Growing Strong Study of Unconditional Cash Transfers Plus Voluntary Peer Support to Reduce Shelter Stays and Improve Family Well-being for Families With Babies in New York City Homeless Shelters

In the Growing Strong study, 200 families residing in the Women in Need (Win) homeless shelter system who have at least one child under two years of age living with them in shelter and who have been found "eligible" for shelter by New York City will participate. Families will be assigned to one of two cash gift conditions. One hundred families will be assigned to the active intervention group and will receive $1,500 per month via debit card for 24 months ($18,000 annually) to use as they wish along with access to free, voluntary peer support services. One hundred families will be assigned to the active comparison group and receive $50 per month via debit card for 24 months ($600 annually) to use as they wish but will not have access to the peer support services. A passive comparison group will be constructed from the administrative data of propensity-matched families within in the New York City homeless shelter system who would have met the criteria to participate in the study had they resided in one of the Win target shelters. This study is funded by a grant to Win from a private foundation, thus all target shelters are operated by Win.

Design

The Growing Strong study design is quasi-experimental with intentional assignment at the shelter level rather than experimental with random assignment at the family or shelter level for several reasons. Participants were not randomized at the family level in order to eliminate the possibility that comparably situated families living in the same shelter could enroll in the study and yet receive very different cash amounts. Participants were not randomized at the shelter level because there were too few shelters in the final design for randomization to balance the characteristics of families across conditions in expectation. The overall sample size for families was limited by the substantial cost of the intervention (between $600 - $18,000 plus costs of peer support annually per family).

Families can be assigned to treatment conditions based on their shelter placements because New York City makes placement decisions in a quasi-random fashion based on the availability and size of shelter rooms/apartments. Initially the investigator(s) selected three shelters within the Win shelter system that are as closely matched as possible on room sizes and other characteristics that affect placements. When recruitment went more slowly than anticipated, additional shelters in the Win system were included. Assignment to treatment groups is dependent solely on the shelter where the family is assigned by the New York City Department of Social Services, which depends on availability and room size. We have sought to balance shelters assigned to treatment and comparison groups by the sizes of rooms. The underlying, quasi-random City placement process should equate the two groups in expectation. The investigator(s) will check whether families in the two groups are in fact well-matched and control for any differences between them during analysis if needed.

Procedures