ARPPS letter to the editor about the ten year plan on homelessness, (the plan can be found at www.communitycouncil.org/level-3/homeless-plan.html ), essentially addresses the difference between scattered site housing for the chronic homeless as opposed to centralized, and we have come out for the scattered site approach as it is much less degrading to neighborhoods, costs much less, and is just a better way to reintegrate people into the community.
Sacramento Bee Friday, January 19, 2007
A better way to house homeless
Re "County opens drive to curb homelessness," Jan. 17: The city/county 10-year plan on homelessness provides some details that indicate the homelessness housing plan is costing more money than it should. The Sacramento plan has two parts: leasing of existing housing and development of new housing.
Sacramento can provide housing and support services by leasing existing units scattered throughout the community at $12,926.61 annual cost per client for a total cost of $2,818,000 for 218 individuals, per their report. However, under the development part of the plan Sacramento has adopted, they anticipate a cost of $29,700,000 (for 75 units) and an annual cost of $99,000 per individual, assuming four people per unit.
When you add in the neighborhood degradation of placing 60 to 75 homeless housing units in a neighborhood, and the emerging realization that concentrating individuals with social problems tends to create a reinforcement of existing social issues rather than an emergence of community norms found more often in leasing arrangements, it appears Sacramento might be going the wrong direction, at least on part of its plan. The leasing approach should be adopted for the entire plan.
David H. Lukenbill, Sacramento
Senior Project Director,
American River Parkway Preservation Society
