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The Results So Far: Is Guaranteed Income Cutting Poverty?

Pilots of guaranteed income programs are launching in cities all over the U.S. We check in with the researchers tracking the results and what they show.

Stockton City Hall (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Researchers are tracking the impact of guaranteed income initiatives in cities like Stockton, California, as leaders consider scaling these programs to alleviate poverty and inequality.

In this episode of the Next City podcast, we meet two experts from the Center for Guaranteed Income Research — Stacia Martin-West and Amy Castro — who give an update on where the movement is now, with over 100 pilot programs and experiments across the U.S. 

In Stockton, where they served as principal investigators during the pilot, the researchers found participants improved financial security, reduced anxiety and depression, increased full-time labor force participation, and spent more time with family.

“Probably the most important finding here is the ways in which financial scarcity generates time scarcity, and that time scarcity bleeds over into relationships, goal setting, employment, you name it,” says Castro. “And really having that expansion of time was the thing that allowed people to take a breath, reorient and think about different ways that they wanted to interact with their future.”

Listen to this episode below or subscribe to Next City's podcast on Apple, Spotify or Goodpods to learn more about the promise of guaranteed income as a tool for economic justice.

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