Housing crisis: Tacoma’s costs are unsustainable
Recent TNT articles lead me to believe our public officials have no solution for homelessness beyond throwing money at it.
Even that strategy seems to have no consistency. You certainly don’t solve a chronic problem using COVID-19 CARES Act funding because that money is going to go away. Then what?
One article describes how Tacoma has contracted with the Low Income Housing Institute to shelter no more than 39 additional people at a cost at a cost of around $2,270 per person month per person (after $333,000 in one-time costs to create the site is factored in).
The next day I read The Salvation Army will provide Puyallup with 14 beds and comparable support at a cost of $406 per person a month!
Perhaps I don’t have all the data, but I derived my figures using the numbers published in the respective articles.
How can there be more than 5 times the cost difference in providing similar services? A shelter model like Tacoma’s is not sustainable nor easily expanded.
If we’re throwing money at the issue, let’s at least throw it to a provider like The Salvation Army, which seems capable of delivering services far more economically.
Nick Malden, Tacoma
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 9:53 AM with the headline "Housing crisis: Tacoma’s costs are unsustainable."