Universal basic income has boomed as a favorable economic policy in big cities that are buying into the idea that providing cash directly to residents is one of the best ways to improve their quality of life.
With the growth of UBI programs, cities, counties, and states are offering as much as $1,000 per month to residents. Here are some of the most prominent UBI programs in the country that are still sending out checks or have recently ended their experiment with free cash.
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Rochester, New York
The city of Rochester announced it will be conducting a yearlong UBI pilot program, with applications currently open for the program.
The pilot program will pay $500 per month for 12 months to 351 people in the city of more than 200,000 people. According to the city, the $2.1 million program will send out funds that are "unconditional, which means there are no strings attached: no work requirements, and no restrictions on how the money can be used."
While members of the program won't have any restrictions on how they can spend the monthly checks, the city is restricting applications to people who live at or below 185% of the federal poverty level.
"The program is founded upon the belief that people in poverty are best positioned to make informed financial decisions that address their households’ needs," according to the program's website.
The city says the funds for the pilot program come from funds in the American Rescue Plan, which was signed into law in 2021 by President Joe Biden. The funds were signed into law originally as a third COVID-19 relief package.
Alaska
The state of Alaska has been distributing its own version of a basic income for decades in the form of the Permanent Fund Dividend. The payment is "an annual dividend that is paid to Alaska residents from investment earnings of mineral royalties," per the state.
The 2022 state dividend was $3,284 and was eligible to Alaskans who were residents for the entire previous calendar year and "intend to remain an Alaska resident indefinitely at the time you apply for a dividend."
While the $76.6 billion fund has been paying Alaska residents for more than 40 years, pressure on the pot is mounting. Besides sending out checks usually in excess of $1,000 to residents, the fund has been used to underwrite state government.
A benchmark for how universal basic income programs can function, the constitutionally protected fund assured residents they would receive much larger checks in 2022 than any other year except 2000, even adjusted for inflation. Despite the bigger checks, the payment for residents doesn’t appear to be what’s concerning the fund’s managers. Instead, a deadly combination of inflation eroding the value of the fund's principal, which can't be spent by the state legislature, and smaller revenues than expected have raised questions about whether the state should reevaluate how the fund is used.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R-AK) could call a special session in October to ask lawmakers to consider an amendment that would sequester the fund from being used to continue to pay for government operations.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is conducting a UBI pilot program that will offer $530 per month for 24 months to 100 people in the city of more than 100,000 people. The city will be partnering with the University of Michigan to study the results of the program, per a press release.
Funds for the program come from $1.6 million in American Rescue Plan funds that were allocated by the city in 2022.
"Guaranteed income programs are flourishing across our country, and they are proving to be an impactful tool to combat generational poverty. By partnering with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor will increase our understanding of the effectiveness of these programs, and — crucially — serve members of our community who are in need,” Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor said in a statement.
Ann Arbor's program has a higher threshold for qualification than other cities — applicants can't make more than 300% of the federal poverty level — but to be eligible, residents have to be engaged in some kind of "low-level entrepreneurship, such as gig work, informal businesses from their home, or services provided to neighbors or friends."
To assess how beneficial the payments are, the University of Michigan's Poverty Solutions, an initiative that partners with communities and policymakers to find ways to prevent and alleviate poverty, will compare 100 program participants with 100 people who don't receive checks. Researchers will try to determine whether the checks helped beneficiaries obtain housing, food, transportation, and improvements to their physical and mental health, along with several other metrics, to gauge the success of the program.
Cook County, Illinois
The largest county in Illinois, which includes the city of Chicago, is currently giving unconditional $500 payments to 3,250 low-income residents to study the effectiveness of a guaranteed income.
The pilot program is slated to last two years, with payments being distributed from December 2022 until December 2024.
On the program's website, officials say the pilot program is "just the start" and that they "plan to make this program permanent."
Los Angeles
The second largest city in the country had a UBI pilot program wherein 3,200 residents were given $1000 payments every month from March 2022 until March 2023.
The "no-strings-attached" payments were delivered as part of a study on the effects a guaranteed income would have on combating poverty, with a separate group of roughly 3,700 people being studied while not receiving the payments.
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While the idea of UBI is not new, programs have received a boost in popularity after former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang made a UBI proposal the centerpiece of his 2020 campaign. At the same time as Yang offering UBI as the basis of his platform, the COVID-19 pandemic swayed lawmakers, in a bipartisan fashion, to approve billions of dollars in spending, including authorizing three separate COVID-19 relief payments from the federal government from March 2020 to March 2021.
Funds from COVID-19 relief packages have been used in several pilot programs for UBI across the country, with several governments testing the effectiveness of UBI.