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What Happens When You Give Homeless People $7,500 cash?
The answer will surprise you.
What would you expect to happen if you gave a homeless person thousands of dollars with no strings attached?
Would you expect them to blow it all on booze and drugs? Cigarettes? Gambling? Another form of addiction?
A pilot project conducted in Vancouver, Canada set out to answer this very question.
The researchers selected 115 participants who had been homeless for at least 6 months and had no major substance use or mental health issues. The participants ranged in age from 19 to 64.
Of the 115 participants, 50 were randomly selected to receive a cash payment of 7,500 CA$ (5,700 US$). The remaining participants became the control group. The researchers then checked up on all participants over the next year.
What were the results?
According to the CEO of Foundations for Social Change (the charitable organization that led this study), what the researchers found was “beautifully surprising.”
Indeed, the money was well managed over the 12-month study period. On average, participants retained more than $1,000, which is surprising given the high cost of living in the area. Participants spent 52% of their money on food and shelter, 15%…
