Can giving homeless people $750 a month help them secure housing?

Does giving someone who is homeless $750 a month help them get back on their feet enough to secure stable housing?

- ANDREW KHOURI

A STUDY found that recipients spent most of their stipend on essentials. Above, a homeless camp in L.A.

ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times

Researchers at USC attempted to answer that question and came up with a less than firm conclusion: Maybe.

According to the year long study published last month, of the unhoused people who received the cash stipend, 48% exited homelessness, compared with 43% in a control group of homeless individuals who did not receive money.

Although those who received $750 a month were more likely to become permanently housed, the difference wasn't large enough to be statistically significant and to say definitively that the cash was the reason for improved outcomes, said Benjamin Henwood, director of USC's Center for Homelessness, Housing and Health Equity Research.

At the same time, the study found participants used the money to bring more stability to their lives and overwhelmingly spent the cash on essentials such as food, transportation and clothing — not drugs and alcohol.

"These findings highlight the strengths and limitations of cash transfers," the authors wrote in a report.