Researchers in the UK are launching the country's first major scientific trials to examine if providing cash directly to homeless individuals is more effective than traditional forms of assistance in alleviating poverty. The study, funded by the government and led by King's College London (KCL) and the homelessness charity Greater Change, will involve 360 participants in England and Wales.
Led by King’s College London, study will recruit 360 people in England and Wales to explore benefits of schemeResearchers are conducting the UK’s first major scientific trials to establish whether giving homeless people cash is a more effective way of reducing poverty than traditional forms of help.The new study, funded by the government and carried out by King’s College London and the homelessness charity Greater Change, will recruit 360 people in England and Wales.
One of the first cash transfer schemes was in Mexico in 1997 and since then they have been used around the world. But most evidence is from low and middle-income countries, and there has beenthat giving CA$7,500 to 50 homeless people in Vancouver was more effective than spending money housing them in shelters, and saved around CA$777 per person.
Small-scale studies have taken place in the UK, such as a scheme by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2012 which helped 12 rough sleepers, but Sanders said these are believed to be the first large-scale studies. As well as the trial with Greater Change, KCL researchers are working on four other similar studies. Greater Change has helped around 1,300 rough sleepers and other homeless people in London and Essex over the last six years.
“On average, every person we help saves around £35,000 ,” Jonathan Tan, the charity’s co-founder, said. About half of their clients have been involved in the criminal justice system.“We know that of our ex-offending cohort, who are prison leavers, fewer than 9% of them have reoffended 12 months on,” Tan said. The charity says 86% of the people it helps out of homelessness are not homeless 12 months later.
“We don’t think it is because they probably send us the more entrenched cases,” Tan said. “But we won’t know til the randomised control trial finishes.”
Homeless Poverty Cash Payments Scientific Trials Charity
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