Alcoholics Need Shelter, Too

Richard and LeAnn would not stay in homeless shelters for two reasons: alcohol is not allowed and married couples cannot stay together. Sadly, on the night of March 25th, the temperature dropped in Salt Lake City. Richard and LeAnn were found the next morning, wearing multiple layers of clothing, covered only by a light dusting of snow.

Addiction is a tricky thing to handle when you're homeless. For some, it's the cause of their homelessness. For others, it's a result of being homeless. Either way, once a homeless person falls into the trap of addiction, receiving shelter and services becomes much more complicated.  

Many communities know that as long as forced treatment is not an option, wet shelters are necessary to save lives. But a new study released last month has found that wet shelters not only save lives, but save communities a great deal of money. (That's not to say that I am equally valuing government budgets and people's lives, but since this life-saving option has been proven a cost-saver, promoting wet shelters will become more politically palatable).  

In addition to saving taxpayers millions of dollars, individuals in these wet shelters decreased their daily alcohol consumption by two percent per month. Here's more from the researcher herself: 

"Our study suggests that homeless alcoholics who qualify to take part in Housing First can stay out of jails and (hospital) emergency rooms and cost the taxpayer a lot less money as a result," said Mary Larimer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington, who led the study.

"We also found that these benefits increase over time and that they are possible without requiring that participants stop drinking. And yet, the longer the participants stay in the housing program, the less they drink," Larimer said.

While this is great news for those in need of stability and treatment, it's beneficial from a cost-benefit perspective:

In the year before entering the shelter, those who got in had run up more than $4,000 each per month in costs for jail, detox center use, hospital-based medical services, publicly funded alcohol and drug programs, emergency medical services and the like, the study team said.

But after they entered the housing arrangement, their individual monthly costs for using such services fell to $1,492 after six months and to $958 after a year -- a reduction in total costs of more than $4 million, the researchers said.

"Each of them had cost state and local governments an average of $86,062 per year before being housed, compared to an average of $13,440 it costs per person per year to administer the housing program," Larimer said.

Can any shelter workers out there vouch for the effectiveness of wet shelters in your community?