United Way Homeless Study Exposes Cost of Living on Streets in Los Angeles

USC-Conducted Homeless Cost Study Profiles Four Los Angeles Homeless
Individuals to Demonstrate Financial and Social Benefits of Permanent
Supportive Housing Programs

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- United Way of Greater Los Angeles today
unveiled findings from its Homeless Cost Study, uncovering the financial
implications of living on the streets in Los Angeles and the social and
economic benefits of permanent supportive housing programs. Conducted by
researchers at the University of Southern California's Center for Community
Health Studies at the Keck School of Medicine and Housing Works, the
qualitative study profiles four previously-homeless individuals who have now
been placed in a supportive housing environment. The study shows tremendous
savings to the average taxpayer, in addition to individual and community
benefits by placing chronically homeless people into permanent supportive
housing.

"With more people living on the streets in Los Angeles than any other city in
the nation, we cannot continue to ignore the growing chronically homeless
issue, which is crowding our health and criminal justice systems and impacting
the strength of our community. Our goal is to prove there is a better way, and
facilitate change," said Elise Buik, president and CEO of United Way of
Greater Los Angeles. "We must change our attitudes towards the homeless, many
of which are families and veterans, and move swiftly to impact the system so
we can get them into life-changing environments."

Profiling C.N., a 52 year-old White female; D.B., a 58 year-old White male;
J.S., a 32 year-old Hispanic male; and J.W., a 61 year-old African American
male, the study takes into account five principal cost areas, including
substance abuse, physical health, mental health, criminal justice and housing.
Combining costs associated with these five areas, the study finds that that
the total cost to provide public services for two years was over $80,000
greater than with permanent housing with support services, representing a
nearly 43% savings for taxpayers when permanent housing solutions are used.
What's more, the study found that the quality of life of the four profiled
homeless individuals had greatly improved, given changes in housing quality,
substance dependency, criminal behavior, social engagement and overall health.

The United Way findings are consistent with several quantitative studies,
which provide growing evidence that permanent housing is a far less costly
approach to managing chronic homelessness than leaving people on the streets
or in emergency shelters. And, as recently reported by the American Medical
Association, savings increase the longer chronically homeless people live in
housing(1). By investing in supportive housing solutions, U.S. cities like New
York and Chicago have significantly increased taxpayer savings and drastically
reduced their chronic homeless populations.

"Recent quantitative data has underscored the positive impact that supportive
housing solutions have on communities and residents, but numbers can only tell
you so much," said Dr. Michael Cousineau, from USC's Center for Community
Health Studies at the Keck School of Medicine and principal investigator for
the report. "By looking at the individual stories behind these numbers, we
were able to understand the real social, financial and health factors
impacting the homeless, providing texture to the data and helping
organizations like United Way devise tailored solutions to impact the issue of
chronic homelessness."

Cost of Life on the Streets:

To analyze the costs of public services, investigators first focused on the
two-year period before the individuals were placed in permanent supportive
housing. During this time period, two of the four had gone through the detox
process six times. Two of the four had been hospitalized, and all four had
used the hospital emergency room for health and alcohol issues, multiple
times. All four had been arrested at least once and spent time in jail, with
one of the homeless individuals profiled serving 90 days in prison. The total
cost of public services spent on these four individuals over two years on the
streets was $187,288.

The Cost of Permanent Supportive Housing:

After two years in permanent housing, investigators observed increased
stability in the lives of the four individuals. All four were housed with
access to mental and physical health and education classes. None of the four
had required medical attention, except for one emergency room visit (versus a
total of 19 emergency room visits total while the four lived on the streets).
None of the individuals had entered the criminal justice system and, while one
individual did relapse into drug and alcohol abuse, the services available for
rehabilitation and therapy helped this person to regain sobriety (seven months
at time of the interview). Costs increased in one area--mental health--which
is a desirable outcome given the benefits of regular encounters with the
community mental health system. The total cost of public services for these
four individuals living in permanent housing with support services for two
years was $107,032.

In addition to providing context around the issue of chronic homelessness, the
study underscores the immense need for programs to address the growing problem
of homeless families and - the most vulnerable segment - the chronically
homeless. With current economic conditions and heightened unemployment further
exacerbating the homeless issue, solutions must be devised to drive the
homeless population off the streets and integrated back into our communities.

Ending homelessness is a critical part of United Way's work to fight poverty,
and the organization has implemented strategies to impact the three
inter-related root causes of poverty (and homelessness, the most extreme form
of poverty). These include programs to impact housing and healthcare,
education and financial stability. United Way's Pathways Out of Poverty Plan
aims to provide affordable housing and healthcare to residents; help high
school students graduate prepared for college and the workforce; and teach
adults job skills and financial education. United Way continues to bring the
public, private and non-profit sectors together to increase funding streams
for permanent supportive housing and other necessary programs.

In order to mobilize people to take action and raise the funds and awareness
to drive change, United Way will also host its annual walk to end
homelessness, HomeWalk, on November 7, 2009. In the last two years, 8,000
people have walked, raising $1M and helping over 5,000 people off the streets.
For more information please go to www.homewalkla.org.

The Homeless Cost Study was conducted by Dr. Michael Cousineau and Heather
Lander, with the University of Southern California's Center for Community
Health Studies at the Keck School of Medicine, in conjunction with Mollie
Lowery, with Housing Works.

About United Way of Greater Los Angeles
United Way of Greater Los Angeles is a nonprofit organization that creates
pathways out of poverty by focusing on meeting basic needs, improving
educational achievement and increasing financial stability for the most
vulnerable in our community. Through its research work, United Way identifies
the issues and works in partnership with community leaders and supporters to
solve them by funding targeted programs and advocating for change. For more
information, visit www.unitedwayla.org.

(1) Larimer ME, Malone DK, Garner MD, Atkins DC, Burlingham B, Lonczak HS,
Tanzer K, Ginzler J, Clifasefi SL, Hobson WG, Marlatt GA. Health care and
public service use and costs before and after provision of housing for
chronically homeless persons with severe alcohol problems. Journal of the
American Medical Association, 2009;301(13):1349-1357

SOURCE United Way of Greater Los Angeles

Darcy Cobb, +1-310-472-8600, darcy@dottedlinecomm.com, for United Way of
Greater Los Angeles