Guaranteed Basic Income trial program in Rochester led to modest improvements for recipients,
Two years ago, when Evans Buntley entered Rochester’s Guaranteed Basic Income pilot program, he was struggling to get by, burdened by low income and the high cost of rent.
The program offered $500 per month for a year for extremely low-income Rochesterians, no strings attached. For Buntley, it ended in mid-2024. His life did not change radically as a result of the pilot, but he does feel it has given a stronger footing. He’s currently saving to buy a house and feels he’s made some steps toward financial stability.
“I can't tell you how blessed I was to have that money on hand, knowing that it was helping families that were in need, including myself, to move forward in my gains financially,” Buntley said. “It even helped me to basically get my credit going right and just get on the right track.
“I was going through some changes at first, before I got into the program,” Buntley continued. “And it was kind of difficult trying to pay everything at one time, trying to get this done. And the GBI program just came along, and it just helped me build where I needed to be, where I needed to go.”
Buntley’s story aligns with the results of a study by the University of Notre Dame’s William Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities. The institute followed the progress of participants in Rochester’s GBI pilot program to determine what tangible effects it had on their lives.
What it found is that GBI recipients saw modest improvements to their financial stability. Among other things, they found that recipients were:
Nearly three times as likely to have improved their savings compared to the control group and twice as likely to believe they were on track to reach their financial goals.
51% less likely to anticipate any material hardship
28% less likely to anticipate eviction or foreclosure
21% less likely to anticipate utility disconnection over the next three months
A key area where the GBI program seemed to have little effect was paying off past debt. There was no meaningful statistical difference found between recipients and the control group in that area.
Patrick Turner is an assistant professor in economics at Notre Dame who helped perform the study. He said the results of the study were largely in line with the results of other GBI initiatives that have been studied.
“I think our main kind of take home finding here is that receiving the cash payments over the year from the Rochester GBI pilot program reduced the amount of economic insecurity that these individuals faced throughout the year in terms of their food insecurity and their worries about being evicted from their homes,” Turner said.
The 351 GBI recipients spent the money on fairly utilitarian things, like food and transportation. For example, compared to the control group, recipients were 25% more likely to drive a car at the close of the program.
Meanwhile, the core issues the recipients faced heading into the program were related to food and housing. Nearly 90% reported struggling to afford food, and 42% had reported not fully paying their rent or mortgage.
The GBI participants experienced improvement in all of those categories. The study also sought to test directly on how GBI recipients improved their financial planning skills, by offering a choice of taking immediate financial gain or a larger gain long term.
At the end of the final survey, study participants were offered a choice between a $25 gift card now, or a $50 gift card in a month. The GBI recipients were about 50% more likely to select the larger gift card, according to the study.
“These results suggest that GBI recipients were less liquidity constrained by the end of the 12 months of payments, though GBI could also have changed recipients' preferences over time or risk,” the study reads.
For Turner, the results of the study add to a growing pool of research suggesting GBI payments can serve as a tool to encourage economic growth and stability among low-income populations.
But they also leave more questions. The study is based on a survey that was administered as participants received their last checks. It does not indicate what type of effect it will have in the long term.
“Will the $6,000 that the recipients received today, did that lead to lasting improvements in their lives?” Turner said. “We don't know that answer yet, and it would be great to have an answer to that type of question. And again, it would also be nice to have an answer to the question of what happens to these individuals if they were to receive this money for a longer period of time?”
The city had largely funded the pilot program through federal COVID relief dollars. It currently has no plans for funding future iterations of the program.
For Buntley, the money made a difference in his life, and he’s grateful for it. He also thinks others deserve the same opportunity.
“It can help you build, and it definitely helps your finances if you're struggling,” Buntley said. “...I think it would be very, very important and actually a good thing if they could bring it back and help those who weren't able to be part of the program.”
