The Raleigh City Council approved a pilot program Tuesday that would allocate $5 million to help reduce homelessness, which the city said has doubled in Raleigh since the pandemic.
Some of that money would go directly to homeless people to help them get into permanent housing, then they would receive funding to keep them in stable housing. The money also goes toward case managers, other services, and improvements to existing affordable housing units.
Raleigh Housing & Neighborhoods Department Director Emila Sutton told the City Council during her presentation Tuesday that each person experiencing chronic homelessness costs the city roughly $35,000 per year.
Part of that cost
, which she said costs cities $1,600 to $6,200 per person per year to clear encampments. When those camps are cleared, it leaves people living in them with no place to go.
“That’s not a solution to homelessness. Neither is managing homelessness with things like emergency shelter and other expensive and temporary strategies,” Sutton said.