By Sam Mintz
Up to 60 residents of Brookline Housing Authority properties will start receiving monthly payments of $250 for a year as part of a new project the organization is kicking off this month.
BHA’s new “Resident Opportunity Initiative” is an expansion of its existing “Self Sufficiency Program” which is geared toward helping residents establish long-term financial stability.
The rent payments of BHA residents are tied to their income, so typically, when their incomes increase, so do their rents. Since 2021, the program has worked with some 65 residents to set employment goals, and when their income increases as a result, rather than put the funds in rent increases, it is put into an escrow account. Residents can access those funds at the end of the multi-year program.
Now the public housing agency is adding a new experiment with a modified guaranteed basic income.
“What we were finding is that even with this ability to accrue the savings, people might not be able to see that for three to five years,” said Danielle Mendola, BHA’s director of resident services. “And in the meantime, they’re just feeling the hit. Their rent is going up. They’re having more costs to pay for child care and transportation. It felt like two steps forward to go one step back.”
Hence the idea to give direct payments to the program’s participants to help them build long-term savings.
A guaranteed basic income has been tried in many other places, including Cambridge, where recent research found that the city’s $500 per month payments to 130 families created “significant improvements in financial health, higher rates of employment, increased time and space for parenting, and improved educational outcomes for children.”
For the BHA, the $250 monthly payments are key.
“What if we could do more than just help build savings? What if we could also help people in that period while they’re in the process of advancing,” said Mendola.
With the new funding, which comes from federal ARPA and block grant funds distributed by the town of Brookline, the organization will also be adding a coach toto expand its team to two. The coaches help participants break down their goals and set strategies for saving.
“Their goals are different: personal, financial, education, employment,” said Jacqueline Lara, the program’s coordinator and lead coach.
Of the 65 past participants, 90% are women, and 80% are Black or Latino. They have an average starting income of $13,000, and have collectively saved more than $400,000 in the escrow accounts. Four households participating in the program have moved out of public housing, and three have purchased homes.
Kimberley Richardson, a BHA board member and resident who completed the program, said it helped her get closer to her goals.
“$15,000 isn’t wealth. However, it is a stepping stone,” Richardson said. “It can put you on a path toward paying off debt or even making a down payment on a home. And that down payment can be the beginning of an opportunity to create real, lasting wealth.”
