For some young New Orleans residents, guaranteed basic income helped them afford a ride to work. For others, the money helped cover school supplies and uniforms.
Between April 2022 and January 2023, the city gave 125 young people $350 a month, no strings attached. The program intended to fill gaps in the social safety net (which includes programs like SNAP, Medicaid, and rental vouchers) and alleviate financial stress for people between the ages of 16 and 24.
All participants were considered “opportunity youth” — not enrolled in work or school — at the start of the pilot. They could spend their monthly $350 however they chose.
Researchers released the program’s final results on September 3. Per the report, guaranteed basic income helped some participants secure full-time employment and pursue educational opportunities.
One participant, whose name was withheld in the report for privacy, told researchers they used their $350 to replace a broken laptop so they could enroll in a coding class.
“I was able to go get the computer and solve that problem with no stress,” they said in a statement. “And it made me feel great — because if I wouldn’t have had it, it would’ve been totally different.”
The New Orleans guaranteed basic income pilot was a collaboration between Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s Office of Youth and Families and the national advocacy network Mayors for a Guaranteed Income (MGI). The research was led by The Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the University of Pennsylvania, and the cash payments were largely financed by a $500,000 MGI grant.
Over 100 similar guaranteed basic income programs have been launched across America, offering participants recurring cash payments for a set period of time. The cash payment model has been tried in cities like Los Angeles, Birmingham, Chicago, and Denver to combat local poverty and increase access to food and housing.
Much of New Orleans’ recent GBI efforts have been on young people. Alongside guaranteed income for opportunity youth, the nonprofit Rooted School Foundation has been giving local high school students $50 a week since 2022.
Still, New Orleans participants said their benefits from guaranteed income were temporary. After the pilot ended, some young people said they still struggled to afford groceries and pay bills.
Guaranteed income helps opportunity youth secure jobs, pay for housing
About one in six young people in Louisiana are not working or in school — and Black youth make up about half of the state’s “opportunity youth” population — according to the New Orleans report. Additionally, lower educational attainment and work experience are risk factors for future poverty.
The final New Orleans GBI results are based on interviews and surveys with participants about their experience, as well as quantitative spending data. Participants were surveyed at the beginning of the pilot, the halfway point, the end of the pilot, and five months after their payments ended. The pilot had no control group.
Some pilot participants said they weren’t previously able to maintain jobs or school attendance due to caregiving responsibilities at home. But, with GBI, many participants said they were able to provide financial support to their grandparents, parents, or siblings.
“We recognize that, when you meet people where they’re at, they actually do rise to the occasion,” Asya Howlette, director of the New Orleans Mayor’s Office of Youth and Families, told BI.
Participants also had a statistically significant increase in full-time employment: Between the beginning and end of the program, the participants’ employment rate increased from 6% to 21%, and many reported feeling more income stable. Some said the $350 gave them the financial freedom to pursue training programs and internships.
The number of participants who had a housing cost burden exceeding 50% of their income — which is considered heavily rent-burdened — also declined by 15 percentage points over the course of the pilot.
A few hundred dollars a month likely doesn’t cover major expenses, but Howlette said it’s what many opportunity youth need to get by.
“It’s not enough to propel you into wealth,” she said. “It is enough to keep you from the precipice of disaster.”
Participants struggle to pay bills after payments end
Even with employment and financial gains, many of the benefits that participants felt from guaranteed basic income were temporary. New Orleans’ pilot was short-term, and participants’ feelings of hopelessness increased after payments ended.
Overall, participants did not experience a significant boost in mental health, physical health, or the ability to build savings between the beginning and end of the pilot. Despite the monthly income, many still struggled to afford food and pay utility bills.
Researchers, however, noted that the individualized impacts of guaranteed basic income are difficult to capture in a dataset. Program leaders like Howlette said it’s important to pay attention to anecdotes, not just numerical trends — because participants’ needs and experiences vary.
The report identified high costs of living, low wages, and poor economic conditions in the aftermath of the pandemic as factors that might have hindered participants’ finances. While many safety net programs exist for children and adults, very few serve teenagers.
For Howlette, the New Orleans pilot results show that housing, work, and transportation-related costs are major barriers for opportunity youth. She said guaranteed income is just one way to help alleviate these challenges and prevent long-term poverty.
“If you’re anti-guaranteed income, then you need to be pro-affordable housing, access to transit, access to work, and higher wages,” she said. “People have to survive in this world, and if our economy is not making it possible, then we are left with people who are struggling to survive.”
Have you benefited from a guaranteed basic income program? Are you open to sharing how you spent the money? If so, reach out to this reporter at allisonkelly@businessinsider.com.
