An experimental program that saw 100 Ulster County residents receiving a monthly cash payment has received good marks for having a positive impact. A report on the program was prepared by the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Income Research.
The program was known as Project Resilience. It was a partnership between the Ulster County government, Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley, and Ulster Savings Bank. Funding was from private sources and no taxpayer money was handed out. The program raised more than $2 million in funding so it could provide 100 Ulster County households with monthly cash payments from May 2021 to September 2022. Recipients had incomes that were at or below $46,900 a year, 80% of the Area Median Income.
The report on the program carried results of a study of how the monthly payments affected recipients as well as looking at a control group of 84 residents who did not receive payments.
“In Ulster County, the ways in which people connected self-worth to economic performance was particularly pronounced, and as GI (Guaranteed Income) allowed recipients to establish a sense of financial well-being, this had spillover effects on mental and emotional well-being,” the report said. “In lieu of a stable employment context, GI produced a similar sense of ontological security that participation in the labor market used to provide. The act of saving itself, for example, seemed to engender a sense of pride and confidence among the treatment group. However, recipients experienced the ontological security of GI differently than that of a salary because they interpreted the $500 as being connected to their humanity rather than waged labor.”
The program originally was intended to provide payments of $500 a month for 12 months. However, as the Covid pandemic continued, the program was extended for five months and the amount given to participants was phased down with $400 provided in July 2022, $350 in August and $250 in September 2022.
Project Resilience was identified as the first county-led guaranteed income program in a rural county in the U. S. The report on the project found that the money increased people’s household income and savings, providing them the ability to respond to financial emergencies and elevating their sense of self-worth. The report said that the study participants experienced improved physical and mental health, along with increased access to food and affordable, stable housing.
Congressman Pat Ryan, who was the Ulster County executive when the program was initiated said, “Ulster County’s first-in-the-nation basic income experiment showed the importance and the impact of providing direct relief to our residents.”
Current Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger said, “We now have measurable data from our own county indicating that direct cash assistance helps reduce poverty and its associated risks and harms while enabling our residents to gain more agency and control over their lives.”
Metzger said that direct cash assistance is a tool state and federal lawmakers should consider using to help struggling families while minimizing red tape.
