Though many people are against providing free services to the homeless because they see them as an undeserved and unearned handout, the problems of the homeless don’t only effect the homeless. When a homeless person has to use the emergency room for medical care the cost of their visit is passed on to tax payers. The dangers of living on the streets with inadequate food and in all types of weather also mean that homeless people frequently visit the emergency room. They also show up with severs problems because they rarely get preventative care. Not helping the homeless actually can financially hurt a community.

A new post by the From Poverty To Opportunity Campaign outlines the findings from a new study by the Aids Foundation of Chicago that shows, again, that providing housing and intensive case management to the homeless drastically reduces their use of emergency rooms and therefore their financial cost to the community.

The Campaign quotes the study as saying:

Remarkably, homeless people who were housed were admitted to the hospital one-third fewer times than people in the control group. They also spent one-third fewer days in the hospital and went to the emergency room one-fourth fewer times.

For every 100 homeless adults offered the program intervention, there would be 49 fewer hospitalizations, 273 less days spent in the hospital, and 116 fewer emergency department visits.

Back in April I wrote about two similar studies from the Heartland Alliance Mid-America Institute on Poverty and the Journal of the American Medical Association that found the same community benefits to housing the homeless.

Every politician has spent the summer talking about the high costs of health care in America and there are many proposals to help lower those costs. One way is to reduce the number of emergency room visits by homeless people because those visits are paid for by those who have insurance. Multiple studies by different organizations all around the country have shown that providing housing and intensive case management can reduce the burden that the homeless impose on the health care system while drastically improving the health of the homeless.

How to get money to combat homelessness - National Alliance to End Homelessness
The National Alliance to End Homelessness has a PDF to help communities apply for the $1.5 billion in federal money available to fight homelessness from the Homelessness Prevention Fund. HUD is set to release more information on the plan on March 19 and the Alliance will update their guidelines then. The applications are expected to be due in April or May, according to the web site.

Pledge to help end hunger and Tyson will donate 35 lbs. to hungry children – Pledge to End Hunger
Here is a really easy way to give. If you pledge to volunteer, give food or money, or share then Tyson foods will donate 35 lbs. of food to hungrey children and the donations will be delivered in a semi-truck to the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Each donation by Tyson is equivalent to 140 meals. The campaign has already reached their goal of 1,000 pledges, but they are still accepting pledges. Illinois is in 4th place among the states and is only 19 behind California. You can also follow the campaign on Twitter.

Faces of the homeless: John – Invisible People
Another video from Invisible People that tells the story of John, who went from being a small business owner to recycling cans for living and making $15 a day. He says collecting cans and bottles is “good, honest work,” but that a log of work needs to be done to help the homeless. Check out the powerful video and for Twitter users you can follow Invisible People and the man behind the project, Mark Horvath.

John from invisible people on Vimeo.

A soup kitchen alternative where you pay what you want for the meal – Razoo
Here is a cool idea for a restaurant – instead of opening a soup kitchen, open a quality, organic cafe where diners can pay what they want for the meal. Meals for the poor and homeless are paid for by those who can afford to pay. This is exactly what the So All May Eat Cafe in Denver has done, and so far it is working. According to the article the average cost of a meal is $2 and the average price people pay is $3, so the cafe is able to sustain itself. Do you think this model could work in Chicago?

Shannon Moriarty’s post on Change.org’s Homelessness blog has some interesting ideas about ways to address homelessness. It features a video from Paul Polack, the founder of International Development Enterprises. The video is from a book store talk about his new book Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail. In the video, Polack talks about the day he spent with a homeless man and that the man told him that finding a place to safely store his belonging was a big problem. Polack’s idea was to take an abandoned warehouse and have the homeless staff a storage unit business. The homeless would be able to store their stuff and it would provide jobs. Check out the whole video below for more of Polack’s ideas.

What do you think? Could this work in Chicago? Share your opinion in the comments.

Here is a good idea from a Web site trying to take online enthusiasm and turn it in to offline activism.

DoSomething.org and Aéropostale have teamed up for the Teens for Jeans campaign, which seeks to encourage teenagers to start jean drives for the homeless at their high schools. To get teens excited the campaign is being promoted by actor Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl. Jeans can be donated to any Aéropostale store for a 25 percent coupon off your next pair of jeans, which is a pretty sweet deal. The campaign is running form Jan. 26 to Feb. 25.

The Web site includes a guide for teens to set up a jean drive at their high school and more resources for information on homelessness and other projects to help the homeless.

There are 32 Aéropostale locations in Illinois. Find the closest one to you here.

Check out the video from Chace Crawford.

Want a little more fun? Check out the outtakes from Crawford’s video. The beginning is just the normal spot, so skip it.