An innovative joint project by the City of Evanston and Northwestern University is part of a growing movement to study the impact of guaranteed income.
The Guaranteed Income Pilot Program will provide 150 individuals with a $500 monthly stipend for one year to use as they see fit.
Northwestern has provided $400,000 in funding for the pilot program, while additional funds come from the American Rescue Plan, the City of Evanston and the Evanston Community Foundation.
Northwestern’s Jonathan Guryan, a professor in the School of Education and Social Policy and a faculty fellow in the Institute for Policy Research, is leading a team of graduate students — Phoebe Lin, Claire Mackevicius and Sheridan Fuller — in a study that measures the pilot program’s impact and provides data to inform future poverty reduction efforts.
“Northwestern is thrilled to partner with the City of Evanston to launch its first Guaranteed Income Pilot Program,” said Dave Davis, senior executive director of Neighborhood and Community Relations at Northwestern. “Northwestern is committed to fostering innovative solutions to our city’s most pressing challenges, namely inequality and economic insecurity. Guaranteed Income programs treat recipients with dignity in determining how best to spend the money.”
The project currently seeks applicants from three demographic categories: 18-to-24-year-old adults, seniors age 62+ and undocumented residents -- whose current incomes fall below the poverty level.
Applications are open now through Aug. 29.
“This exciting partnership will allow us to put cash in the hands of residents who need it most — and it puts Evanston where it belongs, at the forefront of innovation in progressive policy,” said Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss.
Cicely Fleming, former 9th Ward alderperson and an early proponent of the project, believes the program is important both for what it does and what it does not do.
The program will enable recipients to use the stipend toward things they don’t have cash for. For example, an individual may receive a childcare subsidy but be unable to cover a medical co-pay.
“People don’t go to the doctor because they’re afraid of bills,” Fleming said. “There are so many costs that federal and local support programs don’t cover.”
At the same time, because Illinois law does not consider payments from such programs to be income, they will not jeopardize most other government benefits.
Visit the City of Evanston website to learn more about the Guaranteed Income Program.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up