By Joe Rubino
Anecdotally, the Denver Basic Income Project has saved lives. According to new research on the program that provided no-strings-attached cash to 807 homeless adults in Denver, it also saved taxpayers significant money throughout its first-year pilot program.
The savings manifested in program participants staying in homeless shelters less frequently, requiring fewer ambulance rides, emergency room visits and hospital stays, and spending fewer nights in jail or drug and alcohol treatment centers, a report released Tuesday morning shows.
Decreases in those categories added up to more than $589,000 saved, according to estimates from researchers with the Center for Housing and Homelessness Research at the University of Denver.
Denver Basic Income Project founder Mark Donovan knows that while improvements in participants’ well-being and quality of life are the core goals of the effort, demonstrating the efficacy of basic income payments on reducing strain on public services is part of what will convince more governments, charities and individuals to support the concept in the future.
“As demonstrated in the Year One report, the program not only significantly increases housing stability for participants, but also reduces reliance on public services, like emergency room visits and public shelters,” Donovan said in a statement released alongside the report on Tuesday morning.
The pilot program was the largest of its kind studying the impact of direct cash on people who are homeless, according to program runners.
Utilizing $9 million cobbled together from contributors including $2 million in federal funds dedicated by the city of Denver, the program split enrollees into three cohorts. The first group received $1,000 per month over 12 months, the second group received a $6,500 lump sum at enrollment and then $500 a month for 11 months, and members of a third control group received $50 per month over 12 months.
Payments started in the fall of 2022 and continued into January of this year on a rolling basis.
While none of the participants were obligated to participate in the research, hundreds did. Researchers kept up with them through regular surveys including long-form questionnaires at enrollment, after six months of payments and after 10 months, according to a summary in the report released Tuesday.
Survey participation did fall throughout the study period. While 631 participants completed surveys at enrollment, just 457 did so at the six-month mark and fewer still — 396 — did so in the final survey after 10 months of payments. Researchers attributed that decline to typical attrition.
Even with the wide variances in monthly payments, researchers found a significant increase in housing security across all three cohorts after 10 months of payments. Just 8% of participants who filled out the survey at enrollment reported living in a house or apartment they rented at that time. At the 10-month mark, that increased to 45% of enrollees surveyed, including 43% of those receiving just $50 per month.
“We know that unhoused people use resources in the same way housed people do — to cover basic needs — and we’ve seen this program bring relief, peace of mind, and stronger paths to stability to the participants we’ve enrolled,” said Cathy Alderman, chief communications and public policy officer for Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
The coalition was one of 19 organizations that referred enrollees to the program.
The pilot program was not the end of the Denver Basic Income Project’s efforts. Thanks in part to the city dedicating another $2 million to the work, payments to all enrollees in the pilot program and 39 other people who participated in earlier phases resumed in February. Those payments are expected to continue into September, program runners said Tuesday.
