By: Emily Leayman
ALEXANDRIA, VA — Recipients of Alexandria’s ARISE guaranteed income pilot program totaling 170 were chosen and are being notified before the expected first payment in February.
The Alexandria Recurring Income for Success and Equity program, also known as ARISE, will give 170 selected participants $500 a month for 24 months. To be eligible, residents must live in the City of Alexandria, be 18 or older, and have households income at or below 50 percent of the area median income.
The current 50 percent area median income is $49,850 for one person, $56,950 for two people, $64,050 for three people and $71,150 for four people, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The City of Alexandria received 4,149 applications when the online applications were accepted from Oct. 31 to Nov. 9. From there, applications were reviewed for duplicates and eligibility. The 170 recipients were randomly selected from the eligible applications — about 4 percent of the applications.
The city began notifying the 170 recipients on Dec. 13. Applicants were asked to check incoming calls, texts and email junk and spam inboxes. Recipients will be given a $500 per month debit card.
The first $500 monthly payments are expected to be received by recipients by February. Funding comes from $3 million of the city’s $59.6 million American Rescue Plan allocation.
Mayor Justin Wilson noted in his January newsletter the goal of the guaranteed income program is to provide economic stability for low-income families. Case management services will be provided, along with research, to evaluate program results.
“I am hopeful that the City can also glean lessons from this experiment to better guide how we administer other programs designed to alleviate poverty in the future,” the mayor wrote in his newsletter.
