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The results were startling, validating the housing first model and showing that the cost of housing the homeless was far less than the cost of the emergency services needed by the homeless while they were living on the street.“The reduction in days in jail alone pays for the program,” said Jaime Rogers, a Medicine Hat housing official. She cited studies that said the average homeless person costs taxpayers 120,000 Canadian dollars a year, or $91,600, in services, while it costs just 18,000 Canadian dollars a year, or $13,740, to house someone and provide the necessary retention support.That kind of evidence persuaded the conservative government of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper to pursue housing first as a national policy.

The tab might seem high up front — about $11,000 a year for a family of three. But it’s a bargain compared with the public cost of nearly $41,000 for that family in the shelter system now.