The return on a restored life
Every page before this one describes a cost that is already being paid — by taxpayers, by hospitals, by jails, by children waiting on a parent. This page asks the other half of the question: what does it cost to intervene, and what does a restored year return?
This page is about that cost and that return. For why public funding doesn't reach a program built like this one in the first place, see the funding gap.
The bill still gets paid — just later, and elsewhere
~$35,578/yr
estimated public cost — emergency rooms, jail, shelter — of one chronically homeless person cycling through crisis systems; supportive housing has been estimated to cut that by about half. National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2017
$86.50/day
to house one Texas inmate in 2024 (about $31,600/yr) versus $4.69/day for parole supervision; the national average to incarcerate runs about $33,274/yr, a figure from FY2015 — nine years apart from the Texas number beside it, so read the pair as illustrative rather than a precise comparison. Texas 2036, 2025 · Vera Institute, FY2015
$4–$7 back
in avoided health and criminal-justice costs for every $1 spent on addiction treatment — a ratio the federal government has long estimated. NIDA
$103,767
estimated lifetime economic cost per female victim of intimate partner violence, in medical care, lost productivity, and related costs. CDC, citing Peterson et al., 2018
These figures come from different researchers, different years, and different methods — some as old as 2017 and 2018. We link the source under every number rather than round them into one tidier statistic.
A year of rebuilding, priced next to a year of crisis
A full year at Mercy Manor costs roughly $6,000 per woman — $500 a month for her room, food, counseling, and case management, carried by donations for her first four months and shared with her own contribution from month five (see how a gift is used). Set beside the public figures above, a year of chronic homelessness has been estimated at roughly $35,578 in emergency-room, jail, and shelter costs, and a year of incarceration runs $31,600 (Texas, 2024) to $33,274 (national, FY2015) — figures nine years apart, cited to show scale rather than to be averaged into one number.
We want to be careful about what that comparison does and doesn't show. These are not the same kind of dollar. The $6,000 figure is a program budget line for one specific service. The public-cost figures are broad estimates, built by different researchers in different years using different methods, usually describing a person cycling through several systems at once rather than being served by one. Subtracting one from the other and calling the difference "savings" would be more precise than the data supports, and we won't do it. What can honestly be said is directional: these figures sit in different orders of magnitude, and the public appears to spend considerably more managing a crisis over a year than a program like Mercy Manor spends trying to resolve one.
What doesn't show up in a dollar figure
The dollar comparison is one way to make the case; it is not the whole case, and it is not why Sharon King started this work. The return on a restored year is, plainly: a mother present for her children instead of separated from them, in a state where the few residential programs can house a mother and her children together. A woman working and paying her own way instead of cycling through a shelter bed or a jail cell. A household no longer drawing on emergency rooms, crisis lines, and courts that are themselves stretched thin.
Mercy Manor has not yet opened, so these are outcomes the program is built to produce — not yet outcomes with published data behind them. What we can point to instead is who is running it: our founder's track record and the board overseeing this program. As the program operates, we intend to report what actually happens, plainly, alongside the figures on this page. See financial transparency.
A restored life is worth funding on its own terms
The comparison above is offered honestly, not as an accounting trick. Even without it, a woman returned to her children and her own income is worth the year it takes to get her there. Mercy Manor is entirely donor-funded, and a year like this depends on gifts arriving before the need does.
About $6,000 funds a woman's entire year at Mercy Manor; $500 a month covers her room, food, counseling, and case management.
Related: why a full year · the funding gap · what works · where Mercy Manor fits · homelessness · addiction · domestic violence · incarceration & reentry
Where these numbers come from
- National Alliance to End Homelessness, Ending Chronic Homelessness Saves Taxpayers Money (2017).
- Texas 2036, Breaking the Cycle (2025), citing the Texas Legislative Budget Board; Vera Institute of Justice, The Price of Prisons (FY2015).
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment (2018 edition; NIDA has long cited this ratio).
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Intimate Partner Violence: About, citing Peterson et al. (2018).
- Mercy Manor program budget (internal figure; see how a gift is used).
Last reviewed: July 2026. The homelessness figure dates to 2017, and the addiction-treatment and intimate-partner-violence figures rest on 2018 data — the most recent widely cited estimates available for each. We link the original source under every number and will update this page as newer data publishes.
Questions a careful reader asks
What does a year at Mercy Manor actually cost?
Roughly $6,000 per woman for a full year — $500 a month for her room, food, counseling, and case management. Donations and grants carry her first four months; from month five she contributes $500 a month herself. See how a gift is used.
Does Mercy Manor claim it saves taxpayers a specific dollar amount?
No, and we think it would be dishonest to. The public-cost figures on this page (homelessness, incarceration, addiction treatment, intimate partner violence) come from different researchers using different methods for different systems, while Mercy Manor's cost is a single program budget line. What can honestly be said is directional: the public appears to spend considerably more managing a crisis than a program like this spends resolving one for a year.
How does Mercy Manor's cost compare to incarceration or chronic homelessness?
A year at Mercy Manor runs about $6,000 per woman. Public estimates put a year of chronic homelessness at roughly $35,578 in emergency-room, jail, and shelter costs, and a year of incarceration at $31,600 to $33,274. These are not the same kind of dollar or the same population, but the orders of magnitude are worth noting.
How current are the figures on this page?
They range from 2017 to 2025. We date every figure and link its source rather than present it as current if it isn't — the chronic-homelessness estimate is from 2017, and the addiction-treatment and intimate-partner-violence figures rest on 2018 data, the most recent widely cited estimates available. The incarceration figures have the widest spread: $31,600 is a 2024 Texas number and $33,274 is a national figure from FY2015, nine years apart, and we flag that gap where the figures appear rather than only here.