flock to BC.

I said, in that case, Ottawa should give BC extra money for dealing with Canada’s entire homeless population. Mr. Bray promised to ask Ottawa for funding to house out-of-province homeless people.

In the meantime, we can at least get on with housing our own homeless, and save $30,000.00 CAD a year each.

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