"In many ways, Vermont (and every other state in the nation) is already paying to house and care for its homeless."

We're paying now and we're paying through the nose - all of us. There are many far more cost effective ways of paying for homelessness that actually results in reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness, to boot. It's past time to get busy implementing them because every day we wait, more money is wasted with the status quo approach and less money is available to get new programs going. Report calls for innovation with chronically homeless Packaging services, housing could save money May 28, 2008

By Daniel Barlow Vermont Press Bureau

MONTPELIER - In many ways, Vermont is already paying to house and care for its homeless. Visits to local shelters, hospital emergency rooms, local prisons or jails by the state’s homeless population are being paid for through residents’ taxes, insurance premiums or other financial sources. But some advocates say that money could be better used before a homeless Vermonter needs these services and, in the long term, the state could even save money by investing in permanent housing, job training and mental health and substance abuse services for this vulnerable population. “In other states we are looking at, it has basically been a wash or there have been some savings,” said Maura Collins, the policy and planning manager for the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, who also worked on its new report, “The Costs and Benefits of Assisting Vermont’s Chronically Homeless.” Housing for Vermont’s homeless should come packaged with the myriad of other social services available to ensure that their new stability continues, said John Fairbanks, the public affairs manager for VHFA. “Packaging these together could result in the state saving money and avoid the chances that this population will lapse back into homelessness,” he said. The report makes no judgment on possible big-picture savings for Vermont, but it does point out some of the stresses that the homeless add to certain sectors. It notes, for example, that the state’s 14 hospitals provided $18.9 million in free care in 2007 - a cost that is passed onto others in the private insurance pool. Looking at reforms other states have made, the report notes a study in Portland, Maine that tracked 99 people who suffered from chronic homelessness. Once this population entered permanent supportive housing programs, they made 52 percent fewer visits to the emergency room and ambulance costs dropped by 60 percent. Because some members of the homeless population also suffer from mental health or substance abuse problems, they often brush up against local law enforcement. The report briefly tells the story of a homeless Vermonter named Scott who suffers from alcoholism. The report states that Scott was picked up and released by Vermont police 19 times in the month of March. Each time, Scott was searched, showered, received medical and mental health screenings and was held for 24 hours of observation. All but one of his nights in prison were for incapacitation;

the final one was when he was arrested for unlawful trespass for going into a garage looking for shelter. At least one Vermont organization has tried the housing-social services package. Tom Cimock, the director of the Community Health Center of Burlington, said in the homeless report that they put 10 “chronically homeless people who had extremely high levels of need” in stable housing with “wrap-around social services.” “Most have stayed in their units, with a substantial drop in their use of emergency room and other urgent services,” he writes in the report. Earlier this month, the Vermont Coalition to End Homelessness released a new “snapshot” of Vermont’s homeless. The report is based on a head-count by activists out in the field during the last seven days of January 2008. That count found 2,249 people in the state without regular homes. Most of those came from Chittenden, Bennington and Rutland counties, with Grand Isle and Essex counties having the lowest levels of homeless in the state during that time period. Estimates of the state’s homeless run higher when they are based on the population’s interaction with available services. According to Angus Chaney, the community services coordinator for the Vermont Office of Economic Opportunity, there were 3,463 homeless Vermonters who stayed at shelters between July 2006 and June 2007. That’s a drop from the previous year’s tally of 3,880, but Angus said the numbers here may be deceiving. It’s not clear if there has been an actual drop in the level of homelessness in the state, he said, but it is known that people are staying at these shelters for longer periods. “We had 112,715 bed nights logged during that time period,” Angus explained. “What we are seeing are people staying for a longer time at the shelters, resulting in less available beds at these shelters.” Officials with Vermont’s state government have begun looking at the possibility of packaging housing with services for needy Vermonters. Last week, the Vermont Agency of Human Services signed a memorandum of understanding with several of the state’s housing organizations to launch a pilot program. The program sets up a system of using housing tax credits for new construction projects that will set aside some units for the state’s homeless or needy residents, according to Cathy Voyer, the director of housing and transportation for the agency. She estimates that this will result in about 30 units each year. “Basically, if this is a unit dedicated to these populations, than we will be serving them while they are living there,” Voyer said. “This is one way we can identify how much savings there could be here.” Contact Daniel Barlow at Daniel.Barlow@rutlandherald.com.