Homelessness is one of the most visible and urgent policy challenges of our time. But what if the way we respond to it — through shelters, emergency rooms, and jails — is more expensive than simply providing stable housing?

In this first season of Policy Crimes, we’re investigating the Cost of Homelessness. And in this pilot episode we talk to Dr. Dennis Culhane, one of the world’s leading homelessness researchers who has laid the foundations of “cost of homelessness” studies.

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Guest: Dr. Dennis Culhane is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. His groundbreaking research has been cited in thousands of studies and has influenced homelessness policy at every level of government — as well as inspiring Malcolm Gladwell’s article in the New Yorker, Million Dollar Murray, helping to popularize the idea of the “cost of homelessness”.

Topics Covered:

• The staggering public costs of leaving people unhoused
• How supportive housing programs for veterans, families, and the chronically homeless in the US have saved money and improved lives
• Why governments often fail to account for savings across departments, and over time

Studies referenced:

• Public shelter admission rates in Philadelphia and New York City: The implications of turnover for sheltered population counts (1994)
• Applying cluster analysis to test a typology of homelessness by pattern of shelter utilization: results from the analysis of administrative data (1998)
• Public Service Reductions Associated with Placement of Homeless Persons with Severe Mental Illness in Supportive Housing (2002)
• New Perspectives on Community-Level Determinants of Homelessness (2012)

Production:

• Producers: Tristan Markle, Lina Moskaleva, and CJ Tremblay
• Sound and original music: Matthew Hayter, matthewhaytermusic.com
• This podcast is a project of The Publication Cooperative
• If you have thoughts, feedback, or ideas, you can email us at policycrimes@thepublication.ca