San Francisco-based nonprofit Miracle Messages and the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work have released preliminary results from a basic income study involving unhoused individuals in Los Angeles County and San Francisco. The findings indicate that recipients used the majority of the money to meet basic needs and were less likely than a control group to remain unsheltered.
As part of the experiment, just over 100 homeless individuals were given $750 per month, no strings attached. This is how the individuals spent those dollars over the first six months, according to the study:
- Food 36.6%
- Housing 20%
- Transportation 12.7%
- Clothing 11.5%
- Health care 6.2%
- Other 13.6%
The Los Angeles Times reports that "participants submit monthly reports on their spending and are surveyed in more detail quarterly." A follow-up report will hopefully shed more light on how researchers tracked spending.
The study’s lead author, Ben Henwood, said the experiment "dispels this myth that people will use money for illicit purposes.”
Read more here.