Unconditional cash transfers reduce homelessness
Unconditional cash transfers reduce homelessness
Our preregistered screening criteria were: age 19 to 65, homeless for less than 2 y (homelessness defined as the lack of stable housing), Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and nonsevere levels of substance use (DAST-10) (21), alcohol use (AUDIT) (22), and mental health symptoms Colorado Symptom Index (CSI) (23) based on predefined thresholds (see SI Appendix, Table S1 in SI Appendix, section 1.3.2). These screening criteria were used to reduce any potential risks of harm (e.g., overdose) from the cash transfer.
Kind of speaks to how bad homelessness has become that you can have pretty strict criteria and still have a ton of people who need the help.
Well. Yeah?
Studies like this are important to counter the reactionary perspective that giving money to those experiencing housing will just feed addiction.
To be fair they did exclude people who had severe levels of addiction from this program.
That being said, there's more homeless people without severe addictions than with them so the logic still works.
The study specifically selected people with no substance abuse problem.. if anything the author of the study were wary of what you say is a reactionary perspective.
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Aren't studies like this part of how to solve homelessness, though? Like this method helps around 16%, then other methods can be used to help people who need more resources.
Part of the frustration with dealing with homelessness is that it's so difficult to help the most visibly homeless, so people think the programs aren't working or are lining people's pockets.
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I'd rather they make 4 stories tall, 4m by 4m, modern rows of apartments rented for free, with good lighting, plenty of outlets and furnished with bedbug resistant beds. One dude per dwelling, personal shower and toilets, and a door that locks. The prison basics with a coat of paint, respect and decency.
So that the homeless just get the issue of having a roof over their head out their mind, and have a fixed address, and the ability to keep possessions for good
In many places there's enough vacancy to do that with either exiting appartements, or with empty office space waiting to be converted.
The answer to why it hasn't happen probably is complicated: lack of political will, ideology, the cost of building/buying appartements then maintaining and managing them so they don't turn into a shithole, NYMBY, etc
But why allow it when you could make a profit?!?
Just ask anyone in the medical industry. You can't be giving away things that make life easier for people!!!
This and the housing-first initiative both work. Here's a great podcast series reporting on the issue: