A Florida County Spent Over $5 Million Jailing Homeless People. It Could've Spent Less On Shelter

I find this interesting as it is such a contrast when compared to what Utah is doing (add to that Arizona as per the article.)

A Florida county has spent more than $5 million over the past nine years throwing chronically homeless people in jail, when it could have spent considerably less finding them shelter.

In its annual report on the state of homelessness in Osceola County, Fla., Impact Homelessness -- a local advocacy group -- found that the county continues to spend a pretty penny on imprisoning people who live on the streets, instead of helping to rehabilitate them.

The county has at least 300 homeless people sleeping on the streets every night. Most of those people have physical disabilities and/or mental illnesses. Many of them are veterans.

Impact Homelessness investigated the number of people who have been put in prison because of "crimes" related to homelessness, including panhandling, sleeping outside and trespassing. One section of the report focused on the "frequent flyers" -- people who have been arrested over and over again for homeless-related crimes.

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Part of what makes "no sense" is the fact that the county could spend considerably less money on finding housing for the homeless instead of temporarily sending them to jail.

Providing permanent supportive housing and ongoing case management for one person would come to $9,602 annually, according to the report. That's 35 percent less than what it costs to put homeless people in jail.

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The Obama administration has pledged to put an end to veteran homelessness by 2015 and Salt Lake City, Utah, and Phoenix, Ariz., have already succeeded in doing so, The New York Times reported.

Two years ago, Phoenix, Ariz., identified 222 homeless veterans and the remaining 56 were placed in housing last December -- an accomplishment officials attribute to a collaboration between the city council and key state and federal partners, azfamily.com reported.

A Florida County Spent Over $5 Million Jailing Homeless People. It Could've Spent Less On Shelter