very high medical costs are substantially reduced by giving them stable housing
I also know that health crises for homeless people tend to hard to resolve and cost a lot more than for people who are housed. Medical advice like "stay off your foot and soak it twice a day" simply cannot be complied with if you are homeless. The health issues of the homeless tend to compound and get incredibly expensive, in most cases.
Source: I have had a class on homelessness and public policy, I am homeless, I run a few websites pertinent to this problem space. (In essence, I am kind of a SME here.)
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/01/24/the-hot-spotter...
For example the "it is known" premise that the ACA and Medicaid expansion would result in lower consumption of medical care overall. The opposite has happened.
One example, with data:
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/21/emergency-room-visits-...
The relevant question is: is any resulting consumption of medical care dollars reduced by more than the cost of these frequent in-home care visits? Generally, personnel costs (especially in public agencies) far outweigh the cost of (mostly generic) meds.
I see no hard numbers for either statistic. What did I miss?
"After several months, he had recovered enough to be discharged. But, out in the world, his life was simply another hospitalization waiting to happen."
Hospitalizations can cost thousands of dollar per day. So this stay cost in the several hundred thousand dollar range.
[skipping some paragraphs]. He is given a stable housing environment:
"I spoke to Hendricks recently. He has gone without alcohol for a year, cocaine for two years, and smoking for three years. He lives with his girlfriend in a safer neighborhood, goes to church, and weathers family crises. He cooks his own meals now. His diabetes and congestive heart failure are under much better control. He’s lost two hundred and twenty pounds, which means, among other things, that if he falls he can pick himself up, rather than having to call for an ambulance."
The entire article is about this sort of thing and about many cases.
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-e...