The controversial home for “unrecoverable alcoholics” at 1811 Eastlake shows up in the news about once a year, usually in a story about how it’s all working out better than the skeptics had hoped. Today is no exception, since a study has come out announcing that the home saved taxpayers about $4 million over a year.

“Researchers followed 95 chronically homeless alcoholics, who, before moving into the home, had run up a taxpayer bill of $8.2 million in hospitalizations, emergency services, jail time and sobering center visits.

After one year of being in the program, the same group cost taxpayers only $4 million, the study found. Each resident also drank less the longer they lived in the home, and their toll on publicly funded programs decreased as time went on[pi].”

It seems to be a pretty simple equation: people drink more and use up more emergency resources when they are homeless and scared and less when they have a safe place to be. The county funded it reluctantly, but will hopefully continue to do so more enthusiastically now that it is paying off.