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How Miracle Messages’ universal basic income experiment is helping the homeless help themselves

4 min read

Better Society
Source: Facebook/MiracleMessages

Miracle Messages provides people experiencing homelessness a $500 universal basic income a month with amazing results as these individuals begin to get their lives back on track.

No one should experience homelessness alone

Miracle Messages is an award-winning 501(c)3 nonprofit organisation, headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area but serving worldwide, who offer a humane and highly effective way to help end homelessness by strengthening social supports and financial security, shattering stigmas, and empowering people everywhere to get involved. Says Miracle Messages founder Kevin Adler, “It’s all about seeing our neighbours experiencing homelessness, not as problems to be solved, but as people to be loved.” 

and connecting in a way that we often want to, but we often don't know where to start.

Miracle Friends is about being friends with our unhoused neighbours… and connecting in a way that we often want to, but we often don’t know where to start. Source: Unsplash/Nina Strehl

Miracle Friends is about being friends with our unhoused neighbours

“It’s all about seeing our neighbours experiencing homelessness, not as problems to be solved, but as people to be loved.” Saus Miracle Messages founder Kevin Adler.

Miracle Friends is about being friends with our unhoused neighbours and connecting in a way that we often want to, but we often don’t know where to start. The Miracle Friends program has around 150 volunteers and unhoused friends matched together all around the world.

A person who’s experiencing homelessness maybe doesn’t have family to reconnect with or is otherwise isolated. And, hey, we all need a friend, right? It’s kind of like a Big Brothers & Big Sisters program for the homeless.

The organisation started giving five hundred dollars a month to unhoused individuals who are participants in the Miracle Friends program who are nominated by their volunteer friends. 

“We want to build trust and build relationships. And we’ve seen how five hundred dollars a month can lead to people getting housed, getting car repairs that are needed to get back to a job site, paying off debt or just saving up and, you know, paying off loans.” 

A person who's experiencing homelessness perhaps doesn't have family to reconnect with or is otherwise isolated.

A humane and highly effective way to help end homelessness. A person who’s experiencing homelessness perhaps doesn’t have family to reconnect with or is otherwise isolated. Source: Unsplash/Tom Parsons

How miracle messages works

Miracle Messages offer a humane and highly effective way to help end homelessness: strengthen social supports and financial security, shatter stigmas, and empower people everywhere to get involved. Here’s how they’re doing it:

  1. Reunion services: A person isolated by homelessness records a short message to a loved one, often through one of our 140+ referral partners. Then, our volunteer “digital detectives” attempt to locate the loved one and facilitate a reunion. 
  2. Buddy system: Miracle Friends is a phone-based buddy system that matches unhoused neighbours with trained volunteers for weekly phone calls and texts, in partnership with local providers. Volunteers are welcome to apply from anywhere.
  3. Direct cash transfers: Miracle Money is a direct cash transfer program for people experiencing homelessness in the US. Beginning in February 2021, an initial pilot of 14 unhoused participants in Miracle Friends are receiving $500/month for six months.

“And we've seen how five hundred dollars a month can lead to people getting housed, getting car repairs that are needed to get back to a job site, paying off debt or just saving up and, you know, paying off paying off loans.”

“We want to build trust and build relationships,” says Adler. “And we’ve seen how five hundred dollars a month can lead to people getting housed, getting car repairs that are needed to get back to a job site, paying off debt or just saving up and, you know, paying off paying off loans.” Source: Miracle Messages

The buddy system didn’t even exist before the pandemic

People were getting into the shelter in place, houses and hotels, but then they were isolated and not getting the kind of services and casework that they really needed. 

“It starts out really with a person who is experiencing homelessness, getting matched to a volunteer who is housed. We define people by their lack of housing, but we would never look at each other as housed people. It just wouldn’t make sense. And so when we stop seeing people experiencing homelessness defined just by their lack of housing, but see all the gifts, the talents, the life experiences, the funny personality quirks that, you know, they may have.” says Adler.

“And being able to connect around that as people, I think there’s just needs to be a lot more grace and forgiveness and willingness to hear each other’s stories and journeys. If you’ve watched this video and you’ve been inspired, I’ll tell you, we need you, we need you, we need you, we need you wherever you are in the world, we need you. First and foremost, to go to Miracle Friends dot org and sign up to be a miracle friend.”

We define people by their lack of housing, but we would never look at each other as housed people. Source: Miracle Messages

64% of participants said that the money helped reduced their stress and worry about finances.

With the caveat that the funds shouldn’t be spent on drugs or other illicit activity, participants could spend the money however they needed. Participants used the money on essentials like food and medication and transportation. One person used it to adopt a service dog to help prevent seizures. Another helped his daughter pay for college tuition. Sixty-four percent of participants said that the money helped reduced their stress and worry about finances. And despite the relatively small amount of assistance, more than a third of the participants were able to move into housing. 

Source: FastCompany 

To be there for you and show up at your hour of need…. What would you do? How would you cope?

Imagine if you didn’t have someone to turn to and help weather the storm, talk things out… To be there for you and show up at your hour of need…. What would you do? How would you cope? Source: Miracle Messages

SO GIVING POOR PEOPLE CASH SEEMS TO HELP? — WHO KNEW?

Another recent experiment has demonstrated that basic income recipients in a California city displayed intelligence and ambition, not lethargy. The randomised, controlled trial in the city of Stockton is being seen by sociologists as a good starting point for further research into the effects of a no-strings cash payment to alleviate the difficulties of living on a lower-income. Meanwhile, in Canada, a Vancouver-based charitable organisation found that simply giving a lump sum to homeless people produced surprisingly promising results when checked up on a year later. Click here for full details.

The New Leaf project took 115 homeless people who were confirmed not to have serious mental or substance abuse problems, and put $7,500 in the pockets of 50 of them to see if they could turn their life around. The results were heartening.

A Vancouver-based charitable organisation found that simply giving a lump sum to homeless people produced surprisingly promising results when checked up on a year later. The New Leaf project took 115 homeless people who were confirmed not to have serious mental or substance abuse problems, and put $7,500 in the pockets of 50 of them to see if they could turn their life around. The results were heartening. Source: Miracle Messages

Make an Impact

NO ONE SHOULD GO THROUGH HOMELESSNESS ALONE

Miracle Messages help unhoused neighbours rebuild their social support systems, primarily through family reunifications, a phone-based buddy system, and direct cash transfers. Our services are available anywhere. To see in more details the Miracle Messages programs, the impact the organisation is having, to make a referral or to donate, this the link for you.