Thousands of dollars were given to homeless people with surprising results

It’s a widely accepted opinion that if you give money to homeless people it will be wasted on drugs or alcohol. However, a new study out of British Columbia, Canada may well prove that theory wrong.

Foundations for Social Change, a charity based in BC created the “The New Leaf Project” in association with the University of British Columbia.

Researched choose fifty homeless people, and another fifty as a control group. The first fifty were given $7,500 ($5,800 US), then monitored over the next eighteen months with regular comparisons made against the control group.

Researchers noted the following of money recipients-

• were able to find stable housing, quicker
• were able to access food faster
• maintained food stability
• more money was spent on food, clothing and rent
• 39% reduction in spending on alcohol, drugs and cigarettes

“The homeless population continues to grow, and we keep applying the same old approaches,” stated Claire Williams, co-founder and CEO of Foundations for Social Change.

She added “We really think it’s important to start testing meaningful risk-taking in the name of social change.”

The study also showed taxpayer advantage.

According to the study, the City of Vancouver actually saved $8,500 per recipient over the eighteen month period, due to the surprising fact money was saved in the reduced number of nights of shelter use.

“There’s a common misconception that the cost of doing nothing is free or cheap and it absolutely is not,” Williams said.