New study shows financial impact of homelessness on our health-care system

A new study out of London, Ont. lays out the cost of the homelessness crisis on our health-care system.

A new study out of London, Ont. lays out the cost of the homelessness crisis on our health-care system.

Almost 30,000 Canadians were homeless when admitted to and/or discharged from a hospital, according to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

The report finds that a hospital stay for a person without a home is typically twice as long and costs twice as much.

“That's because when someone comes to hospital experiencing homelessness, they tend to be very sick,” said the study’s co-author, Cheryl Forchuk, the assistant scientific director at Lawson Health Research Institute.

The study found, on average, a person experiencing homelessness is in hospital for 15 days compared to the national average, which is eight days. The average cost per stay was $16,800, compared to the national average of $7,800.

“Almost anything you look at with the homeless population, anything related to health, people are going to do worse if you don't have a home,” Forchuk said.

For outside agencies that are trying to find people stable housing, these finding are not surprising.