SEATTLE - Emergency social and health programs are saving an estimated $3.2 million a year because about 160 of Seattle's homeless alcoholics and drug addicts have been taken off the street and put into supportive housing, two new studies show.

The statistics released Wednesday by Mayor Greg Nickels show two programs using the "housing first" model are making a difference in the lives of chronically homeless adults as well as saving money.

"Instead of letting people fall through the cracks, this program helps to stabilize and rebuild lives while taking a costly strain off our social safety net," Nickels said in a statement.

The "housing first" approach calls for putting homeless people in permanent homes with supportive services instead of requiring them to stop drinking and taking drugs to earn their shelter.

Taxpayer and privately donated money was used to build a $11.2 million building to house homeless alcoholics at the edge of downtown Seattle. The nonprofit Downtown Emergency Services Center spends about $11,000 per resident a year to operate the building, which opened at the end of 2005.

The money saved from fewer emergency room visits, nights in jail and other social service interventions -- more than $1.7 million -- has not reached the total cost of the program, but preliminary results from a study by University of Washington researchers indicate it is making progress.

A 1999 King County study of 123 chronic public inebriates found they cost government and social-service agencies more than $100,000 per person per year in emergency room costs alone.

KING

1811 Eastlake is one of the locations for Seattle's "Housing First" program, which takes homeless alcoholics and drug addicts off the streets and puts them in stable housing.

Since the apartment building opened, preliminary figures show visits to Harborview Medical Center by the 75 residents have decreased by a third. Interventions by paramedics has dropped by 20 percent, while bookings in the King County jail have been cut in half.

Seattle's homeless alcoholics do much of their sleeping at the Dutch Schisler Sobering Support Center, a nonprofit agency where police bring homeless alcoholics to dry out. The housing program has nearly eliminated use of that program by its 75 residents.

The second study looked at Plymouth Housing Group's building in downtown Seattle, which provides 87 apartments for homeless people, including 20 reserved for those needing the most assistance. All residents of the building that opened in June 2006 were chronically homeless and had disabling medical or psychiatric conditions.

For residents of the Plymouth project, medical costs have been cut by 75 percent or $1.5 million compared to the year before they moved in, mostly because of a dramatic decrease in their use of Harborview Medical Center, said researchers from the King County Mental Health and Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services Division.

The 20 people identified as needing the most assistance nearly eliminated their use of the sobering center during their first year in the building, but were booked into jail a few more times than in the past -- from five bookings to seven in a year.

Since the opening of the two apartment buildings, two more "housing first" projects have opened their doors. The Downtown Emergency Service Center opened a building to house 75 severely mentally ill people. The Plymouth Group is opening a senior apartment building with 23 units reserved for homeless seniors who frequently use emergency services, and 22 units for homeless veterans.

The city has helped pay for 215 "housing first" units in Seattle, the mayor said. Another 288 are under construction or planned to open by 2011.

"With every new building, we take a big step toward ending homelessness in our community," Nickels said.