RICHMOND RESILIENCE INITIATIVE PILOT RESULTS SHOW INCREASED FINANCIAL STABILITY, BETTER EMPLOYMENT PROSPECTS AND MORE PARENT-CHILD TIME

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May 30, 2024, 10:26 ET

Researchers find that working families see tangible benefits with $500 monthly guaranteed income

RICHMOND, Va., May 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Mayors for Guaranteed Income, Mayor Levar Stoney, Richmond's Office of Community Wealth Building, and community partners welcomed the release of independent data on the Richmond Resilience Initiative (RRI) guaranteed income pilot, showcasing significant improvements in financial health, better employment prospects, more parent-child time and action towards achieving long-term goals like home ownership.

The RRI is the first-ever guaranteed income pilot focused on working families impacted by the 'cliff effect', meaning they earn too much to qualify for federal assistance programs, but still do not make a living wage to support their families. Established in 2020, this pilot program provided 18 city residents with $500 a month for 24 months. Despite the considerable economic pressures of the pandemic and inflation on these households, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Guaranteed Income Research found that the guaranteed income positively impacted pilot participants' short-term financial well-being.

Key findings include:

Employment and education — With the monthly cash payments, participants were able to trade part-time work for education while continuing working full time, which in turn equipped participants to seek better-paid, more stable employment.
Improved financial health — Over the course of the pilot, quantitative data suggests that monthly savings increased more than 100%, from a mean of $147 at baseline to $305 at 24 months. At baseline, 59% of participants could not cover a $400 emergency, despite working full-time. At 24 months, that number had dropped to 20%—indicating that many more people were financially better off.
Housing security — The increase of investor-purchased homes, rising rents and higher property tax bills have led to a greater level of resident displacement in Richmond than in comparable cities. Many pilot recipients shared that they were putting money aside towards repairing their credit and saving for a home, and one recipient was able to purchase a home.
Increased time and space for parenting — Guaranteed income eased the balance between paid and unpaid work to some extent, allowing recipients to scale back on extra gig work and spend more time with their children. Temporarily freed from the constraints of economic and time scarcity, recipients were able to make deliberate parenting choices, key for healthy child development.

Mayor Levar Stoney, who championed the pilot program, said "The findings from the Richmond Resilience Initiative highlight the impact of guaranteed income on the lives of hard working families who do not qualify for federal benefits. The results speak for themselves. I'm proud of the Richmond City Council for approving funding to continue this important program."

One participant in the RRI pilot explained the benefit, stating, "What I mean is that people wouldn't subject [themselves] to having to work a subpar job if they had a little bit more support at home. I'll give you an example... I got into the program as I spoke about earlier, started getting the [guaranteed income], I have enough actually to leave McDonald's alone, and then focus on studying for my CDL… so in a sense, I came out of survival mode. I came out of just going to work to survive and pay bills. I came out of that until being able to put myself in a position where not only I'm just—got enough to pay bills, but I got more. And if I have more, then the only thing necessary for me to do is to help somebody else get it."

The RRI pilot was administered through the Office of Community Wealth Building (OCWB), the workforce development and economic mobility agency created at the recommendation of the 2011 Richmond Anti-poverty Commission. Participants were randomly selected from a group of OCWB clients that had children, were employed and continued working hard to advance their careers but had lost all public benefits despite not yet earning a living wage. Funding for the initial 2020 pilot was provided by Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, the Robins Foundation, the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation, and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Following the successful conclusion of its pilot, the City of Richmond has expanded the initiative. Now in its third cohort and with $500,000 allocated towards the continuation of the program in the 2025 city budget, the RRI is helping residents not just survive, but thrive. Additionally, the OCWB, in collaboration with the Richmond City Treasurer's Office of Financial Empowerment, provides participants with financial literacy education.

"Mayor Stoney was forward-thinking in his leadership, and the design of this program demonstrates how well he knows and serves his constituents who would otherwise be slipping through the cracks," said Michael D. Tubbs, founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. "It's clear from the results that these are families that are doing everything in their power to build a better life, and the Richmond Resilience Initiative gave them the ability to reach for greater opportunity and long-term goals. It once again proves that poverty is not a personal failure, but a systems failure."

Richmond's pilot is affiliated with Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, a coalition of nearly 150 mayors and growing. The research findings from Richmond build upon similar results from the mayor-led guaranteed income programs in Stockton, CA, Saint Paul, MN, Cambridge, MA and Paterson, NJ, where researchers found statistically significant gains in employment, financial stability, mental health, and overall well-being.

Read the full report on the Richmond Resilience Initiative Guaranteed Income program here.

Founded in June of 2020 by former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, Mayors for a Guaranteed Income is a coalition of over 150 mayors committed to advancing a federal guaranteed income – direct, recurring cash payments to middle and low-income people. Expanding to include city and county legislators in 2023 with Counties for a Guaranteed Income, the network acts as a research and resource hub for municipal pilots around the country–nearly 60 and counting. A new documentary film, It's Basic, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2023, follows recipients and illuminates the life-changing impact of guaranteed income programs on families' economic security and opportunity.

SOURCE Mayors for a Guaranteed Income