“. It costs Illinois about $11 a day to provide supportive housing to one person. Compare that with the $105 per day to house someone in prison, $170 per day in a nursing home setting and $350 per day at a mental institution.” Do we need any more information on this subject. Housing should be the first choice, if someone can not manage, then go to other options. Letting a person die out in the streets, when there is a possibility that they can get in to a secure living situation is nothing more than modern day Nazism cloaked in fiscal rationalizing. T.J.
At a recent Illinois House Appropriations Committee meeting, state Rep. Greg Harris said, “We cannot balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable.” Although I suspect Harris was speaking about issues of fairness and morality, his statement also points to an economic truth.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner
Picture originally captured by Crain’s Chicago Business
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s budget not only is harmful to our most vulnerable citizens; it reflects a fiscally reckless approach that will prove costly to the state. Poverty and homelessness don’t disappear when a budget line item is removed. The costs are pushed down the line to more expensive, less effective strategies.
In addition, the budget disqualifies Illinois from securing federal money for proven programs to alleviate poverty and may even tarnish the business climate the governor claims he is trying to improve.
The governor’s budget eliminates low-cost, front-line social service strategies in favor of…
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