A study by USC and a San Francisco-based nonprofit has found that a $750 monthly stipend improves the lives of homeless people.

If 100 homeless people were given $750 per month for a year, no questions asked, what would they spend it on?

That question was at the core of a controlled study conducted by a San Francisco-based nonprofit and the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.

The results were so promising that the researchers decided to publish results after only six months. The answer: food, 36.6%; housing, 19.5%; transportation, 12.7%; clothing, 11.5%; and healthcare, 6.2%, leaving only 13.6% uncategorized.

Those who got the stipend were less likely to be unsheltered after six months and able to meet more of their basic needs than a control group that got no money, and half as likely as the control group to have an episode of being unsheltered.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20231221131158/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-12-19/750-a-month-no-questions-asked-improved-the-lives-of-homeless-people

  • @paddirnEnglish
    3•1 year ago

    So then should we be giving beggars money instead of giving them food so they don’t “spend it on alcohol”, as a lot of people believe? Or are roadside beggars a specific class of homeless that just can’t be trusted?

    • @[email protected]
      28•1 year ago

      I think it’s more that if you give someone who needs literally like $20,000 to get their life together $4, there’s nothing practical they can do with that other than buy a beer or deal with daily needs. You need enough money to plan with, coming in in a regular way, to be a regular member of society, not random bits of money thrown at you from a car.

    • iAmTheTot
      13•1 year ago

      Give people whatever you want. Once you give it them, it’s theirs to do with as they please.