Paul Mattessich
Executive Director
Homelessness -- Can we "cure" it? Should we care? In Minnesota, a state blessed with resources, should we have 13,000 or more people who are homeless, nearly half of whom are under age 21? What if we could solve the problem for a thousand homeless people, at a cost of $1.75 per year, per state resident? I know that we want "no new taxes", but might such an investment have some value? Minnesotans can take pride in the fact that we have initiated efforts to end homelessness. Without such efforts, we would likely find ourselves in a worse situation. However, as Wilder Research has reported, many homelessness trends have moved in a bad direction. Is this issue intractable? Is the cost of a solution insurmountable? I performed some "back of the envelope" calculations to help think about this. More |
