Growing Strong Study of Unconditional Cash Transfers Plus Peer Support for Families With Babies in Homeless Shelters

NCT06323967 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: 231981
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 200
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The Growing Strong program tests a novel approach to helping families with young children living in homeless shelters, namely offering guaranteed, unconditional cash gifts that families can use as they wish plus voluntary peer support. The assumption behind this approach is that families know best how to allocate resources to meet their own individual needs. While there are a number of Direct Cash Transfer studies taking place around the country, the investigator(s) are unaware of any that have tested the relationship of receiving cash on homelessness among families specifically. To be eligible to participate in the study, families must reside in a homeless shelter and have at least one child under two years of age living with them in shelter. The investigator(s) have tied eligibility to the age of the youngest child in the household because rates of shelter use are highest among this population and because the costs associated with young children increase such families' financial burdens. A total of 200 families will be enrolled in the study. One hundred families in the active intervention group will receive $1,500 per month ("substantial cash") for 24 months ($18,000 annually) and may also elect to receive peer support services. One hundred families in the active comparison group will receive $50 per month ("nominal cash") for 24 months ($600 annually) and will not have access to the peer support services. A third, passive comparison group will receive usual care within the homeless shelter system in the same metropolitan area (New York City) as participants in both cash gift groups. This group of families will be followed only in administrative records. The main research questions are: does providing substantial, unconditional cash transfers plus access to voluntary peer support services over 24 months a) reduce the length of time in shelter for families with young children and/or b) improve other aspects of family and child well-being relative to providing nominal cash transfers alone or usual care.

Conditions

Time to Shelter Exit; Family Well-being; Child Well-being

Keywords

family homelessness; direct cash transfer; unconditional cash transfer; housing affordability; income inequality; child poverty

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Time to shelter exit

  Measured using administrative data for active study groups and passive comparison group. Data provided by New York City Department of Social Services/Department of Homeless Services (DSS/DHS). Total time between family's being found eligible for shelter and shelter exit.

  18 months

Secondary Outcomes (25)

• Housing: Total time in shelter*

  30 months

• Housing: Housing Stability

  6 months to 30 months

• Target Child Development: Child Behavior Problems*

  30 months

• Target Child Development: Child Prosocial Behavior*

  30 months

• Target Child Development: Child Verbal Development

  Baseline to 30 months

Study Arms (3)

Large unconditional cash transfers plus voluntary peer support

EXPERIMENTAL

These participants will receive monthly cash transfers of $1,500 via debit card for 24 months and can elect to participate in peer support services plus usual care from shelter staff.

Behavioral: Large unconditional cash transfers plus voluntary peer support.

Nominal cash transfers

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

These participants will receive monthly cash transfers of $50 via debit card for 24 months plus usual care from shelter staff.

Behavioral: Nominal cash transfers

Passive comparison

OTHER

These propensity-matched families will reside in other New York City shelters and will be followed anonymously in administrative records only. The will receive usual care from shelter staff.

Behavioral: Passive comparison group

Interventions

Large unconditional cash transfers plus voluntary peer support. BEHAVIORAL

These participants will receive monthly cash transfers of $1,500 ($750 twice per month) via debit card for 24 months and can elect to participate in peer support services plus usual care from shelter staff.

Large unconditional cash transfers plus voluntary peer support

Nominal cash transfers BEHAVIORAL

These participants will receive monthly cash transfers of $50 via debit card for 24 months plus usual care from shelter staff.

Nominal cash transfers

Passive comparison group BEHAVIORAL

These families will receive usual care from shelter staff. They will be followed anonymously in administrative records only.

Passive comparison

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• A family has been found "eligible" for shelter (as described above) within the past 30 days
• The family has a baby who meets the age criteria (under 2 years of age)
• There is an adult 18 or over who has custody of the child (typically the mother)
• The family speaks English or Spanish
• The family lives in a designated Win shelter

You may not qualify if:

• None: any family configuration is permissible

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Vanderbilt University: lead
• Women in Need (Win): collaborator
• The Samuels Group: collaborator
• New York City Center for Innovation through Data Intelligence (CIDI): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Win NYC Shelter System

New York, New York, 10004, United States

RECRUITING

Related Publications (17)

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• Gennetian, L. A., Duncan, G., Fox, N. A., Magnuson, K., Halpern-Meekin, S., Noble, K. G., & Yoshikawa, H. (2022). Unconditional cash and family investments in infants: Evidence from a large-scale cash transfer experiment in the US (No. w30379). National Bureau of Economic Research.

  BACKGROUND

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  PMID: 9255702 BACKGROUND

• Gubits D, Shinn M, Wood M, Brown SR, Dastrup SR, Bell SH. What Interventions Work Best for Families Who Experience Homelessness? Impact Estimates from the Family Options Study. J Policy Anal Manage. 2018;37(4):735-66.

  PMID: 30272428 BACKGROUND

• Kessler RC, Barker PR, Colpe LJ, Epstein JF, Gfroerer JC, Hiripi E, Howes MJ, Normand SL, Manderscheid RW, Walters EE, Zaslavsky AM. Screening for serious mental illness in the general population. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2003 Feb;60(2):184-9. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.60.2.184.

  PMID: 12578436 BACKGROUND

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  BACKGROUND

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  PMID: 649936 BACKGROUND

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• Skinner HA. The drug abuse screening test. Addict Behav. 1982;7(4):363-71. doi: 10.1016/0306-4603(82)90005-3.

  PMID: 7183189 BACKGROUND

• Snyder CR, Harris C, Anderson JR, Holleran SA, Irving LM, Sigmon ST, Yoshinobu L, Gibb J, Langelle C, Harney P. The will and the ways: development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1991 Apr;60(4):570-85. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.60.4.570.

  PMID: 2037968 BACKGROUND

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• United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. (2012, September). U.S. Household Food Security Survey Module: Six-Item Short Form. https://www.ers.usda.gov/media/8282/short2012.pdf

  BACKGROUND

• Zuckerman, S. (2018). Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey, United States, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR37653.v2

  BACKGROUND

Study Officials

• Marybeth Shinn, PhD

  Vanderbilt University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Marybeth Shinn, PhD

CONTACT

615 322-8735; beth.shinn@vanderbilt.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: TRIPLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, CARE PROVIDER, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Participants will be blind to condition at the baseline assessment but will be unmasked immediately afterwards (they will receive debit cards and learn whether they are eligible for peer support). At baseline, interviewers will likely be aware of study conditions because they will interview respondents at shelters and shelter is associated with condition. At subsequent assessments interviewers will remain blind to study condition to the extent possible, but may well learn the condition from respondents, especially those who complete qualitative interviews. Win staff who provide usual care to both groups will be blind to the study condition. Participants in the passive comparison group will be unaware of the study.
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor, Department of Human and Organizational Development

Model Details: Parallel assignment to 1) active treatment and 2) active comparison. A third, passive comparison group will be constructed and followed anonymously via administrative records.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 14, 2024
• First Posted: March 21, 2024
• Study Start: May 21, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): August 30, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 30, 2028
• Last Updated: June 27, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-06

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)