The Carver Apartment Complex - Skid Row Housing Trust

LOS ANGELES - APRIL 21: Members of the chronically homeless and low income community were able to take up residency in the recently completed 95-unit Carver Apartments April 21, 2010 in downtown Los Angeles, California. Designed by architect Michael Maltzman, the drum-shaped Carver Apartments is located next to Interstate 10 and constructed to be a balance between two basic and conflicting needs of the chronically homeless, for a sense of being protected and regular human contact. To qualify for renting a single occupancy room, tenants need to be homeless for longer than one year and pass a crime and drug history check. The Skid Row Housing Trust organized the project's funding and management in an effort to clean up downtown Los Angeles. Tenants pay one third of their income for rent. Data collected from cities other than Los Angeles show that a typical homeless individual can cost the government an average of $40,000 a year in emergency room visits, arrests and incarcerations. By contrast, the same individual living in a permanent supportive housing apartment runs $10,000 to $15,000 per year. (Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)