Letter to Editor: Fighting homelessness saves

Thanks to the Dallas Morning News for publishing my letter to the editor:

http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/05/fighting-homele.html

 

Re: "The Bridge to better lives -- Center measures first year's success in jobs, housing found," Friday news story.

The Texas Legislature has approved $20 million over two years for big cities to combat homelessness, as this story reports.

 

I strongly encourage Gov. Rick Perry to approve these funds. Investing $20 million in reducing homelessness will avoid the far greater expense of managing homelessness.

 

Providing permanent, supportive housing to the chronically homeless costs only a fraction as much as incarcerating those same people or treating them in local emergency rooms. Unlike some other forms of government assistance, funds directed at preventing homelessness yield returns that benefit all of us: safer streets, cleaner communities and stronger state coffers.