Phoenix, Arizona
Photo Credit:  Marriott Vacation Club

'Housing is health care':

It's 30% cheaper to provide housing to people with mental illness

​May 12, 2021

"Metro Phoenix could save millions of dollars of taxpayer money per year by providing supportive housing to people with chronic mental illnesses like schizophrenia, according to a new report out of Arizona State University.


"The report from the university's Morrison Institute for Public Policy found that it is almost 30% cheaper to provide housing to people with serious chronic mental illness than it is to allow them to become homeless.


"Most significantly, a person's health care costs decreased by almost $20,000 per year when they were living in a housing program that provides on-site behavioral and medical supports, the report found.


"The report focused on people with the most severe and persistent forms of serious mental illness, who often cycle through emergency rooms, jails, prisons and homeless shelters because their conditions are chronic and untreated.


" 'I think it's recognized that treatment and supportive housing is expensive but not treating and housing people with chronic mental illness is even more costly to the public,' said Alison Cook-Davis, one of the authors of the report."