A three-post series explores how we as humans come to grips with social issues. The setting is Australia, where cost-benefit analysis has been applied to two different issues. This first post is about youth homelessness. The one that follows is about accessible housing. The third post reflects about pulling everyday lives away from misery and toward thriving.
1 . . . Youth Homelessness
The organization Housing All Australians has released a report calling for an end to youth homelessness. Cost-benefit analysis1 is central to its argument.
Cost-benefit analysis tallies the costs of doing ‘something else’ against the costs of doing the thing we’re currently doing (usually called business as usual). In this case, the ‘something else’ is running a 30 year program to end homelessness among young adults. The experts who did the analysis calculate it will cost much more to carry on as usual than by doing ‘something else.’
The ‘something else’ includes providing housing and support to young people experiencing homelessness. Each young person who is unhoused would have immediate access to a bachelor apartment. They would also have access to mental and physical health supports for five years.
When you read what ‘something else’ entails to support youth who are homeless, it is to be expected that dollar signs will flash big warnings in your brain about how costly this would be. That’s where the cost-benefit analysis can help set the $$ signs in perspective. If things continue as they are now for 30 years, the experts calculate that the Australian public would pay 2.6 times more than if they invested in ending youth homelessness.
The report lays out the method that the expert team used to calculate the costs and benefits. It also calculates that every Australian state, along with the national government, would experience the benefits of the proposed housing program.
So, in addition to any moral arguments that we should end youth homelessness, in Australia, Housing All Australians is comfortable saying there is an economic case as well.
You can read the report at Housing All Australians: Leave No Young Australian Behind: The long-term costs of youth homelessness to Australia
Footnotes
- For more on cost-benefit analysis and a cost-benefit analysis of a housing retrofit in Glasgow, try: Energy Retrofits In Older Homes: A Case Study
