It enabled several others to attend school, and another person to create art in advance of their first show. They are among participants in the Denver Basic Income Project DBIP , designed to discover what happens when people living on the streets receive cash every month with no strings attached.
Despite repeated attempts to persuade Denver city officials to allocate additional money, DBIP sent what could end up being its final payment to participants on Sept. Horton was attending a rally in which about 70 people lobbied Johnston for continued support of DBIP. The future is uncertain for Horton and his fellow DBIP participants, who range in age from 18 to 86 years old. The lapse in monetary support for the project raises questions about the sustainability of guaranteed income programsβparticularly if such efforts cannot retain funding in a relatively progressive city like Denver.
Direct cash pilots are meant to add to public assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, not replace them. It also underscores how difficult it is to conduct a cost-benefit analysisβresearch that shows how financially effective a program isβon unconditional cash pilots. The power of such efforts can also be a political Achilles heel for policymakers holding the purse strings, as direct cash initiatives carry no work requirements like other public assistance programs.
They helped participants access the resources they needed, such as to find housing, start cell phone plans and open bank accounts. Other pilots should emulate that type of assistance, he said. Gaskin, along with others who spoke at the demonstration in Denver, stressed the benefits of sustaining the program.
More than groups are part of an unprecedented movement across the country to provide direct cash to about 8, participants, including low-income parents, students, immigrants and others. Stanford University research found that direct cash recipients nationwide have used the funds for food, transportation, housing and health care.
