New York spends $ 26 thousand a month for each homeless person: giving them this money could be more effective

Political consultant Jason Curtis Anderson in a column for New York Post talked about how much New York spends on the homeless and why these costs are ineffective.

“New York is spending a lot of money on accommodating the homeless in hotels all over the city, and this decision has led to chaos,” says Anderson.

“With $ 2019 billion in New York City tax revenues spent on the homeless in 3,2, residents expected the City Council to keep the situation under control. But instead, the problem of the homeless has reached new heights and is now a visible and dangerous problem in every borough and on every metro line, ”the author writes.

You can assume that the problem of homelessness in New York City was worse in the 1980s. But no. The average number of people sleeping in shelters per year over this decade was actually 23. The current spike in homelessness seems to have begun in 295 and has gradually increased to 2006 people who are living in New York City's homeless shelters in 122. No matter how many billions of dollars the city invests in this problem, it only gets worse.

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“If we decided to write checks and just give this $ 3,2 billion to the homeless, we could give each man, woman and child exactly $ 26. Think about it, the author says. - This amount can cover first and last month rent, deposit, utilities and furniture. If this money were given to a family of three, they would start their new life with $ 031,92. "

“The authorities insist that the main reason for homelessness is the lack of affordable housing. So the city is spending huge amounts of money on housing for the homeless, paying $ 237 per person per day to pay for their hotel stay. If you go to Hotels.com and look for hotel rooms in Manhattan, the average current price is currently $ 90 per day, Anderson muses. "Since 2017, the city has also committed $ 274 million to the Bronx Parent Housing Network, one of the city's largest homeless shelters."

There are many reasons a person becomes homeless, often a combination of factors. But according to Samhsa.gov, the majority of homeless people in the United States - over 60 percent - suffer from lifelong mental health problems, and more than 80 percent are drug and alcohol dependent.

“If we are going to move forward on this issue, we must face the facts: mental illness and drug addiction prevent the majority of homeless people from taking proper care of themselves and functioning in a civilized society. It's time to admit that activists are wrong and the main reason for homelessness is not a lack of affordable housing, ”Anderson writes.

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Better services to combat mental illness and addiction should be of paramount importance. ThriveNYC's $ 1 billion city mental health program failed because it avoided the mentally ill, with a focus on "improving mental health." Basically, it is a hotline for people who have had a bad day, not for dealing with serious mental illness with the help of qualified professionals.

“It's a shame that we put so much money into a program that only scratches the surface of mental illness when outpatient treatment for those deemed dangerous to society has been proven to reduce suicide, arrest, homelessness and incarceration,” says the author. "But as the city evades this law, many dangerous homeless people are simply escaping the system."