Hick's Homeless Plan Working

Mayor Hickenlooper's ten year plan to end homelessness in Denver has been remarkably successful half way into the program, despite the worst recession since the Great Depression:

Panhandling on the 16th Street Mall has decreased 83 percent since 2006, according to the fifth annual report by Denver's Road Home, released Wednesday.

The number of chronically homeless in the city and county of Denver dropped to 343 in 2009 from 942 in 2005. More than 1,900 units of affordable housing have been developed. And 720 families and seniors have been mentored out of homelessness in partnership with the faith community. . . . Denver once spent about $40,000 a year per person on homeless services — including emergency-room care, detox, and emergency shelters. That has been reduced to about $15,000 a year, mostly for housing and treatment.

Since it is Veteran's Day, it also bears recalling, that a large share of the chronically homeless, a euphemism for vagrants, are veterans.