By Sarah Holder, Photo: Andi Rice/Bloomberg, Bloomberg CityLab, September 28, 2022
In more than 20 US cities that launched basic income programs during the pandemic, the average person receiving monthly supportwas a woman making just enough money to put her over the federal poverty line. Most beneficiarieswere single, most had kids, and most were people of color. They received up to $1,000 a month, usually for about a year, and overall spent the largest share of the money at superstores and smaller retailers. A quarter of the funds across projects went to food, and under 6% went to travel and leisure.
This data, which was released publicly today, provides an early look at the reach and impact of city pilot programs designed to test the power of no-strings-attached cash. Eventually, more than 30 cities will share their data on this dashboard as part ofa project by the Stanford Basic Income Lab, the Center for Guaranteed Income Research, and Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, an advocacy coalition formed in 2020 that now includes 100 city leaders.
“The idea has always been to illustrate that what we found in Stockton wasn’t a fluke,” said Michael Tubbs, the founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income and the former mayor of Stockton, California, which launched one of the first guaranteed income experiments in the US back in 2019. Data from the first year of the two-year Stockton project showed that recipients mostly spent money on food and essentials, and that they secured full-time work at higher rates than those in a control group. “Working people know how to spend money in ways that provide for themselves and their families,” he said.
Comments (0)