Denver to Give $2M for Homeless Basic Income Program
Denver’s City Council approved a $2 million contract to give 140 homeless people in the city $1,000 each month for a year in a “basic income” pilot.
The city will give the nonprofit Denver Basic Income Project city funding as the organization embarks on its goal to give 820 homeless people cash and then study the effects.
The up to $2 million from the city will give direct cash assistance to more than 140 women, transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, and families in shelters, Fox News reported.
The money comes from the American Rescue Plan Act, according to the city.
The University of Denver’s Center for Housing and Homelessness Research will evaluate the program “using a randomized control trial, which will measure housing outcomes, utilization of shelter and other homeless services, improvements in psychological health and substance use for those who opt in,” according to Fox News.
Denver resident Mark Donovan founded the Denver Basic Income Project and gave it the initial funding to give homeless cash to spend however they please. It is however, limited to those with “severe unaddressed mental health or substance abuse issues," according to the Denver Basic Income Project’s website.
“Cash is increasingly being seen as the benchmark against which all forms of aid and assistance should be compared,” Donovan said in a council committee meeting in August,” Denverite reported. “We’re building this on a principle of trust… to honor the agency of individuals to know what’s needed in their life.”
Private donors and foundations will also fund the project, and while the city’s contract is specifically for 140 women and transgender and gender-nonconforming people, the project as a whole is open to people 18 or older, connected with a partner organization.
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