Will CasazzaAug 31, 2023
HishamZerriffi

New study gave $7,500 to 50 unhoused people.

Guess what?

"They did not spend more money on alcohol or drugs, contrary to what people believe, and instead they spent the money on rent, food, housing, transit, furniture, a used car, clothes. It's entirely the opposite of what people think they're going to do with the money."

Congrats to my UBC colleague Jiaying Zhao on this study.

#Unhoused #CashTransfers #UBC #IRES

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/a-b-c-study-gave-50-homeless-people-7-500-each-here-s-what-they-spent-it-on-1.6540030

A B.C. study gave 50 homeless people $7,500 each. Here's what they spent it on.

A new B.C.-based study undercuts the persistent stereotype that homeless people can't be trusted with cash, according to the lead researcher who says it also highlights a different way to respond to the crisis.

British Columbia
Aug 30, 2023 at 5:08pmWeb
Show threadJake in the desertAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi awesome. SO sick of the hate for the unhoused in the USA. It's disgusting. These people need to be HELPED (if they want it).
Show threadIan M. NooneAug 30, 2023

@hishamzerriffi

Hisham! This is Mel of Mel and (formerly) Scott from PGH. Funny to see someone boosting your post onto my TL. I hope things are good with you.

Show threadHishamZerriffiAug 30, 2023
@ianmnoone Mel, so great to hear from you! It's been longer than I care to admit to myself :). All well here. Hope you are doing well.
Show threadIan M. NooneAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi The inevitable toll of the years, notwithstanding, things aren't too bad. Keep wishing I could win the lottery and speed up my retirement, though.
Show threadIan M. NooneAug 30, 2023

@BadgerBadgerBadger

Hisham is actually someone I know from IRL a long time ago. So funny to see him boosted onto my TL.

Show threadAhimsaAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi Happy to see this study. So many people have been saying this for years - just give people money!
Show threadalternative_be✅🖖🏻Aug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi The #ubi works!
Show threadJust TiredAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi
Generally, homeless people aren't homeless because of their bad decisions. They're homeless because of bad decisions by the GOP.
Show threadStrypeyAug 30, 2023

@Just_Tired
> Generally, homeless people aren't homeless because of their bad decisions

... or decisions of any kind. There is such a thing as voluntary homelessness, which is a decision. But that's precisely what makes it a very different thing from being involuntarily homeless. Have experienced both, can confirm.

@hishamzerriffi @mahaska

Show threadAngrySexagenarianAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi
Spending money on drugs and booze is not what 'people' think. It's what rich people and their political serfs indoctrinated 'people" to believe.
Show threadIan McLeanAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi I have to say, those things - housing, food, transportation, clothing - are exactly what I *would* expect them to spend it on.
Makes me really wonder about the people who expect the opposite.
Show threadkaramazov1879Aug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi People say such things because they themselves would probably do that. Projection seems even more common on the right. May think if you're white you're right. I don't think so.
Show threadDarwin WoodkaAug 30, 2023

@hishamzerriffi

HOUSING. FIRST.

Show threadMiro CollasAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi The right has been remarkably successful till now in spreading that that propaganda of the homeless spending money on booze and drugs. Think "welfare queens". Good to see this study come out. Though Finland and other places have been doing "housing first" for some time now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_First
Housing First - Wikipedia

Show threadmotieAug 30, 2023
@Miro_Collas @hishamzerriffi they did a test in Florida to see if they could enforce drug testing on welfare recipients and cut them off if they were found to use drugs. Turns out it cost way more to drug test everyone than it did to cut benefits to the less than 3% or so that did use drugs. https://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/florida-didnt-save-money-by-drug-testing-welfare-recipients-data-shows/1225721/
Florida didn't save money by drug testing welfare recipients, data shows

TALLAHASSEE — Required drug tests for people seeking welfare benefits ended up costing taxpayers more than it saved and failed to curb the number of prospective applicants, data used against the...

