Housing Policy Debate, 2002, Dennis P. Culhane et al.

This landmark 2002 study is fully titled "Public Service Reductions Associated with Placement of Homeless Persons with Severe Mental Illness in Supportive Housing." It tracks the public service use of 4,679 homeless, mentally ill New York City residents from 1989 to 1997. The “Culhane Report,” as it’s often referred to, quantifies costs of both homelessness and supportive housing. It does this by comparing how frequently homeless people and supportive housing tenants use services such as psychiatric inpatient care and emergency rooms. Dennis Culhane and his coauthors calculate that a homeless, mentally ill person on the streets of New York City costs taxpayers $40,451 a year -- in 1999 dollars. Supportive housing reduces these annual costs by a net $16,282 per housing unit. This study was written by Dennis P. Culhane, Stephen Metraux and Trevor Hadley.

Download The Culhane Report

Research category: Important Research, Cost Savings, Mental Illness