Researchers: Universal basic income could be a simple solution to homelessness

• Findings from a new study suggest a basic income scheme could be a simple solution to homelessness, a researcher says.
• Researchers in California are offering people $750 a month for a year — no strings attached.
• The study’s lead researcher said the findings showed a basic income plan was a “viable option”.

Preliminary results from a study involving giving $750 a month to a group of homeless people in California suggest a basic income program is a “feasible option” for those struggling, one of the program’s lead researchers said. choose”.

Researcher Ben Henwood told Business Insider that the solution, at least for “some of the homeless population,” may be as simple as providing direct cash to those in need.

The study, conducted by the San Francisco nonprofit Miracle Messages and the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, looked at about 100 homeless people in Los Angeles County and the San Francisco Bay Area who receive $750 a month. USD funding year – no problem.

Using self-reported data from recipients over the first six months, the researchers found that those who received large amounts of cash were less likely to remain homeless and closer to having enough money than a control group. Meet all their basic needs. Groups that did not receive funding.

“What we found ultimately was that in the experimental group that received income, homelessness was The number of people is declining rapidly.”

Henwood said 70% of those receiving the monthly stipend were sheltered when they entered the study but remained homeless, while the other 30% were unsheltered and living on the streets.

Research shows that the proportion of people saying they were unsheltered was 30% at the start of the trial, and by six months this had dropped to 12%.

In addition, those who received the $750 stipend said most of the money was spent on food and housing, accounting for 36.6% and 19.5% of expenditures respectively.

Participants said another 12.7% of their funds were spent on transportation, 11.5% on clothing, 6.2% on health care and 13.6% on other uncategorized expenses, according to the study.

Henwood explained that because a portion of the homeless population suffers from mental illness or substance abuse disorders, “most people just think that giving money to ‘these people’ is a complete waste.”

But for those who received a monthly stipend as part of the study, “they didn’t look like a waste of money at all,” Henwood said.

Henwood said one woman in the study was still living in her car, but reported using the cash to pay off high credit card debt.

“She had so much credit card debt that she felt paying it off was her first priority,” Henwood said. “So for her, it was a success. She’s in a much better place now than she was before.”

Henwood said that when it comes to homelessness, “people often worry” about whether money is being used for illegal purposes such as drugs.

“There’s nothing in our data to suggest this is a big problem,” Henwood said. “You know, people do have a lot of basic and individual needs, and this money does address a lot of basic and individual needs.”

According to Henwood, participants said they spent only about 2% of their total money on alcohol, cigarettes or drugs, with the majority of the money spent on cigarettes.

The researchers behind the study plan to release a follow-up report next year based on the full-year data.