Tampa Bay Times
Show threadBill HookerAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi It's almost as though we've been lied to all these years. When the poor get money it goes right into the local economy for a double benefit to society, whereas when the rich get it, they just hoard it.
Show threadHishamZerriffiAug 30, 2023

@sennoma

Trickle sideways economics > trickle down economics

Show threadBecca 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇺🇦 🇸🇩 🇵🇸Aug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi only "gOoD pEoPLe" will be bold enough to go against their own scriptures, not give to the poor and judge them preemptively ...
Glad this exists. #ubi is the way!
Show threadJectoons  Aug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi *pretends to be shocked*
Show threadSJ says Bo LuxAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi it's only entirely different to the right wing fascist spin on what homeless people would do with monetary help. Old argument between the deserving and undeserving poor.
Show threadSteven G. JohnsonAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi Note that the participants were pre-screened to ensure that they had "nonsevere levels of substance use, alcohol use, and mental health symptoms", and were people who had been homeless for less than 2 years. So it is less surprising that the cash recipients didn't spend the money on alcohol or drugs. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2222103120
Show threadLiana BrooksAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi Every time they do a study like this we get the same results. Maybe this will be the study that knocks sense into politicians.
Helping people is just so much smarter than criminalizing them in every single way.
Show threadPepperbikeAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi that picture of that man is both uplifting and heart wrenching. It is disgusting how we throw away people in society
Show threadmotieAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi Conservatives say “_some_ will abuse the system so therefore we shouldn’t help _anyone_”. It’s hard to argue that even if 5-10% of people abuse a program like this that we shouldn’t help the other 90-95% rise out of abject poverty out of some false sense of Puritanical ethics (aka spite).
Show threadBenjamin EuniceAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi This is excellent. I needed a study to send around to break down stereotypes about the homeless. To me it is so obvious that the thing to do is offer a social safety net to help folks stay housed and fed, and this study will hopefully help the negative stereotypes change.
Show threadmike805Aug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi I clicked. Subjects were selected for not being long-term homeless. Yes if someone is homeless because their life circumstances went sideways (and not because of illness or addiction) then money will sort them out. If illness or addiction is the problem then publicly funded medical care is required. Either is overall cheaper to society than perpetuating the problem.
Show threadVincarsiAug 30, 2023
@hishamzerriffi contrary to popular belief, it's a rational process. A person is homeless, if you gives them a few K, they can secure housing, if you give them a few hundred they can afford a motel and a hot meal, if you give them a few bucks, all they can afford is something to keep them warm and awake for the night outside. They start out thinking it's temporary until they can get back on their feet, only to discover that people now no longer consider them a person worth helping.
Show threadSievert SchreiberAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi it sucks that homelessness is connected to addiction so easily while this is factually wrong. This experiment goes to show that…
Show threadPyperkubAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi Given how monopolies will try to shift that money to themselves if it gets large (through some sort of legalized fraud), I have serious doubts that this will scale well, but I do like the anecdotal evidence.
Show threadEric S BurdonAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi This could also be reinforced by the stimulus checks that came out during covid too. In America it wasn't as frequent as Canada's plan from what I remember but in either case that money went towards rent, food, housing, and just basic human needs.
Show threadBob JonkmanAug 31, 2023

@hishamzerriffi

Every. Single. Time.

Every study on #UniversalBasicIncome I've seen comes to that same conclusion, that people spend that income on necessities, not frivolously.

And also that the money spent on #UBI is less than social programs would cost to provide those necessities.

Show threadDathesAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi The study did select the participants based on whether they had psychological and/or addiction problems. Having said that, the results look similar to the schemes where homeless people are provided with housing, which also have great results.
Show threadRicki Yasha TarrAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi I think there's a vast difference between what people can do with a $20 handout, and an actual helpful amount of money. Big praise to who did the study!
Show threadSelenaAug 31, 2023
@RickiTarr @hishamzerriffi
Yeah, this kind of experiment should be done with
*real money* (sometimes that means going to poor countries) and not the typical rightwing boomer bullshit of 'i gave this person €5 and he did not use it to buy a lemonade stand and become a millionaire'
Show threadGravePapayaAug 31, 2023

@Selena @RickiTarr @hishamzerriffi

If you've seen My Fair Lady there's an entire subplot about the difference between a small amount of money you can freely drink away because it won't help and a large amount that you can use to change your circumstances.

Show threadeons Luna (Eonity)Aug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi I always believe that most people would use such handout money responsibly; a handful will be irresponsible with it yes, but we can’t punish the entire group just because of a few rotten apples.
Show threadeons Luna (Eonity)Aug 31, 2023

@hishamzerriffi It might also depend on societal and cultural values as well. This might work in certain countries better than others, depending on societal and cultural attitudes to money, financial responsibility, and so on.

Still, this is definitely a worthwhile experiment to pursue; you won’t know how people will behave until you actually do it and see the results yourself.

