Commenting on a report that showed a decline in the number of people who received aid through the ComCare initiative last year, SMU Dean of Students and Professor of Sociology (Practice) Paulin Straughan attributed this to the stabilising of the number of households accepting short term assistance as well as good economic prospects. She added that another possibility could be due to the fact that the initiative has been in place for the past 10 years, and that those who required assistance would already have received it. Unless there are massive economic changes, the ratio of needy families should remain relatively stable.