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.
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They’re possible, but not remotely probable. And I’d love an answer. Just one that has a remote chance of actually happening. My head isn’t in the clouds banking on wishful thinking. I’m down here on the ground, trying to keep my expectations based on reality.
I realize this is an unpopular opinion, but as the saying goes:
A pessimist is a well-informed optimist.