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Austin experimented with giving people $1,000 a month. They spent the no-strings-attached cash mostly on housing, a study found (www.businessinsider.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A guaranteed-basic-income program in Austin gave people $1,000 a month for a year.
Most of the participants spent the no-strings-attached cash on housing, a study found.
Participants who said they could afford a balanced meal also increased by 17%.

A guaranteed-basic-income plan in one of Texas' largest cities reduced rates of housing insecurity. But some Texas lawmakers are not happy.

Austin was the first city in Texas to launch a tax-payer-funded guaranteed-income program when the Austin Guaranteed Income Pilot kicked off in May 2022. The program served 135 low-income families, each receiving $1,000 monthly. Funding for 85 families came from the City of Austin, while philanthropic donations funded the other 50.

The program was billed as a means to boost people out of poverty and help them afford housing. "We know that if we trust people to make the right decisions for themselves and their families, it leads to better outcomes," the city says on its website. "It leads to better jobs, increased savings, food security, housing security."

While the program ended in August 2023, a new study from the Urban Institute, a Washington, DC, think tank, found that the city's program did, in fact, help its participants pay for housing and food. On average, program participants reported spending more than half of the cash they received on housing, the report said.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

This is one of mine. I started lobbying for it in 2015 when even all in our group looked at me like I'm crazy. Not so crazy now, am I?

Before anyone asks, Austin is very much so a small town in some ways. Many tech folk moved in for the dot-com boom and never left because we fell in love with the town. We also stayed friends and we communicate often, even as we all moved on to do bigger and better things. Sometimes, all it takes is an e-mail thread to make change.

If there is a pot hole on the street, and the city isn't fixing it, organize a few people. You might find that someone in your community has the tools you need, and someone else has left over materials.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (15 children)

Popular opinion is that if you give people free money they will use it on what enriches their lives.

Economists would probably just point out the fact that whenever you subsidize something the thing you're trying to make easier is suddenly even more expensive to the point where there's hardly a discount if one even exists.

Look at the cash for clunkers program. At the end of that car dealerships were raking in huge profits.

In this case if you give someone a thousand bucks a month, odds are landlords will pocket the majority of that, because housing is the biggest cost for everybody who is not already an owner. If everyone has 1000/mo more, they can suddenly afford 1000/more on housing. This may make minimal impact in areas with extremely high COL, but all the associated suburbs, rough parts of town, college areas... yeah those rents are gonna go way up.

example: 4BR apartment? Oh... I guess that's another +$3500/mo... after all all four of you are getting that money for free. New price: $7000/mo. It's only 1750/mo, or 750 per person per month because the government (our tax dollars) is paying that poor, poor landlord. How ever would they survive elsewise?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

Economists would probably just point out the fact that whenever you subsidize something the thing you're trying to make easier is suddenly even more expensive to the point where there's hardly a discount if one even exists.

That's a very convenient "fact" to point out if you want to eliminate all assistance for people who are struggling.

Now explain how corn subsidies had no effect on corn prices and definitely didn't result in everything being full of corn syrup.

Next explain how basic income is a subsidy.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Economists would not say that. There's a lot of cases of subsidized products not inflating. Generally for that kind of inflation to happen you would need a monopoly or similarly non competitive market to allow such rent seeking. (In the economic sense, not the housing sense)

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (10 children)

Texas figured this out? Texas? This is a real low point. Yeah, this one hurts.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

Was this rental housing or save-for-a-down-payment housing?

Yes, as a homeowner, I am plenty aware $12k will not cover a down payment in a lot of places. Maybe this gave some of these families the boost they need, or tipped them over the threshold they needed.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Paul Bettencourt sounds like a horrible person. I hope his life is as nice as he is.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (12 children)

So the money went straight to the pocket of landlords. Cool.

You can’t give ordinary people money and not increase taxes on the rich. Otherwise it just becomes a wealth transfer from the state to rich people.