Absolutely.
Everybody has talked a little bit about how much it costs when someone is homeless as opposed to somebody who's leading a healthy and balanced life in society.
I just want to close by telling you about my first client. She was maintaining herself on a $500 employable person's income from welfare. She was an injured nurse, so she retired early and she had a WCB income of $300, which welfare was topping up. One of her roommates bailed; she was paying $800 for an apartment and her roommate left with no notice. She needed $400. She could advertise for a roommate without being under threat of eviction. Welfare rejected that request.
So for the want of $400, 18 months later I stopped calculating at $150,000 the amount we had spent to shelter this woman. That is just sheltering her. She is still not properly housed. She's taking up space that is in fact designated for someone who is recovering from an addiction, which she is not. But it doesn't include any of the money.... For instance, her mental and physical health declined to such a state that she's now drawing a disability pension from the provincial government.
I could go on and on with all the money that isn't calculated in that figure. But in 18 months we spent $150,000 to shelter one individual rather than give her $400 so she could stay in her home.
So those are the numbers I know.