It wasn’t until Kevin Adler grappled with the death of his unhoused uncle that he began to think more about what it meant to be unhoused. Adler, now the CEO of a nonprofit for unhoused people, began to see the unhoused people he walked past differently; he realized they were all someone’s family member. 

Recognizing he was ignorant of the issues unhoused people face, he spent a year talking to people on the streets to learn more.

“I heard people over and over again say different versions of ‘I never realized I was homeless when I lost my housing, only when I lost my family and friends,’” Adler said. 

In partnership with the Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, Adler conducted a three year study, beginning in 2022, which found that unhoused people who were given $750 a month were 20% more likely to find housing. According to Benjamin Henwood, director of the USC Center for Homelessness, Housing and Health Equity, the difference was not significant enough to conclude that the outcome was a result of the money.

“The sample size wasn’t big enough. The impact wasn’t as large as we’re anticipating,” Henwood said. “While their situation may not have fundamentally changed because of the money, their sense of dignity, self worth and autonomy to make their own decision about what to do with that money was hugely important to the recipient,”

The School of Social Work and the San-Francisco based non-profit Miracle Messages held a panel Thursday to discuss the results of the study. According to Adler, the researchers wanted to disprove the common assumption that giving homeless people money would deter them from getting jobs and would fund their consumption of drugs and alcohol. They wanted proof that there were better ways to address the homelessness crisis.

In 2014, Adler founded Miracle Messages, an organization focused on reconnecting unhoused people to their loved ones. After Adler raised $50,000 dollars in 2022, the organization provided more than 250 participants with $750 dollars each per month to conduct the study.   

Jamie David, a recipient of the funds, said the money made her feel less lonely and helped her fit in.

“It gave me back the level of responsibility that I was operating at before I became homeless, and renewed my faith in others and hope in myself and in the world around me,” David said

Sheena McKinlay, chief impact officer at Miracle Messages, said the organization will revise the program because McKinlay said helping individuals experiencing homelessness goes beyond just giving them money. McKinlay said Miracle Messages is planning to partner with five organizations across California that can reach and represent a wide demographic of unhoused people, McKinlay said.

The new initiative would provide a small, direct cash deposit to an unhoused person as part of a larger program that improves housing and financial literacy along with other services. 

Adler said people have become disconnected from their unhoused neighbors, and that working with unhoused people was a crucial step toward ending homelessness. 

“It’s incumbent on us to get past the ‘us and them’ otherizing of this issue of homelessness,” Adler said. “We have more work to do, but we’re committed to doing that work.”