A study by USC and a San Francisco-based nonprofit has found that a $750 monthly stipend improves the lives of homeless people.

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.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20231221131158/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-12-19/750-a-month-no-questions-asked-improved-the-lives-of-homeless-people

  • SpezBroughtMeHere@lemmy.world
    326·
    11 months ago

    But why? Why punish people just because they are more successful than other people? The government doesn’t need to steal from successful people to give to those that aren’t.

    • zalgotext
      21·
      11 months ago

      The government doesn’t need to steal from successful people to give to those that aren’t.

      It’s called taxes, not stealing, and yes they do. It’s quite literally one of the functions of a government.

      • SpezBroughtMeHere@lemmy.world
        11·
        11 months ago

        That’s literally not the function of government. Their only job is to protect me from you and you from me. That’s all. You may want the government more involved in your life. Not everyone feels that way.

        • zalgotext
          21·
          11 months ago

          How do you expect a government to function if it doesn’t collect taxes? Are they gonna run a weekly bake sale?

          • SpezBroughtMeHere@lemmy.world
            12·
            11 months ago

            Believe it or not when you cut out all the superfluous duties and other bullshit, the government needs a lot less money.

    • Ataraxia
      141·
      11 months ago

      I’m sure there isn’t a single millionaire that made it on their own. They had other people making that money for them.