According to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s most recent data, there were more than 51,000 homeless individuals in Los Angeles county, which has one of the highest homeless populations in the country. But it turns out that programs to provide housing for these unlucky individuals actually helps LA save money.

A study conducted by a Los Angeles County research unit followed Project 50, which began in 2007 as a $3.6-million plan “to find the 50 people likeliest to die on skid row’s street — the hardest of the hard cases — and house them however possible.” Since the beginning of the project, “the number of participants has grown to 133.”

According to the study, the project yielded a net savings of $238,700, which is “equivalent to $4,774 for each apartment provided.” Zev Yaroslavsky, the project’s supervisor, articulated the logic of Project 50 in the following statement:

My notion was that front-end investment in social services and stable housing would not only prove to be vastly more humane, but less costly for the public treasury. This audit makes the case for accelerating the county’s efforts to house the chronically homeless and provide them with the critical social services they need.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, for one, began a program in 2011 modeled off of Project 50 that seeks to permanently house the “60 most vulnerable veterans.”

– Nina Liss-Schultz

In recent months, conservatives in many states have gutted unemployment benefits, arguing that doing so would motivate people to go back to work. In Florida, where Gov. Rick Scott (R) and the GOP legislature cut unemployment benefits to pay for corporate tax cuts, workers are claiming that a cumbersome new unemployment benefits system is preventing them from accessing their vital aid.

Two workers’ rights organizations, the National Employment Law Project and Florida Legal Services, have filed a complaint with the Department of Labor regarding the new system. Since August 1st, workers seeking unemployment benefits have been required to apply online and complete a 45-question math and reading test to determine their job skills, according to the complaint:

Most of these changes restricted access to benefits in some substantial way, by either altering existing claim procedures or adding new eligibility requirements. The cumulative impact of these changes is that the process of filing an initial claim for benefits is much more difficult for the average Floridian, and many potentially eligible claimants are being discouraged from filing.

The new system, named the “Reemployment Assistance Program,” was passed by the Republican legislature and signed by Scott in the spring of 2011. The burdensome test offers no assistance when making claims and fails to notify workers if their application is incomplete. With some library computers programmed to turn off after an hour’s use, many frustrated Floridians are forced to start their applications over or compelled to quit altogether.

As Scott boasts about Florida’s employment gains, 43,680 Floridians were denied benefits because they did not finish his test. Only 15 percent of unemployed Floridians drew benefits in the last quarter of 2011, compared to 27 percent nationwide.

–Steven Perlberg

A group of House Democrats have proposed increasing the minimum wage to $10, which, as Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) pointed out would allow the wage to “catch up” with where it would be had it been allowed to grow with inflation:

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) and 17 House Democrats, including several Congressional Black Caucus members, proposed legislation Wednesday that would increase the minimum wage to $10 an hour.

Jackson said his bill, the Catching Up to 1968 Act, is needed to give low-income workers a way to “catch up” to inflation, which continues to eat away at the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. He also said it would give these workers more income and boost overall demand for the struggling economy.

The minimum wage hit its peak buying power in 1968; to have the same buying power today, the minimum wage would have to be $9.92. If the minimum wage had been indexed to the Consumer Price Index since 1968, it would be approximately $10.40 today.

The current minimum wage is also covering a much smaller percentage of health care and tuition costs than it did just a few decades ago. Already this year, San Francisco has increased its minimum wage to $10, while 1.4 million workers are benefiting from scheduled increases in the minimum wage in eight states. According to the Economic Policy Institute, boosting the minimum wage particularly helps women and minorities, who make up a disproportionate share of minimum wage-earners.

During an interview with Charlie Rose Thursday morning, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) called for increases in revenues to help solve the nation’s debt problem, but admitted that he wouldn’t be able to hold that position were he running for office within the modern Republican Party.

Bush reiterated that he would accept a hypothetical debt deal that included ten dollars in spending cuts for every dollar in tax increases — which Mitt Romney said he would reject in August — and added that he hoped GOP leaders could embrace such an approach:

BUSH: Look, I can appreciate why they are reluctant to say that because commitments on spending are hard to implement. Commitments on raising taxes immediately happen…But if you’re asked a hypothetical question, which I was [...]

ROSE: And only you had the, as they say, courage to say, I wouldn’t go there.

BUSH: It was living proof I’m not running for anything…

ROSE: If they hadn’t been running they might have said something different?

BUSH: I hope so. Because we have unsustainable deficits.

Watch it:

Asked if he was “worried about the direction of your party,” Bush replied that the GOP’s immigration and tax policies were “short-sighted.”

While most Republicans are still holding true to their pledge of never raising taxes, a growing number have started to question the party orthodoxy and have signaled some willingness to offset spending cuts with increases in revenue.