Cost of homelessness in millions, report finds

JUSTINE HUNTER
With a report from the Canadian Press
March 24, 2008

VICTORIA -- The federal government could easily bring some relief to B.C.'s homeless population by restoring incentives to the construction industry to build rental housing, the province's Housing Minister said yesterday.

"Governments can't build this stuff fast enough," Rich Coleman said in an interview. "We need tax incentives back in the marketplace to build more rental housing."

Mr. Coleman was responding to a new study that concludes providing shelter for homeless people with severe addictions and mental illness throughout British Columbia could save taxpayers millions of dollars.

The paper, commissioned by Simon Fraser University and released this month, found that providing non-housing services for such people costs the public system more than $55,000 a year per person.

Providing adequate housing and supports could reduce this cost to $37,000 a year, the study found.

It put the cost of failing to act in excess of $200-million each year.

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See also Coleman disputes homeless estimate from the Vancouver Sun