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Originally Posted by DEI37
So...lemme get this straight. They want to save money, so instead of spending $2m/yr, they build a $12m house, and expect it to cost $1m/yr to accomodate them. That's no savings in my book. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
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In 2003, the public spent $50,000, on average, for each of 40 homeless alcoholics found most often at the jail, the sobering center and the public Harborview Medical Center, said Amnon Shoenfeld, director of King County's division of mental health and chemical abuse.
Mr. Hobson's group expected the annual cost for each new resident of 1811 Eastlake to be $13,000, or a total of $950,000. It cost $11.2 million to build and is paid for entirely by the City of Seattle and county, state and federal governments.
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Given that they're saving over a million dollars annually by keeping these people off of the streets, the project will have made up those initial start-up costs in about 11 years. To me, it is a good thing because these people are repeat offenders who keep costing the taxpayers money. As long as they're in housing, the cost is kept lower and more predictable, and they're not taking up jail space or detox space.
Oddly, it seems that this project might have the desired side effect of these people actually drinking less instead of more to survive the streets. That is also a plus.