Things I've Learned From The Homeless

by Glen Dunzweiler

There’s a story called Million Dollar Harry about a chronically drunk homeless guy who would pass out on the streets of Reno, Nevada. An ambulance would take him to the emergency room, but the ER would find out he was just drunk and transport him to the jail, where he’d get booked and sleep it off. This would happen over and over, and one year, the city of Reno learned that they had spent a million dollars in city services on Harry. Homeless service providers like to tell this story to city officials to try to get money for programs. The argument is that it’s cheaper for cities to help the homeless rather than rescue or punish them. This is a lovely argument and quite valid, but I don’t think it will ever win over city officials or the public at large. Cities spend money on unneeded things all the time—sports stadiums and beautification projects are costs cities value, and they are often not done out of fiscal responsibility. They’re not into saving money. They are into spending money to keep constituents happy, to give them what they want. People do not want to help the homeless; they want to hire more cops to arrest the homeless and more medics “to save those poor SOBs.” I think the only way a city would pay for homeless services would be if homelessness became a valued cultural experience worthy of preservation. This may sound cynical, but there has to be a perceived value gained by a certain expenditure, and charity only goes so far in the United States. It is not seen...