Homelessness: The Seattle area spends more than $1 billion a year on this humanitarian crisis
This is the third time Elliot Godwin has been homeless. Each time it has been for the same reason: The rent went up and his paycheck did not.
“I’m not an Amazon techie,” Godwin said. “My starting income is not six figures.”
He gets about $800 a month in disability payments and works part-time as a cook. He has lived in a tent at Camp United We Stand, a homeless encampment in Shoreline, for the last five months. Rent at the camp is $30 a month.
That allowed Godwin to scrape together some savings. He wants to buy a van to move further into the suburbs and find an affordable apartment.
That van is the difference between homelessness and sheltered living for Godwin.
A few hundred dollars could similarly make the difference for many of the estimated 12,000 people living in King County’s six encampments or the 400 unsanctioned encampments, in shelters, sleeping in cars or on the street.
The Puget Sound area spends more than $1.06 billion per year addressing and responding to the homelessness crisis. To estimate the economic impact of homelessness, the Business Journal spent six months examining the budgets of dozens of nonprofits that work on the issue; city and county budgets; police and emergency calls to encampments and resource centers; hospital services; permanent and temporary housing; and drug treatment and outreach.
Homelessness is not a resource problem, experts say. It’s a communication problem.
The landmark Pathways Home report released last year highlighted the lack of coordination between groups and governments as a major challenge for the Puget Sound region.
Making the system more efficient would not only save hundreds of millions of dollars. It would also save lives. Ninety-one homeless people died in King County last year, and the region’s opioid crisis — the cause of many such deaths — is only getting worse.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/11/16/price-of-homelessness-seattle-king-county-costs.html?ana=e_sea_bn&u=ColXVN5SPzQtLHFP87ho2w07857290&t=1510882144&j=79187401