“Researchers gave 50 recently homeless people a lump sum of 7,500 Canadian dollars (nearly $5,700). They followed the cash recipients’ life over 12-18 months and compared their outcomes to that of a control group who didn’t receive the payment. The preliminary findings, which will be peer-reviewed next year, show that those who received cash were able to find stable housing faster, on average. By comparison, those who didn’t receive cash lagged about 12 months behind in securing more permanent housing.
People who received cash were able to access the food they needed to live faster. Nearly 70% did after one month, and maintained greater food security throughout the year. The recipients spent more on food, clothing and rent, while there was a 39% decrease in spending on goods like alcohol, cigarettes or drugs.“
It’s almost like people self medicate to survive intense stress like, idk, not having the cash to live anywhere but outdoors. People who are extremely poor do not want to be poor, we WANT to be safe and have autonomy in our lives but capitalism makes that impossible for some people.
And drug/alcohol abuse, even when prioritized over eating and other necessities, isn’t some kind of alien mindset, it’s very often a matter of not having the resources to actually be safe and fully meet your actual needs so you have to cope somehow with the suffering that deprivation causes.
This is a perfect example of the kind of important study that shouldn’t NEED to be done, but does need to be done so we can once and for all implement policies that actually help people.
i think it’s important that it was a lump sum all at once, instead of little amounts intermittently. If you’re homeless and, say, addicted to alcohol or meth or whatever, and someone gives you $20 a day, for 12 months, what are you gonna do with that? $20 isn’t enough to pay for a place to sleep that night. You can get some food, but you can’t stock up on anything because you have nowhere to put it. You can’t buy a new pair of shoes. You can’t pay for medication. You can’t really save it up because what are you gonna do, walk around with $5000 worth of twenties in your pocket? until they get lost or stolen and you never got anything out of that money? But you can go and get $20 worth of alcohol and maybe the rest of your day will suck a little less.
But if you get that $5000 all at once and then nothing for the rest of the year, that’s enough to get an apartment for a month, and your meds, and food, and clothes, and then well hey you can look for a job (and you have a mailing address, wow!).
if you’re in a shit situation getting dribs and drabs of money can keep you alive but it won’t help you really change your circumstances, but a large lump sum can do that.
I have brought this study up to multiple people who despite the research, still cannot break their stereotypical image of people who are homeless.
