Why Do the Homeless Have to Leave Shelters During the Day?

Why do the homeless have to leave shelters during the day? This seems cruel and unproductive in so many ways. —Holly L.

Not every facility turfs out its clients at first light, Holly (#NotAllShelters), but it is pretty common. You’ll sometimes hear right-wing types say this is because the unhoused should be pounding the pavement looking for jobs, not lazing around at some cushy shelter enjoying free broken meth-pipe shards and taxpayer-funded body lice. However, this is not the reason.

What it really comes down to is this: If you’re a babysitter, do you wanna deal with the kids who still need dinner, a bath, and three rounds of Goodnight, Moon? Or the ones who are already in bed when you get to the house? People who are awake need expensive, labor-intensive attention—food, exercise, entertainment. Those who are asleep need little more than a flat place to lie down and not too many sirens. This is why overnight shelter is way cheaper and easier to provide than 24/7 care.

That’s unfortunate, because there’s loads of evidence that 24/7 shelters produce better outcomes. One widely cited study of Minnesota shelters that switched from overnight to full time during the pandemic found that 24/7 clients found permanent housing at six times the rate that pre-COVID overnight guests did.

Great, so let’s just do that! Unfortunately, the same study also found that switching to the 24/7 model increased costs substantially—more staff, more meals, more behavioral health interventions. Not only that, the 24/7 residents stayed at the shelter an average of 57 days longer than guests from the overnight-only days, creating something of a bottleneck: Current clients staying longer mean fewer beds available for new clients.

This is one argument in favor of overnight shelters—crappy as they are, at least those in need don’t have to wait months to get in. The consensus seems to be that we should have a mix: 24/7 shelters for good outcomes, overnight shelters for ready access and cost savings.

That said, are overnight shelters really as cheap as they first appear? Sure, the shelter itself saves money by not housing clients and paying caseworkers during the day. But those clients have to go somewhere, and when public libraries, big box stores and other public spaces become de facto day shelters, while cops, bus drivers and the occasional 7-Eleven clerk become de facto caseworkers, have we as a society really saved anything?

Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.