What is Success in Homeless Programs?
Someone asked, "What is the success rate of homeless programs? Where are the studies to justify the money spent?" These are great questions!
There are many ways to assess the success of programs that help people experiencing homelessness. These include things like amount of money saved, employment, sobriety and keeping and maintaining housing. COTS keeps meticulously documents results in each of these areas, and we can demonstrate impressive success in each one. Below is a photo depicting just one area of COTS' success, getting people into housing.
Another part of the question above is justifying the expenditure of money to help people experiencing homelessness. What is a good "return on our investment?"
Again, there are many ways to measure this including money saved in the health system, criminal justice system and educational system by providing help. Another perspective looks at savings to business by helping people who are homeless. Rob Eyler, Ph.D, a regional economist, estimates that without COTS:
• Businesses across Petaluma would lose over $20.6 million annually;
• Businesses could no longer support the jobs of approximately 124 workers; and
• Petaluma would no longer generate approximately $1.66 million of state and local revenue annually due to the lost business activity.
That's a pretty big benefit! To see Professor Eyler's full report, click here: http://www.cots-homeless.org/index.php/download_file/view/117/210/181/.
In summary, we at COTS think it's a great idea to ask the "hard questions" about whether our work is truly a good investment of resources. We think that the homeless and hungry kids and adults are worth supporting because it's the right thing to do. We also are delighted to be able to provide data and analysis to demonstrate that COTS' work is worthwhile.