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Oregon gave homeless youth $1k/month with no strings

oregonlive.com

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Re: Oregon gave homeless youth $1k/month with no strings

#21

Post by duskwuff »

threethirtytwo wrote: post #16

> More than half of participants were women, while 30% were male and 18% identified as transgender or gender inclusive. Why were the ratios not representative of actual homeless demographics? Most homeless people are biological men by an overwhelming majority. Maybe transgendered people and women seek more help? Or the people conducting this study were biased themselves? As a result, I don’t think the results univers…

This program specifically targeted homeless youth; it seems plausible that the demographics of that segment might differ from the larger community.

Re: Oregon gave homeless youth $1k/month with no strings

#23

Post by sxde »

gameman144 wrote: post #6
slater wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, couldn't possibly be that there were any actually good results coming from this. That's just an impossibility.

I don't think the parent is even saying that, their point is pretty reasonable: having some objective measure for before and after in any study is more reliable than self-reporting, especially when the subject might be incentivized to lie. The self reports might be totally true, but the study isn't as good as it might be.

Maybe I misunderstood the article, but... the participants would have had no incentive to lie?

They were going to get the money for the fixed period unconditionally. That was the point.

Re: Oregon gave homeless youth $1k/month with no strings

#24

Post by 3rodents »

threethirtytwo wrote: post #16

> More than half of participants were women, while 30% were male and 18% identified as transgender or gender inclusive. Why were the ratios not representative of actual homeless demographics? Most homeless people are biological men by an overwhelming majority. Maybe transgendered people and women seek more help? Or the people conducting this study were biased themselves? As a result, I don’t think the results univers…

it’s a youth program ran by a youth organization. Young people dealing with family problems due to gender identity, sexuality etc. are a very large portion of homeless youth. I would guess transgender people are underrepresented at just 18%.

Re: Oregon gave homeless youth $1k/month with no strings

#25

Post by xn »

fwip wrote: post #5
themafia wrote: post #2

So if you give people money they'll endeavor to tell you precisely what they think you want to hear. I would be much more impressed if this wasn't based solely on self-reported results.

Hold on - what exactly do you think they're lying about? Whether they're currently housed? Because, imo, that's the headline result - 94% is a great success rate.

It could be. How did the control group do?

Re: Oregon gave homeless youth $1k/month with no strings

#26

Post by solid_fuel »

gtowey wrote: post #14
themafia wrote: post #2

So if you give people money they'll endeavor to tell you precisely what they think you want to hear. I would be much more impressed if this wasn't based solely on self-reported results.

> “Just one year after completing (the program), I’m in my own place, halfway through a business degree, focused on building a stable, secure foundation for my daughter and myself, and working toward becoming a nonprofit leader who supports her community.” I know, right? She did all that just so she could give her social workers the feedback they wanted to hear! Those liberals are so dastardly!

Those sneaky freeloaders, materially improving their lives and futures just to “prove” that social programs work.

Re: Oregon gave homeless youth $1k/month with no strings

#27

Post by luafox »

threethirtytwo wrote: post #16

> More than half of participants were women, while 30% were male and 18% identified as transgender or gender inclusive. Why were the ratios not representative of actual homeless demographics? Most homeless people are biological men by an overwhelming majority. Maybe transgendered people and women seek more help? Or the people conducting this study were biased themselves? As a result, I don’t think the results univers…

From the article: > The program prioritized underrepresented populations. That includes young parents, who made up 43% of participants by the end of the period.

Homeless parents are almost always women with very few exceptions. Now, in my personal opinion, "underrepresented populations" in this kind of environment refers to people who are at greater immediate risk while homeless, which obviously include women & genderqueer people, as well as those who are young+single parents or are disabled.

Find and read the actual full report for more details though.

Re: Oregon gave homeless youth $1k/month with no strings

#28

Post by toast0 »

fwip wrote: post #5
themafia wrote: post #2

So if you give people money they'll endeavor to tell you precisely what they think you want to hear. I would be much more impressed if this wasn't based solely on self-reported results.

Hold on - what exactly do you think they're lying about? Whether they're currently housed? Because, imo, that's the headline result - 94% is a great success rate.

What I got from the article is that 94% reported being housed at the end of the period where they were receiving money.

But the real question for me is what happens 6 months to a year after the funding ends.

Re: Oregon gave homeless youth $1k/month with no strings

#29

Post by treetalker »

honeycrispy wrote: post #15

I like the idea of helping people out of poverty. But the problem with government funded charities is they are so ripe for fraud, they almost never get managed properly.

I say we first ensure that fraudsters be not placed in government positions, and then worry more about eradicating the lesser fraud in charities that receive some funding from the government.

Re: Oregon gave homeless youth $1k/month with no strings

#30

Post by Adiqq »

Antibabelic wrote: post #4

Libertarians who want the impoverished to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" don't realize what that takes. Nobody deserves to live without a home. We need successes like these so that as many people as possible can get assistance.

Ostrom provided the solution to the tragedy of the commons: self-organizing, collective governance. It is no coincidence that Agile is a convergent solution to the exact same principles. We were told for decades that the only options are the state or the market, Ostrom proved that false.

But we don't live in an evidence-based world, we live in one shaped by power dynamics. We have the blueprint for collective prosperity, but we choose extraction. In the US, this has gone so far that Christianity has been twisted into a prosperity gospel, a heresy that serves as a moral shield for raw capitalism. It allows the system to pretend that business interests are actually virtues.

The world is in a mess because we ignore the mechanics of the systems we build. Be it capitalism, feudalism, or authoritarian communism, they all fail the same way, they lead to elite overproduction (Turchin).

When you funnel all resources to the very top, you create too many aspiring elites with no productive role to play. They inevitably turn on the system and each other. These systems are mathematically destined to collapse. Ostrom polycentric governance is one of the few ways out.

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