The Edmonton Homelessness Commission reports that a chronically homeless person costs taxpayers $100,000 annually — but one night’s accommodation in an emergency shelter costs only $42
Some of Canada’s homeless people are being described as “frequent flyers”–people frequently picked up by emergency services and taken to hospitals or police stations, often multiple times–and the costs associated can be staggering.
The Edmonton Homeless Commission reports that a chronically homeless person costs taxpayers $100,000 annually. 1 in 5 visits by EMS/Fire was to a homeless person–and a homeless person is forty times more likely to use an emergency room in severe weather than the general population. The average length of stay in hospital if homeless is 66 days (compared to the general population average of 9.4 days). The top ten ‘frequent flyers’ to emergency rooms averaged 66 times per year. From February 2013…
A new project spearheaded by the Edmonton Police Service will target the top 50 heavy users of the city’s police, medical and inner-city services. The project is aimed at better co-ordinating efforts among the agencies that work the most with the city’s chronically homeless.
We speak with David Berger, deputy director of Boyle Street Community Services.