Show threadKyozouAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi "The study did not include people who are street-entrenched or who have serious addictions or mental health issues"
Show threadBuy nothing newAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi Same in Oz when welfare increases during covid lockdown. Spent on meds, kids school clothes, groceries, debts and bills
Show threadsynlogicAug 31, 2023

@hishamzerriffi UBI is the future, imo

if humanity wants a smart future. and not a dystopic Idiocracy hellhole as our current.course appears to be

Show threadNariAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi A definite contender for the No Shit award in Economics this year.
Show threadyakkoj 🦊Aug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi now... let's try that anywhere in USA. Despite my poor attitude toward my own nation (which is 99.9999% aimed at the "gods" who keep the "clods" clods), I suspect that there would be a similar result. Our homeless are homeless because of crappy policy, and NOT because "they want blackjack and booze"
Show threadRai Aren 🖖✨📚🇺🇦Aug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi ❤️
Show threadKevin RussellAug 31, 2023

@hishamzerriffi

I am pleased for the fifty folks who are, despite their disguises, still our neighbours, neighbours who were stripped through wage theft, grocery price theft, billionaires buying up homes, and the liberal government now in year thirty of their forgeting to build housing or even help coops.

The un-Housed are just neighbours stripped of their homes by the infernal machinery eating our paychecks, food budgets and rent.

Its systematic. Arranged.

Show threadNightOwlAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi Finland 🇫🇮 is also housing its homeless population and most find work once housed. They’re also given support if required.
Show threadBoswellAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi im convinced that all policymakers know this, but if they admit it aloud then they're betraying the fabric of their conservatism: "keep people in poverty to keep myself in riches" (or something like that 😅)
Show threadJanPVAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi Well done! We have a pilot scheme in Wales, giving £1600 per month to young carers. Whilst superficially fronted as a progressive idea, I expect it will be quietly dropped as being too attractive to criticism from political opponents in due course.
Show threadGiliellAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi You need to give people enough money. If you give them 100 bucks, they'll spend it on some short term enjoyment. Because it's not enough to actually help them and they have no safe place for possessions anyway. So spending it on something that gives you at least some small joy is the reasonable and rational thing to do.
Show threadAndrewAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi these pure gift studies with no strings always deliver these results. Love it!
Show threadDennis1212Aug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi not what Conservatives thought, but exactly what humanists thought they would do with that money.
Show threadBrittni KloeyAug 31, 2023

@hishamzerriffi

Well if you live where I live, $7500 is not enough to move into a new home. First last Securty deposits: Plus furniture, appliances, and other odds and ends.

Show threadJustin DerrickAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi More proof that UBI works. How much more evidence do we need?
Show threadEmpiricismAug 31, 2023

@hishamzerriffi @Nonog

What? You mean they generally spent the money on what so called "normal" wealthier people spend money on.

What's the evidence that being rich makes you a better person?

What's the evidence that being rich is the only "evidence" some people use to believe they're better (when in fact they just had better opportunities & random chance events)

A Self-fulfilling prophecy is a cognitive bias.

Being homeless causes mental health problems (obviously)

Show threadSamet Koç- MCLAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi
Do people have an understanding that "homeless people become homeless because of their bad habits"?
Show threadPirateJoieAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi The fallacy of the “Welfare Queen” still at work, after all these years. Goebbels and Regan knew it, a lie told many times might as well be the truth in many’s eyes.
Show threadLeBonkAug 31, 2023
@hishamzerriffi
this sounds like one of those things that people keep doing studies on and reaching this exact conclusion but the right just keeps demanding more evidence to keep the debate going and prevent positive change
Show threadMarcelSep 1, 2023
@hishamzerriffi I don't think the research supports the conclusion of the article. The stereotype may hold for the people excluded in the study. The conclusion could then be that we should not treat homeless people as all being the same - but people on the street don't know who they are facing when asked for money. I also wonder what would have happened if they received $20 a day for a year - closer to the 'normal' situation. A large amount at once provides an opportunity to make a fresh start.
Show threadMike FraserSep 1, 2023
@hishamzerriffi https://www.ted.com/talks/rutger_bregman_poverty_isn_t_a_lack_of_character_it_s_a_lack_of_cash?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
Rutger Bregman: Poverty isn't a lack of character; it's a lack of cash

TED
Show threadAviva GarySep 5, 2023
@hishamzerriffi What!?!?!?!?!!!!1111 They behaved like people... what... no... this is wrong. I was told they are different for reasons 🙃 🤑