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applegrove

(118,013 posts)
Thu Jan 2, 2014, 08:25 PM Jan 2014

"Free money might be the best way to end poverty"

Free money might be the best way to end poverty

By Rutger Bregman at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/free-money-might-be-the-best-way-to-end-poverty/2013/12/29/679c8344-5ec8-11e3-95c2-13623eb2b0e1_story.html?hpid=z3

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That spring, a local charity decided to make the street veterans — sometimes called rough sleepers — the beneficiaries of an innovative social experiment. No more food stamps, food-kitchen dinners or sporadic shelter stays. The 13 would get a drastic bailout, financed by taxpayers. Each would receive 3,000 pounds (about $4,500), in cash, with no strings attached. The men were free to decide what to spend it on.



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The only question they had to answer: What do you think is good for you?

“I didn’t have enormous expectations,” an aid worker recalled a year later. Yet the homeless men’s desires turned out to be quite modest. A phone, a passport, a dictionary — each participant had ideas about what would be best for him. None of the men wasted his money on alcohol, drugs or gambling. A year later, 11 of the 13 had roofs over their heads. (Some went to hostels; others to shelters.) They enrolled in classes, learned how to cook, got treatment for drug abuse and made plans for the future. After decades of authorities’ fruitless pushing, pulling, fines and persecution, 11 vagrants moved off the streets.

The cost? About 50,000 pounds, including the wages of the aid workers. In addition to giving 11 individuals another shot at life, the project had saved money by a factor of multiples. Even The Economist concluded: “The most efficient way to spend money on the homeless might be to give it to them.”





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Warpy

(110,901 posts)
1. The shocking thing is how little is needed to turn someone's life around
Thu Jan 2, 2014, 08:31 PM
Jan 2014

There has been a recent story about a homeless alcoholic vet who was treated to a shower, haircut, beard trim, and new suit. He's in the process of turning his life around just because someone showed him how it could look if he did.

I think we could really make a serious dent in poverty if we could tax and regulate the predator class away from robbing us all blind.

applegrove

(118,013 posts)
3. I learnt in economics in Canada that the total utility of money, how much you get out of it, is
Thu Jan 2, 2014, 08:46 PM
Jan 2014

huge for people just stepping out of poverty. You can drastically change what their life is about. People are really motivated. That whole "the poor are lazy" is the opposite of what I was taught.

Cirque du So-What

(25,812 posts)
4. It occurs to me that the corollary to your statement is just as true
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 12:43 AM
Jan 2014

A very small amount can turn someone's life around for the worse. Consider all the effort that debt collectors and local governments put into hounding people who owe paltry sums. How often does that debt or fine represent the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back?

Warpy

(110,901 posts)
5. No kidding, duns all day, every day can wear the strongest person down to nothing
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 12:48 AM
Jan 2014

in a very short amount of time.

I don't wonder that the homeless population keeps increasing; I'm just a little surprised it isn't increasing faster given the hostile nature of the economy toward workers.

ETA: I need to throw some more money at Rolling Jubilee. They're retiring debt for about two cents on the dollar, buying it up from collecting agencies and simply retiring it. It's one of the best ideas I've seen in many years.

http://rollingjubilee.org/

Ms. Toad

(33,915 posts)
2. There are a number of Housing Frst projects
Thu Jan 2, 2014, 08:44 PM
Jan 2014

In the US which work on a similar principle.

Instead of trying to treat alcoholism or drug addiction, or mental health issues, or insisting on work (or looking for work) groups promoting Housing First are finding that providing a stable home - without restrictions - is one of the most cost efficient ways of really making a difference.

http://www.housingfirstinitiative.org/

And a nice article about the project, and a person it impacted, by a friend of mine:

Joel Williams almost never lets go of his keys. He's holding them tight, worrying the worn lanyard. Williams is a large man, 350 pounds, with a salt-and-pepper beard and shock of gray in his Afro. His hands are thick and muscular, the product of a lost career baking bread. He sits at a tiny kitchen table and talks about the years he spent homeless. . . . "At times it was like I was in a war zone," he tells me, "but it was all in my head. Terrifying. Terrifying."

. . .

In the past, sobriety was usually a prerequisite for moving from a homeless shelter to any housing provided by a social service agency. The rationale was that the prospect of housing would give the homeless incentive to complete a recovery program or stay on medication. Mental illness being what it is, that approach hasn't always worked.

. . .

This is the work of a remarkable local collaboration called Housing First, which provides housing without stipulations or prerequisites. You don't have to be sober, employed or even employable. You just have to be chronically homeless. Housing First gives you a home and charges you rent equal to a third of your income (in most cases, that's a federal disability check). It offers services that might be useful — mental health care, life skills instruction, job training or addiction recovery. There's no requirement to use those services. If you're homeless and you come to Housing First, they don't require you to fix your life. They just make it possible. They give you a home, dignity and, eventually, the recognition that your problems might have solutions. . . .

"Having a place to stay is so important for moving forward," she says. "This is the longest he's stayed anywhere in his adult life."


http://clevelandmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=E73ABD6180B44874871A91F6BA5C249C&nm=Article+Archives&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=1578600D80804596A222593669321019&tier=4&id=BF746E67312348BA84A63AFF1D1B9BBB
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