As someone exits homelessness, there are many unexpected costs that make it challenging to move forward. RYSE accepted 25 youth into the project. Money was given directly to the youth via check in a lump one-time sum. If youth did not have a bank account, RYSE covered the check cashing fee. All 25 youth who participated in the program completed an exit survey when they left RYSE and 17 completed a follow-up survey after 6 months.
The program distributed their first checks in Spring and followed up with youth in Fall Although the sample size is small only 25 youth in the program , it is important to look at who participated in order to think about equity-focused programming.
However, there is still room for improvement as this is less than the proportion of Native Hawaiians accessing RYSE overall. Additionally, Caucasians and Asians are slightly over-represented in this program, Black youth are about equally represented and Pacific Islander and Hispanic youth are slightly underrepresented.
Youth who entered RYSE had an average age of This might speak to the level of readiness to move into independent housing, although the sample sizes are small- more research is needed. Youth were generally happy with receiving the money as a lump sum. Three youth said they used the money towards their phone and one youth said they used it to help put a down payment on a car.
All youth in the direct cash transfer program remained on Oahu. Health and Other Impacts The same psychological scales on stress, unhealthy days and social support were assessed for the direct cash transfer participants. No statistically significant findings were found between exit and 6-month follow-up survey.
