VIDEO: Why people care about the homeless and why they don't

A research project at UBCO has revealed some surprises about what makes people sympathetic to the homeless.

While it may be true that providing housing, may actually be less expensive than leaving people on the street, the research shows this argument doesn't motivate people. What does are the stories behind the individual homeless person. Political scientist Carey Doberstein paid us a visit at KelownaNow to talk about the findings.

The study involved a detailed survey of 1500 Canadians. Researchers created vignettes to describe hypothetical homeless people and the respondents were asked how they might spend a pool of funds to help them. The project also looked at the political element, and found that people on the conservative side of the spectrum tended to be less generous with their funding allocations. The study also found that regardless of political affiliation, people found those with mental illness are most worthy of public support. "Canadians, across all political stripes, universally think that is the most deserving group of people," said Cary Doberstein.

However, researchers were left to wonder what this means for the majority of homeless people who are not part of that group. "There are a lot of people experiencing homelessness who are not having mental health challenges," he noted. Still, overall, Doberstein said the research showed people generally care. "I generally believe that regardless of political stripe, people are generally compassionate if they learn about the complex paths that some people have faced on their way to homelessness."