In the United States, 11.5% of people are living in poverty. That’s nearly 38 million people wondering where they will get their next meal. And they are doing all they can, yet are still struggling to provide for their families.
This past year more than $500 billion was donated by Americans for charitable purposes in the US and the federal government invested $545 billion in economic security programs. Yet, this hasn’t done enough to move the needle on poverty.
Families in Poverty Deserve Interventions that Work
That’s why the researchers at the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) at the University of Notre Dame work side-by-side with nonprofit partners across the country to design and implement research approaches that are both rigorous and respectful of the people they serve.
We at Strategies to End Homelessness are proud to be working with LEO to study our Shelter Diversion program. The Shelter Diversion program began in 2012 in an effort to provide services for families that are “doubled up” and running out of options. These families are most likely to become literally homeless within 14 days.
How LEO Works
They find innovators with established anti-poverty programs, teach them about impact evaluations, build a research design, learn and iterate, then share findings and scale.
Since its inception, LEO now has more than 100 active or completed projects with 98 partners in 27 states–and growing. One such project in Santa Clara County, California has turned into a national opportunity to create policy change and scale impact.
The Santa Clara program provides one-time emergency financial assistance to families who would become homeless without receiving such support. LEO’s impact evaluation showed every $1 invested into the program resulted in $2.47 of benefits to individuals and the community.
Armed with the study results, Santa Clara County doubled down on their efforts with public funding of nearly $30M. And can now serve 8x as many clients in the program.
LEO Travels to Cincinnati
Last week, we were honored to host our LEO partners. In part to present our partnership to Cincinnati City Council – and explain how with more flexible funding we can serve more families in Shelter Diversion. (WVXU interviewed both LEO and Strategies to End Homelessness after the presentation).
During calendar year 2024, our CAP Helpline screened 4,731 households for program eligibility. Of those households, 10%, or 483 households were eligible for the program (73% of those 483 households were families). But we only had capacity to serve about one-third of the eligible households in the program.
The Demand is Clear
Armed with our own research – and more flexible funding – together we can prevent the trauma of homelessness for more of our neighbors.
(Greater Cincinnati nonprofits: you too, can work with LEO – at no cost to your agency! Learn how.)
