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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2023 Sep 5;120(36):e2222103120.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.2222103120. Epub 2023 Aug 29.

Unconditional cash transfers reduce homelessness

Ryan Dwyer  1 , Anita Palepu  2 , Claire Williams  3 , Daniel Daly-Grafstein  4 , Jiaying Zhao  1   5
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Unconditional cash transfers reduce homelessness

Ryan Dwyer et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

Homelessness is an economic and social crisis. In a cluster-randomized controlled trial, we address a core cause of homelessness-lack of money-by providing a one-time unconditional cash transfer of CAD$7,500 to each of 50 individuals experiencing homelessness, with another 65 as controls in Vancouver, BC. Exploratory analyses showed that over 1 y, cash recipients spent fewer days homeless, increased savings and spending with no increase in temptation goods spending, and generated societal net savings of $777 per recipient via reduced time in shelters. Additional experiments revealed public mistrust toward the ability of homeless individuals to manage money and demonstrated interventions to increase public support for a cash transfer policy using counter-stereotypical or utilitarian messaging. Together, this research offers a new approach to address homelessness and provides insights into homelessness reduction policies.

Keywords: cash transfer; cognitive function; homelessness; randomized controlled trial; subjective wellbeing.

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Conflict of interest statement

J.Z. was on the NLP board of directors from 2016 to 2020.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Overall treatment effects of cash compared to control groups pooled across follow-up time points over 1 y, while controlling for baseline levels. Treatment effects are presented in SDs. ♦ = significant at 0.05, ♦ = not significant at 0.05 (adjusted for multiple comparisons). Error bars represent 95% CIs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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