Homelessness Analysis

The homeless problem costs society millions of dollars, predominantly through medical bills. Society assumes homelessness is normally distributed. However, that is not the case. Homelessness follows a power-law distribution, meaning the problem is not concentrated in the middle but rather at one extreme. This distribution pattern is also evident in police violence allegations. The power-law distribution of homelessness is created by the time people spend in the shelter system. People may spend a few days in a shelter or stay for a short period of time and return occasionally, who are known as episodic users. But the distribution and problem is centered around the chronically homeless, who cost the system the most money and generate costly medical

The underlying argument is that it costs less to solve the homeless problem than it does to manage or ignore it. Society needs to stop funding programs that continually provide services for all the homeless and direct the money towards ending the problem by renouncing the current policies and target the chronically homeless. Philip Mangano, the executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, advocates for renting apartments for the homeless. The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless provides apartments to the chronically homeless for free as long as they follow the

The solution targets the chronically homeless, who cost the health-care and social service systems the most money. The program of providing apartments to the chronically homeless is selective due to limited money, but requirements must be met to be eligible. The program creates dependency under supervision to get people back on their feet. Gladwell assesses the problem by conducting marginal analysis to weigh the cost and benefits. The benefit of spending less money to solve the problem outweighs the opportunity cost of serving all the homeless with a shelters and soup kitchens. In other words, it costs less to solve the problem than manage it. It is efficient to spend a lot of money on a few people than it is to spend a little money on a lot of people. The huge part of the decision should be bottom-lined oriented, but it should also be based on the outcomes of the solution. If the program betters individuals to be productive citizens it would benefit the economy and society in the long