Reporting on New leaf projects credits a one-time cash payment for $7500 for a successful betterment of lives of a select group of homeless. What the reporting fails to mention is that besides a $7500 cash payment the homeless also received workshops and coaching. In fact, there was a group of homeless that only received workshops and coaching and no cash.
Naturally, you would think that since the cash payment is being praised, the group that received the cash must have done better? The truth is exactly the opposite. After a year of the project the non-cash group, the one that received only the workshop and coaching ended up either the same or better than the group of homeless that received both the cash and the workshop/coaching help. It should be of no surprise, that actual help like coaching and workshops help.
Let’s take a look at the actual results. After 1 year both the cash and non-cash groups significantly lowered the time they spend homeless.
After 1 year, the non-cash group, the group that didn’t receive a one-time payment of $7500 actually had slightly more money.
After 1 year, the cost of shelter use was about the same.
A truthfully headline on this report would read “Workshops and coaching positively impact the homeless, while cash payments make no difference.”
