But there may be a solution. Housing First is an assistance plan that offers permanent housing as the way to end homelessness (“Housing First”). This approach provides the one element that separates the homeless from the housed, stability. This alone can reduce addiction and improve health and mental illness. This program even makes it cost less to let a homeless person live in permanent housing, than it does to let them temporarily stay at a shelter. One study from Los Angeles, California (home of 10% of the entire homeless population) found that the city saved $80,000 each year, by putting only four chronic homeless individuals (ones who have been homeless for longer than a year) into this type of permanent housing (“Cost of Homelessness”).