Some solutions can surprisingly be less costly

Gov. Pete Ricketts outlined some worthy goals in his inaugural address Thursday: Create a stronger economy and more jobs. Cut property taxes, reduce regulatory burdens on businesses, and strengthen education to provide the skilled labor modern businesses will need.

The devil is in the details, of course, and government doesn't operate in a vacuum.

Ricketts is taking steps to clean up scandals at the state Health and Human Services and prison system, and is to be commended, at this early stage, for plans to take a wholistic approach to improving efficiency and effectiveness in state government.

Political realities can get in the way of real reform, but some solutions seem to fly in the face of logic.

One that has been in the news recently is Utah's tactic for dealing with its homeless population.

The solution? Give them homes.

Before you dismiss the idea as a liberal anomaly in a conservative state, consider the results.

According to Utah's Homeless Task Force, one homeless individual can cost the state nearly a million dollars a year once emergency room visits, ambulance services, law enforcement and shelter costs are added up.

With the traditional approach, housing a chronically homeless person costs Salt Lake City more than $20,000 a year.

Placing that same person into permanent housing costs $8,000.

Of course, that person would still receive taxpayer-funded health care, food and other social services, but he or she would be much less likely to require a trip to the emergency room, and much more likely achieve the stability that will lead to the employment and eventual freedom from government assistance. The same goes for obtaining help for substance abuse and mental illness -- common denominators in homelessness.

The idea of simply giving homeless people homes would be a hard-sell in a state like Nebraska, but programs like Habitat for Humanity have found support in many communities across the state.

A program to train prisoners in the construction industry, which recently expressed interest in expanding to McCook, builds low-income housing in the process of the training.

It wouldn't be much of a stretch to adapt such a program to build homeless housing, perhaps as a public-private partnership.

New technologies and movements such as net-zero housing, finding its way to America from Europe, and the tiny house movement could also play a part in housing the homeless.

We made a similar argument when the debate raged over providing prenatal care for illegal, "undocumented" mothers-to-be, who would give birth to American citizens who would be eligible for medical care once they arrived -- effective prenatal care is a bargain compared to neonatal intensive care that might otherwise be required by at-risk infants.

Lets hope Gov. Ricketts and the Legislature look at all the facts as Nebraska government is reformed, and don't just apply politically popular "solutions" that will be more financially and socially costly in the long-term.

More information on net zero housing is available here: http://bit.ly/1tZKhxy

More information on the tiny house movement is avialable here: http://bit.ly/1y4mvGo