Chronic homelessness and the power-law distribution

[serenissima]

siege just linked to this old article, and I thought it was worth sharing more widely. It's originally from the New Yorker, but to get it directly from their site you need a subscription. The writer is the author of The Tipping Point and Blink, among other books.

"Million-Dollar Murray"
by Malcolm Gladwell

...if you totted up all his hospital bills for the ten years that he had been on the streets—as well as substance-abuse-treatment costs, doctors' fees, and other expenses—Murray Barr probably ran up a medical bill as large as anyone in the state of Nevada.

"It cost us one million dollars not to do something about Murray," O'Bryan said.