Implementing and Researching Guaranteed Basic Income: Successes, Issues and Challenges

Financial insecurity has reached historically high levels across the nation and disproportionately impacts low-income Black, Latinx, Asian, and mix race individuals and families. Financial insecurity has been tied to adverse health and well-being outcomes including lack of access to health care, quality education, physical and behavioral health, and exposure to violence. Unconditional cash-based interventions can help alleviate many negative consequences of financial insecurity. The Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration or Stockton unconditional basic income experiment in California showed an increase in full-time employment among recipients, reduction in income fluctuations, and improvement in financial, physical and emotional health. Another study in Minnesota found that school-age children - especially girls - of single mothers who received unrestricted cash benefits had fewer behavioral problems and improved academic outcomes. A guaranteed basic income project in Canada showed that unconditional cash transfers to homeless individuals reduced the number of nights they spent unsheltered. More recently, 2021 modifications to the federal Child Tax Credit cut child poverty rates dramatically, with impacts more pronounced for Black and Latinx families.

Providing a time limited guaranteed basic income is an alternative approach to helping vulnerable families find financial stability. Currently, numerous cities and states in the United States are experimenting with guaranteed basic income to vulnerable residents. Estimates suggest there are over 90 guaranteed basic income projects in the United States alone. As guaranteed basic income interventions expand across the nation, researchers are identifying success, yet still face challenges. The goal of the roundtable is to discuss with the social work research community the intervention design, implementation, and research issues unique guaranteed basic income projects. The roundtable aims to present examples of social work researchers, who utilized a diversity of methods to fund and research guaranteed basic income projects based on community context.

The roundtable is a facilitator led question-answer format with the facilitator asking the same set of questions to each speaker one-by-one. The questions will primarily focus on four areas where guaranteed basic income projects encounter barriers: (a) finding potential funding sources for the cash transfer intervention, (b) recruitment of participants, (c) the mix of services to offer participants beyond cash, and (d) ethical considerations of research methods. The roundtable will feature three projects. The first speaker will focus on the Denver Basic Income Project (DBIP) which is a mixed-methods randomized controlled trial of guaranteed basic income for people experiencing homelessness in Denver(Colorado). DBIP is delivering $12,000 in guaranteed income over 12 months to 500 people experiencing homelessness. The second speaker will highlight a proof-of-concept project, the Champaign County Guaranteed Income Pilot (CCGIP). CCGIP is directed at children and families identified by the McKinney-Vento Act with a particular focus on Black, Latinx, Asian, and Mixed-Race families. The last speaker will focus on a project that involves participants from the child welfare system. After the facilitator-led question and answer session, participants will have an opportunity to network and discuss ideas for guaranteed basic income projects in their communities with the three research teams.