A preliminary report suggests Ann Arbor’s pilot Guaranteed Income Pilot program statistically significant differences in food, housing or utility insecurities. But it’s still early in the process.
The pilot began in 2024 and used a stratified random sample to select 100 people to receive $528 a month for 24 months. Another 100 are receiving $25 a month to be in the study.
Principal investigator Kristin Seefeldt says other cities that ran similar programs saw better results in the second year.
“Year one is sort of catch your breath and catch up, and year two is when you start to see some movement. Including people making investments in themselves, like going back to school, going to job training and the like.”
The study also shows that those who received the payments believed their financial situations to be better than it was in the past. They also felt more dignity not having to go through the many hoops to get public assistance.
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