Culture
The High Cost of a Homelessness Surge
With shelter space scarce, this winter has seen U.S. cities shelling out big bucks to house families in motels.
On Valentine’s Day, Washington City Paper reported that the District of Columbia’s emergency family shelters — which provide homeless families a guaranteed place to stay during the coldest months of the year, from November through March — are overflowing. As a result, over 200 D.C. families are currently being housed in hotels instead of shelters. That’s at least a 185 percent increase from a similar report last March.
Not only does this indicate the city has more homeless families than it can handle; it also means the city is spending a lot of money it would assuredly rather not squander. CP estimates the nightly cost is about $100 per room, per family: